Lighting ::the dArKneSs::: Roi Et!

This past weekend, Stephanie and I had the privilege of staying with a good friend (also student) of ours and her family. She lives in Roi Et, which is about 50km from Mahasarakham. We had an INCREDIBLE time! Friday night we just left after the party at our apartment and got to her house fairly late. The next morning we left for Wat Pha Nam Yoi, a huge famous temple about an hour and a half from the main city. We stayed there for several hours, taking TONS of pictures; it was one of the most beautiful temples I've seen yet! It was only built about 4 years ago (has 6 floors, 2 of which aren't completed), and it's surrounded by some mountains. I can't wait to post pictures of it :) It's always a good reminder for me when I visit temples to remember our purpose for being here...This country is a spiritually dark place filled with people seeking to find truth and do "good" things. Please pray that we will strive to be reflections of Christ as we live and work here so that those who don't know Him will see that God is the one who gives everlasting hope. He the only one to whom praise and worship should be given!

We had lunch in the same area as well, in a little hut with mats that you sit on--so fun! We enjoyed doing some shopping in the souvenir markets also, which made us pretty tired walking around in the heat...We headed back and went to a nice restaurant for dinner with her family--we were eam mak (so full)! We definitely stayed up late having fun together and enjoying the air conditioning :) The next day we dropped by the small aquarium they have in Roi Et, which was cool :)...outside the aquarium there were 2 ladies that had lots of small birds in cages that you could pay a small amount to release--of course we decided to do it, so that was another little fun thing to add to our list of things done in Roi Et ;) Overall, the weekend was amazing getting to spend time with our friend, along with having great conversations with her :)