Church Camp to Rayong

Last Wednesday we drove down a day early for our church camp. Rayong is a 3hr drive SE of Bangkok and located on the Gulf of Thailand. Beautiful, clean beaches!

We were set up in a nice cabin with a huge front porch. Grace is scared of the ocean so ended up swimming in her little pool that we put on the porch. I actually got in there with her a few times because it was so hot! April is the middle of hot season where it easily reaches 110F! We saw monkeys, butterflys, all kinds of bugs, geckos on our bed, and a baby elephant in the back of a pickup truck... Grace was thrilled!

The camp was fabulous. About 40 people from 7mo (Isaiah) to 84 years old! Everyone was split into 4 teams. Even families and cultures were split up. We've learned that if you have all of the Koreans/Filipinos/Africans in one group they only socialize with each other, so by splitting everyone up, it was way more competitive. The sandcastle competition was amazing! Dayton's team one the whole thing thanks to his "army" skills for commanding his "Green Vipers" team in the capture the flag water fight game. The singing and worship times were wonderful. One of the families could not afford the camp so they bartered! We ended up with great childcare. When Isaiah was napping, one of them would sit in the room and watch him sleep... for once I got to go what I wanted to do! And what did I do? Hah. Ended up helping in the 100F kitchen making coleslaw. But at least I had adult conversation. Another person from that family helped keep Grace entertained during the worship times so I could play the keyboard or participate.

I drove part of the way back. (Navigated our way there). So nice to finally have our own car! On the way back, a huge windstorm whipped up while we were on the elevated expressway. We could see a large fire with flames 5 stories high in one housing area. This vacation time is the Thai holiday called "Songkran". Lots of drinking and driving and deaths. That was one reason we left early and got back Saturday to beat the Sunday traffic jams. God protected us!

It really was a restful trip. My favorite part? All of the beds were pushed together to make one big bed. (That's how a lot of places do it here). I enjoyed waking up Saturday morning with Dayton asleep on one side with Isaiah between us and Grace on my other side. All of them sleeping soundly. A thunderstorm came through about 6am, and it was so nice to hear rain hitting the roof. (Well, and the monkeys on our porch hooting along!)