MaryBeth's Birthday at Ton Teh Waterfall!

I have posted pictures below from our trip to Ton Teh waterfall. We all loaded up into two vehicles and went 2 hours away to Trang to where the beautiful Ton Teh Waterfall is - one of MaryBeth's favorites. There we ate a delicious - rare - cake made by Amber! A rare opportunity seeing as how almost any cake you find in Thailand strangly tastes like cardboard - no matter how beautiful and tasty it looks. Looks are definately decieving in Thailand.

Pii Thak (one of our team members) made a Thai dish called Som Tam - see pictures below. I tasted it and John ate some - it was too hot for my pregnant tastes at the moment and she made us one that was "mai pet" which means "not hot". But - trust me it was still hot. The normal Som Tam has up to 7-8 peppers ground into it!!!! John enjoyed it (and a PB&J) while I fell back on my trusty PB & J sandwich with a couple hardboiled eggs as a side dish :)

After we filled our tummies up we played around in the water at the bottom of the mountain and then we hiked up the mountain about a mile and went to this beautiful area where this is a natural pool at the bottom of the waterfall. Pure, untouched beauty! I have to admit that I didn't know if it was going to be worth the climb (and what a climb it was!!) but it definately was! 8 of us (including Asia and Josiah and a 3 month old) hiked up the mountain while John, Brian, Colton and Chase decided to tackle the waterfall by literally climbing up the waterfall. John says there were times that he didn't think they could go any farther but they inched their way up step by step and eventually met up with us. John suffered a minor injury - we think it's a jammed toe - it looks horrible but he's doing fine and had a wonderful time going on his adventure with the other guys.

We had a wonderful time and MaryBeth had a wonderful birthday! Hope you enjoy the pictures below. They are mixed with some other pictures of Josiah and Asia that I had taken last week. Oh - about more pictures of ministry that we are doing such as the work the guys are doing in the villages. I was speaking to John about it and encouraging him to take more pictures and he shared with me that he feels uncomfortable taking pictures when he's in the villages because we are coming into their life.

Most Thai people assume that all "white" people or "farangs" are rich and when one of those "rich farangs" comes into their village taking pictures of their "poor situation" it makes them feel uncomfortable. And I find that VERY VERY understandable. John has backed off on using the camera because our main purpose is to touch these peoples lives and making them feel inferior is NOT the way to do it. So - John says - when it is suitable he will take pictures.

There is always the pressure on missionaries to "prove" that they are doing the work or that they are being effective in ministry but being held accountable to the work God has put before you should never come at the expense of an opportunity at touching the hearts of the people God has called you to. With that being said I leave you with many pictures of us on our day out at Ton Teh Waterfall :)

Steph