aaaahhhh.... Thailand.....

So many people seemed genuinely happy for me when I said that I would be going to Thailand for 10 days before flying in to the land which I refer to as home. I wasn't so excited. You see, this will be holiday/conference/extended stop over number 8 (!) in Thailand. 

I kinda just wanted to get back into teaching, to (my) kids, to my house, to cheap living and to the cold... ok so I'm not so excited about the cold. I wanted my normal routine back again... which is really saying something! Usually, the idea of routine and general organisation kinda grosses me out. What can I say, I'm an ENFP to the core. Give me a week and I'll be dreading the routine and all the organisation that it requires of me. 

Don't you just love it when they ask "would you be willing to help people in an emergency?" (for those who don't fly that much it's code for *you're tall and we can see that you are on your way to Pakistan so we're going to be nice and give you a seat with way more leg room and no one else next to you*). I haven't been bumped up to business class before but that was almost better! So after 2 great flights, a good night sleep in a cheap but decent hotel and my usual trip to the 7/11 to stock up on cheap toiletries and interesting baked goods I was ready to head to the airport to meet up with dear Tracey.

After an eventful trip back with lots of crazy flood affected roads we arrived at Tracey's university. We ate a yummy yet rushed lunch of bbq chicken an rice and then arrived to her class about 20minutes late. The students didn’t seem phased by this at all... gotta love Asian timing, or lack thereof! 

The lesson begun with an interview - the kids (around 20y/o) had to practice their English by asking me a question each. I was wondering how long it would take for them to ask. They fired them away immediately "how old are you?" "do you have a boyfriend?" "are you married?". So amusing. 

After class we went to another room to see if anyone would turn up for "English club". I was more than slightly excited by this prospect. Tracey has begun this initiative to help students practice conversational English and to create a forum for discussion on a wide range of topics. I don't think it's going as planned but it's definitely 'going'. 

We were standing around waiting for kids to come. Then we got into a debate about the pointlessness of gong to Uni (what can I say, I have a $45,000 student loan and the likelihood of getting a good job when I return in June because of the piece of paper is fairly slim) - in the heat of the debate in walk 9 students. They asked me the same questions but then they got onto more serious things. It seems last week 2 of them came and Tracey shared the story of creation. They were eager for more. They had so many questions "how do you pray to your God?" "Why do you believe in your God and not in Bhuddism?" "I want to know about other religions because it's important... I have so many questions"... These are the kind of questions that I live for! It was fun to be able to communicate basic answers to these questions together. Tracey then showed the next part of the DVD - the creation of Man (as in men and women... not just men.... silly TNIV) and 'the fall' - the forbidden fruit looked amazing in this DVD... I would have eaten it, too. 

It was played in English and Thai. Some of them laughed.... the scene where Adam is literally created out of "the dust of the earth" is pretty ... interesting. Thankfully they didn't show eve being made from Adam's rib. 

The next scene is what hit them, and me. It's Adam in the desert without God after being banished from the Garden of Eden. The contrast is amazing. He is completely distraught. In total shock and can't believe what he has done. I really felt for him. Then I remembered what it was like for me. It was kind of the opposite. Mending my relationship with God was like entering the Garden of Eden for the first time. Adam didn't realise what he had in the Garden of Eden, he had nothing to compare it to. He was told if he ate it he “would surely die”.... but it’s not like anyone else had actually died before! He didn't really know what he would be missing out on by eating that forbidden fruit. He was deceived into thinking that life after eating that fruit would be better. It was the same for me. I had no other life to compare mine to. I had been deceived into thinking that life without God, life outside the Garden of Eden, was better. But I had never experienced the Garden of Eden, so how was I to know? The difference is Adam was told to never experience the other life, the life without God. He was told this by God Himself. I guess I was told, though somewhat indirectly, that life without God was better. I, like so many, thought that Christianity was a bunch of rules and going to church on Sunday.

When my relationship with God was mended, it was like entering the Garden of Eden. I can look back and see how completely distraught I was without God. I, like Adam, didn’t know what the other life would be like. Only when I look back, I’m saddened to think that I lived 19 years believing a lie, living in darkness. I thought I was fine; I was going through the motions of life like everyone else. I was not fine. And there are still moments where I'm not fine. Life is not perfect.... it's just about a thousand times better than it was before. And it's not even about me or my life in the end. It's about God, it's about believing in the truth and honouring God as creator and saviour and a hundred other things. It's about resting in and trusting in a God that has everything under control and is the definition of love.  

Just to let you know, the 'Garden of Eden' rocks. Don't be deceived into thinking that it doesn't.  

To sum it all up, I am super excited about being in Thailand again! I'm really looking forward to conference starting tonight. I'm looking forward to hearing about how other people's lives are in their Garden of Eden.

Pakistan really is a Garden of Eden if you walk through it with God.