La Vida Eterna: Jungle Luxury

This past week, I had the chance to walk out of my daily life, cross a river, and spend three days enjoying God and the jungle of rural Thailand. In the process, I made many discoveries. One such discovery, and this may come as a shock to some of you, is that I love nature. I love green things and flowers. I love the songs of insects at sunset. I love sitting beside the water. I love being outside, even if that means getting a little sweaty. And most importantly, I love nature and all of these things best when I can enjoy them from the comforts of a luxury boutique hotel.

The Bangkok Tree House did not disappoint. I expected a quiet place to spend time with God and explore his creation, and I found the perfect blend of both. My days consisted of solitude and reading and prayer, but they were also built around bike rides down elevated jungle paths, menus entirely in Thai, peddling around parks and gardens, stumbling upon a Thai market one day and a 200 year old temple the next, and evenings in the tree tops watching the sunset light up the sky in one direction and the lights of Bangkok light it up in the other.

The time in solitude with God was great- lots to reflect on and pray over as God continues to implore me to trust him fully, to surrender my life to him, to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness before all else. I have never done anything like this before- taken a few days for myself on a personal retreat, not one organized by a group or church of some sort. I kind of expected to get bored or a little bit lonely, but to my wondrous surprise, I was none of those things. I found that in a very real and concrete and unemotional way, God's presence was my constant companion, and was more than just enough.

One of the unexpected joys of my retreat was that outside the hotel, when I would go out for meals or exploring, I used only Thai. There are quite a few foreigners (farang) in my area, and it was a fun change being the only one around (I counted 4 that I saw in 3 days, and 3 of the 4 were within 10m of the hotel). As I'd ride by on my bike, I'd hear kids call out after me, "Hey, it's a farang!" Others would see me and shout out hello in English. At one point, on the way home after a hot sweaty ride to the park, I stopped for something to drink. I was hoping they had Thai iced tea, but had to get an orange soda instead. The guy asked me where I was from, and I explained that I was from the States, but was living and teaching in Bang Na. He was quite complimentary of my Thai. I kept insisting that no, it really isn't that good, but he continued to be impressed. It's not that 3 days of ordering food or saying hello in Thai and all that actually improved my Thai, but I think it did improve my confidence, which at this point is what I really am lacking. I feel confident in my lessons, but still quite shy to speak in public because I am well aware of how much I don't know or understand. But this was a step in the right direction.

I took a million pictures- of the beautiful, eco-friendly Tree House, of the surrounding area, of the temples nearby- but the blogspot photo loader is a bit slow so I won't put all 150 or so here. Those I have on facebook. But here are a few of my favorites!