I forgot to mention...

Not only did we have a great time with our Thai friends but we were also encouraged. We have been studying Thai for nine months now and some days feel like we don't know a thing. Yesterday was great because we were with these folks all day long and conversed mainly in Thai (though several of them are also quite proficient in English so occassionally we would lapse into English). We made a deal with them, that they could speak English with us but we would speak in Thai with them... and it worked! We both came home feeling like we really were able to communicate with these folks and that was just so wonderful. The other great thing was that they weren't afraid to correct our mistakes and we were so thankful for that too. Very often Thai people won't correct you because they don't want to embarass you or cause you to lose face so we both were thankful for their willingness to correct us and let us know when we were saying the wrong word or saying the right words in the wrong order! Thanks for your prayers for our langauge learning...please keep praying for God to give us more and more proficiency.