Sorry it's really long, but if you just want to look at the pictures that's OK too.

My flight left Moscow about 3:30 Monday afternoon on Etihad Airways for the first stretch to Abu Dhabi. It was not very full so I had 3 seats to myself. I watched “We Bought a Zoo” that I’d been wanting to see and then most of “War Horse”.  We landed about 8:20 p.m. and it was already dark, much to my surprise, after Moscow nights of dusk at 10:30. As a result I could see nothing on the approach or take-off.

I didn’t see much inside either as my arrival was a little late and I had less than an hour to find my way to my new gate for my flight to Bangkok.  This flight took about 7 hours and with the time change I arrived in Bangkok about 7:00a.m. Tues. morning.  On this flight I watched “Iron Lady” and “The Vow” and then slept.  Again on arrival it was a dash to my gate, but more like a marathon as I think I walked the whole airport to find Bangkok Airways.  Safely stowed into my seat for this flight, I learned that it would only be about an hour, so by 8:30 I was arriving in Chiang Mai airport. Amazingly, on this flight they showed us episodes of “Just for Laughs” from Quebec-really is ‘a small world’, but excellent choice because with no dialogue it’s good in any country.

After a quick trip to the washroom, I found my shuttle driver and waited for other passengers.  The drive to the hotel Empress was only about 25 minutes and was occupied with sights in a new country.  At the hotel the conference sign was already hanging and there was a registration table, but first I booked into my room-1108. After receiving my conference booklet with schedule and tote bag with name badge, I made my way to my room. I unpacked and took a nice shower and shot some pics out the window.

 I like being high up.

I rested on the bed for a bit wondering when my roommate would arrive, but then decided I could loll away my time in my room but it would be better to get out and explore. I stopped at the table and chatted with Connie who was now doing a shift. She told me about things that would happen, layout of the hotel and conference rooms, and some things I might explore outside. I decided to do my usual stroll of the neighbourhood to see what I might experience.

It was a short walk as it was, of course, very hot. When I got back more people were arriving and in my room I found my roommate, Barbara from Switzerland.  After she finished settling in we went to supper. All meals were served buffet style with numerous delicious choices-much to my downfall.  Around the table I also met Jazmin from Equatorial Guinea, Elizabeth from Ethiopia, and David from Cambodia.  It was decided that a bunch of us were going to the ‘night market’ so we met in the lobby. Then some discovered they had to attend a short speakers’ meeting so we waited for them.

It was about a 20 min. stroll to the beginning of the first sellers stands/tables and then a slow crawl through all the people along the sidewalks. It is great fun to barter with them. They are all equipped with a large calculator so they can punch in the price and be understood regardless of the language. Then you counter-offer…and so on.  I bought a jade ring and I needed to buy a watch as my only time-piece was my cell phone which I had to turn off because it kept texting me to say I could join this or that new network…or I assume that’s the message as it was in Russian. I also bought some fabric, which I like to do, if possible, in each country I visit. The rest of my purchases are surprises.

We came upon the fabric shop as we were making our way home. It was actually a tailor shop where they make clothes for you, but when I said I only wanted to buy fabric they accommodated me. I asked first to see Thai silk, but it was more than I wanted to pay. Then I thought a print that looked Asian would be nice, but didn’t see any. He showed me some swatches and I saw a few that fit my price. I chose one and was about to pay when he informed me that he could not get it tonight as the shop was locked, but he would deliver it to my hotel tomorrow. I paid half and said I would leave the rest at the desk with my name. I had to allow some level of trust, but decided to try it.

Jazmin and I had been together and we were the last to get back to the hotel. Barbara was already relaxing when I got in with my stories. The bed was very nice and I slept well and woke ready to take in all I could of the workshops. First, there was a grand breakfast buffet. I didn’t know there could possibly be so many choices for breakfast.

Each day there was a general session in the morning, break, workshop, lunch, workshop, break, workshop, supper, and evening session. Each workshop had 8-10 choices so it was really difficult to narrow down where I wanted to be. I had tentatively marked my choices, but it seems that I changed my mind each time at the last minute. Regardless, everything I heard was great.

-Rudi-South Africa- told us that children should be walking with us in the journey of faith.  They learn more from our modeling not our teaching and we need to walk with them and be an example.

-Chuck –US-talked about understanding ourselves so we can work with others.

-Larry- US- showed us how to make an object lesson out of anything we find. He gave steps and we practiced in pairs using a cell phone as the object. He also taught us how to balance 6 nails on the head of a 7^th.

-David-Australia-helping children find strategies to deal with bullying

-Kathleen Chapman-US-taught us about how to really worship God

During this evening session I wasn’t feeling great and when I got up to go to the washroom, I had diarrhea.  I had to go back to my room to clean up and then went back to the hall to get my bag. After that I went right to bed and spent the night napping and waiting for the next ‘feeling’ to send me to the bathroom. I vomited and spewed till there was nothing left and still there were a few spurts.

By morning I was exhausted and after Barbara left I hung the ‘do not disturb’ sign on the door and tried to get some sleep. I showered and dressed and went to the session at 11:15- Bob-UK-Anyone can tell a story. As soon as it finished I went back to bed as I had no interest in tasting or even seeing food.  2:00-Tyler-US- showed us research done around the world with children and youth by One Hope and some of the interesting findings. It can all be accessed online, but I haven’t looked at any yet.   onehope.net/research

4:15-Chuck-US-talked about getting small businesses going to help the poor. It wasn’t what I thought it would be from the description and I’ll confess my mind was more on if I should go now to the bathroom…or now…or now. After that I went back to bed again, still not ready to see food.

I got up for the evening session with John Gollapalli from India.  He told us about the ‘brick kids’ in India who are slaves and work at making bricks all day. He showed us a video of a big tractor coming through the piles destroying those they said weren’t good enough while the children watched. It reminded us of the children of Israel in Egypt.  He is an advocate of ‘tribes reaching tribes’ as the barriers are broken as soon as they learn that someone belongs to the same tribe.  He is still finding unreached people in India.

I slept better Thursday night, but Friday I had no strength. Friday I would get up but after a few minutes would lay down again and fall asleep. I did that all day until Barbara came in to change for the International Reception. I really wanted to see all the national costumes so donned my Canada shirt and headed out. 

 I got a few pictures and sipped a little juice and watched all the activity from my chair.  The final speaker was Marlene LeFever. I’ve seen her somewhere before. She wrote about different learning styles, among many other books also. She spoke about ‘getting out of our rut’ Children from a local home for kids rescued from the street did a couple of musical mimes on both Thursday and Friday night. There were very good and some spoke English. At the end one little girl prayed for us. It was very touching. Then we took bits of yarn we’d been given and went to someone, tied it to them and gave them a blessing. They had such good ideas for all the sessions. One night we were anointing with oil by the children of the worship team. One night they served us communion, and the last night we pinned our coloured square to the back drop of the stage to make a huge sunrise 

and then received a rubber bracelet which says, “Each day is a new day to …follow, serve, worship. “ These had been the themes of the 3 nights and each time they interacted with us on those occasions they would repeat those words.

So the conference ended and although I’d missed lots I’d got lots also. If things had been fine, I could have booked onto a tour for elephants rides or tiger park or zipline or any numbers of choices, but I was not confident of my state of health so decided the most important thing was to be well enough to fly. I did manage to have some breakfast and then spent the morning relaxing. AND I rode an elephant-

 At 12 I had to check out. I left my bag with the bell captain and went out exploring and took more pictures. After about an hour I came back and sat in the lobby. I bought ½ hour on Internet, had some ice cream in the café, and then read for a while.

About 3 the group came back from their elephant show, etc. and I went with Jazmin to her room. I joined her at the first session of the after conference which was about the "1 for 50" movement. This conference would go on for the next 3 days but they let me sit in till time for my shuttle.  There was another girl going on the same flight as I so we hung together and spent my 6 hours together in Bangkok airport as well.  My flight from there was at 2 a.m. and she still had another 4 hours to wait for her flight.

On my flights home I managed to sleep, see Abu Dhabi in the daylight, and arrive without mishap. My friend picked me up at Domodedova and delivered me to my flat. I was in and doing laundry by 4:30 p.m. Sunday and back to routine on Monday morning. It’s unfortunate how we wait and wait and wait for a special event and before you know it’s over and just a memory…but what great memories and a bunch more brothers and sisters I now know in our family of God.

Here are some final shots I took on my walk-about on Sat. and a couple from Bangkok airport.