Living Life, Loving Life, Needing Life......: SONGKRAN:: Water water water!

We just celebrated Songkran here in Thailand.... if you don't know what Songkran is read the below: if you do know you can skip ahead::

The Songkran festival (Thai: สงกรานต์, Khmer: សង្រ្កាន្ត; from the Sanskrit word saṃkrānti,^[1] or literally "astrological passage") is celebrated in Thailand as the traditional New Year's Day from 13 to 15 April. It coincides with the New Year of many calendars of South and Southeast Asia.

The date of the festival was originally set by astrological calculation, but it is now fixed. If these days fall on a weekend, the missed days off are taken on the weekdays immediately following. Songkran falls in the hottest time of the year in Thailand, at the end of the dry season. Until 1888 the Thai New Year was the beginning of the year in Thailand; thereafter 1 April was used until 1940. 1 January is now the beginning of the year. The traditional Thai New Year has been a national holiday since then.

Songkran has traditionally been celebrated as the New Year for many centuries, and is believed to have been adapted from an Indian festival. It is now observed nationwide, even in the far south. However, the most famous Songkran celebrations are still in the northern city of Chiang Mai, where it continues for six days and even longer. It has also become a party for foreigners and an additional reason for many to visit Thailand for immersion in another culture. -Wikipedia :: part of the festival involves throwing water on people...it's a giant water fight for the whole country -kyndra

This year I was able to spend this time with 5 of the girls from BNJ (Home of the Open Heart). We spent our days playing in the water, throwing water on people, bike riding, watching movies, eating, laughing, swimming, catching fish in muddy waters, sweating, laughing some more, dancing, watching Muay Thai (thai boxing), eating some more and staying up late and having late night snacks..... I have dogs where I am living right now...they are really amazing dogs and the girls loved playing with them. We had such a lovely time.... We also spent some time talking about life.... I love these rich rich times with the kids...it reminds me of why I'm really here. It's easy to get caught up in the "work" side of things. But these are little lives that are so impressionable. I pray and hope that God is and can use me to my fullest to show these precious kids how much God loves them, how much I love them and how precious they are. They all are so ridiculously different from each other and yet all in need of the same thing....LOVE! If any of you who are reading this feel impressed to come and help out here wether it be with counseling, teaching music, nursing, discipleship, web design/office management....community work, or prayer ministry.... wether it be long term or short term, we would love to have you come and join our family here. We are in desperate need of help.....

Now that said....enjoy the photos and please keep me and our little family here in your prayers.... Also for those of you who remember P'Lut (the coffee shop owner and my very good friend), he is having problems with his heart and needs prayer for wisdom for the Doctors to figure out what's going on with him and his health. Thank you oh so much....

Waiting for the cars and motor bikes to come

Mae saying "chica boom boom" when she splashes the water on the people!

(girl in the green shorts) Mae is being so funny in this shot!

This is a forced photo after a LONG and HOT bike ride out to our friends village- rode up hills and hills and walked and they caught fish in a muddy swamp.... they had so much fun but they were so hot, tired and DIRTY! can't really tell in this shot but they had cleaned up a bit before I got this shot....