Day 25: Monday...Ugh.

Monday. Probably my least favorite day of the week...because it's the farthest day from the weekend! But, on a happy note: I love teaching, and I love my kids. Therefore, Monday's don't suck as bad as they potentially could.

Allison and I decided to go back to Khosan Road tonight to hit up the street food and outdoor markets. We ended up eating this sub-like thing with chicken and slaw stuff...I think it was called a Turkish-kabob? I don't know, but any way you look at it, it was good! It was weird seeing all the foreigners ("Fahlongs" in Thai) there again. Everyone seemed to look like hippies...haha. We ended up meeting a guy from New York (American #2) and talking to him for a while, but he was a total jerk. He was all about arguing with me about universal healthcare, and he constantly boasted of all his worldwide travels to Italy, England, Australia, blah blah blah. It's one thing to talk about where all you've been...but this guy was just UGH! Leave it to the American to be "that guy." But, we also met some people from Switzerland and England as well as Portugal and Holland. Khosan Road is for sure the place to go to meet people from all over the world!

The shopping sucked. It was way over-priced because it's a tourist area. I'm sorry, but $10 for a dress is just ridiculous! Haha...now that I know I can get the same dress for $5 down the road. Oh paying normal prices in the States is going to suck when I get home. $7 for my favorite Checkers meal sounds insane now that I eat for $1 over here! Oh well...I don't want to think about home. I'm still sad that I only have this week and next week to teach my crazy Thai kids.

Once again, my heart broke a little bit tonight...only this time, I was talking to a man from England. I love it how I'm not technically on a "mission trip" to Thailand, but the Lord is constantly opening up doors for me to talk about Him. It's difficult because I really have no idea how to approach different situations and different people, especially from various countries, so I find myself constantly praying during conversations for the Holy Spirit to just speak through me because I'm so clueless and I'm so scared of screwing something up and saying the wrong thing. The English man was an atheist, but he was willing to talk about Christianity, but I wouldn't go as far to say he was open-minded. I mainly just asked questions about his "beliefs" or lack thereof, and made short statements about mine. I asked him what he thought about Jesus, and he said he didn't even believe he ever existed. Ouch. He seemed to think religion and faith were crutches to comfort those who'd lost loved ones. The entire conversation is way too much to replicate on a blog, but the bottom line is...it's sad. I've always thought that I could do a good job witnessing to people, but it hurts me to feel so powerless and so inadequately prepared and incapable of getting through to somebody like that. I find myself assuaging some people by saying, "I'm not going to force my beliefs on you or convert you...I just want to talk about what you and I both think." Is that a wrong thing to say??? I guess I'm just so afraid of being "That Christian" who bombards someone and just turns them off completely to anything having to do with God and Jesus. I know it's God's job to draw people to Him, and I'm just a tool...I just don't want to miss opportunities and say something wrong or NOT say something I should. I don't know...I'm glad God chooses to use me, but I guess I'd feel a whole lot better if I could see the final results.

1 Corinthians 15:58 - "Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."

I'm out.
Cwalk.