Hiking and Dinosaurs

The last week has been awesome. In case you didn't know, Khon Kaen is kind of famous in Thailand because in the late 90's some archaeologists found some dinosaur bones. You would have thought from the massive amounts of dinosaur replicas all over the area, that they had found a perfectly preserved body of t-rex in the dirt, but in reality, they found some fossil shells, a vertabrae, and about 9 other bones that look like they could be an elephant or saber tooth tiger. Ha. Actually, I'm sure they really are dinosaur bones--they've actually identified them as new species only native to Thailand. How bout that? Actually what is even more cool is that scientists were actually digging for uranium and happened upon these little gems instead. I hope that something similar happens to me the next time I'm looking for one of my earrings in the couch.
One of the students we met here, May, invited us to her hometown (which is 5 minutes from the park) and since I'm always up for an adventure, especially if it have to do with bugs, smells, and outside, I jumped at the chance :) In all honesty, we really were super excited to see a new part of Thailand and especially to love on May, see the things she loves, and for her to show the Americans something this cool about her home. We invited 2 other students, Priaw and Jom, to come with us, hopped in one of the twin carryboys and were on our way. So many funny things. The first thing hilarious to me was the carryboy. I posted a pic of his brother in a previous post--these cars are crazy and would never be considered street legal in America as there are no seatbelts in the back and the trunk door doesn't latch.  Nevertheless, we can pack 12 people in that baby and go experience the world.

The second funny thing to me was dinosaur world. As I said earlier, I thought for sure that they had found a living dinosaur in a cave from all the hooplah, but alas, just a few bones to give us keys to the past. Dinosaur world has approximately 50 model dinosaurs (dine-o-sooow, if you're thai) and coin slots for make them open their mouths in a rather halting manner and coin slots to make them roar from a speaker twenty feet away. It was awesome and so fun.  The third funny thing was that for some reason we decided the climb half the mountain by driving the carryboy up a winding red dirt road. Did I mention the trunk doesn't latch? So hilarious. I also say "for some reason" because in case you forgot, we don't speak Thai. So things happen and people are talking and we don't know exactly what's going on, but we just follow on right after them.  Hence, carryboy on the side of a mountain.  The thais actually thought it was funny too.

The only person that didn't was the park security guide that was in the front seat--straight face the whole time, as we're squealing and laughing. Haha. That actually is something that America should learn = you must have a park employee with you at all times. It probably would cut down on the amount of bear attacks AND you have an automatic camera man when you want a group pic. Anyway, as you can see from the pics, this is the place to be. We were the only people there for 2 hours. It was an awesome day and we had SO MUCH fun with the thai girls.

 All the girls on a big log. Thai people think its crazy to climb on things, but the Americans had no fear.

 Well, all except Hannah (3rd from the right).  Haha. I think they were pretending to fall? Or maybe they saw a real dinosaur.

 Little do they know that we can replicate this picture at Six Flags.

 Priaw and Daly.  Priaw has been hanging out with us almost everyday. She knows were Christians and has come to church with us twice.  She said she respects it, but doesn't believe it yet. Yet. :) She always wears those hilarious glasses. Sometimes they don't have lenses in them and she pretends to poke herself in the eyes. I really like her.

 Hello awesome mountains.

Thank you park ranger for bringing us to this beautiful spot and taking our picture.

A not so funny thing, and more serious, was that the girls wanted to stop at a Buddhist temple shrine on the side of the road to pray.  I asked May what she prayed for and she told me with a huge smile on her face "To get good grades and to finish school at NEU."  She told us that the shrine we stopped at is a lucky one and she hoped her prayer would come true. How sad to think--what if it doesn't happen? What if something terrible happens to her? How do you explain it to yourself in Buddhist terms, except to blame yourself or blame others.  Buddhism in a phrase is about luck and about doing enough good to get good things. It could work, I think, if the world wasn't made up of sinners. But what if? What if you try to be good your whole life and your child dies? Or you get in an accident and lose your legs? How do you explain it to yourself? Those are such devastating things for anyone, Christian OR Buddhist, but there's no hope for a Buddhist.  How do they know if they can go to heaven? They try and try and hope and hope, but there's no certainty. How thankful I am that I have a living hope in Christ! He has paid the penalty that I deserved on the cross and has lived a perfect life that I couldn't and stands between me and God the judge, saying "She is mine!" How great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God! It solidified for me even more how much people need to know--they need to know that there is HOPE, there is certainty, there is glory waiting for them in Christ! What a great and eternal purpose to live for, to fight for! How thankful I am that my King is Jesus. And so we pray and labor for May and for Thais and for all the world--so that they can know--God has made a way to be right with him, to be loved by him, and to be with Him forever and ever! Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy, he has made a WAY!