I'm alive and doing well still, even after the coup occurred in Thailand a few weeks ago. All is quiet on the home front. Other than having a day off of school, soldiers posted around the city (ready to take selfies with you! -its kinda a goal of mine to make that happen before I leave), and a curfew (which was recently changed to midnight-4am), nothing is different. In reality, from what I hear from friends and the news, the country has been stabilized now that the military is in control.
Funny enough, there is a new campaign about bringing happiness back to Thailand via free haircuts, concerts/fairs in the streets of Bangkok, free blood pressure checks, free fried rice and omelets, etc! A friend of mine truly believes this is a genuine effort to calm the country and not a political move. I hope he is right!
Really, there is a ton of hype surrounding this coup, and I know that there have been several people in the America government condemning the Thai military for what they've done, but as far as I've seen up until now, this is a good thing for the country of Thailand. Please join me in praying for the military, that they would have wisdom in dealing with the corrupt government officials they've removed and in the actions they take from here on out in preparation to hand control back over to a government again, whenever that shall be.
Please also join me in praying for unity in the Thai church. The Thai people can have strong associations with one party or another (just like Democrats and Republicans in the States, or any opposing political parties) and as this continues, that God would bind them together, no matter what side of the political line they are on. A friend of mine who is Thai, told me the pastor of her church has laid down rules that no one is to talk politics at church. She said its been good so far for them, please pray that it will continue and the church will stay unified.
In other news, I begin the 24 hour journey back to California in about 24 hours! I will arrive at 10am in LAX Friday, then my family will whisk me away again the next morning to visit my sister at Hume Lake for a week. Other than that, with the exception of a couple random short trips, I will mostly be in the Thousand Oaks area and I'm looking forward to seeing you, my friends! Please pray for me as I fly and begin to transition back to being in America!
Love to you all and see you soon!