Bangkok, Thailand

Hello Friends!

I have now been in Southeast Asia for five days. In that short time I landed in the Philippines, flew to Thailand for a whirlwind tour of a gigantic city that could easily take weeks to visit, and now back to the Philippines.

I am having a difficult time downloading pictures from my camera to the Gooden's computer so these are not my favorite pictures but they'll have to do.

The first morning we were in Bangkok we toured the most famous part of the city, the Grand Palace. The Grand Palace consists of several temples, meeting halls and the old residence of the Thailand king, Rama IX. Within the Grand Palace is the most famous Buddha Thailand has, the Emerald Buddha, made completely of one piece of jade. While is was very beautiful it was no bigger than a medium sized dog. This was very surprising to me since the anticipation of seeing the Buddha was built to a very exciting high. It has different outfits that it wears according to the season. Right now is the 'rainy season' so it wears its rainy season shawl.

It was fascinating for me to watch hundreds of people worship this figure with their whole hearts, mind and soul. Outside of the Emerald Buddha's temple was another area to worship and offer sacrifices. This was also fascinating since the people were literally praying to a golden calf!! Just like the exiles Moses was leading out of Egypt! Their sacrifices were of fruit, incense and we even saw a chickens, pigs and ducks (already dead) offered!

The picture of me with the people in costume and on the elephant were taken that night, after we spent the day touring around the temples. We went to the world's tallest stage, they're in the Guiness Book of World Records, for a Filipino show. It was awesome! The costumes, the choreography the music were all amazing. I really enjoyed it even though it was extremely difficult to stay awake!! Riding the elephant was way cool! Curt and I went and took little Jones for his first elephant ride.

In case I didn't mention it the Goodens took along their baby, Jones, he is 10 weeks old and this was his fourth country to visit since he was born!! He was such a great baby to travel with, he napped on and off everywhere we went. Julie planned the whole trip she did a great job. There were 15 people in on the tour (trip) total. It was great getting to know all their new friends who are also American working here in the Philippines for various reasons and for various lengths of time.

I think I should sign out for now! Sending my love from Manila, Philippines. ERB

And they're off...

This morning before the sun arose I pulled Traeton out of bed to shower and hit the road to Juarez, Mexico for his very first mission trip! He and Todd are joining a very large group, about 57, from our Sunday school class to build houses for the extremely impoverished in Juarez.

Todd and Trae have been working toward this trip for quite a while and Traeton is beyond excited to do God's work! He is bubbling over with anticipation. I pray his little perspective on life would be rocked and he would never again fall into the self-righteous mindset in which he currently lives, not unlike most seven-year-olds in Highlands Ranch, CO.

I will post pictures as soon as I have them!

Also, I have neglected to post that I, myself, will be leaving the country. Next week, on election day and Lisa Bowden's birthday, I will be taking off for the Philippines and Thailand. I will be spending 11 days with my childhood friend, Julie Gooden and her family. They're living in Manila for a few years and I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to visit this part of the world, a part I may never again be able to go.

Busy times in the Burmeister home!

Pierced with Pride

Today I had the privilege of hearing Fern Nichols speak. Mrs. Nichols is the founder of Moms In Touch, a prayer organization for mothers of students, any age, any 'grade'. The purpose of Moms In Touch is to cover every school in the world with prayer one school at a time. Ideally, each and every school is covered in prayer by a small group of mothers whose children attend that school. Naturally, my Moms In Touch prayer group is for Stone Mountain Elem, Traeton's school.

One focus of her talk today was on pride, the root of every sin. Pretty hefty statement, eh?

This is what constitutes pride:
A prideful person:
-is confident in how much they know and flaunts it
-focuses on other's failures
-puts others on probation and waits for them to fall again
-can't bear to fail or have others see them less than perfect
-is a work-a-holic or a perfectionist
-drives others
-places unrealistic expectations on self and others
-tries to control people and circumstances
-independent spirit who does it all because others can't do it good enough
-doesn't think they have anything to repent
-must prove I am right
-must have the last word, 'I told you so'
-desires to be known as successful
-doesn't want their sin discovered
-wounded when others get credit or is overlooked
-elated by praise
-deflated by criticism

What constitutes a broken/humble person:
A humble person:

-admits they don't know it all
-doesn't try to have an answer for everything
-accepts limitations
-focuses on own spiritual needs
-trusts in God and waits on him to act
-gives up the right to hurt back
-dependant spirit
-admits just can't do it all
-willing to yield the right to be right
-desires to make others successful
-willing to be exposed
-seeks forgiveness
-has a continual heart of repentance
-any received praise belongs to Christ
-criticism makes them a better person
-doesn't try to justify criticism

Oh, wow, sigh... Unfortunately I carry far more of the prideful traits than the humble ones. The characteristics of a humble person are not completely foreign to me. I know this is what I strive to be, broken and humble and sometimes it is true of me. But more often I self-righteously walk around pierced with pride.

Lord, renew a right spirit within me...

Playin' Hokey

This Tuesday we played hokey! All five of us just completely cut out for the day. Well, almost all of us, Todd was post call so he had the day off anyway and Elias has no commitments so he really didn't cut out on anything. But the rest of us did! It was exhilarating!

Traeton has had a very tough year so far, his teacher has been out of school for a whole month with pneumonia so they've had some subs in and out of his room. The long-term sub was doing a great job and just getting the class caught-up when she fell and broke her ankle! More subs... So Tuesday we kept him out of school and out of the chaos of the sub-led classroom.

I missed my Tuesday morning Beth Moore study and Addison missed piano class.

This is what we did!

Why The Guilt???

It is three o'clock in the afternoon. In 45 minutes I have to walk down the block to Traeton's school and pick him up. I have had Elias down for almost two hours and Addison fell asleep one hour ago. I have yet to complete one single thing off my growing 'to do' list. I have checked my email, I have caught up on Facebook and now I am posting on our blog. None of these things, in my mind, are productive ways to spend the afternoon. So, as a result I feel terribly guilty that I have wasted away this time.

WHY??? Why can't I chill for a few hours and not be productive with out feeling wasteful? How do we get to this point where we feel the need to constantly be achieving? If there isn't forward motion happening, crossing off tasks on the to-do list, then I feel I have fallen short, wasted the hours God has granted me to be all I can for my family, myself and my community.

Todd is so great at balancing. He feels no guilt to just check out for a while and play a game of Aquire on the net. Good for him. For ten years I have been trying to learn from him but it just frustrates me to know there are things to be done that are not getting done. Just call me Martha.

Elias - The Fun One!

This is it! It is here! Elias' second birthday! Here is a picture of our Baby Bear enjoying an ice cream sundae at lunch today. He truly is a ball of fun. He has yet to begin talking yet he 'communicates' very well through squeals and squeaks. Today, his big day, was spent on an impromptu trip to Pueblo. The whole way he gave commentary on all the large sized vehicles on the road, tractors on the side of the road and trains passing by.

Huge thanks to those of you who have inquired about his Child Find appointment last Monday. Elias was found to speak in the lower 5th percentile for his age bracket. He was put at the 15 month age for speaking. Today he turned 24 months. So he is nine months behind on his speech development.

Todd and I are not surprised or shocked. We both knew there was a problem now we'll get it taken care of. The experts say that he has low muscle tone in his mouth/tongue/lips so he is physically unable to form words. We are to do exercises with him that'll help strengthen those muscles. And he has been approved for speech therapy. His first appointment is this coming Wednesday at our home. Due to his age all his appointments will be at our home!! Yea.

Ahhhhutumn

Does anyone else out there just love crisp autumn air!?!? I absolutely love having the windows cracked just enough to let the fresh air flow in along with the slight chill that begs for a light sweater and a pair of slippers. Autumn candles are the next most important ingredient for these crisp days. The aroma fills the house with that 'this is our cozy home' smell. LOVE IT!

Tomorrow is Elias' Child Find appointment for his speech delays. I am not worried or nervous, just curious. I am eager to find out why our baby bear does not talk. If it is nothing then no big deal, we know to be patient and wait on his natural development. If it is something then let's take care of it so he can join in on the conversation!