We went to Church and met a young couple who are just beginning to look at starting a safe house up in the north of Thailand. They were planning on going at it alone, because they couldn't find anyone with the same vision and didn't want to get sidetracked off what God gave them. But when they heard our vision, they almost cried they were so happy to have found someone "accidentally" who wanted to see the same things happen. They are not from Victory, but are willing to partner together. He has a background in law enforcement in the states, she's from Myanmar, they got married 3 weeks ago...and they want to rescue girls. We are getting them connected with our new friends up north to train and learn their systems and, if this goes how it looks, we might have house parents for our first home in Thailand in a few months! Wow! God has great plans and has networked us so beautifully this trip.
We are going to Walking Street tonight, I think I talked about that a bit. It's the hub of prostitution. One of the hardest things is seeing these old, white men with little Thai girls on heir arms. The girls look to average around 13. Some men have two girls, some girls have 3 guys together buying them...it's so bad! However, we are so blessed to see others with huge hearts to see this STOPPED, not just made better. God's up to something big and we are all in the middle of it - exciting!
On a lighter note - here are some of the cultural differences we've seen:
:Air conditioning! It's a must everywhere. It's the end of winter here and at least +30 in the days. They say April is the hottest month and even the locals don't leave the house unless they need to.
:Bum guns...;) That's what the missionaries call it. They don't use toilet paper, but have little shower hoses by the toilets to clean off with...yuck! I carry kleenex. And they have what they call squatty potties. Toilets close to the ground that they stand on the side and...squat. Then they have a pail of water that you pour down it to flush. We stopped at a rest stop on our trip to Cambodia and the guys urinals were outside...beside the highway. And, there have been a few occasions where there is a lady cleaner in the guys rest room with a mop, cleaning around their feet as they stand at the urinal...hilarious! Ok, enough potty talk.
:Everything is uber cheap! Massages are about $4 and dental work is really inexpensive. Our hotel which is beautiful is $41/night. There are markets everywhere, some are fun, some are really dirty.
:Rice! Rice, rice, rice :) Even I am getting tired of it. They have rice and stirfrys at their breakie buffets. We found a nice western restaurant next door for this week. And I think we're going for lunch right now.

Talk to you all soon, luv!