Christmas Day

As mentioned in a previous post, we decided to go on an outing with our church overnight to a houseboat. We did not know what to expect but we did expect it to be quite different than any houseboat we had ever seen or been on before. We left at 9AM Christmas Eve and arrived about 4 PM. It was a long ride. We were about six hours from Lopburi, west...and we think we might have been VERY close to the Burma border. So, as you can see these housboats are VERY different than what you or I might have imagined. They are made mostly of bamboo and are pretty rickety. They are all tied together...so we actually didn't float away...we just stayed in one place floating. We were on a lake. When we arrived they said we could have the only room with a bed off the floor due to me being pregnant...I was so thankful for that bed even though it was hard. There were all sorts of critters crawling around on the floors and I knew if we had been asleep on the floor I would not have slept well at all. The amazing thing about the sleeping was I thought for sure that since the walls were made completely of bamboo that we would be eaten alive by mosquitoes...but we weren't. I didn't get one bite, nor did Paul or PJ!
It was quite an experience going with all Thais to this place. We were able to chat with the one pastor and his wife about their backgrounds and their families...neither family are Christian but they have been Christians for 20 plus years now. It was encouraging seeing all the youth that were on this trip too. We spent a lot of time with one girl in particular. When we left the houseboat we went to a hot spring...PJ really enjoyed swimming in the hot water there. Paul nor I brought swimming suits or towels so we didn't get in but just put our feet in the water...it was amazing that there is water that hot in Thailand...naturally! Apparently the Japanese discovered this hot spring during WWII.