LoyKhraton

(By Amy)

The past three days have been quite the experience. Every year the Thai people celebrate a holiday called "LoyKhraton," which is a holiday that comes from Hinduism. Beautiful flower "boats" with small candles are made and people set them on the river to wash away their sins. They also make small hot air balloons to release in the sky. It is all something quite spectacular. I do not think my words are sufficient to describe the experience we had walking down to the river on Saturday night. There were mobs of people up and down the streets celebrating this event. There were also fireworks coming from every direction. Our friends JR and Megan have been here with us for the past few days and all of us agree that there is no way to express what we saw! When we went down to the river it was almost like being in a war zone. Firework bombs, bottle rockets, and much more were constantly going off. We had to plug our ears for relief! While walking in the streets people were setting fireworks of in the middle of crowds! Most Thai people make a big deal of the water festival - but this was something else! We are almost scared to think of what the water festival will be like!
We have actually been hearing fireworks go off for over a month now. We were both ready for this festival to be over with, but had no idea how crazy it would be! We were down by the river hearing firework bombs, bottle rockets, and everything else for only about 20 minutes. After looking at our watches we were amazed it had only been 20 minutes, it felt like an hour! What an incredible experience. That was definately one of the most unique experiences I have ever had.

The past week has been a really great time for us. As I said above, we've had some of our friends here for the past week. Our Thanksgiving was also an interesting experience. We made BBQ chicken, salad, some kind of gravy, fruit, and mashed potatoes. Many came over to celebrate with us and it was a wonderful time. Having JR and Megan here has been such a great time of encouragement. We also had two other friends here for two days. I think we packed in a weeks worth of stuff into those two days!

I am pleased to say that the girls "performed" their Christmas dance for the first time on Thursday and it was beautiful! My eyes began to fill up with tears as I watched these girls dance for the Lord and wave scarves in celebration! I felt like a proud mother. They also sang a couple of English worship songs that were beautiful as well.

We hope everyone is enjoying this holiday season! Please send some of the snow our way! We miss it. :) You are all a great encouragement to us. May God bless you.