Buddhist monks here are considered holy beings. Woman are not ever to touch them or even to try to give or pass anything to them with their hands. If a monk wants to sit on the bus and he happens to sit by a woman, the woman must vacate her seat and move to another place. It's very interesting because the monks in NE India are very approachable. Often we have had tea with them and asked them questions, even bringing them gifts or biscuits.
Yesterday was our first Valentine's Day as a married couple and we had a nice Mediterranean Dinner. Yep. There's this tiny little restaurant here called Jerusalem Falafel owned and operated by this neat lady from Jerusalem. The food was incredible, the best I've had in months. We ordered a dish that came with 5 different dips. Hummus, babaghanoush (sp?), tzatziki (sp?), actually, I just better stop now. I'm not really sure how to spell or properly communicate what we had, but it was delicious and full of garlic. We thought it was quite incredible to find a restaurant with this kind of food in Thailand, of all places, but it was nice.
Our days are packed with activities and friends and they are flying by so quickly. We are leaving on Saturday to go to China and we are excited for the next leg of our journey. John Dawson, the President of YWAM, is here and it has been good to hear what is on his heart. He shared last night about the importance of love being lived out. He was talking about how for love to be real, it must reach it's destination. Sometimes we are in love with the idea of love, but to truly live it and breathe it in the midst of real, flawed people is difficult. He was talking about how we all say that we love people and we have all of these nice thoughts in our head, and it is vital that we share it with those people and let them know and feel it. Whether they be friends, family, people that we may minister to, or whoever, we must live out love. Love must reach it's destination and not just dwell inside our own minds and hearts. We all need love and encouragement, so we should give it liberally to all that are in our sphere of influence. Everyone thrives off of kindness and affection and we shouldn't hold back because of fear or rejection, small fights, and jealousies. Life is too short, relationships are too important, we need to forget about ourselves and love with fierceness those who are around us.
