Christmas 2009

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Christmas on a Cruise Ship:
Being so far from family during holidays can be difficult, while we have lived in Thailand we have tried to do something really different during Christmas to help with that struggle. Last year we left on Christmas Day for a trip to Vietnam, this year we wanted to celebrate somewhere colder and more Western. As a family we decided to visit Greece and Italy, spending Christmas on a cruise ship would be a great experience. The whole day was spent at sea so there were no distractions or excursions.
We started our Christmas celebration on Christmas Eve. Mark and I sang with the Christmas choir made up of over 100 passengers at the Midnight Mass. It was interesting and enjoyable practicing and singing with such a diverse choir. It can be frustratingly slow when all instructions have to be given in 4-5 different languages but it was fun too! We sang O Come Let Us Adore Him in Latin, Silent Night and O Happy Day in English. I met a fast, new, friend from Ft. Worth in the choir, onboard with her husband and two daughters. We walked the streets of Crete, Greece with their family the day after Christmas. I’ve enjoyed visiting with several American families, most of which are military and stationed in Germany.
It was my first Latin mass to attend, the priest was onboard from St. Peter’s in the Vatican. He did read the account of Jesus’ birth in English from Luke though and that was helpful. Mark and I commented that it was probably a more Christ-centered service than we would have attended on any American cruise ship. There was no mention of Santa Claus or Happy Holidays, it was a very holy and spiritual service that over 1500 people attended, what an unexpected joy!
We slept in on Christmas Day after not getting to bed till after 2 a.m. Later in the morning Mark and I had planned and arranged a Christmas Scavenger Hunt for the boys on the ship. We had all agreed that this trip was our Christmas ‘gift’ but we had managed to pack and hide a few small things to place in the boys stockings onboard. The boys were funny, they were timid and embarrassed teenagers but later said that was their favorite part of the WHOLE trip!! We hid clues throughout the ship-at one point they had to sing Jingle Bells in front of several crew members, they had to greet Paulo at the reception desk with “Good Morning” in Italian….all the hints eventually led them back to our cabin and their awaiting Christmas goodies. We just wanted to think of some way to make it more memorable and special for our guys, they were very appreciative and it made it all worthwhile!
We splurged and purchased a movie to watch together in our cabin while enjoying some gelato. Later we enjoyed a nap with much relaxation. We enjoyed a special dinner in our dining room in the evening before preparing to visit Crete, Greece the following morning. Our last stop in Greece!

Egypt

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Cruise-Day 5
We entered Egypt through the port of Alexandria where we were met by Usouf our guide who would escort us to Cairo and the pyramids. Before leaving Alexandria we stopped by the Library of Alexandria, the largest library in the world and saw the site of Alexander’s Lighthouse, another wonder of the ancient world.
We drove 3 hours through the desert of Egypt to Cairo. The land of a 1000 minarets-there is a mosque on every corner it seems. Our Muslim guide commented that he had never met an American family like ours, deeply religious who believed in modesty. Sadly his perception of America is greatly tainted by Hollywood it seemed.
We played a game of who could spot the pyramids first, Ethan excitedly won the contest. How cool that we get to visit the pyramids and ancient sphinx on this trip?! We rode camels around the periphery of the pyramids in the desert surrounding Cairo. After climbing and exploring the pyramids, visiting the ancient site of the embalming process, and the sphinx we began our journey across town to the oldest world museum where most of the discovered treasures from recovered pharaoh tombs are housed. What an amazing museum, the King Tut exhibit was especially stunning with all the jewels and gold found within his tomb.
We had a Alexandrian driver who proceeded to get very lost in Cairo, so much so that finally a taxi was hailed to lead us to the museum and after lunch he was replaced. We saw parts of Cairo that most tourists never see!! We were shocked by the poverty of Cairo, much worse than Thailand and were exasperated by the Egyptian people and their begging and demanding of tips. Our camel guide seemed totally insulted by our $5 tip for a 15 minute camel ride. So many of the buildings are not completed which Mark had learned on an earlier trip to the Egyptian capital that if a building is never completed no taxes have to be paid on that property. Our guide confirmed that and thus there are many, many buildings that are still in the construction process.
Our guide led us to the Hard Rock Café of Cairo for a buffet lunch, we would have much rather have eaten at a more authentic Egyptian eatery but our guide was sure the Americans would rather eat at a widely recognized place and he was concerned that we might become ill from local food. Of course, he didn’t know we were coming from Thailand and that we usually look for the places off the beaten road and hardly ever frequent the Hard Rock in America!
It was a long, memorable day of sight-seeing. The boys were thankful to be returning to our ship late on Christmas Eve after a day of not feeling totally safe especially when we were lost in the poorest slums of Cairo earlier in the day. We did stop at the Carrfour of Alexandria (Carrfour is the French Wal-Mart) for some last minute stocking stuffers before boarding our ship.

Athens, Greece

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Cruise-Day 3

We arrived into the Piraeus port of Athens on Wednesday and were able to find our private tour guide, Demitrius, outside customs without any difficulty and headed through the crowded streets of Athens to the famous Acropolis. Nearly every ancient Greek city has an acropolis, which translates to ‘top of the city’, where they built monuments to house and appease their Gods. Athens has the most famous Acropolis being built around 429 B.C. that is home to the Parthenon. It’s really hard to comprehend how old Greece really is!
At the Acropolis we also visited Mars Hill, where Paul shared the gospel with the Athenians, that night in our cruise cabin we reread the message that Paul preached to the Athenians in Acts , observing that the Greeks were a religious people and that he had noticed that they had a monument to the unknown God and he went on to tell them about THE unknown God with many coming to believe in Christ.

Olympia, Italy

Cruise-Day 2

We boarded a MSC cruise excursion bus headed for Ancient Olympia, the first site of the Greek Olympics early on Monday morning. It’s warming up as we continue south on the Mediterranean Sea. Everyone, except for me, have been sleeping well in our spacious, balcony rooms. Last night the seas were a little rough and woke me up. It gave me lots of extra prayer time to the ONE who controls the seas. I contemplated how Peter must have felt in the stormy waters in a small boat and empathized with his and the other disciples fear. We are in a HUGE ship and I feel unsettled as we encounter the white capped water and sea winds. I am making a concentrated effort to keep my eyes on Jesus when I feel fear at sea.

I enjoyed seeing the coastline of Greece for the first time as we drove to Olympia. We landed at the port of Katakolon. The land reminded us all some of Texas, the numerous, olive trees are similar to the mesquite trees of Texas with only small rolling, barren hills. Even though many, many olive trees were destroyed in a arsonist, fire in 2007.

We toured the ruins of Olympia which consisted among other things the sanctuary of Zeus and the ancient stadium where the Olympic games began. Dustin, Ethan and Mark raced across the original start and finish lines in the earthen stadium that once seated 50,000 spectators where the first recorded race took place in 776 B.C.! Dustin smoked them! In ancient times they would have had to run totally nude and I would not have been allowed in the stadium being a woman. We were happy on both accounts!

After visiting the ancient site we went to a Greek restaurant for a traditional meal and dancing. The meatballs were a hit with the boys, the pickled octopus-not so much! It was a great start to our 10 night cruise.

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Pisa, Italy

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We awoke on Saturday morning to a snow covered Pisa, Italy. We enjoyed touring the Leaning Tower and Duomo of Pisa in the snow. We took the obligatory pictures of the boys trying to prop up the leaning tower before enjoying a wonderful cup of hot chocolate at a small café’ bar at the base of the tower. We are on a quest for the best hot chocolate in all of Italy. So far, Milan’s cup of chocolate is the forerunner for the title! Most of the cups we have enjoyed have tasted like slightly diluted, warm, hot fudge sauce with whipped cream. We will attempt to copy it when we return home!
We departed Pisa driving towards Genova, 85 miles away. What an enjoyable drive through the mountains of Italy, thankfully, the roads were clear but the landscape was sparkling beautifully with the fresh fallen snow. We had remembered to bring some Christmas CD’s, we have finally found some Christmas spirit after a reprieve from the hot, tropical, temperatures of Thailand.
We arrived at the airport of Genova around 1 pm, turned in our car, hailed a taxi and headed for the harbor for our awaiting cruise ship, the MSC Splendida. This is our first cruise experience but we are looking forward to someone else doing the ‘driving’ and much relaxation.
Cruise Embarktion:
This will be quite the multi-national cruise as many countries are represented among the 3500 passengers, 1700 being children! It was a ‘kid’s cruise free’ offer so thus the large child population which is fine by us. We were pleasantly surprised that our cabins were larger than expected. Because of the winter storm that is currently crippling most of Europe we departed 2 hours later than expected. We are all still struggling some with the time change. I took a nap before dinner but Dustin and Ethan skipped their first dinner because they were already in bed!
Nathan, Mark and I enjoyed our first cruise dinner with a whole table of other cruisers that could speak barely any English. Of course I tried to communicate which was difficult between the French and German speakers. I did understand that the ship had been held for a couple at our table because of the snow delays at the airport but unfortunately their luggage didn’t make it, they hope to find their luggage waiting at our first stop on Monday in Olympia, Greece.
Day 1:
Today is a day at sea. We are planning lots of rest, bingo, stage entertainment and lots of eating for the day! It’s quite restful to watch the sea with the Italy coastline in the distant background as we sail on towards Greece.

Driving in Italy

We made it to our Hertz pick-up point in Naples after a very exciting taxi ride! Our taxi driver managed to make Thai, taxi, drivers appear safe and sedate!! What a ride, for only $50 we all endured a 20 minute Six Flags rollercoaster experience whether we wanted to or not!! No height requirements required! He was driving down one-way streets the wrong way all the time yelling, "No problemo!!!" and other unidentifiable verbage in Italian at other drivers who were honking and yelling at him!! I kept trying to communicate to him we really weren't in a hurry! It might not be so bad to be driving ourselves around Italy afterall!

The 'renting a car, driving the west coast of Italy ourselves' plan went a little awry when Hertz wouldn't accept my Thai driver's license (My new TX license is setting somewhere on Deaner's desk-Mark told him to just keep it until we came this summer!! I don't know if I blame Hertz much, I'm not totally convinced a Thai driver's license should be globally recognized either!) So Mark is our primary driver and I'm the navigator not the foundation of a nice, peaceful, enjoyable drive. We always do so much better when I'm driving and Mark is navigating. NO GPS!! and no English map!! The first thing we did after loading the car and orienting ourselves to our Italian car was pray. We prayed hard for God to protect us and help us-we are needy especially driving out of Naples!

God answered! We were able to get out of Naples without any accidents, no one even honked at us and only had to apologize a little to the boys about our attitudes! Once we were out of Naples and on the autorun, A1 it was a 6-lane road around Rome-whew! We wouldn't want to take a 6-lane interstate through the whole of Italy, so we ventured off and stopped for lunch in one of the oldest Medieval cities of Italy-Viterbo. Europe is sooo old! We are wearing out our Fodor's, Italy, travel book and found one of their suggested eateries and were not disappointed! The Italians might not be too friendly but MAN, do they know how to cook!! Nathan commented that he had written yesterday on Facebook that he had just eaten the best Italian food ever! After our meal he said he would have to change that status to, "I JUST ate the best Italian food ever!"

The tomatoes, the real ROMA tomatoes have not disappointed. The cheeses, the gellato, the pasta...the boys had a most delicious eggless pasta yesterday while I savored a chickpea/water chestnut soup. How in the world do all these Italians stay so thin for their Italian fashion? I think it's all the smoking and wine?!

After leaving Viterbo we drove along the west coast of Italy towards Pisa, Italy. It was really beautiful, the rolling hills were still green, dotted with many olive trees and vineyards with herds of sheep grazing. That was on one side and the Meditarranean Sea on the other. The hills are filled with ancient cities some still having their original city, stone, walls in place along with watchtowers. The houses are just as you imagine when you think of Tuscany-muted colors of rust, yellow, green, two-storeyed stucco houses with window boxes filled with geraniums and greenery. At one point Mark actually commented that he was glad we were driving!! This from the man that at one point in Naples rather heatedly voiced, "Why in the world are we driving and not taking the train?!" Which ironically we saw that Eurostar rail is set to strike so perhaps it is better to be driving ourselves!

It gets dark really early this time of year in Italy by 5:30 we were already using our car lights and it was starting to drizzle rain/snow. Thankfully, we are so close to the coastline, only a few miles inland over 10 inches of snow is forcasted overnight. We made it to Pisa around 6:30 and quickly found a hotel and were in bed by 7:30 thus up again at 0430!!!

We hope to tour Pisa this morning and the infamous Leaning Tower before driving on to Genova, Italy to board our cruise ship bound for Greece. We just want to be sure and allot ourselves enough time. The cruise ship will leave with or without us!

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Pompeii

We took the 20 minute train from Naples to tour Pompeii yesterday morning. It was a cloudy, drizzly day but we forged on! Hey! you only get one day in Pompeii right? We were surprised at the size of Pompeii, about 160 acres that was totally buried in volcanic ash from the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79. It's the largest excavation ever, I can't imagine how long it took to uncover the city of about 15,000 people, that was totally immersed in 1-2 meters of volcanic ash.

Hector was our informative guide for the day and we learned a lot. To recover the bodies an air pocket would be discovered by an archeologist and the cavity would be filled with plaster, left to harden and then the entire form of the body could be excavated. The body that was originally trapped by the volcanic ash eventually decomposed and left the empty air space. Many people were unable to escape the ravages of Vesuvius because there were only 7 entry gates through the city wall.

After rambling through the many streets of Pompeii we took the train to Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples where many of the recovered artifacts of Pompeii are housed. We saw discovered jewels, cooking ware, glasses, medical equipment, artwork...I think we had the full Pompeii experience.

My first impression of Italy some 20 years ago hasn't changed much. From my experiences I've surmised that Italian people are not very friendly. Most of the areas we have visited aren't tourist friendly. Even in the huge museum there were no maps in English and very few displays have English explanations. The transportation system is not user friendly-hardly any maps, NOTHING in English and rude people for the most part. I have ran into an occasional Italian person that will smile and try to make conversation. Yesterday on the train there was an older woman that tried to talk to me some and on the way to Pompeii two young male students on their way to school were excited by the novelty of Americans and wanted to try out their English speaking skills, but for the most part they are NOT friendly! In fact yesterday we were so grateful when we approached a uniformed train personnel at the station for directions to the correct platform and he was SO helpful even walking us to the ticket station and assisting us in obtaining our tickets and then walked us to the correct platform, what a nice guy, NOT! When we arrived at our train he promptly asked for 20 Euros for his services-$30!! and we thought we had finally found a really friendly Italian, no just a Italian con-man!! Mark reminded the boys that is why God instructs us to be friendly to strangers, to not take advantage of strangers because it is a powerful witness to the world of the difference of a Christian. Well, if that's the worse thing that happens to us while we are here we are blessed.

We are all up early again this morning-0500! Breakfast isn't served until 0730 so Dustin is reading, Nathan is on his computer, Ethan is watching a movie, Mark is working and I'm blogging! We leave Naples this morning driving up the west coast of Italy toward Genoa where we will board our cruise ship on Saturday afternoon. Getting out of Naples in the rental car may prove to be quite exciting, I'm just praying our rental comes with an English GPS!!

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We're in Italy

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After leaving the tropical weather of Thailand, having a short layover in the desert of Doha, Qatar we arrived to the freezing, snowy, weather in Milan, Italy. We were so relieved to find our luggage had arrived in the baggage terminal to quickly retrieve our winter clothes. The boys, especially Dustin, often talks of missing cold weather, were surprised how 'thin' skinned they had become. It was cold! -7 C-20 degrees F when we landed. It didn't take long to get in the Christmas spirit with the cold, scattered snow, the holiday displays...

We had to hit the road running if we wanted to see any of Milan. We landed at 0630, found a bus after changing clothes in the airport toilets and took the 40 minute ride to the train terminal to store our luggage while we explored the city until our train departed for Naples, Italy at 1515 in the afternoon.

We quickly realized we were a little underdressed! Milan is known as the fashion capital of the world for a reason, I guess. The ladies on the street make quite a fashion statement, I felt out of place without a pair of black boots on or a fur coat! Dustin commented, "Man, there are a lot of dressed up Grandma's here!" It really is true, everyone looked beautiful along the streets of Milan. We were too cold and too busy to worry much about fashion.

Our first destination was the Santa Maria delle Grazie where Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper is housed. I never imagined that I might actually see this ever in person after seeing it so many times in print. Mark actually saw it several years ago for the first time on a business trip to this area. What an amazing blessing. The Grazie was originally set up to be a magnificent family mausoleum for the Sforza family. The 7th duke of Milan, Ludovico il Sforza commissioned Leonardo to paint the infamous painting just two years before he was defeated by Louis XII and spent the remaining 8 years of his life in a French dungeon. The painting has survived many unbelievable incidents, one being the American bombing of the building in 1943, another was the whitewashing over by some monks in the 19th century but after years of restoration it is available for viewing in all of its' glory. After going through two rooms of isolation, to control the humidity and environment, we finally arrived into the hall where the painting is displayed.

We then traversed the cobble-stoned streets of Milan to view the famous Duomo, the world's second largest church in the world, the largest being St. Peter's in Rome, which we will also see in the next two weeks. The detail and work on the church is astounding. In the pictures, every ornate, marble, spire has a statue at the top of it. We had fun seeing if we could tell some of the Bible stories from the many stained glassed windows. Before the Bible was accesible to the comman person that was how they were taught-through the stained glass stories.

We stopped for lunch and enjoyed some delicious Italian pizza and enthusiastically began our Italian food adventure! We had the most delicious cup of hot chocolate in Milan ever! It really tasted a lot like warm, hot-fudge sauce in a cup with yummy whipped cream on top.

We enjoyed the sights of Milan by subway and walking before boarding our 5 hour train ride to Naples. We were exhausted and took advantage of the long train ride to catch up on sleep some. When we arrived into Naples we had some difficulty finding our hotel, that is located in the historical Spanish quarter of Naples because of that they are prohibited in advertising the hotel any, sure makes it hard for a lost tourist in the dark to find! But we managed to arrive around 9:30 pm to our rooms and the very welcome beds!

I'm thankful that all went well on our most difficult travelling day of the trip, after 13 hours of planes, a bus ride, several subway commutes and a train ride we are in a nice warm hotel in Naples, Italy. Of course, with the time change I'm up early enough to make a quick blog entry before we take a train out to tour the ruins of Pompeii all day. Another one of those "never thought I would see" places!

Home Happenings

I've been neglecting my blog but a lot has been going on over here. I'm just going to hit the high points.

Our new home:

We should be moved over to our new home by the end of this weekend. It was a hairy last two weeks. We found out while we were haggling over our deposit and moving costs with our old landlord that he had already sold the house a few weeks ago. He was stalling until he left the country. The first clue that we got was when the new owner came to make sure that we were indeed moving out! He became suspicious when the old owner no longer answered his phone and he had been told not to contact us because we were extremely busy planning a Thanksgiving celebration! He was surprised to learn that we had not been released from our contract and that we were waiting on our deposit before we could sign a new contract and secure a new home. I felt sorry for him because he hadn't done his due diligence to verify that the current lease on the house was resolved before he paid for the house. He agreed to return half of our deposit ($3000) and release us from our existing contract but asked us to vacate in less than two weeks. We didn't even have a contract on the new house we wanted and they were waiting to find another residence until we committed officially to lease from them.

You've heard the verse, "You meant it for evil but God meant it for good."? We really see God's hand in protecting us in this situation. Our old landlord is 'wanted' by many people here in Thailand, apparently he doesn't like to pay his bills. We had been warned that most likely we would never see our deposit again. I assume he feels he duped us and the new owner but God has taken care of us-again! Because this was a forced move, Exxon has agreed to pay our other half of the deposit, our moving costs AND give us a lump sum for redecorating our new abode!! Is that just amazing? We hadn't expected anything. Nok, our housekeeper has been angry about the whole situation and wanted us to take the microwave and the two beds that belong with the house. I had explained to her that those belong to the new owner, but she wanted to make sure that we received something to make up for our lost deposit. I had told her that God would take care of us and what a testimony to her of His goodness.

We have hired her husband and a few other men to move our belongings. I had been concerned about our big, baby-grand, piano being moved by amatuers and found a solution yesterday. Our new home will be two houses down from where we have lived the last 1 1/2 years. The house between the two residences has new tenants who just moved in this week. Yesterday, I stopped by to talk to their moving company and commisioned them to move our piano. The piano is safe and sound in our new home after quite a process. I had previously joked that we might could just roll it over. Well, the relocation of the piano wasn't far from that. Nine men came and CARRIED the piano on their shoulders! I could barely watch. I was a nervous wreck. The whole process took one hour, they had to put it down and rest about 6 times. What a sight! A piano going down the street in Thailand on the backs of 9 men, if only an elephant would have been rambling down the street! I'll put up a photo. I only had the courage to take one photo, it was way too scary to watch! I hid and prayed. We paid more than a weeks normal salary here but it was way worth the $90!




Thanksgiving Celebration:

We did have a Thanksgiving celebration here last Saturday. Of course there is no Thanksgiving holiday here so Thursday was business as usual. We had about 30 people here to help us celebrate from several nations. We had families from Indonesia and Britian that had never been exposed to Thanksgiving join us along with a family from Australia and 5 American families. We prepared a Cajun fried turkey because I could never squeeze a turkey into my small oven. One other friend baked a turkey and there were barely enough left-overs for turkey wraps the following day. I think we enjoyed all the delicious, traditional foods-of course at a cost! I was able to secure some imported Cool Whip for Mark's favorite Pink Salad and the 13 lb turkey cost about $60, priceless-right?

We had a Father/Son American football match. They ended up playing Dads against Sons, the Sons won! We will really miss our big yard! but will have a better basketball playing area. I didn't get any pictures, I was too busy playing hostess, hopefully, I can post someone else's at a later date.

The Prison Bakery:

We have been so busy during this holiday season. We have sold over 200 fruit cakes!! They are a hot item here and for a fruit cake our bakery has a pretty good recipe, they make it with pumpkin. It's a big money maker for us because we sell them for about $13/cake. The International Ladies had us make 150 mini fruit cakes for their holiday luncheon. We taught the girls how to make pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie and gingerbread cookies since September and it is now a part of our reprotoire. We will begin selling pizza and brownies to our weekly customers in the Spring, we have been perfecting our pizza sauce with the girls. We are putting an American mark on the bakery for sure! This is the first time they have had American directors.

The girls are warming up to us and it is such a blessing to be working with them. Yesterday, we presented Bakery Certificates to three of our girls that are being released this month. It was a huge ceremony with the boy prisoners also attending, they had several that had completed a framing course and they were also honored. We then obtained permission to take our 16 bakery girls out to lunch with their supervisors and two guards, "To keep anyone from escaping!" We paid for their lunch and had gifts to give each of them, a story of the birth of Christ written in English and Thai along with an ornament. I just wish I could communicate easier. I have found a new Thai teacher to begin lessons with in January and we continue to teach the bakery girls English when we have extra time, but we have only concentrated on useful terms so far-spoon, bowl, oven, apron, mixer....

We still have an art show this coming Thursday and another holiday bazaar at the local hospital the next Saturday.


a close-up picture of the three girls that are soon to be released.





Pattaya Praise:

Once a year Pattaya Praise is held here, a number of local and foreign bands converge on the city for a weekend of praise music. Many missionaries come just to pray over the city while the bands perform. YWAM has opened a hair salon/prayer/counseling building on one of the most infamous soi's in Thailand. Prayer was held 24 hours/day during Pattaya Praise on the balcony of their new building. One of the missionaries told of several ladyboys coming to the center and having their feet washed by the volunteers. We attended an outdoor event at the largest mall in the city on Wednesday night. Most of the music was in Thai but we prayerfully listened while many must have been hearing the gospel for the first time. Mark was encouraged as he saw one of his younger engineers at the concert and commented that the number of believers he is now aware of at the refinery doubled, he now knows two fellow Christians work at his refinery. I hope that it is a great encouragement to this young man knowing that his refinery manager is a believer in a country where we are such a minority.



We also attended the youth rally on Saturday and worshipped with a great Irish band. Remember this event is where God of This City originated from.



The boys:

Ethan made the basketball team for under 13, he was the only 11 year old to make the team and will be preparing for their 'district' tournament in March in Vietnam. He will also be competing next Saturday in Thailand's first Lego Robotic competition, he has been working all term with the team and he is one of the designers. And finally he got his braces put on a few weeks ago.

Nathan has been instrumental in getting their school's first softball team organized, he is mentoring the younger members of the team. He and Dustin spent last week on Koh Chang with all the 9th grade boys, they had to kayak 9 miles and camped out on the island without any supplies, sleeping out in the elements without a sleeping bag or tent, it sounded miserable to me but they had a blast! They were so appreciative of my cooking when they returned.

Dustin was a part of the pit band that just performed a musical on stage. He played the electric guitar, the music and singing was impressive. He will perform in the Orchestras Christmas concert on Thursday playing the french horn.

Our upcoming holiday:

We leave a week from Tuesday for our holiday in Italy and Greece. When I let myself think about it, I get really excited, just haven't had much time to think about it! We will be flying into Milan, taking a train to Rome then on to Pompeii. We will then drive up the west coast of Italy visiting Florence, Pisa and driving through the infamous Tuscany valley. We will board a cruise ship in Genoa bound for the Greek Isles, Alexandria and Cairo, Egypt! We will spend 10 nights onboard the MSC Splendida and be somewhere on the Meditarranean for Christmas Day.

I love and miss you all. A special thanks to our Aunt Lola, we received your box of love this past Wednesday-what a treat!! Thank you so, so much-the boys loved their ornaments! The Dr.Peppers are being saved for a really special occasion but there was no saving the Reese cups and Butterfingers!! We love you very much!

Good-byes

Last night we had a good-bye party for my friend Lindsey who is moving to China next week. It was hosted by my friend Lisa and she wanted to have a traditional Indonesian meal. We had 11 courses! of very different, interesting and tasty food. The spring rolls were unlike any I have ever tried, they had boiled egg and vegis on the inside. Lots of dishes have peanut sauce. The most interesting dish was the shrimp balls cooked on the end of lemon grass stalks, a culinary adventure for sure.

Besides the delicious food we had great fellowship. I looked around our small table and only Lindsey and I were Americans. Korea, Japan, Austria, Singapore, Indonesia and America were all represented around the table. I really consider it a huge blessing to have this experience of learning so much about different cultures and having friends from all over the world, it's so much fun.

I will greatly miss Lindsey. She was the leader of the first Bible study I attended early in our move. She was also a great support when we switched the boys from the American International School to the British, in fact she transferred her two children as well. It's been comforting seeing her friendly face at the new school this year. I don't like having to say good-bye to her but know God has special plans for her family in Shanghai and perhaps we can visit them there?

Living abroad has many advantages and disadvantages. One disadvantage is the frequent coming and going of ex-pats and the frequent good-byes you have to endure. There have been more good-byes than normal lately with the world-wide economic situation and lots of companies are relocating their families back to their home countries. Then most people have contracts of 3-4 years here so there is a constant flow of new people coming and old people leaving. At least the good-bye last night is just for a little while, knowing that one day we will all be reunited for eternity. I so wonder if everyone will speak their native language and we will just all understand each other or if we will have a universal heaven language?

Random Ramblings

Mark has been in the Washington, D.C., area now for over a week and we are ready for him to return to us! It was great timing for him to return to the US as Christmas is approaching. He really is 'Santa' this year and had a list a mile long of things to shop for and I had sent a grocery list several weeks ago to my friend, April, who was so gracious to gather the list of the American groceries we were in need of with her daughter Laurie-thank you so much girls! We asked for 25 boxes of Butterscotch pudding alone as the prison bakery will be selling my gingerbread cookies this holiday season!! Mark can't believe I asked him to haul Fritos all the way to Asia but men really don't understand the importance of traditions and comfort food do they? Mark is happy to have all the shopping finished but now has to figure out how to get it all back over here-I had lots of books, Legos, and gifts already ordered and sent to friends in VA besides all the groceries and shopping that Mark has done. 3-70 lb bags just doesn't go as far as you would think!

We're anxious for him to return also to finalize our house decision and get the ball rolling with our upcoming move. Hopefully, we will have a contract signed on the house two doors down on Sunday and we can start moving in the coming weeks. I have looked at a dozen houses this past week and hope to stay in our current neighborhood and like that house better than any others I've seen. We hope to be moved in before we leave the country on December 13th for the holidays.

We drove into Bangkok today for a visit to the American Embassy to obtain new passports for the boys. The expiration dates on passports are weird, the boys' passports don't actually expire until May but many countries will not issue you a visa if your passport is within six months of expiration! So you may have an expiration date but it really expires six months earlier than the listed date-weird! Of course nothing goes as easily as expected with the embassy bureaucracy, I always try my best to be prepared for anything but today they threw me for a loop, besides all the required paperwork they will not issue a new passport to Ethan until I supply 4-5 progression photos because of how much he has changed in 5 years! Never knew they might do that. I'll have to take in family pictures as I didn't bring any single shots of Ethan over the years. My baby really is growing up, I'm including a picture from a couple of months prior to our moving here and now. The new passports will require another trip into BKK.

Moving

Yes, we are moving-but not far! On Thursday we met with our current landlord who informed us that he has an offer to buy this house contingent on our moving out so the new owner can take up residence here. We have a valid contract until August 2010 and an option for an additional year but we will try to accommodate our owner and find a place to move. It is strange having a 'renter' mentality, I feel no strong affection for this house just dread the hassle of moving, remember we have to move a baby, grand, piano!!

We like this area, we're used to the market, it's close to the boys' school and I know a lot of our neighbors. Actually one of our neighbors is willing to rent to us but wants a two-year contract and we're not sure that we can commit to that length of time. They have a great house but it feels so American, it even has a 3 car garage and a food disposal-I have never seen that anywhere else in all of Thailand!! This couple have an interesting background, the wife is Philippine and he is Cambodian but both of their families sought refuge in the US over 35 years ago, Lee actually graduated from the University of Kansas. After several years as an engineer, they cashed out and moved to Thailand, building an American home hoping to flip it and sale it. Thailand is having some economic problems and houses have been moving very slowly so they are willing to lease their property to us. They own two other properties in this area and can move into one of those.

I spent most of the day Friday looking at available properties and will look on Monday as well before making our decision. We have agreed that we will try to be relocated by January 1. This may be a good thing for us because rental rates have fallen considerably since we moved here 1 1/2 years ago. Our neighbors' house would be considerably less than what we are currently paying and it includes the gardener and pool fees. It's a great house but will feel strange to be living in Thailand in such an American feeling house-the boys like it a lot, better area to play basketball. Remember that I broke my finger last year playing basketball on our rock pavement, it's a very uneven surface and is not conducive to working on dribbling skills...

Mark happens to be in the US at the moment. I jokingly asked him if he wanted me to pick a new home and get us moved before he returns!! It's really not good timing for us (when is moving ever though?). November and December is the busiest time with our bakery project. The end of the month we are hostessing a big Thanksgiving party with a father/son American football game and in December we have a 3 week trip planned to Italy and Greece!! Craziness!

If we take the neighbor's house just two doors over I guess we can just roll the piano down the street!! Wouldn't that make for an interesting picture especially if we could capture a rambling elephant in the background!

Cambodia

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The boys had a week of holiday from school and we headed to Cambodia with the Clarkson family for quite an adventure. It all began with a 3 hour delay at the airport, normally that wouldn't be that big of a deal but we were planning a 350km van ride once we arrived at the Phnom Penh airport to Siem Reap. We arrived around 7 pm and it was already dark in Cambodia's capitol city. Thankfully our driver who was recommended by a friend, was patiently waiting for us. He quickly tried to persuade us not to drive to Siem Reap during the night informing us that it would take about 6 hours and that he would be unable to take us because he was too tired after driving from there earlier in the day and our flight being so delayed but he did have another driver willing to transport us if we wanted to continue during the night. Our hotel was already paid for so we felt we should go ahead and continue as planned. We enjoyed a nice Khmer dinner while waiting for our new driver to arrive. Khmer food is not as spicy as Thai food but otherwise quite similar. Another noticeable difference is that more people speak English in Cambodia and the US dollar is the preferred currency. They use a paper Riel in Cambodia, there are no coins (I did see a US quarter for sale in a local market for $1) in circulation and the current rate is 4000 Riel/ 1 US dollar.

Well more Cambodian people speak English but NOT our new driver, who had very poor English skills and appeared to never have visited Siem Reap before-let the fun begin!! We finally departed Phnom Penh at 8:30 p.m., right away we could see that it was going to be a long and arduous trip. Paved highway could be used loosely, there were parts that were relatively smooth but for the most part it had lots of potholes, bumps and at times more like a dirt road. That wasn't the worse part, the countryside of Cambodia is incredibly dark, most residents do not have electricity, so not only do you not have any street lights but there is no light permeating from people's homes. It's really, really dark! The roads have a 'cow' crossing sign about every 1/2 mile because there are A LOT of cows on the shoulders of the road. When we returned in the daylight we determined that the cows only grazing areas are the roadsides because all the countryside is being used for rice crops. The road was also quite narrow is some parts and lots of people walk along the road, you can see why 140 miles can take so long in Cambodia. I had one thought of how long it might take us to get to an adequate health-care facility if we were involved in an accident but had to totally push that from my mind trusting the Lord's watchcare. We finally arrived in Siem Reap at 2:00 am to our hotel. Most people fly directly into Siem Reap but who would want to miss out on a good story/experience and save some money too?! (Okay, Mom and Dad we are cheap!!)

Around 11 am we headed out to the World Heritage Site of Angkor Wat. There are many, many ancient temples and ruins in this area dating as far back as the 6th century!! I think these are the oldest things I have ever seen. It is a Buddhist pilgrimage area so the area is inundated with many Buddhist monks and nuns. We spent the afternoon discovering and enjoying the ancient ruins. The most famous, Angkor Wat was built around 1113, it's the largest structure and is completely surrounded by a man made moat that is huge. I read the total area is 200 hectares (sorry, you have to convert it to acres yourself!! Mark's not here at the moment!) The Wat is in the midst of a jungle and there are monkeys perusing the area. As you view the walls and all the figures you wonder about the people that built these and the times they lived in. Many war scenes with elephants, spears and shields among all the thousands of idol carvings.

My favorite ruin was Ta Prohm because of the huge trees that had grown into the temple walls and now support a great deal of the structure with their massive roots. This is another famous ruin because The Tomb Raider and Two Brothers were both filmed amongst this site. Another interesting feature was an echo chamber. There is a free-standing stone structure that has an amazing echo feature, it doesn't echo with clapping or from your voice but only when you beat your chest, weird!

We finished the day with a steep climb to the top of Phnom Bakheng, the view of Angkor Wat and the sunset were obstructed by the clouds, the architecture is amazing but the steps were shockingly thin. At the base of this temple was a very disturbing site of a large stone cow surrounded with worshippers reminding us of the golden calf in the Old Testament. Seeing these old ruins with so many stone idols that had been damaged and vandalized reminded us how thankful we are to know and worship the One, true, living, God-not a god that can be created and destroyed by man's hands.

The next day we ventured out to a lake and walked around a floating village visiting with some of the local people and shopping at a local market. This is a very, very, poor area and we encountered many beggars. We are continually reminded of how blessed we are as Americans. The market had everything one would need or want! It had hairdressers, seamstresses, auto parts, meat market, vegetable stalls, jewelry, housewares....

The following morning we began our trek back to Phnom Penh, it only took 4 hours to make the return trip in the daylight. It also was nice to see the countryside this time. It is just beautiful with the green rice crops and palm trees. We passed many ox-carts and small horse-pulled, wooden, wagons, so different from the highways of the US.

Upon arrival into the city. Mark and the Clarkson's toured the school that was made a prison during the Khmer Rouge's terrible reign in the late 1970's (the boys and I had previously toured it last October when we visited Cambodia with a school event.)That evening we had dinner with our friend, Julie Broyles who teaches at an English school in Phnom Penh, they use only the Bible to teach English, interestingly they currently have a Buddhist monk as a student. We finished up our time in Cambodia with a trip out to the Killing Fields before flying out that afternoon. (See earlier entry re: The Killing Fields.) We were so happy to be back in Thailand with our driver, Songkran, he doesn't speak too much English but we have figured out ways to communicate quite well. Thailand feels like home for now, it's always good to be back home!

I apparently returned with some sort of bacterial, intestinal bug and had to go to the hospital yesterday for an IV infusion of antibiotics after 24 hours of severe diarrhea and vomiting. Rather than wait and see if it passed I went on in for blood work because Dange fever and malaria are real concerns in this part of the world, especially in the countryside of Cambodia. It worked out because I also had to have my 4th rabies shot in the series also. I had a nurse that spoke English rather well and I enjoyed visiting with her after she stuck me 3 times with a butterfly needle. (I jokingly told her that "3 times and your out!" I'm pretty sure she had no idea what I was talking about!!) She attended nursing school for 4 years and her salary is $17,000Baht/month roughly $510 US/month for 44 hours/week. Thankfully, I'm feeling much better today and no one in the household seems to have contracted this nasty bug. Mark actually was home yesterday because it was a Thai holiday celebrating a former King's reign, he was a good nurse and cook. I had planned on making sourdough biscuits for breakfast and had my starter out, he decided to go ahead and attempt to bake the biscuits himself. It wasn't the most restful answering all of his questions but I was grateful, "Where is the Baking soda? What is the difference between baking soda and baking powder? On the recipe what is T and t stand for? Is this a Tablespoon?..." It's nice to feel needed!

Celebration

Today we celebrated Ploy's 1st birthday with a Princess Tea. It was a joyous day giving thanks that Ploy is still in the Chocolate's home for the time being. Thank you for praying about this situation. Carole has much peace as she is trusting God day to day and His plans for Ploy.

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The Inevitable

Hi all, can you tell that I'm losing steam on this blog thing and of course after living here for over a year I'm really busy with living in Thailand!! Today, we spent the day at our prison bakery ministry teaching the 12 girls how to bake pumpkin loaf and to do some quality control. Every Wednesday we are delivering weekly orders to three of the surrounding International Schools and we are trying to cook with the girls every Thursday. Next week we will be introducing the Axsom Gingerbread Cookies and they will become a part of our repertoire and we will sell them along with decorated sugar cookies at the Pattaya International Ladies Christmas Luncheon, along with the bakery's infamous fruit cakes. These fruit cakes have quite the reputation in this area. We have already received an order for 120 mini fruit cakes for a Holiday luncheon!! One lady commented that she buys one and keeps it in the refrigerator all year eating off of it gradually-yum, yum!! This is a busy ministry.

Today, I'm finally starting to feel like the girls are warming up to Molly and I. I spent some time doing some English teaching and playing a game with the girls while our pumpkin loaves were cooking. I received a tour of their sleeping quarters, I'll include a picture, it's just a huge concrete floored room and each of the girls possesses a mat and pillow. As I get to know the girls and am starting to care for each of them I tend to forget this is a prison and they are criminals. There accommodations just seem so stark.



We also had a meeting with the Prison Director today, he seems very happy and thankful for the bakery's success and reported that the project is being held up as an example for other prisons in the country.

Anyway while I was at the prison the inevitable happened. I was bitten by a Thai dog. I always have a 'Ma' stick when I'm walking in my neighborhood but today I was following the girls into a hut to eat lunch with them and out of nowhere one of the dogs on the premises just ran up and bit my right lower leg! It wasn't too painful as I had on heavy jeans but a dog-bite in Thailand always has to be followed up with rabies shots. We cleaned the puncture wounds on site and then I went to a local hospital to begin the rabies series. The good news is the series only involves 5 shots now and 2 booster shots after any subsequent bites. We know several people that have been bitten in the last year. Our former pool lady was paranoid of our dog and understandably so when she told me her mother died from rabies.

One other inevitable thing happened here in Thailand this week. On Tuesday I was driving and was pulled over by a policemen. I have no idea why I was stopped, he was motioning to my blinker but I was cruising down an interstate when he motioned for me to pull over. I just kept saying, "My couch eye Thai-I don't understand Thai". He mentioned something about the police station and I kept saying, My couch eye Thai and finally just handed him a 100 Baht ($3), he laughed and waved me on. I will say it is somewhat intimidating to be looking at a officer in uniform with dark glasses and a face mask on and not be able to understand one word he is saying.

Beach Clean-Up

Saturday the boys and I participated in the Regent's School annual beach clean-up. It is amazing how much difference a large group of people working diligently for a short amount of time can make. We worked only 1 1/2 hours along the small beach at a pier in Sriracha and really tidied up the beach nicely. The volunteers students from our school worked beside a local Thai primary school to get their local beach spit-spot. A job well done!

Ice-cream was enjoyed by all after our labors, I wanted to include a picture of a friend of mine, Lynn with a Thai ice-cream sandwich. It was a large piece of bread with several dips of ice-cream and topped off with chocolate syrup, quite different from an American ice-cream sandwich for sure!

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Outreach to Koh SiChang

This past weekend we travelled to the nearby, small, island of Koh SiChang where our church has a Thai church plant. This is our third visit to our fellow believers congregation for outreach. It's great to be able to continue to foster relationships with the Christians there as we are now beginning to recognize some faces and names. We arrived on Friday night and delivered special bags of personal care items to some of the ladies from the Koh SiChang church. On Saturday morning, Marina, our pastor's wife had planned a activity for the island children to make a new creation doll from a tube sock followed by lunch before departing. We ministered to and helped over 70 children that morning. What a blessing to be involved with the work that God is doing on this small, Thai island!!

Saturday afternoon we drove into Bangkok for some shopping in Chinatown. On Sunday we attended church in Bangkok and then picked up a friend from Muleshoe that is currently living in Cambodia. What a treat, our first visitor from the states-kinda!!She will be staying with us until Wednesday.

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Family Fellowships have returned in Thailand! Every month eight families here are setting aside time for food and fellowship. We are likeminded people from all over the world that happen to be living in the Banglamung area at this time. We had our first fellowship of the year after the summer at the Clarkson's where they had organized a father-son basketball tournament while the ladies played Sequence. None of our guys were hurt and a good time was had by all!

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Ploy has been living with my dear friend, Carole and family for the last 6 months. Ploy was left at the Mercy Center, a home for unwanted or abandoned children in Pattaya. Ploy was just an infant at that time and the smallest child at the center was 2 years old, the Center really isn't equipped for infants, because of that the Center approached Carole and all the "Chocolates" about taking Ploy into their home as a foster child. Ploy's mother has already released a son years ago for adoption and left Ploy at the Center because she was unable to care for her financially, emotionally or physically at the moment. Her only means of support was bar-tending in a Pattaya bar at night. No one is sure who Ploy's natural father is.

After much prayer the Schoklitsch family agreed to take Ploy into their home loving her as their own in the hopes that one day that might be allowed to legally adopt her.(Do you remember that I was one of the hostesses for the baby shower we held for Carole and family as they had no baby items, Max, their youngest son is 14 yrs. old.) The Center encouraged Ploy's natural mother to come for weekly visits, she has been undependable and a few times that she has come for visits with Ploy at the Center she has fallen asleep. It has been difficult for the Schoklitsch to continue to show up for these weekly meetings but have tried to help Ploy's mother to learn some mothering skills-asking that she be sure to change Ploy and feed her during their visits at the Center...

About a month ago she showed up at for one of the weekly meetings and stated that she wanted Ploy back. (This last Tuesday she didn't come to visit Ploy) She is now not only bar tending but is being allowed to dance on the pole at the bar and her income has improved. She will be able to pay a small amount for a nanny during the night and attempt to care for Ploy during the day while trying to sleep. She has also stated that she might take Ploy to her mother's in Northern Thailand.

I'm coming to you to join us in praying for this situation. The Schoklitsch's want what the Lord wants no matter how painful it will be to have Ploy taken from their home. We have all grown to love this little girl very much. It has been an amazing transformation over the last 6 months. She's walking now, has gotten some toothies, is laughing and smiling and seems quite happy with the Chocolate's! I would describe her as having a flat affect initially and she has really blossomed into this very expressive young lady. Mostly they want Ploy to be safe, child trafficking is a big problem in this area. They are unsure if her mother's decision is financially based, God forbid but she can make some money by selling her. Please pray wisdom to be poured out on all parties involved. Pray for protection of Ploy and Carole and family. Also pray for peace for the Chocolates.

Rayong Prison Bakery

I'm so excited about a great project that God has allowed me to be a part of here while we are in Thailand. Last Spring, Molly was contacted by the Pattaya International Ladies Club about an opportunity to oversee the Rayong Prison Bakery, as the director of the last 4 years was returning to her homeland of Australia. She asked me to join her in this most worthwhile endeavor. This bakery was originally established by the Pattaya and Rayong International Ladies Club some 8 years ago, they provided the funds for industrial ovens, work tables and refrigerators. The young women that are residents in this prison are between the ages of 16-22 and they have to earn the privilege to cook in the bakery. They have approx. 20 recipes that they have perfected and our major role is to provide the outlet for their goods to be sold. Over the last two weeks Molly and I have been taking samples to the surrounding International Schools, re-introducing their baked goods to the community (the bakery had only been half functioning last spring because the coordinator had some health issues.)and compiling orders. Once a week we will initially go out to the prison on Tuesdays to cook and introduce new recipes. On Wednesdays we pick up the orders of baked goods and deliver them to specific drop off points in the area. The project is so great because it teaches each of these young girls a marketable skill, helps their time in prison pass more quickly, and all the money returns to the bakery providing a 'nest-egg' for each of the girls upon their discharge to better help them adjust to living outside the prison AND we have the permission of the Ladies Clubs to make this whatever we desire, it can become our ministry!

Today we travelled out to the prison to taste test the blueberry muffins and to teach the girls how to make pumpkin pie. They already have perfected a homemade pie crust because they are known for their yummy quiches. We will take special orders for the upcoming holidays and now we have pumpkin pie for all of our American friends here in Thailand! While the pies were cooking we played a simple game to help us better learn the girl's names, we explained that we are Christians and that we look forward to getting to know each of them better and will pray for them. We also tried to teach them some simple English while they attempted to help us with our Thai skills. We will continue to visit the bakery at least once a week teaching them, helping them and convincing them to let us love on them some. They seem to be hesitant and not very warm, no telling the pasts and experiences they are coming from, the stories they could tell about the paths that led them to be in prison at such a young age. I'm excited about this door the Lord has opened for me to serve Him here. We are trusting that He can overcome the language barriers and help us shine His light there.

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School Begins (2) Nathan's View

School started nice and early when I woke up at 6:30 as Dustin jumped out of the top bunk so that he could work out before school. I got up, ate breakfast, showered, and got into my school uniform. We loaded up into the car I couldnt wait to hang out with people (mostly guys that I play airsoft with) at school. I said hello to some people that I knew then headed up to my form (the form is the class where teachers tell us news, welcome new students ect.... we have it every morning). We were in our form for a really long time with nothing to do. A guy asked me if I like sports I told him, "Yeah, but I mostly play adventure sports (snowboarding, wakeboarding, airsoft, paintball, mountain biking, swimming, archery, hunting, bowhunting ect...) A guy's eyes next to me light up as soon as I said airsoft. I asked him if he played and he said yes. He started telling me about his equipment, gear, gun, ect... In the end it turned out that I had played with him several times and that we both had been playing airsoft for a really long time. (me five years, him three). I found out that there were lots of guys in my grade that love airsoft along with several people that I already knew. I was even asked to play on Saturday with them but I had already played two times last week and that's plenty (according to mum and dad..... lol if you know what I mean).

I went to my maths class (yes it's called maths) we have a pretty cool teacher. As soon as we said we were Americans he wanted to know if we had ever shot a gun. I didn't know what to expect after Dustin answered him saying that we had on many, many different occasions. My heart pumping I was getting ready for war (it's happened before with teachers) the hunter (me) vs. anit-hunter. He said in awe in front of the whole class "In Australia, (he's australian) it's really hard to get guns (permits ect...), I've always wanted to get one but I haven't been able too yet. I really want to go hunting." I almost fell out of the chair (how cool is this school so far? I mean come on, these guys are tight). He is the coolest man in Regents so far (our school's name) he is a great maths teacher. He wants us to work neat and do well. Perfect.

We then went to ICT class (computer class) the teacher was a young guy (good sign). He was telling us that he wanted us to design a power point slide of what we liked (hobbies, sports, food ect...). That's easy and fun. We were all working on this when the dreaded ICT teacher walks in... (My heart stopped I couldn't breathe). She tells the whole class in her extremely annoying way, "I need six guys to come to my class I only have one student at the moment" I almost ran out of the room to "use" the bathroom lol, it's a very good tactic. She started walking around the class with her eyes scanning the room looking for her victim that she would devour with tons of homework and terrible instructions later in the year. I looked down not breathing I motioned for my new friend (Peir from Denmark) and Dustin to do the same. We didn't move as she walked past us and picked the remaining guys she needed. None of us were chosen (SCORE!!!!). I was so happy I thought I would cry.. No, I'm joking.

Today we only had two classes (not including our form) so it's still hard to tell about Regents it'll be cool though. Ill try to post more tomorrow.
-Nathan N.

School Begins

Today was the first day of school for the boys at their new school here in Thailand, The Regent's School of Pattaya. The boys were understandably somewhat apprehensive this morning. Regent's is about 3X larger than the American International School in this area and it's a British school. After much, much prayer and research we decided to switch the boys over this year. We felt like it would be better for our guys for several reasons:

1. It's close in proximity to our home, they no longer have to endure a 40-50 minute bus ride. Ethan never felt comfortable on the bus with a driver that speaks no English and refused to ride it unless his brothers were onboard, that sometimes entailed him waiting an extra 1-2 hours for them to be done with after school activities. I am now their school bus driver as the start time conflicts with when Marko needs to be at the refinery! I will make the 10 minute drive both morning and afternoon to transport them. Exxon had offered to buy us a second vehicle for use here. This summer we purchased a used SUV from a teacher that was leaving Thailand and now I'm putting my Thai license to good use. I can get to the new school without using any major roads only navigating the back roads.





2. This school has approximately 1000 students, grades K-12 compared to the dropping enrollment at ISE of about 300 students. This year would have been a transition year for all of them anyway with Dustin and Nathan entering High School and Ethan beginning Jr. High, we felt like it would be a good time to make the change feeling that Dustin and Nathan would probably both benefit with some distance between them within the school environment, plus the larger student body enables more opportunities-more resources...

3. Dustin and Nathan were frustrated that ISE only had a marching band, music teacher and were impressed that Regents has 11 full-time music teachers vs. 2 at the American campus. They feel they will have more musical opportunities.

4. We have several really dear, Christian friends already at Regent's and were excited they could attend school with them.

5. We had some slightly disturbing things happen at ISE last year. Most of you will remember the boy/girl week field-trip? (Regent's separates the girls and boys for their overnight trips.) when Dustin and Nathan had to break up a fight? Nathan also had to break up a fight in the cafeteria last year and was threatened by the offender that he would bring a gun to school and take out Nathan. We felt the incident was poorly handled. Nathan was called into the office and asked, "What would you like us to do to the student?"

6. Most of you also know about the boys' sex education class too. We were given no warning the class was going to be taught and they didn't separate boys and girls. They discussed very explicit material in a mixed gender class including taking anonymous questions. We were told we were the first parents that had ever complained about the class contents being taught to a mixed class?! I would be way too embarrassed to even type out some of the questions that were discussed in this class. So disheartening.

7. Finally, we didn't feel the boys were challenged academically last year and are looking for a higher standard of knowledge. I compared IB test results, college offers and interviewed several previous ISE students that had transferred in previous years.

Taking all of that into consideration we felt that it would be best to transfer the students. The first day went okay-the food in the cafeteria is a lot better, already a good sign in the boys' eyes!!

I'm including pictures of the boys in their new school uniforms and our school bus!

Friends

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Yesterday I had lunch with 4 of my bestest friends in Thailand to celebrate Carole's birthday. I just love each one of these ladies-my cup overflows!

Planting Seeds

A friend recently shared this video and I want to pass it along to you all. I feel a great responsibility to be mindful of the work that God has for us here in Thailand. I know it is no mistake that we have been moved to Thailand and I pray that God would help me be faithful to share my faith and always be ready to give an answer of the hope that is within me.

I'm excited that my housekeeper, Nok and I are reading through the Bible together. With the new Thai/English Bible that I purchased on board the Doulos we are learning together. We had initially agreed that we would start in Mark but she wanted to start at the beginning, so we are in Genesis.(Right away she wanted to know how to pronounce Genesis, she learned several things about our English 'G' yesterday) It will be a slow process, our goal is to read and discuss one chapter a week. Nok is reading the Thai side then the English side to better her English skills. She told me that she read Chapter 1 three times on Monday evening. We had a very profitable talk, she really has no knowledge or belief of the beginning but agrees that there must be a God, "look at all this" she commented as she points in our yard at the trees, grass...we know that even the creation speaks of a creator. "Ever since God created the world, his invisible qualities, both his eternal power and his divine nature, have been clearly seen; they are are perceived in the things that God has made." Romans 1:20

We weren't even officially discussing the 1st chapter, we've set aside time on Friday mornings for that. But already yesterday we had a talk about God or PaJaou in Thai(I will learn so much too!), using His name in vain, prayer-she prays a set prayer every night before going to bed, she couldn't explain to me what it meant but told me that only when she goes to the Wat for special ceremonies does she ask for personal requests. I explained to her that prayer is a constant thing for me, that God tells us to pray without ceasing-that as we have been talking I prayed, "Lord, help me know how to better share your Word with Nok and be a good teacher for her." That I have a relationship with God through Jesus and can talk to Him whenever and wherever....Nok can not put into words that I can understand 'who' she prays to, if she know who she is praying to.

What a great thing-Nok is so open to learning, it really is a miracle in itself that she can read and has the understanding of English that she does. She is so eager, pray that God will use me and help me to teach Nok. I love Nok, what a blessing she is to me and I know that it is no mistake that God placed her in my life here. I think this is my biggest 'job' here (besides taking care of Marko and the boys), to live out Christ and be ready to give an answer of the hope within me to Nok and our driver, Songkran. I count it a privilege to live in Thailand and being used to spread his gospel here in a small way. Pray for me that I will be faithful to plant the seed knowing that God will make it grow! 1 Corinthians 3:6

The Doulos

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I'm so glad that we returned to Thailand in time to visit the Doulos ship that has been docked in Bangkok for almost a month. You can look up more about the ship at mvdoulos.org and all they do but we have a special interest in this particular ship. Years ago when the triplets were small, a little girl of 8 yrs-Jana Dahn would come to my house every Saturday morning as a mother's helper. What a blessing she was to me-helping feed and care for our little guys, cleaning, doing lots of laundry...as the years passed she began to take on more responsibility even eventually babysitting the whole clan by herself. Jana has now grown up and lives in Ohio with her husband, Matt and their two children and one-on-the-way. Ironically last week she was lamenting the fact that she needs to begin some homeschooling with Addie her 3 yr. old and I just marvel at how the Lord has prepared her for this task many years ago. She helped me begin introducing letters and such when our triplets were 3 and 4 years old many years ago. Jana is such a natural, wonderful mother and I admire her and all she is doing with her children.

Now how does all that fit with the Doulos? Jana served two years on the Doulos after graduating from High School and met Matt on-board that very ship. We have supported that ministry some over the years and it was just the coolest thing to get to visit the ship in person and experience a little of what Jana's life must have been like on the deck of the Doulos. Ehtan commented that with his claustrophobia he wouldn't be able to handle the close quarters! She served many hours in the laundry room-a most humbling, arduous task that was critical for the crew of 300 as they travelled all over the world with their extensive book shop. The Laundry room also proved training ground for the other jobs she later had while serving on the Doulos.

Dustin and Nathan participated in the Inside/Out program all day Saturday for High School youth. There was a time of worship for the 35 youth from the surrounding area involved. Dustin said no one was there to play the piano or guitar so they volunteered to lead the worship time! How great that God is giving them opportunities to serve Him using the gifts He has given them.

The Doulos team spent time teaching them and equipping them to witness to the Thai people and then they had to go out on the boat and practice with an interpretor-way outside their comfort zone for sure! While we were on-board there was a constant stream of Thai people coming to peruse the book store. The book store had a wide range of material at such reasonable prices. I was happy to purchase a Thai/English Bible where the verses are side by side, that should come in handy here.

I had contacted Jana before we left for the Doulos and she asked me to contact the Govender family-Seelan, Carlien and baby Tessa from South Africa that are currently on staff with the Doulos who she had served with years ago. I prepared a bag with cookies, CD's and other small gifts and surprised them on-board. Carlien was very emotional and thankful for such a small gesture-maybe she was most touched by the hug from Jana via me! Seelan was very busy preparing for the Royal Thai Princess' visit on Monday. In fact the boys had to spend time painting the outside of the boat yesterday while they were guests in preparation for the big event. All hands were on deck spiffing up the 95 year old ship and the surrounding area too. Many of the shanty's and shacks close by had been painted as well. The visit all stemmed from a letter that Seelan had written to the Royal family, he should be very proud indeed! such great exposure for the ministry ship.

The Doulos does so much more than just the floating book store, every region they visit they send teams out into the surrounding communities to work alongside other ministries already in progress or to do community projects, like building homes...check out their website for more information. What a great day we had aboard the Doulos!

Home in Thailand

We arrived back 'home' in Thailand early Monday morning. It was good to be back with Mark and in our own beds. It really feels like 'home' here after one year. In fact Mark and I were talking about the fact that we were initially told that we would be in this assignment 2-4 years, we both agreed that we would be sad if we only had one more year here, the first year has flown by so quickly and we still have much to do here in Southeastern Asia.

We were all incredibly jet-lagged, Nathan more so than the rest of us. On Tuesday he went to bed at 4 pm and didn't wake up until 6 am the next day! We were tired and just now on Friday feel like we are back on Thai time.

We came back just 'a-sweatin'! It is hot here and will take a few weeks for us to get readjusted. We were cold most of the time we were in the states with central air-conditioning everywhere but had become somewhat used to it by the end of the summer. It has been so hot and dry here, I'm posting a picture of our boo-a (pond), it's almost all dried up. I hope the catfish survive until rainy season begins next month.
What a great visit we had to the states. I want to thank each of you that hosted us this past summer. We had such a wonderful summer and thanks to each of you that cooked for us, changed sheets for us, travelled to see us, rearranged plans for us...We love you and are so thankful that we have a home away from 'home'!