Samroiyod Beach

Samroiyod Beach is about 4 hours from Bangkok and I shared last week that we went there to help with a VBS / English camp.  

I thought the area was really pretty! The beach is peaceful, there are enough resorts in the area but it isn't too touristy yet. It was a really nice getaway from the busy city noise. 

Our friends arranged all the travel details, which I'm so grateful for! We had our own little bungalow and then for meals we would eat at the local pastors house. 

Here are some pictures from the meals. This is grilled pork and chicken. 

Tom Yum Soup! I got the recipe for this so hopefully I can share it sometime. It has a lot of seafood in it but doesn't have a strong fish taste. It's just soo good! The good thing about this recipe is that you can add whatever meat / fish you want so you can make it to your liking.

The drive to the VBS was super pretty and we saw animals along the way too. There are tons of pineapple farms and mango trees in the area.

Taken with my iPhone and no filter! God makes amazing things!

This is Pastor Wichit, Eleanor and their son Emmanuel! And I have to tell you how God started the church here. 

In 2011 Bangkok had major flooding and our missionary friends were forced to evacuate. They went to Samroiyod Beach as there is a missionary retreat / resort center there. They had to stay for I think two months and instead of just relaxing for two full months they started teaching English and sharing the gospel and people got saved! 

They would go back once a month to visit and follow up with the new believers in the area and eventually God sent a pastor Wichit and his family to this area. The building in the picture is the parsonage they are building. As soon as the parsonage is finished they will finish construction on the church building. 

I just love little Emannual! His nickname is I-man and he smiles a lot with his eyes. 

I loved the red in the shells.

I got up for the sunrise our last morning there. Super pretty and again zero filters with this!

And now for a real life, real marriage story. In the picture below you will see an island on the left. That is called Monkey Island. 

Samroiyod Beach has kayaks you can rent for cheap and I was bound and determine to kayak with Dave. By cheap I mean around $1.75 / hour per person.  

On our way to get the kayaks I told Dave I had actually never kayaked on the ocean before. (Instert - RED FLAG) Then when we got the kayaks red ants decided to bite my feet. (I hate ants! for many reasons). 

Well once we got out into the ocean the breakers were never ending. I felt like I was going to die. I did not remain calm. AT ALL. I immediately started screaming and told Dave I wanted to go back. He said that after I insisted so bad on going kayaking there was no way he was taking me back to shore. I couldn't figure out how to paddle correctly so I screamed some more at Dave that I just didn't know how to paddle correctly!!! Drama guys! Pure drama. I'm glad there weren't many people at the beach to witness this....

We finally made it past the breakers and it was nice kayaking. We made it to the island and right before we left 3 more people came and they had bananas with them. The monkeys came out for that. We also managed to ruin Dave's iPhone in the water and we also had to kayak back in which didn't go much smoother than going out.

Let's just say I'm thankful for forgiveness, grace and laughter. Because a few days after these incidents they are kind of funny (minus the phone getting ruined part). 

Dave running and swimming

We are 2!

A mango tree! 

And that sums up our trip at Samroiyod. All in all I'm really thankful for this trip (minus the drama kayaking). It was a blessing to see the church plant and it was really great to spend time with other believers sharing the gospel to people who have never heard.