Cliff diving

Thursday we celebrated the New Year with some Burmese at a park. We drove along a curvy road to our destination, which was nestled in the mountains. The sky looked ominous for the first time on our trip, and it sprinkled a bit on the way there.

When we jumped out of the vans, children greeted us by selling bags of fish food for 10 baht (about 30 cents). We walked over a lawn to a green lake, no doubt reflecting the wealth of green trees surrounding us. There were masses of small carp waiting to be fed, and they would come very close to the bank to gobble the little brown pellets. If you walked down some lake-side trails, you could catch glimpses of catfish in the deeper water.

The park had a few small trails around the lake, which we immediately began to explore. After a little while the Burmese church arrived, and we sat down on some mats on the ground. We were careful to watch out for oversized fire ants, which got ahold of a few of us and really taught us a lesson.

We sang some silly songs together, then quieted down for worship songs. Corey Jones played the guitar while Matt Anderson led the singing of As the Deer, Breathe, and How Great Is Our God. Then the Burmese pastor borrowed Corey's guitar and led a few songs for the Burmese. Several of the tunes were recognizeable praise songs. We prayed together, and Jeff Anderson discussed a verse from Romans about belief in the heart and confession with the mouth. It rained — or rather sprinkled — a few times, but it didn't stop us. Then we shared a meal of fried rice and played some games like bean bag toss, football toss, and hula hoop.

After we wrapped things up, we discovered that the lake was deep enough to do a little cliff diving. Ryan, Matt Corey and Chris all jumped off a 30-foot cliff overlooking the lake. Then Melissa and Hayley took a dive, too. Thai and Burmese vacationing at the lake were cheering for all the divers.

That night we ate at a seafood restaurant overlooking the docks. They had to set up a special table for our party of 25. And then they gave us one menu to share. Needless to say, it took a long time to order and an even longer time to get our food. But it was worth it. We had steamed crab, fried soft-shell crab, calimari, fried prawn (that were fried whole), and steamed fish. But for some reason, Dianne ordered chicken.