Musings from Graceland

I'M IN THAILAND

Made it to the Miracle Hotel in Bangkok just a bit ago. Wanted to let everyone know I was here and thank you for your prayers. Please keep on praying!

This is my very first time to be in Asia so it is a crazy new experience for me. Definitely the first time I've been the only non-Asian woman in a crowd. Traveling here has given me a new appreciation for the bravery of people who travel to other countries and don't know English. At least here, most things are bi-lingual. Even on Korean Air, everything was Korean and English.

I'll not go into all of the details but I will share a few fun things:

*Flew from Jackson to Atlanta with 2 young women on their way to do ministry in Peru. Taylor is a long time homeschool pal of Anna and Betsie's. Carley is a dental student I met for the first time. We had some good chat time in the airports and got to pray together.

*After I prayed with them and left for the Korean Airline gate, all the worries of preparing slipped away and the joy of going on a new God adventure put a big ole beaming smile on my face.

*I sat next to an older gentelman from Singapore on the flight from Atlanta. He was very interesting to talk to. He's a former mechanical engineer who now owns a China Buffet in Nashville. So when you're near the Super Wal-Mart in the Center of N'ville, go eat there and tell Patrick that a former seatmate (the one with 7 kids moving to Africa) sent you his way.

*My first glimpse of Asia was of misty mountains as we landed in Seoul. The airport is actually on an island and the airport, from my perspective, seemed to be surrounded by hills and small mountains. Unless you're from Mississippi, then every tall hill is a mountain and every small mountain is enormous!

*I chose the Korean entree for every meal on the way over. The best one was the Bi Bim Bop. Don't know what it is? Google it!

*Sleek, black, Asian hair looks much better after a million miles of air travel than the hair of most of the other heads on the plane.

Well, even though my body is telling me that it noon on Saturday, the clocks around here say that it is the middle of the night. I need to be going and taking a melatonin then getting some shut eye. I'll wake up at 9, eat a nice breakfast, and then head to the airport to catch my flight to Chang Rail. By the middle of the afternoon, I'll be hugging my sweet Betsie and laughing with the Espys.

Wow! God is so good and I'm just feeling absolutely blessed right now...even if I definitely look and feel like a fish out of water. In my case, like a Mississippi Catfish who flopped out of some Southern back water. But I'm pretty sure this catfish girl is going to enjoy these exotic surroundings even if it couldn't get much more different than back home and still be on the same planet.