What a full and blessed day. The only part of the day that didn’t have an activity scheduled were those hours (or minutes) between the time we woke up and the time we went to church. Since then we’ve been on the go. After church the team went their separate ways for lunch, some to the potluck, some to the café. Vie, Lorraine, and myself were invited to have lunch with Supaporn, the Hmong student w
e’ve been sponsoring since 2005 (and whom I baptized many years ago at Chiang Mai Academy), and who is now attending APIU. Two of her brothers are here working on campus and they wanted to prepare lunch for us. It was a lovely traditional Thai and Hmong meal. We enjoyed some wonderful food and conversation. As soon as lunch was over we round
ed everyone up and headed for the girls’ orphanage a little over an hour away. Last year was my first experience with the orphanage and I was just blown away with how responsive the children were and how in need of attention and affection they were. I knew this group of students would love the experience. Just as with last year, the girls were eagerly waiting for the vans to pull up (we came with some other students from APIU who make weekly Sabbat
h afternoon visits to the orphanage). The girls immediately swarm to the students and want to hold their hands or be held. Our team played with them nonstop from the time they got out of the van. It was probably close to 100 degrees today but they didn’t let that stop them. They could see how important this time was to the children and they dove in and made the most of it. The girls can’t stand it when it’s time for everyone to leave – they try to crowd into the vans with the students and have to be physically lifted out so the vans can leave. It’s heartbreaking.
We returned to campus with just enough time to freshen up and then 
went to the University President’s home where he and his wife and a visiting professor and his wife, as well as the VP for Student Administration served us all homemade pizzas. The team was starved and the pizzas were delicious. After dinner a few students left and went to the home of the Spanish pastor who preached the sermon today, while others stayed at the president’s home for some rousing games of Rook. A lot of laughter ensued. Everyone really seemed to enjoy themselves. It’s now after 11:00 p.m. and we leave at 8:00 a.m. for a full day in Bangkok. Tomorrow will be our last day together as a team as most of the group takes off for individual travel plans. It should be another full and fun day.
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