« humblethorn

the personal blog of paul vernon

Thank you for taking the time to view humblethorn. The purpose of this blog is to have an outlet to share my thoughts, quotes, ramblings and the occasional item of interest as I serve as a missionary to the Akha in Northern Thailand. Mostly, this is an outlet (in English!) for me to feel like someone out there is listening. So, to whoever you are, thank you for being my listening someone.

Many people have asked about the name "humblethorn". I would love to explain it, but I honestly don't fully understand it myself. In very simple terms, it is an identity that I have come to realize in Christ. I do not claim to be humble, rather that I am often humbled by my own weakness.

Feel free to navigate through the links on the top of this site to read more about me or just to view the photo galleries, videos, podcasts and journals about our lives with the Akha. Now... on to the posts!

A golfing resolution

Sunday, January 01, 2006

After 10 months of (almost) 100% of the time with Lori, I didn't realize how much I missed hanging out with "the guys". Not saying this last year hasn't been wonderful, but you can only tell each other the same stories over and over so many times. Other than Lori, most of my friends here speak Akha, and although time with them is wonderful, the stress of language takes away from the low-impact time that can describe most of my friendships.
The other day I got to go out with three (english-speaking) friends for a round of golf ($5 for 18 holes). It was great. Nevermind that I shot a thousand and twelve, it was just great to have a day of foolish jokes and kindly insults lightly sprinkled with good conversation.
It's something I'll have to do more than once a year in the future, in fact, maybe that's my New Year's Resolution: "Golf More"
Yeah, that sounds about right.
Happy New Year everyone

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