Vacation in Vietnam-A Homestay

After debarking from our Indochina cruise ship we drove 6 hours to arrive at our next Vietnam destination, Bon Lac, estimate of 250 miles. We had to navigate through Hanoi and it's atrocious traffic and head southeast of the capital city for our scheduled homestay. A Vietnamese homestay is like an American Bed and Breakfast. We paid $125 to stay 2 days/1 night in a stilt village home. I love this kind of thing, getting the opportunity to stay with the local people and experience life through their eyes. The entire village is compromised of homes that are built on stilts and has about 1000 people. We were so glad to finally be there safely, thankfully we all had books, games and Ipods to keep us occupied along with our informative guide providing interesting tidbits of knowledge about Vietnam.

We passed many, many miles of farmland being tended by hand, water buffalo and plow, no modern farm equipment seen anywhere. Our guide, Woang, told us that each person in Northern Vietnam is given 120 sq. meters of land, thus it's an asset to have many children. Mark calculated for me that is about 3% of an acre of land. Being such a small plot of land it is easier to tend to by hand. The plots of land are well cared for and beautiful. We saw lots of plots of corn, rice and vegetables-cabbage, onions, tomatoes,turnips, potatoes, peanuts...In the north the farmer is able to plant and harvest 3 crops/year. Many plots of land have graves with markers on them. Woang told us that family members are buried on personal land in the countryside, after 3 years the bones of their loved ones are excavated and cleaned with alcohol by family members and then left to rest for eternity. He said it is a final act of love to care for their bones and tend to their markers.

We also stopped a couple of times along the trip. One stop was at a roadside coffee shop allowing us to taste the famous 'red' coffee. Woang tells us that Vietnam is 2nd in coffee exports only to Brazil (?) and that we must taste the famous 'red' coffee. It is coffee made from the bean that has been eaten by tree rats and then passed through the rat's digestive system. It was very tasty especially after they mixed it with sweetened condensed milk. At the coffee house, two men were playing ping-pong. Mark asked to take on the winner and was promptly taken to ping-pong school!! These guys could spin a ping-pong ball like I've never seen. We all had a good laugh together even though we couldn't communicate otherwise. At the coffee house there were also bottles of rice wine with intact cobras and scorpions for sale. Apparently, it is very expensive to purchase these bottles but very important to the Vietnamese people for medicinal purposes. The one with scorpions is used for back ailments.

He also filled us in on all the dog eating rules. Apparently, we just missed the 'lucky' days to eat dog, needless to say, we weren't disappointed. If you eat dog the first ten days of a month-"that very unlucky!". He said you wouldn't even find a market vendor selling dog during those first ten days. He also warned us never to eat "bicycle chicken" but rather "walking chicken". When we later passed a bicycle with many cages of chicken headed to market he pointed out that was "bicycle chicken". We never could get him to explain to us how you would know the difference at the market. He eats enjoys all kinds of blood-cobra blood, turtle blood, dog blood-"very, very good!" We decided to take him at his word on this!

At the homestay we were greeted by a mother, father, grown son and wife and grown daughter that run the hotel out of their home. Their people group have roots from Thailand and we were able to communicate some with our limited Thai skills, that helped us bond some with the family. They prepared one large room for our family with sheets as room dividers, we each had a mat, warm cover and pillow. Our meals were so delicious at their table and such generous portions. I couldn't wait to try to join them in their open fire kitchen the next day and they were kind to oblige. I spent time squatting with the ladies cutting vegis for our lunch and then they allowed me to squat with them in the kitchen around the fire rolling spring rolls. I rolled at least 50 spring rolls, there was a lot of talking and laughing, probably at my expense, (I'm sure they had never had such a strange guest that wanted to cut up vegis and cook with them before!!) but I really enjoyed my time among the women and men that were cooking and I'm quite confident in my spring rolling ability now! I'm sad that I didn't get any pictures of their kitchen, Mark and the boys were out exploring the village with the camera as I was cooking.

We took a couple of walks around the village and countryside, at one home a young man was working at his loom making silk scarves and even uses a spinning wheel still. His home is on stilts, under one room is his work area and under the other room is his water buffalo stables-can you imagine sleeping or cooking over the water buffalo and all of his smells? I enjoyed our time in the village very much. We flew out of Hanoi on Monday to DaNang and Hoian, Vietnam. I have had much time to catch up on the blog and post slideshows because it has rained hard all day today. We had planned to go fishing in a round boat today but that was cancelled and spend the afternoon at the beach. We have spent most of the day reading, watching movies, and catching up on internet stuff. We fly out tomorrow for the last leg of our vacation in Saigon in south Vietnam.

Vacation in Vietnam-Halong Bay

On our second day in Vietnam we traversed over 3 hours of Northern Vietnam to meet up with our junk for a 2 day cruise through Halong Bay. Since we have arrived in Vietnam the weather has been misty, foggy and cool. Cruising along the Halong Bay was no different, it remained foggy our entire trip but it was still amazing. When we booked a cruise on a junk I had visions of us roughing it, this wasn't the case at all. Our junk was a luxury boat with 11 rooms, a beautiful dining room and several observation decks. Their slogo cracks me up, "The luxury you deserve." That saying just always convicts me, because I know that I deserve nothing and all the luxuries we enjoy in this life are by God's mercy.

We spent the two days either cruising the bay of Halong or anchored for trips out on a tender to see the fishing villages spread out among the bay. One village we visited is entirely on boats anchored in the water. Many of the boathouses had small children and dogs on their small decks. The government provides a school on water for the children. They have electricity by generator and all seemed to have TV's so not totally cut off from civilization. They take advantage of the passing cruise ships and small tenders entering their villages, many approached us wanting to sell a snack or beautiful shell. Mark and I also kayaked along the bay for a closer view of things, it's really something how these huge rock formations jut straight out of the water. Our captain told us the water we cruised through is only 5-10 meters deep. The bay opens into the Sea of China.

I'll also put a picture in the slide show of one of the large caves we toured through. We really enjoyed this part of our vacation.

Vacation in Vietnam

Greeting from Hanoi, Vietnam. We arrived in the capital of Vietnam on Friday, Dec.26th. We spent the first day touring the city on a cyclotour. It was quite exciting and frightening at times. I just thought the traffic in Bangkok and Cambodia was bad, you really can't even imagine how crowded the roads are, there are motorcycles everywhere. One quick difference between Thailand and Vietnam is honking. I've been told that in Thailand you don't hear honking on the roads because of their Buddhist beliefs, they practice patience and don't honk. In Vietnam, the honking has given me a headache. The honking is constant and seems to have several meanings-"I'm passing, scoot over. I'm passing going around a curve, honking to let you know if you are on the other side of the curve. To encourage the water buffaloes or cattle to get off the highway. I'm about to run over you...." It's just the wildest. There were a couple of times we were stuck in traffic in a cyclo, at one point a motorcycle hit us very lightly. You can feel very vulnerable in traffic setting in a cyclo, (a seat that is being pedaled from behind.} I'm going to post a slide show of our time in Hanoi before driving 3 hours Northeast to Halong Bay for a 2 day cruise. I must mention the weather was a cool 50 degrees when we arrived, we are loving the cooler weather!!

Holiday Happenings

It's been a busy couple of weeks and I'm trying to find the time to keep up with the blog because we leave on Friday for 10 days in Vietnam and I'm trying not to get behind!

Saturday after returning to the pier from Koh SiChang we drove on into Bangkok. I can't tell you how comforting it is to return from a trip and see Songkran waiting with the car. You always wonder, did he understand the directions, is he on time, did he remember...We are so blessed that he is very dependable and timely. Just when you think your clicking right along something happens to set you back some though. Last week, I asked him to take Dustin and Nathan to some friends of ours home about 15 minutes away to water their plants while they are in the states for Christmas while I got ready for Mark's work dinner. I couldn't imagine what was taking so long, after about 40 minutes I received a call from Dustin,(who had managed to borrow a phone from a passerby)that Songkran had left them! I called Songkran and asked, "Where are you?" He said, "Home." Home I'm wondering? I'm mystified and even ask him, "How did you think they would get home? Walk? You left my babies Songkran, please go back and get them." Turns out he was at our home, the way our house is situated I never even noticed that he was setting on our driveway, I'm not sure what he was thinking, I had tried to be very specific in the directions explaining that the boys had to give naum to the dogmai? Something was lost in the translation for sure!

We wanted to spend some time in Bangkok Christmas shopping and sight seeing. We have not done the typical Bangkok tourist things. Mark took a holiday on Monday and we had Songkran drive us to our hotel asking him to return on Monday to pick us up at the hotel. Taxi service, subway, and sky-train usage is very cheap in Bangkok and easily accessible. If we use Songkran's services on a weekend not only do we have to pay overtime but we also have to give him 1000B/night for accommodations and food. ($30).

Saturday night we took a dinner cruise down the Mae Nam Chao Phraya, all of the temples and royal buildings are illuminated, it was very beautiful and the food was pretty good too, we can now check that tourist thing off our list of things to do. We spent the rest of Saturday and Sunday on the 'Great Guitar Search'. Dustin and Nathan both had requested new guitars for Christmas, after the guitar google search we set off on foot, by taxi, by sky train in search of the desired guitars. It's amazing the parts of the city we got to see that way. We ended up buying their electric guitar in Chinatown at an Ibenez store and the electric, acoustic Yamaha in a mall. I'm thankful that we found the guitars that will make their Christmas wishes come true but mostly thankful that we are safe and sound. You really trust God in a whole new level when you step into some of the Bangkok taxi's. We rode in 5 taxis over the weekend and only 1 driver matched his taxi picture posted in the passenger window. We noticed a propane bottle in the trunk of one of the taxis we rode in. It's amazing how much time I have spent in prayer in a taxi while zooming around Bangkok. I don't think all of our taxi travels even exceeded $10, that's just how cheap the taxi service is in Bangkok.

On Monday, the Clarkson's met us for a tour of the Grand Palace complex and to see the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. All of the royal buildings and wats are spread over 60 acres with over 100 buildings, they are quite amazing. Many of the buildings are gilded with pure gold. The Grand Palace is today used by the king for only certain ceremonial occasions. The so-called Emerald Buddha is not emerald but made of one complete piece of jade, it's not known who sculpted it and has been the subject of much controversy-it has been stolen by Laos at one time, but after 200 years was taken back. It has three royal robes that are changed according to the season and only the king himself can change his clothes. The robes are made of pure gold-one for the hot season, the cool season (remember that is a relative term!!) and the rainy season. It is one of Thailand's most esteemed possessions. You must be suitably attired to enter the palace grounds-no shorts or bare arms, I actually saw the fashion police turn someone away who had a sleeveless shirt on.

After the walking tour, we boarded a long boat for a trip through the canals of Bangkok. This was so cool, I love seeing how differently people live. We were all surprised to see very large Monitor lizards throughout the canals and lounging on porches of residences, at first we thought they were crocodiles in the canal water. So glad that we took the canal tour.

We arrived home Monday night around 9 pm just in time to start preparing for a Christmas swimming party at our house on Tuesday. We invited our friends that are still here over for swimming. It was a lot of fun, the highlight seemed to be all the kids swimming in the pond!! There were also badminton and ping-pong tournaments going on. I'll post a slide show of our Bangkok weekend and the swimming party.

Birthday Mission Trip

Friday after school was out for the Christmas holidays, we met Mark at the refinery and caught the 4:O0, 45 minute, ferry over to Koh SiChang. This is the second time the boys and I have gone over to visit our church's Thai mission church on this small island. We were taking a load of Christmas presents from our International Church of Pattaya to help them celebrate Christ's birthday. They have had a 'wish' list for some time-fans, laptop, printer, keyboard...It was so great to be a part of blessing this small congregation and making some of their wishes come true. It was truly amazing to be in the congregation as many of these people heard the story of Christ's birth for the first time. This is a nation that is 97% Buddhist, one person commented that they thought Christmas was Santa's birthday! On Saturday morning as the children were learning about Jesus and his birth, they were asked if they knew who Jesus's mother was, not one child could answer. Away from the commercialism of Bangkok and Pattaya you rarely see any acknowledgement or mention of Christmas here. There are some lights and decorations up in some places but in reference to a Happy New Year.

On Friday night we attended the fellowship's Christmas service with Pastor LoongLot telling the story of Christ's birth, addressing the sinful state of man and their need of a saviour. I couldn't understand much of the service at all, Marina, our pastor's wife sat beside me and could translate some of the teaching but I did understand when he was telling them that Christ is not the God of the Farang that he came and died for each of them too. After the service we had a very nice Thai dinner. The Thai people are so generous and treat guests so special, we had a feast! A feast that was cooked entirely on a stove top, they do not have ovens and cook almost everything in a wok over an open flame. We love the spicy food here and can't let ourselves think about the sanitation. We are just grateful that God made our bodies so amazing that they fight off all kinds of assaults. There are no serving spoons, everyone uses their own spoons to dish out their soup over and over again. Most people just use their hands to get ice out of the large, community bin...At a market one time I had ordered papaya salad, which I just love, it's sooo spicy but yummy. As the woman was preparing my dish, she had to taste it a couple of times to make sure she was getting it just right, with the spoon she was stirring with!! If that happens in America, we just don't know about it! I just told myself, "She really wants this to taste just right for me!" and tried not to think about the whole germ thing.

After dinner, Daniel presented all the gifts from our English-speaking congregation. I was most excited to see them receive a laptop, LoongLot has been attending seminary for over 2 1/2 years and has had to hand write all of his assignments during that time, this will make his studying so much easier. Dustin opened the keyboard and joined the singing later on. The church has someone that is going to learn to play the keyboard. Each child received a small gift and every family 1000Baht ($30). This is a very poor island and that small amount will go a long ways.

We stayed in one of the two hotels on the island because on Saturday morning we had a 'Happy Birthday Jesus' party with the children. (The hotel is way below our Motel 6in the states, you have to flush your toilet with a bucket of water, the toilet paper is in a plastic box because you have to shower while setting on the toilet, but they have an amazing cook!) We had planned to send each child home with their very own cardboard tree with decorations and lights. Thai people love color, brightness, and lights. This was such a treat for the kids. We underestimated how many would attend, over 60 kids came. We had just enough trees to insure that at least every household would have a sparkly tree in their home. Several mothers came and I'm not sure who was more excited the moms or the kids. I'll post all the pictures of our trip. The boys were a great help, we continue to form relationships on the island and some of the kids were excited to see the boys again. Nathan has a special buddy, we call him Tiny Tim, he's this really round guy who loves Nathan, I think he's an aspiring sumo wrestler, he always wants to wrestle with Nathan. This time a little girl with Down's syndrome participated in all the events, she was quite the character and could not keep her hands off of my female appendages!! Last time we visited and prayed for a little girl who has obvious advanced, hydrocephalus, she was there. Her condition continues to worsen, as I was holding her this trip, she was having frequent seizure activity, it is a very sad situation.So many of the island people do not look healthy, they have poor nutrition and many of them look like they have some liver ailments, their eyes are yellow, including the pastor.

It was a great to be with the church of Koh SiChang again especially during this holiday season. What a privilege to be a part of so many of them hearing the gospel for the very first time, the real reason of Christmas!

Holiday Happenings

Last night we participated in a Carol/Nativity presentation at Burapha with a few of our friends. Shivana, from Australia and Lisa from Indonesia just decided a couple of weeks ago, "Why don't we get together, sing some carols, and act out the Nativity scene?" It grew to a performance on a small stage, instruments, fliers being distributed to the Burapha neighborhood, a sound system, costumes...Considering we just 'threw' it all together, I think it was a success and I think it has lots of potential in the future! The setting was gorgeous and I still catch myself saying, "Wow! I get to live in Thailand!!" I had one of those moments last night as I was snapping a few pictures before performance time-of people getting their make-up on, singers practicing, friends arriving...the thought cross my mind when I was focusing on my photo subject and the palm trees came to my attention in the background of the photos. It was just a gorgeous setting and there was a slight breeze in the air. Have I mentioned how much I am enjoying this weather at the moment For the last month, the mornings and evenings have been cooler. We have not had any rain for weeks, the rainy season is behind us now, the winds have shifted and I would say the weather is just about perfect, all the time!

Anyway, back to our performance. Dustin and Nathan played their violins and Dustin accompanied one of the soloist on 'O Holy Night' from the piano. Mark was such a trooper, the only man who participated, but you know how the Northcutt's like those Christmas Carols. I was so thankful for Mark, we were such a small group we really needed him. I just love that guy! Most of the men didn't even make the performance time because of work. Mark had to rearrange his work schedule and rush out to the venue to participate. The night before at a dinner for his management staff his employees were almost begging him to get up and participate in Karaoke, ( that is HUGE here!) and Mark finally consented and got up and sang, Hotel California. He did a great job, I was really proud of him, he's not too proud to just put himself out there!! Our driver commented that he heard Khun Mark singing and could hear his laugh in the parking lot-can't you just hear it too???

Okay, back to the performance! I keep getting off-track. It was a whole family affair, Ethan was a wise man in the Nativity and joined us for carols. I hope that our small crowd enjoyed the evening and I was so excited that we were asked to join in. Here's a few pictures from last night.

Christmas Concert

Saturday evening we attended the boys Christmas Dinner Concert at the school. The middle school band began the program with Dustin as the MC. Dustin also played the french horn and Nathan the trombone. I was really proud of them, they've done well learning a brass instrument this fall. Their band teacher is from Pennsylvania and is a marching band teacher, so no opportunity to play their violins at school in an orchestra. They also have been involved with the jazz band as an elective, which combines middle and high school musicians, they performed as well with Dustin on the piano and Nathan playing the electric guitar. It was a warm evening on the soccer field at ISE with a Christmas tree and Christmas lights as the backdrop and Christmas music in the air.

I'm also including a picture from our PTA board holiday happening from today.

Holiday Happenings

Yesterday was a busy day. My parenting Bible study had their holiday party combining it with a 'Good-Bye' party for three of our ladies. Apparently that is what happens every Christmas and May around here-lots of Good-byes. I already don't like it! Most companies arrange their transfers for the Christmas break or after a school term. Khun Lek is one of the ladies we said good-bye to yesterday. She was one of my first Thai friends and I'm really going to miss her. She is moving to California to live with relatives because she wants her two daughters to have more opportunities in America. She has been such an encouragement to me here, a fast friend, that always had a smile for me in the halls of the school. She has tried to help me with my Thai language difficulties and teach me about some Thai cultural issues. She laughs with me a lot and always says 5-5-5 in her emails. (In Thai 5 is Ha! It took me a while to catch on to her joke.) She is a new Christian and it has been such a joy to have her participating in our Bible study, she is full of joy and hungry to grow in the Lord. I hooked her up with Natalie Connell, a friend that is attending college in L.A.. Natalie attends a church that actually has a Thai outreach, but we're not sure how far the church will be from Khun Lek's new home, but it gave Khun Lek much comfort to already know another Christian in the L.A. area. I'll post pictures from the party, it was a sweet time of singing carols together and praying for the three ladies that are leaving. Yesterday one of the Japanese ladies, Nobuko, is a trained opera singer and she blessed us by singing Ava Maria. Then we all enjoyed our potluck lunch. The combination of food is just amazing, Japanese, Korean, Thai, South American and American food. Every week I get to experience some new culinary treat.

Last night, I decided to host a party for our new Thai friends. I was nervous, what would we do about the language barrier and would anyone come? We had a good group and I'm kicking myself because I was busy playing hostess and forgot to take any pictures. I especially wanted you to see the floating candle decorations Noik, my housekeeper made for the pool, it really made it seem festive. Noik and her entire family came, MaNoon-her husband, her Mother, her three sons and one nephew. Songkran, our driver came. Mark's secretary-Suchada and her husband came, my tennis coach and his wife-Khun Toy and Khun Poot, and most of his students came, 5 of them. I try to play at least once a week, and I've been playing Champoo some, she's 12 and I've yet to beat her. Well, she came and her little brother Danny who is my one fan. He cheers me on when his sister and I play. He's this chubby,short, 7 year old who will yell, "Khun Da!!" when I make a good shot. Lena, our Thai teacher came. Wandee, the Thai caretaker of Mrs. Trula who goes to our church, came. Lee and Sheryl, our neighbors, attended with their two boys and finally our pastor and family-Daniel and Marina. They have lived here 13 years and are missionaries to the Thai people from South Africa and pastor the small International church we attend. It was so great to have them here because they speak fluent Thai and English. It turned out okay!! We had just enough people that could translate I don't think it was too uncomfortable. We had lots of food, thankfully Noik brought some Thai food because that went fast but they seemed to enjoy the Western food too for the most part. The vegis and dip-not so popular, I've got a lot of celery left over! Celery is imported from California, and most of them had never seen that green, crunchy monster before! (That's what Mike, Mark's brother calls celery. I think the Thai people would agree if their response to it last night was an indicator!)

It was funny last night, Suchada, Mark's secretary wanted a tour of the house. She just laughed when she saw all of Mark's boots in our closet. She said everyone asks about Khun Mark's boots!! I've asked Mark if anyone had commented on them and he said, "Surprisingly, no." Suchada said that everyone asks her why Khun Mark wears boots all the time and they didn't know they were going to have a cowboy boss!! No telling everything Mark misses in the translation!

Suchada has been such a blessing to us, she has tried to help make our transition so much easier. She is a very efficient secretary and has been so helpful to Mark and I. She mothers Mark, making sure that he has lunch delivered daily to his office. She worries that he never takes a break and usually just eats at his desk. She orders his lunch daily and Mark totally leaves the menu up to her. She was telling me last night how amazed she is that Mark is so easy going and likes all Thai food,"even spicy food just like Thai people! so lucky for me that Khun Mark so easy to please!"

Okay, what do you do with a house full of people that can't communicate easily and no alcohol is involved-you play Spoons!! I tried to think of something we could play that would require little explanation. We had a really great time, after all- laughing is the same no matter what language you speak. 5-5-5-5!

The King's Birthday

It's a national holiday in Thailand, this is the King's 81st birthday. The Thai people love their King, His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej, Rama IX. It's been very interesting learning more about him this past week, the school had a formal ceremony yesterday with songs and tributes to the King. He was born in the US, while his father was completing his education at Harvard. He became king when he was only 18 after his father died unexpectedly, he was the youngest of three children, the oldest being his brother who took over the monarchy after their father died. Then his brother died tragically shortly after taking over the throne, (We have been unable to find out how he died?). It is a criminal offense to talk negatively about the monarchy so I'm wondering if that is why I can't find more information about the older brother's death? Because of the untimely death, Bhumibol was crowned king at the young age of 18, he is the world's longest serving monarch and is known by the people here as 'The Light of Thailand'. He has for the past 6 decades delivered a birthday address on the eve of his birthday until last night. It is huge news here that he did not appear and speak to his country, it's also a little worrisome. Many people here were wanting to hear him speak in response to all the political turmoil going on here. I wonder what might happen if he died when the government is so unstable at the moment? Time will tell.

We are all home for the day. Our driver and housekeeper have the holiday off as well as Mark. Mark gets 13 national holidays here, more than the US. We have Daniel our pastor's son coming to play for the day and then his entire family will join us for dinner tonight. I hope to get some holiday cooking done today and make some more Christmas ornaments.

I participated with a group of friends in an ornament exchange on Wednesday. I had to make 18 ornaments to exchange with little planning time. All the other ladies know about this yearly tradition and plan months beforehand, bringing supplies from their home countries. This summer when we were visiting in NM before moving, my friend LoriLynn Brock gave me a cute, little, wire angel as a farewell gift. That was my inspiration for the ornaments I exchanged. It is really hard to find craft items here, but I did manage to find some supplies in Bangkok on a recent shopping trip that worked just fine. It was a fun holiday happening in Burapha, the neighborhood by the boy's school that we considered living in, they were kind to include me. I'll post some of the pictures I took.

Holiday Happenings

With the arrival of December many holiday parties have begun here. On Monday, my Daniel Bible study group had a holiday luncheon and we will break until the middle of January because more than half of the ladies are heading out of the country for the holidays, Lord willing.

Several of you have asked about the political situation here, the airports in Bangkok have been closed for over a week because political protesters had taken residence in the airports. Yesterday, the Thai legal system ruled that the current government is invalid, thus making the protesters happy and the airports will reopen on Friday, we've been told. So many of my friends have had their travel plans thwarted, and it will take many days for the backlog of travelers to get out of Thailand. Many have planned other routes, taking boats out of Thailand to Malaysia, or driving to Northern Thailand....Last week Mark had to charter aircraft to evacuate any Exxon visitors in the country. I assume if we would have had an emergency they would have done the same for us? Just thankfully Mark was in the country and we had no travel plans.

The political unrest has been very damaging to the Thai people, so much of their industry is tourism and that has taken a huge hit. It is peak tourist season here. Thailand has always had the reputation of being a peaceful nation and that has now been tainted with foreign governments advising their citizens not to travel to Thailand. I've heard that the economic damage now surpasses the tsunami effects. Throughout the whole civil unrest we have felt safe and are thankful that the airports are due to reopen on Friday.

Anyway, I'm posting a picture of "My girls!" here. What a great group of ladies from all over the world, what a privilege it has been to study God's Word with them and pray with them every Monday. Ms. Trula, the older woman in the center was a missionary to India for 26 years. (She is my Maralyn Barnes here for all of you Grace ladies.) Her husband died 10 years ago and she lives here with her son. The small Asian woman is Lena from Singapore and she is our Thai teacher, she is quite gifted with languages. Molly is next to her and then Cyd from West Virginia, who is our facilitator. Carol, the tall lady in the very back is from Austria and is one of the most joyful people I have ever met. She is in a group of 5 families with us that are like minded with about the same age of children who meet once a month for fellowship. Next to me is Gina (short dark hair), an avid OU girl that I had to buy lunch for after OU trounced Texas Tech a couple of weeks ago. Susan next to her with the short red hair is my prayer partner and she has desperately been trying to get out of the country, her first grandbaby is due any day in Austin, we've been praying she makes it! Julianna, from Brazil is in the front and her husband works for Bosch here that makes a lot of parts for GM. The automotive crisis is so far reaching and they are unsure they will be able to stay here. Right in the middle by Ms. Trula is Pam from New Orleans, I get my Louisiana fix from her every week, I love to listen to her talk it makes me miss all my Baton Rouge friends!! Pam, Susan, and Gina have all been juggling their plans trying to find a way home for the holidays. Cyd's children who all attend college in the states are trying to find a way into the country. It's been a little crazy for folks here but we're all safe. I'll post other holiday happening pictures soon.

The Real Thanksgiving

On Saturday we had three families join us for our 'real' Thanksgiving celebration. It felt like an old-fashioned, American celebration if you blocked out the elephant trumpeting in the background. We all shared the food responsibilities and even had pecan pie, thanks to Molly's parents who are here visiting one month from North Carolina. They brought 2-75lb bags full of food from America when they arrived, one bag contained a Costco size bag of pecans. Molly's Dad calculated the price of pecans in Thailand-$40/lb, a little pricey!

I had even found a Yankee Candle in Bangkok ($45), but it added so much to the atmosphere. With the candle, festive table, holiday music, wonderful food, and new US friends here in Thailand it made for a wonderful Thanksgiving day. During our traditional time of sharing thanks Dustin shared, "I'm thankful that I'm not lonely here in Thailand. We prayed that God would send us friends and he has." I would say that all of us could echo that. God has been so good to send us great friends here in this foreign land and we are so thankful.

After getting that familiar 'I'm sooo full' Thanksgiving feeling, Mark commented that all would have been perfect if we just had a football game to watch. Instead, the guys played a hearty game of basketball, the young-uns won, while the ladies cleaned up the kitchen and visited around the sink! Just like home!!!

Thanksgiving in Thailand

I started not to post until after we celebrated our 'real' Thanksgiving but decided I would go ahead and share about our Thursday here in Thailand. We all were up and about around 6 a.m. as the boys had to head off to school and Mark had to be off to work. Mark commented that in all of his life this is the first Thanksgiving that he had to work. I worked several Thanksgiving days during my nursing career in order to have Christmas day off. After seeing my guys out the door, I ventured out on my daily walk. I tried to spend the time in prayer, thanking the Lord for all our blessings. I was so thankful the menacing dog that usually charges after me growling seemed to be sleeping in yesterday.(I carry a big, dog stick everywhere I go.) I was thankful for the cooler weather and unusual nice breeze. I am thankful for the opportunity to live in Thailand, a relatively peaceful place, (we are okay with all the political stuff and are just grateful that we have no need of an airport at the moment, as all the main ones are closed because of protesters.) where we feel no religious persecution. I am so thankful for the beautiful home that God led us to here. I'm grateful for Noik, my housekeeper and friend and Songran our cheerful driver. (I tried to explain Thanksgiving to them and told both of them that I had given thanks for them to God on my morning walk.)

I've heard it said that your driver can make you or break you here and from what I've seen that is true. I have one friend that has been miserable for over 2 years with her driver who refuses to learn any English, has a sour disposition and she thinks is out to get her! Poor Molly has been through 5 drivers since we've been here. One was so bad that after he was fired they had to have armed security for over a week at their gate and now have a police box that has direct access to a policeman, that can be at her house in 4 minutes. One of her drivers who went to Bangkok with us for the All-Star basketball tournament was over 1 1/2 hours late picking their family up from the hotel. While we were waiting in our car with Songran at the hotel, he told me that Molly's driver drinks and is crazy. Needless to say he didn't last long! So I'm thankful for Songran who doesn't smoke, is very dependable and drinks only "nit noi on holiday".

I continued by giving thanks for Mark and the boys. I'm thankful for all of our health. Mark had a required check-up on Wednesday. He was a VIP!! He was met at the hospital by an assistant to walk him through the process, he had a special meeting with the International Marketing Representative and after all his lab work was completed he was escorted to a private dining area and given breakfast!! What service!

I'm thankful for Mark's job and the continued protection of the Thailand refinery and his employees here. I'm thankful for how the boys are adjusting and the blessing they have been given to learn to live and get along with other cultures. (Ethan's doing better with the adjustment, not so many tears on Mondays!) I'm thankful for my parents and their health, for their continued stamina and success in running one of the largest Western stores in America. I'm thankful that my nephew Coli has come on board to help out in the shop and to ease their load some. I'm thankful for so many of you that I consider to be dear, dear friends that are so faithful to pray for us and love us from afar. I'm thankful for a remnant of God's people here in Thailand from all over the world that we now call friends. I'm thankful for God's Word and the time that I have been given here to study it more. I'm thankful that I know that I'm a child of God and that my eternity is secure in His hands. I'm thankful that I'm forgiven and loved and that God made a way for me to call him, Abba-Daddy. My walk was filled with thanks!!

It was downhill from there! No, I finished up my shopping for our celebration on Saturday and came home and did some cooking. Songran went to pick up Mark at 3:30 to drive him to watch a cross-country race Dustin was participating in.(He got 16th out of 45 runners, that is so amazing for Dustin as he is not a natural runner. The race was about 1.8miles. Drew, our friend, came in 1st!! We were so proud for him.)

Mark and Dustin came home and we all headed to Big Bob's,owned by a Houston transplant that we have gotten to know some. I think he felt an instant kinship with us when he saw Mark's boots! We had pre-purchased tickets for his annual Traditional Thanksgiving buffet, where he uses all of his mom's recipes.(You can probably check out Big Bob's online, he is in the Guinness World's Record book for the largest hamburger, over 78lbs.)We were so excited as he smokes his turkeys (gai-ngoo-angs)and serves cornbread dressing, broccoli casserole, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, giblet gravy and pumpkin pie was on the menu. It was really delicious but tainted by the environment. We had never been to this area at night, let me just tell you it was XXX rated. We had to eat by half-naked Thai women that had been escorted to the restaurant by men more than 2X their ages. One lady was dressed like a very, very skimpy Indian.(I don't know if that had something to do with Pilgrims and Indians, couldn't really figure it out.)We were surrounded by all kinds of debauchery. I told Songran get us out of here quick. It was very oppressive feeling, sickening and so sad. I was sad that my boys had to be exposed to that. I have been studying about the Antichrist and how he will usher in lawlessness and demoralization. I just got a small taste of that last night it wasn't pleasant. I felt persecution in my spirit. Sin running amuck. I was depressed that this was how we were celebrating Thanksgiving but after we were home I had to once again begin to think on all the things that I had to be thankful for and to consciously claim contentment in where God has us at the moment and to vow to never go into that area again after dark.

Then today our first package from the states arrived at our gate!! I was sooo excited, Aunt Lola had sent us a care package. I was also excited to know that the postman can find our house with something besides bills! I opened it and peeked in but want to save it for the boys when they get home. M&M's from the states,(I think that we will be able to survive here after all!LOL!)bubble gum and some festive, Christmas packages that I know will be our annual Christmas ornaments from our special Aunt Lola. What a treat. It makes all of you not seem so far away, it only took 9 days to get here and $44. (Lola, I'm sorry it was so expensive but remember it is priceless to us!) Again, my thoughts are redirected to all we have to be thankful for here in Thailand. We love you all!

Water Buffalo Races

Yesterday, we went to the annual water buffalo and longboat races that were 10 minutes away from our house at Lake Mabpachan. I've never been to either and it was entertaining and educational. The water buffalo were paraded around the dirt field for a while with numbers painted on their sides, we assumed this might be the time to appraise the animals and make your bets? We couldn't understand a word the announcer said and had an awfully hard time finding anyone that spoke English to help us understand the whole process. After that it was quite exciting to watch the participants attempt to get their water buffaloes lined up at the starting line. 4 water buffaloes were lined topped with barefooted riders that rode bareback or should I say bare butted? Each rider had a long halter that was hooked in each water buffaloes nose and they guided the buffalo from way back at the end of the animal. It looked difficult even to this ole' rodeo girl. Half the entertainment was getting the animals lined up, there was lots of bucking off and resistance from the animals, sometimes after 10 minutes of trying to get all 4 of the racers in a reasonable straight line someone would shout 'Go!' and they would race to the end of the dirt field, we guesstimated it to be about 1/4 of a mile. There was only a thin ribbon separating the racers from the crowd of watchers, I felt it very important to stay alert just in case one of those water buffaloes decided to veer off the race course.

I'll also post some pictures of a few of the food stalls at the event and the monk directing traffic in the parking lot at the local Wat, I assume the event was some sort of fund raiser for the Buddhist Wat, it cost 20Baht to park at the event.

We also enjoyed watching the longboat races on the lake. The longboats were really long-imagine that?! Each boat was manned with 40 men, 2 teams raced at a time for about 1/2 mile perhaps. It was amazing to watch how each team worked together to propel this skinny, longboat across the water at a very rapid speed. I wish I could have understood their chants, each team had a chant that all 40 men yelled as they raced. It was quite a festive, spirited day of races in Thailand.

Home

I was again prodded this week to post some pictures of our new, decorated home by my Mom and Dad. I had been waiting until I had everything in its place. It is interesting hanging things on a solid concrete wall. Thankfully, Mark thought to bring his drill and he purchased a special concrete drill bit, I never would have gotten anything on the walls here otherwise. So I'm finally posting some pictures of our home. The computer room is still a little undone, so you'll have to see that later. I just bought a desk today for the computers, printer...I really like our Thailand house that the Lord so graciously provided and it's starting to feel like 'home' but I'm continually looking forward to our eternal home.

Speaking of eternal matters, thank you to each of you that are so faithful to pray for us on November 17th every year and to continue to remember Abbie with us. Your thoughtfulness means so much. On Monday I was reading from Charles H. Spurgeon's Morning and Evening , and it so ministered to me concerning Abbie's death seven years ago, here's some of it.
To Him Be Glory Forever. Amen.-Romans 11:36
"To him be glory forever. This should be the single desire of the Christian. All other wishes must be subservient and serve as tributaries to this. The Christian may wish for prosperity in his business, but only inasmuch as it may help him to promote this-'To him be glory forever.' He may desire to attain more gifts and more graces, but it should only be that he may declare,'To him be glory forever.' You are not acting as you ought to do when you are moved by any other motive than a single focus on the Lord's glory. As a Christian, you are 'from him and through him' and you must live 'to him.' Do not let anything set your heart beating so fast as love for Him. Let this ambition fire your soul; may this be the foundation of every enterprise upon which you enter, and your sustaining motive whenever your zeal would grow cold. Make God your only object. Depend upon it-where self begins, sorrow begins; but if God is my supreme delight and only object,
to me tis equal whether love ordain
My life or death-appoint me ease or pain.
Let your desire for God's glory be a growing desire. You blessed Him in your youth; do not be content with such praises as you gave Him then. Has God prospered you in business? Give Him more as He has given you more. Has God given you experience? Praise Him by stronger faith than you exercised at the beginning. Does your knowledge grow? Then sing more sweetly. Do you enjoy happier times than you once had? Have you been restored from sickness, and has your sorrow been turned into peace and joy? Then give Him more music; put more coals and more sweet spices into the censer of your praise. Practically in your life give Him honor, offering the 'Amen' of this doxology to your great and gracious Lord by your own individual service and increasing holiness."

I can truly say that our sorrow has been turned into peace and I am so thankful for that but also realize that we will never be truly at peace until heaven breaks on the horizon. We've learned to survive in a world that we would never choose, a life without Abbie Lou. If we had an easy life how quickly we would forget that we are eternal creatures looking forward to our eternal homes. From Joni Tada, "It's not merely that heaven will be wonderful in spite of our anguish, it will be wonderful because of it. Suffering serves us. A faithful response to affliction accrues a weight of glory. A bounteous reward. God has every intention of rewarding your endurance. Why else would he meticulously chronicle every one of your tears? Ps 56:8'Record my lament; list my tears on your scroll-are they not on your record.' Whatever suffering you are going through this minute, your reaction to it affects the eternity you will enjoy." I'm holding on to 2 Cor 4:17 'For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.' Looking forward to my eternal home and until then to Him be all the glory!

Home

Grim Reminders

Cambodia Continued

After visiting Cambodia, I found myself wondering what was I doing in 1975-1979? I know that I was a typical teenager consumed with my own little world but how could I be so disconnected with the outside world to really have no idea of the atrocities going on in Cambodia at the time? What were we learning in our history class? I do remember when the movie, The Killing Fields was released and perhaps nominated for an Academy Award but knew it was too violent for me to watch. It was very sobering to visit the actual killing fields in person while in Cambodia, to listen to our van driver retell the events that occurred in our lifetime and talk of his uncle and cousins that were never heard from again after the Khmer Rouge's evil acts. It all started when loud speakers throughout Phnom Penh announced that an American bombing was imminent and all residents must flee to the countryside immediately to escape danger, frantically, millions of people fled their homes, running for their lives and families being split apart. The evil leader desired Cambodia to become a total agrarian society and all educated people to be exterminated and Communist rule to go into affect. Over 2 million people were killed, many of their bodies dumped in mass graves outside the city of Phnom Penh. Any educated person, political leader or individual that even looked smart was brutally killed. One could be executed for just wearing glasses because you looked smart. Someone might be asked to read from a book to decide his fate. A person's hands would be examined and if no callouses were found that could sign their death warrant. Was I just clueless? What an amazing history lesson for the boys and I to walk among the actual killing fields, along paths that are littered with bone fragments and discarded clothes from years ago buried in the dirt. It felt like hallowed ground. Ethan found a human tooth beside a path. The field is dotted with many, many huge holes, caverns where people's remains where excavated. There is a monument on the property that is filled from bottom to top with human skulls that have been recovered from the site to remind people of the terrible past. There was a 'magic' tree that still had the loud speaker used to play music loud enough to drown out all the screams of the dying, tortured people.

We also toured the old High school that was converted into a prison, the holding areas for torture and death. Many, many cells were made in the previous classrooms. The large rooms held prisoners shackled together by their feet where they were forced to remain lying down, soiling themselves with barely enough room to turn their positions. The torture rooms had some most gruesome photos, so much so that I didn't allow Ethan to tour this building and Dustin, Nathan and I only went into a couple of the rooms, it was really, really sad and so sobering. It seemed strange to me that upon entering the prison, a sign was placed to prohibit laughing (I've never seen a sign like that before.) there was no chance of laughing amongst our group. They claim that more deaths occurred during this time than all the Holocaust. The evil regime was finally put down by the Vietnamese in 1979. Did you know that?

I'll post some pictures of some of the things we saw. I'll also put a picture of a group of boys that were begging outside the fence of the killing fields with a picture of their house. They were industrious, putting their hands through the fence, shaking the boys hands, introducing themselves, asking about their uniforms, speaking in very clear English.

We will never forget our trip to Cambodia and the history lessons learned there. I hope to go again while we live in this part of Asia. Cambodia isn't as Westernized as Thailand, there are no McDonalds. It feels older, less touched by the outside world. There are a lot of new building projects and more luxury vehicles than in Pattaya, a lot of Lexus and Mercedes Benz cars mixed among the thousands of motoes-I don't really know what that is about? English is more widely spoken, much more of a Christian presence (Julie wonders if the Buddhist influence is less because so many of the Cambodia ancestors were killed and those traditions weren't carried on?). I saw very few spirit houses, in Thailand you see spirit houses on every block. The Cambodian women are very modest. Their money is the Riel but they prefer the US dollar. They have no coins in their money circulation and are very picky about their bills, they wouldn't accept a US $10 from me because it had some very, very small tears they had to point out to me. I have to tell you that it was strange to have Baht exchanged into US money. I didn't have a US coin or bill in the entire house, it struck me as funny that I couldn't root up a US coin or bill anywhere, we haven't been gone that long! Ironically, we found Dr.Pepper there! The boys were so excited! They don't have the huge dog problem that Thailand has, Noik, my housekeeper said, "Because they eat dogs there?" It makes me wonder? There is no affection between Thailand and Cambodia and a long standing dispute between some religious ruins at their border. I've noticed that most people here are very prejudiced against Cambodians. Neither Noik or Songkran have ever visited there and seem mystified why I would want to go there. Oh, I'm glad we went to Cambodia

Cambodia

We returned Sunday night from our 4 day trip to Cambodia, which was a quick 1 hour flight from Bangkok. It was really wonderful to spend time with my friend, Julie who was a most gracious host at the Partners in Progress English School headquarters in Phnom Penh. She has been in Cambodia for 3 months and is directing PIP's English program. After a difficult test and interview to evaluate English proficiency, students are chosen to develop their English speaking skills using the Bible as their guidebook. The program's success is dependent on teacher volunteers that commit to travel to Cambodia and teach for a minimum of one month. They teach from 8-5, very nice accommodations and meals are provided. The free classes are highly sought after and sometimes much sacrifice is given by students in order to learn English. I was so inspired by Julie's night guard who works seven days/week, 6pm-6am for $100/month. He will be going to college in a few weeks during the day and it is a one hour ride on his bicycle one way to get to his night guard position. Every night he proofs the daily newspaper, searching for new vocabulary words. When he encounters a word he doesn't understand, he looks it up in his dictionary, and then meticulously copies its' meaning 5 times, he is that disciplined to learn the English language. So inspiring.

Besides lots of catching up, Julie and I enjoyed an early morning walk around the capital city along the Mekong River. At 5:30 a.m. the parks were filled with Cambodian people exercising, doing yoga, line-dancing, and playing games. It was a beautiful day. We passed the royal palace and the decorated Independence Monument. While I was there Cambodia was celebrating its 55 years of independence from the nation of France. Because of the French influence, there is excellent French cuisine to be found and lots of bread in Cambodia unlike Thailand. I missed a great picture outside Julie's window of the daily delivery of French bread to her front door via bicycle-bummer!

Julie came and watched one of Dustin and Nathan's basketball games, thankfully, it was one of the games that was under a covered pavilion. The guys played several games without shade in unbelievable heat, the hotter it got, the worse the level of play got, as you can imagine. Our ISE team ended up 5th out of 8 International teams represented. Dustin and Nathan stayed with an Indian family, the entire extended family lived under one 'large' roof. The house had 11 bedrooms! They migrated to Cambodia over 13 years ago and are in the IT business and part owners of the host International school. What an experience for the boys.

Ethan and I had some interesting experiences of our own. When we arrived into Phnom Penh and found a taxi we instantly liked our driver, he spoke excellent English and seemed to really know his way around. We agreed to hire him for the time we were in Cambodia. The next morning he was so prompt to take us to the school at 7:30, that afternoon I called him to pick us up at 5:30, he had a pre-arranged appointment and asked us to be ready at 4:45-no problem right? The traffic was atrocious, I thought Thailand had a lot of motorcycles but it is nothing compared to the Cambodian motoes. As 5:30 approached I could tell he was feeling anxious and had made several phone calls. He proposed to drop (dump) us off at a shopping area, have dinner and he would return for us at 7:00 pm. Ethan really didn't like that idea but I convinced him that it would be an adventure and would help our Mr.Kim Deem too. We ventured into a shopping mall and found a food court. In line I heard a nice Southern twang and decided I would check it out. It was a new friend from Arkansas-Kerri who invited us to join her, her mother (who was on her first trip to Cambodia), a friend and 5 children-one natural son, 2 adopted Thailand children and 2 adopted Cambodian children. She had been in Phnom Penh for 3 years fighting for one of her Cambodian son's older sisters while her husband is living outside of Little Rock. Cambodia has closed US adoptions for fear of child trafficking. In between court appointments she homeschools her children along with 20 other children at a nearby orphanage, what a brave and loving soul. It was great to spend our evening with them and exchange email addresses but time to meet our taxi driver. We hurried out into the dark street where it has begun to rain to our meeting place and you guessed it-he was no where to be found. Ethan started to get really nervous, we were unable to use our cell phone in Cambodia, so I had to solicit the use of a lady's phone on the street using sign language. She was very kind and dialed my taxi driver's #, he informed me he was stuck in traffic and to catch a tuk-tuk. We finally found one who would agree to take us to Julie's house and after 3 phone calls to Mr.Kim Deem to explain the directions we were safely home. Ethan gets very panicked in these situations, I've tried to challenge him to think of some problem solving ideas but it does little to distract him. I assured him that many years from now he will probably be telling his children about the night he took a tuk-tuk ride in Cambodia with his mother. I hope this all turns out to be a positive experience and was assured by Julie that she or her siblings would take nothing for their experiences of growing up in Thailand many years ago. I'll post a slide show and later tell you about our trip to the sad killing fields of Cambodia. I took a ton of pictures of all the things that people can figure out to carry on their motoes and missed just as many. I missed the guy with the car bumper, two people and a dining table on a motorcycle, and another pair with a couch, it's really unbelievable all they can creatively carry on their motorcycles while maneuvering in the traffic.

Holding the Fort Down

Mark has been in the states now for over a week, he had a meeting in San Antonio and combined that with a trip to see his Mom and my parents, so I've been holding down the fort in Thailand. I've been dreading the month of November for some time knowing that he would be gone 2 weeks to the US and then 3 days to Singapore. He returns late on Sunday night and leaves on Wednesday for Singapore. We have really missed him but have been staying really busy to keep us distracted and help the time pass faster.

Last weekend, we traveled to Bangkok with the Clarkson's to an All-Star basketball tournament. It was a great experience for Dustin. Each of the 4 International schools of the Eastern Seaboard combined their All-Stars to form one team. Because of that, Dustin and Drew had the opportunity to play together, which was great. Their team won 3 out of 4 games and won their division, which is amazing considering they practiced together about 6 times and had never played a game together. I was excited for Dustin, he started every game and really contributed, remember this is his first experience playing basketball? They played some really large private schools from Bangkok. The tournament was held at the New International School of Thailand. The gym had 3 full-size, wood floor, air-conditioned courts, so different from all the schools on the Eastern Seaboard. We stayed overnight in Bangkok and really enjoyed our time with the Clarkson family.

Today, we are traveling to Cambodia for a tournament between 8 countries. ISE is a part of an organization called MRISA and they compete and partner with other countries to enrich their International School students experiences. Cambodia is hosting the Jr. Basketball 2008 competitions. The boys will travel with the team and Ethan and I will join them. Dustin and Nathan will be staying in a Cambodia host home, they will be staying together with two other team members. Ethan and I will be staying with a friend from Muleshoe that is teaching at a Bible school in Phnom Penh, we haven't seen each other in over 20 years, I'm anxious to reconnect with her.

As you can see we've been busy while the Daddy is gone. I've tried not to concentrate too much about the fact that Mark went to the states without us, through DC at the prettiest time of the year, meeting with old Grace Church friends for dinner, seeing my parents, eating lots of Mexican food....Okay, I'll admit I've struggled some with jealousy. It didn't help that last weekend when I called my parents house at the pre-appointed time to talk to Marko that my Dad mentioned it wasn't really a good time because the pizza had just been delivered and the Texas/Texas Tech game was underway!! Well-Excuse Me for not timing my call from Thailand better!!! The conversation was thwarted by, "Yea!What a catch...." Have you ever had one of these conversations? You're missing your husband in a major way, can't wait to talk to them and then the call just doesn't go as you imagined at all? I just received a call from him from San Antonio and it was all good again! He was feeling very thankful for me in fact. The meeting is for all the refinery managers around the world and he was able to visit with several friends/co-workers he hasn't seen in a few years. We were devastated to learn that a couple of them are now divorced, one of them commented, "I guess just one too many moves." Mark was very sweet in expressing his thanks for my flexibility and willingness to follow him wherever.(Hey, that part was in our wedding vows 26 years ago!) None of us can take our spouses for granted and really need to protect our marriages with God's help. I'll let you know how the Cambodia trip goes-love to all.

Koh SiChang

Remember, the boys were out of school the entire week so we tried to squeeze as much as we could into their holiday! We gave them one day of rest at home, while they were resting I was shopping. Shopping for an upcoming mission trip to the small island of Koh SiChang. Our pastor here-Daniel and his wife Marina have been missionaries in Thailand for over 10 years to the Thai people. Koh SiChang has one of their church plants. They had a Thai church in our area for several years and out of that a Thai man felt called to the ministry and began attending seminary with our congregation's help. The church was moved from the Pattaya area and begun on Koh SiChang four years ago. It is the only Christian church on the entire island of 5000 people and currently has about 35 attendees, the congregation is 3 years old. This small church is totally supported by our small international congregation. Daniel is supported by the Dutch Reformed church of South Africa and receives no funds from our Pattaya church. I've been anxious to meet the church there and get involved with this group of believers that we have a relationship with. We planned a 2 day mission trip to the island for outreach and ministry to the church and island while our kids were all out on break. We took 12 bags of food for the church families and planned VBS activities for all the children that would come.

Koh SiChang is a 40 minute ferry ride from Sciracha. Do you remember Sciracha is where the refinery is? It's different from any other island we have visited here in that it is not touristy at all. Surrounding the small islands are many barges that are people's homes. I'll include some pictures of these interesting homes on water.

Four families from our church made the trip over. We spent the first day with the 30 children getting to know them, making crafts and playing lots of fun games. (I was in charge of games and I stress the fun because Marina who planned the trip had asked if I could plan some games, I was like, "sure" and then she said, "But please make them 'fun' games!" That just made me laugh, "No, I really want to do some unfun, sad games!!") The island children all come from very poor homes but I found them to be so patient, kind and not greedy. Our craft was a treasure box that had all these things/teachings that lead to a good life. I was coordinating the area that had all the adornments that could be placed on the outside of the box, there was no pushing, grabbing or shoving getting the decorations they wanted, like I've seen in the Dominican Republic and Africa.

A wonderful lunch was served to us of rice and some chicken and basil with a lot of crunchy, salted, small dried fish-I tried them, they were just like anchovies but they seemed to eat them like chips, just grab a handful to munch on. After lunch we played some 'fun' games. We played pictionary, musical islands, cup and marble relay, doughnut on the string race and ended with water balloons. I was proud of all of our children that participated, they were such a help and so welcoming and warm to the island children. I hope this is the beginning of a long relationship as we will be going over about every three months for activities with this church. In December we are plannning a Happy Birthday Jesus party with our two congregations, the church has a few things on their 'wish' list like fans for their church building and a computer. Currently, their pastor who is in his last year of seminary has to hand write all of his assignments and correspondance. This pastor receives $5000Baht/month from our church for his salary, that's about $150 US dollars.

That evening we visited in families homes to deliver the food packages that contained 10lbs of rice, fish sauce, oyster sauce, chili sauce, noodles and personal care items like soap and shampoo. I just love getting the opportunity to meet people in their home surroundings and see how they really live rather than visiting tourist sites. Most people had one room homes, they all had TV's but little else in comforts that we take for granted. One home we visited just had a bed and TV with barely enough room for five of us to join hands around the bed and pray together. We visited one really sad home that had a severely handicapped little girl there who was 1 1/2years old who had an obvious head deformity and was unable to setup, communicate or eat from anything but a bottle. The neighbor was the church member and she had such concern for this sweet baby, the mother is 17 and lives off the island, the child is cared for by her grandmother. It was sad that so few medical interventions were available for this child who needs so much. I look forward to seeing all these people again and praying together.

We stayed in a small hotel on the island, Ethan commented on our accomadations and was a little bothered that you couldn't flush the toilet, a bucket was provided and a container of water to wash out the toilet contents. Much different from our Chiang Mai hotel but I reminded him that of all the homes we had just visited this small hotel was like a Hilton. Let me tell you the food that was cooked in the small kitchen at this hotel was probably better than the Hilton. We really enjoyed all the Thai food that was served to us there. Most of us even had Thai food for breakfast rather than the traditional Western breakfast of eggs and toast. It all seems so 'foreign' at times. In the eating area there were two dogs running around the whole time and at one point one of them urinated on a nearby column-just something you don't see in a US eating establishment!!

We spent Saturday at a nearby small beach area, we took two little guys that just happened to be hanging out at the church on Saturday morning with us. They had hit the jackpot! On Saturday it was just my three boys with the pastor's son plus our two new adopted guys. We just threw them into the mix and they all got to ride a banana boat for 30 minutes, paddle around in canoes, swim, eat and just have lots of fun. It seems strange to me that all day these two guys were with us, I would estimate 6 and 8, and I have no idea who their parents were and their parents had no idea where they were all day! I just imagined them telling their parents that night of all the day's happenings, I was so glad that we could give them so much fun and joy for the day. It was a great trip and we look forward to our ongoing relationship with this small group of believers on Koh SiChang.

Completion of Chiang Mai

If you can believe it we had one more big adventure in Chiang Mai. We traveled about 1 1/2 hours deep into the rain forest for the Flight of the Gibbon. It was a beautiful drive with trumpet flowers, poinsettias that grow in the wild that were over 6 feet tall, periwinkles, and many flowers that I couldn't identify. The boys, all 8, girded up and zipped through over 2 miles of rain forest, streams, and deep ravines stopping at 15 platforms along the way and a couple of sky walks. The girls, Molly and I, stayed in the small town that was the starting point and we had a most interesting foot massage. I was really proud of all the guys, it was quite intimidating to look down over the jungle and hook yourself on to the steel cable and fly like a gibbon(a monkey). Too intimidating for the mammas that's for sure! I'll post a slide show with some of the many shots that Mark took while trying to maneuver the zipline himself. Meanwhile back at the village, Kuhn Jane had found a village woman willing to set up a massage station in her home. It was such a small village, we were told 35 families, there were not many facilities for tourists. It was quite a privilege to be invited into a Thai woman's home, she was eager to earn some extra money and so hospitable. We were led upstairs to the second floor that was covered with mats, the walls were decorated with posters of the royal family and a clock. The windows, which were open, were covered with very colorful curtains and it had a TV antenna across the top of the roof in the inside of the house? Anyway, it was quite cool and relaxing if you could block out the intermittent sound of the electric saw at the neighbors house, the barking dogs, roosters and the man's voice talking rather loudly to a small child. It was humbling that she was so gracious to have us in her home and she provided a very enjoyable foot massage. After about 45 minutes she led us downstairs to the first floor of the home. It was an open room, chairs against the walls with a TV and china closet of sorts on the other wall. Do you know that traditional Thai homes do not have indoor kitchens? Most Thai homes don't have an oven and they cook over a flame like a bunson burner. They don't have hot water and wash all their dishes in a large tub in cold water. This house was the same, from the ground floor room you could see her outdoor kitchen. She was so polite and kind to serve us some bananas and water, remember this was all spur of the moment. We could barely communicate. She did lead us to her bathroom that was also outside, it was a rock building and had rock and tar floor, we had a hard time getting that tar off of our feet later. Remember, you always remove your shoes outside a Thai home before entering. I was genuinely moved by her hospitality to us. Can you imagine 2 strangers showing up at your door, unannounced, that you have no way of communicating with, providing an opportunity to earn some unexpected money if you would rub their feet for 45 minutes, it made me teary. I prayed for her as she was rubbing my feet asking God to bless her and this home, that He would reveal himself to her (if He hadn't already-I don't remember seeing any idols in her home?). She blessed us with her servant heart.

The boys all returned in one piece and had lots to talk about, sadly it was mostly about how uncomfortable the harnesses were-Boys!!! What an unforgettable experience they were given, it was just a great day and great trip.

The summary of the Chiang Mai adventure wouldn't be complete without telling you about Duke's. Big Bob from Houston who runs a Mexican/hamburger joint in Pattaya had told me to be sure and visit Duke's for some good ole American food. We ended up going there twice we liked it so much. We laughed at how pitiful we all were, just lapping up the 'American' atmosphere-it's the little things, like receiving all your food at the same time. In Thailand the dishes just trickle out, you might be finished with your meal before the next person has even received there's and don't even think of waiting until everyone is served before you start! We had the best onion rings-just like the US, we loved their hamburgers. It's really hard to find a decent burger in Pattaya. We were able to order salads with Ranch dressing!! Thailand only has Thousand Island and some vinaigrette and you just don't see a tossed salad in restaurants here. We really crave salads sometimes. I make them at home but it's really hard to find decent tomatoes and the lettuce can be iffy and ruins really quickly. You can find some packaged lettuce and spinach for instant salads just like home but it's pricey.I think we would all agree Duke's was just the US hit we needed if they would have had Dr.Pepper, that would have been the icing on the cake for the boys. Duke's was a big hit. We all love Thai food but the boys get really tired of it, remember that is what they have at school everyday. Okay, enough!