These shoes, the Creature Shoes, were seen at a Candlelight Coffeehouse school activity:

These shoes are a puzzle to me.  What kind of creatures are those?  I think they might be rabbits.  Maybe that rabbit that appears with Hello Kitty?

I think the flowered straps are a nice touch.

These shoes, the Bearded Bunnies, belong to one of the Beginning Conversation teachers at Candlelight:

You’ve got to love the color choices, along with the fluffy white beards.  What I especially like about these slippers is that the teacher usually pairs them with a beautiful Lao silk skirt.  Double pretty!

These slippers also belong to a staff person at the school.  They remind me of something someone’s grandmother might wear around home:

I’ve been finding sequins scattered around my office because of these.  I have to admit, though, I do secretly like the sparkles.

These shoes, the Teddy Bears, belong to an English student at Candlelight:

Actually, maybe they’re mice, not bears.  Hard to tell.  Puffy animals or fruit on shoes seem to be a big fad now – I’m hoping to collect more pictures of this trend.

These shoes, the Geek Shoes, were found in Thong Khan Kham Market near my house:

Can you tell what that is?  It’s a QWERTY keyboard, with raised keys to massage your feet as you walk.  And in case you were wondering, these were adult-sized shoes.  There is a part of me that says these shoes are super-cool and I might be tempted to wear them.

I, however, am responsible for only one plant, which was given to me as a birthday present earlier this year.

Can you guess which plant is mine?

However, buying a cell phone in Laos or, in this case, Thailand can be a little complicated.  The shops don’t actually carry all of the models, so they prefer to show you a brochure–which is written entirely in Thai.  This means that I either need to spend for-ev-er trying to make out the information myself (my Thai is much slower than my Lao), or latch onto a salesperson and have her read the brochure to me.  After deciding on the features I wanted and narrowing down the selection to several models, the salesperson runs around to all the neighboring shops to collect a those models for me to see.

Now comes the frustrating part.  Very few of the phones they brought to me were actually able to be turned on; they were either brand new and unable to be unwrapped before purchase, or they were just a sample phone and didn’t actually work.  I had to constantly ask the girl the same questions–or turn back to the dreaded Thai brochure.  Plus, most of the prices weren’t listed either, so that information also had to be repeated multiple times.

I finally decided on an LG KS360, which seemed like a good combination of being responsible with my money while still allowing for a little fun (now that I’ve bought it and can finally turn it on, I’m not sure it was the best choice after all).  While I was choosing, the salesgirl kept trying to persuade me to choose a more expensive model that would allow using the phone to chat through instant messaging.  When I told her that chatting would be very expensive in Laos and so I’d never use it, she replied, “Yes, but you would have it.  You wouldn’t have to use it.”  Ha!  Definitely a different perspective on things.  I’d much rather save the additional $60 than waste it on a better status symbol!

Then the girl asked me if I’d like a cloth case for my phone, showing me a black case with a trendy square pattern on the front for about $2.  Sure, why not?  She went to get the case and came back with a black case that had a puppy embroidered on the front.  Um, no.  When she saw I didn’t really like it, she asked if I’d prefer flowers instead (apparently they were out of trendy squares).  Sure, flowers would be better than a puppy.  She came back with this case:

Look closely–can you see the flower?  At this point I just laughed and took the case.  It’s only $2, and it makes me giggle whenever I look at it.  And it will definitely increase my status among Asian teenaged girls–priceless.

One evening I was jumping rope in the courtyard in front of my house.  As I jumped (and listened to a Boundless podcast), I enjoyed looking at the flowers my landlord had planted, and ended up praising God for his beautiful creation:  

These vibrant pink flowers bloom year-round.

Here are the buds.

These purple flowers hit me on the head and get pollen all over me as I get into the car every morning.

Bouganvillea. We've got white and pink.

The orchids were especially beautiful.

Orchids

More orchids.

My favorites are the volunteer chili pepper plants.

And in addition to plants, we also had a very large caterpillar.  I’m told this one will become an atlas moth:  

Creature

Father, your creation is truly amazing!  Thank you for showing your glory in this way.

However, as I continued reading a pattern became apparent.  In nearly every lament and prophecy, one phrase was repeated:  “Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

What struck me was the great lengths to which God is willing to go to call people to himself.  The punishments he prophesied were all to bring him glory and increase his name on the earth.  He wanted these nations to know him as the one true God and to worship him as such.

And that’s awesome.