San Francisco Detour

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Still not home

We can't seem to find a way to get all the way home this trip back to the USA! We have had a most terrible time. Our planes were changed in Tokyo and it caused us to arrive into San Francisco late thus missing our plane into Dallas where we arrived Friday morning after 24 hours of being up, I just have the hardest time sleeping on planes, thankfully, the boys have an easier time than I do. United (which I hate flying, just because of situations like these, and should have learned my lesson to fly any Asian airline, sadly they are so much more efficient and customer friendly than United by far) We were rescheduled around 11 a.m. to leave from San Francisco Friday at 7:30 p.m. requiring us to hang around the airport the entire day-I did get a temporary US phone and number #415-324-9969, we enjoyed a hamburger, and the boys managed to sleep some in the uncomfortable airport chairs. Our original plans were for Dustin and Nathan to fly on into Lubbock where Pappa Joe would pick them up and Ethan and I would stay in Dallas with Mom who was there for market. Because our Dallas-Lubbock flights were independent of our International travel American Airlines wanted to charge us $350/ticket to change their flight times on tickets that were only originally $114/ticket-can you say FRUSTRATING!! So I booked transfer flights for D&N on Southwest for $350 total departing on Friday morning.

In the afternoon a typical SF fog rolled into the airport and many flights were cancelled, including our long awaited one to Dallas, where we would meet Mom You can not imagine how many people were waiting in line for re ticketing, I would estimate that we waited in some sort of line at least 4 hours that day and remember I'm running on no sleep! I was so emotional, it took all I had to just keep from setting down and just bawling and probably would have if not for the boys because every time I started to tear up the boys would say, "MOM!!" Hopefully, in all the frustration I didn't lose my Christian witness too much! There was enough ugliness going around in those waiting lines for all of us combined and I stand amazed that anyone would take one of those airline ticketing jobs! I've also learned from setting in all those lines that a person should avoid flying into or through San Francisco in June or July because of all the fog issues! Not only was it foggy it was freezing! In the 50's, people outside had coats and hats on!! We finally were reissued new tickets departing San Francisco on SATURDAY and because ultimately our tickets were changed because of weather the airline refused to pay for any of our hotel accommodations, they did give us a discount voucher that I tried to redeem but was told that all the discount hotel tickets had already been issued in the San Francisco area! More Frustration!

When we finally had our tickets in hand and realized that we would be spending two unexpected nights in California we then had to wait in another line for our baggage to be found and reissued to us, it is now about 8:30 pm-I've been up over 48 hours at this point, I was on the brink of losing it but was encouraged by the boys who continued to have a good attitude through the entire ordeal, I kept thanking them for supporting and encouraging me through this little trial. I am amazed that out of the thousands of travellers after an 1 1/2 hours we had all our luggage in hand. A lesson learned-we received the three, royal, blue bags and floral bag within 30 minutes but it took an additional hour to retrieve the black bags from the sea of black bags I'm sure!

When we finally were in our taxi headed to the hotel we all made a conscious effort to change our thinking to the whole, "changing lemons into lemonade" mode! The boys have never seen San Francisco and we decided to just embrace the idea that we would be spending some time here. We finally were in bed by 11:30, I don't know that a bed ever felt any better. We all slept until 11 am the following day before an afternoon of sight-seeing. We are all up now at 2:30 in the morning, it is so hard getting your inner clocks converted over. We are just praying that we can finally get to our final destinations later this morning! and let me put a plug in for Southwest Airlines, they changed our tickets from Friday to Saturday for Dustin and Nathan with no charge! Man! if they only flew Internationally we might be home by now!!

Marko

A few of you have asked about the completion of Mark's latest trial. He returned a week ago from MD Anderson with an excellent pathology report and an impressive incision! We are so thankful to have our sweet Daddy home, we sure need him around here. When we were anxiously awaiting the initial CT results knowing that if there was already metastasis the prognosis was grim, Ethan asked, "Mom, who would answer all my hard questions if something happened to Dad?" My thoughts exactly...we look to Mark for spiritual guidance, wisdom, a model of what unselfish love really looks like, a hard work ethic, and always a hearty laugh for our ears, amongst a myriad of other things. The Lord has done great things for us! One being giving me such a wonderful, Godly husband when I was just a wee, unsuspecting, naive, thing! and for giving my boys such an amazing Daddy. Happy Father's Day Marko-we love you!!

I also want to take this opportunity to thank Mike and Kristy for stepping in and filling in for me when I couldn't be with Mark in Houston. Thanks for allowing Mark to stay with you, all the delicious meals, the updates from the surgery waiting room, and your loving care as he recovered in your home. We love you!

Dustin is Back!!

We retrieved Dustin from the airport this morning, so happy to see that boy! He is full of wonderful memories of South Africa and really feels like he has an adopted, second family in the Gorven's. We can never thank them enough for taking on Dustin, more than being his host for 6 weeks, loving and nurturing him. He will always treasure his time in South Africa and is anxious for our entire family to visit. God was all over this exchange, we see His hand so evident in the home he placed him in as well as St.Stithians (by the way it is the alma mater of Dave Matthews!). He had several opportunities to play the guitar in Sunday worship services as well as the piano during the Wednesday night youth services. He took several excursions around South Africa, one being with a friend of ours-Louis, from Johannesburg who attended church with us here in Thailand. He took Dustin for a weekend out to his parent's home which is situated in the middle of a huge Animal Preserve. We are so grateful to all that played a part of Dustin's wonderful experience and just pray that the Lord will heap blessings on them for how they blessed Dustin! So glad he is home!

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Baptism

Saturday was exciting on several fronts, not only did Nathan return home safely but earlier in the day I had the pleasure of attending a baptism service with our Koh Si Chang fellow congregation. Several of the members from our church here in Pattaya travelled via the 40 minute ferry for a time of celebration and fellowship with our friends. We all enjoyed a wonderful Thai meal together before taking a Song-tao over to the public beach on the small island. We sang several praise songs along the sand beside other sun-worshipers as we worshipped the Son!! Six members of their small congregation were baptized in the Bay of Thailand. It was especially exciting to see one of my friends, Nok's (not my housekeeper, a different one)husband be baptized. She was the first believer in her family and her husband and mother have both come to Christ in the last two years, we are still praying for her sister. There is a picture of their small hair shop where they are proudly displaying their faith for all to see in their small village or Moo Bahn. Also, Nok, my housekeeper and her son joined us for the afternoon. I just can't tell you how excited I was about that! For her to get to see even more Thai believers! She asked what baptism means and I was able to give her an explanation in English and then the Thai Presbyterian pastor from Pattaya who also joined us for the day then explained baptism in Thai. He was so encouraging to her and kind, she wants to visit his church this Sunday!!!! Woohoo!! I'm just rejoicing as I see the Lord drawing Nok to himself more and more!! I promised her that I would attend with her this Sunday. Please keep praying for my sweet puean, Nok. I look at her Peem, who is only 4 years old and it's hard not to dream about Nok and her family coming to Christ and Peem growing up his entire life proclaiming Christ in Thailand-Oh Lord! Let it be so!!!

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Nathan is Home

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Our Nathan is back home safe and sound!! So happy to retrieve him late last night at the airport and he even had a good attitude about all the smooches he had to endure! He compiled a slide show of his time Down Under! So good to have him back!

Mark's Surgery

Mark met with the his surgeon Thursday morning and his surgery was scheduled and came about really quickly. He was given the 0700 slot for Friday morning and we are so grateful it is all behind us now! They feel confident that all the existing tumor was removed and they did not have to remove any muscle in his shoulder blade and for that we are so grateful! His brother, Mike acted in my behalf since I was unable to be there. He assured me he was patting Mark's hand while keeping me constantly posted! It was a little nerve-racking being so far away and just sitting here anxiously awaiting each of Mike's updates! I spoke with Mark this morning/his Friday night and he was at Mike and Kristy's resting with his biggest complaint being his sore throat. The Lord has graciously answered our prayers, "We will praise and thank the Lord who is our very present help in times of trouble, who is a strong and mighty tower and we will run to Him AND NOT BE AFRAID.
The Lord is my light and my salvation, of whom shall I be afraid?"
Thank you again for lifting us up in prayer during this trial. Hopefully he will be returning to Thailand next Friday. Nathan returns tonight at 12 midnight!! and we could potentially be 4/5 back together by next weekend!! Over the last few weeks we have all been spread out over 4 CONTINENTS!! I can hardly wait for all of us to be back together!

Weekend Away

Several weeks ago an old friend from Lubbock, TX contacted me about perhaps visiting a church that she has been involved in supporting in Northern Thailand. This last Friday Ethan had a holiday from school and with Mark being gone I thought it might be a good time to make the trek up to the new church plant in Taprang, Thailand. I asked Nok, my housekeeper to accompany me to act as my translator and her husband, Noon would be able to drive. She was so excited to visit an area of Thailand she had never seen and it would be a rare holiday for their family, along with their 4 year old son, Peem! The only catch was that they had to attend the Sunday services with me.

Along the way we spent two nights at Khao Yai National Park, the oldest park in Thailand. It was about a 500km drive. It was in the mountains of Thailand and was so nice and cool. We spent an entire day hiking through the park, about 7.5km and enjoyed the wildlife that it afforded. I was disappointed not to see any of the estimated 200 wild elephants in the park. It was funny because at the entrance to the park there is a farm with Holstein cattle, Nok and family were so excited to see black and white cattle!! They reacted somewhat like I might have to see elephants in the wild! In Thailand normally only white, Brahmas cattle are seen! It was funny!

On Sunday we finally found the small congregation of believers, we were over 1 1/2 hours late. They were so gracious and kind and waited to begin the service for us! It was embarrassing compounded by the fact that when we drove up the entire congregation was standing in front of the church on the dirt road in the heat waiting to greet and 'wai' us. It was such a blessing to worship with these Thai Christians and even though I couldn't understand a lot of the service, I did understand the joy written on their faces, their hospitality, their expressive singing, and was able to follow along with some of the scripture reading. Much prayer had gone into the day. This was Nok and Noon's first time to attend a Christian church, to hear the gospel in the Thai language from the mouths of fellow Thai's. Nok has always thought that Christianity was for westerners and Buddhism is for Thai people, it was so great for her to see otherwise. Please join me in praying that scales will continued to be removed from Nok's eyes and that God will draw her and her family to himself.

(Mark sees the surgeon on Thursday, I'll let you know the exact plans when I know them. In the meantime he is visiting family and friends in TX.)

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