Hello Everyone! I have finally figured out how to get onto the internet here! I am having a great time and just game inside to coold down! It has to be around 35 degrees today, yes life is rough. The conference has been amazing!!! The first night we got here we caught the tail end of the ACE (athletes, cities and events) conference, which was a world wide conference of all sports ministries (not just AIA). There were over 700 people attending this conference from all over the world! I went to a bit of their last evening session, and it was AMAZING to see that many people from all over the world (some countries I have never heard of) worshiping God together! All of them here for the same purpose, to seek God's will in how to reach people with His love. Our conference AIA World Leadership Conference started on Wednesday and it has been so busy ever since. I was helping with a lot of the administration side of things, getting gift bags ready and paper work ready for check in...those kind of fun things. We have about 130 people here, from 65 different countries. I have been a greeter for the sessions and we have had fun trying to greet each person in their own language. I have given up on Thai though....after three days of saying thank-you to the Thai staff, I learnt that I was really saying Good Morning... yeah I'm sure some of them had a good laugh at the dumb white girl. Wednesday and Thursday I had about 30 mins to an hour of free time, we've just been walking on the beach and exploring the streets around us. Pattaya is a very big, busy city and unfortunetly is the one of the largest sex trade tourism cities in the world; needless to say it's not a very pretty city.
Today I have a bit more free time and a lot of us are off to ride elephants!!!! I can't tell you how incredibly excited I am!!!!! Apperently they will even let you sit on the trunk and the tusks to take pictures!! I'll feel like I'm on Top Model!! haha :)
Tomorrow for free time we have a 90 minute shopping trip to a hand craft market, you know how much I LOVE tacky souvenirs :) yeah!!! Tomorrow (Saturday) is our last day in Pattaya and Sunday morning we head to Bangkok for our Global leadership meetings, there will only be 30 of us for these meetings.
This time has just been so amazing to meets so many people from all over the world that are using the gifts and passions that God has given them to fulfill their greatest passion...to reach out to people with God's love. I live in a multi-cultural country but I am still blown away when I look around the room and see 65 different countries represented, a true rainbow of God's creation sitting right infront of me.
Well, I have to go now....gotta get ready for my elephant ride! I hope everyone is doing well and I'll try to write more later :)
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