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!