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.