Girl on Bike

I just got this from my brother-in-law and thought it was so cute.

I wanted to share it with you -enjoy!

Make sure your volume is turned up to hear the music!

2 weeks from today

Our feet will touch down on USA soil just two weeks from today. Our minds are whirling with things we need to get taken care of here before leaving and preparations for time in the USA. Needless to say, we're pretty excited to see our kids and grand kids. It will have been about 11 months and we'll be seeing them at different stages of our trip. Bethany first, the Foltz's a week later, Jenny the next week, and Lori not until her training is done for Christmas. Of course, Collin and Summer will have changed the most. Missing a year of a 2 and 3 year olds' life-- is alot. To add to it, we had to make some changes in our original travel plans and I will only get about 24 hours with them before going to Iowa for 3 weeks. I'm pretty sure they are NOT leaving my sight during those 24 hours- if possible. These are the most recent pictures of the darlins'!

Rachel

I've spent the last 4 days with my new friend, Rachel. We've had a lot of fun together and the funny thing is, I didn't even know her until she came to Chiang Mai. She's a friend of a cousin and needed a place to stay and when we discovered that we had alot of acquaintances in common, I invited the "homeless" (*_*) child in. What a privilege it has been for me, as she's around the same age as my girls, and she reminded me alot of them as she is seeking God's future plans for her life. She kept real busy while here, and we enjoyed visits to two different orphanages, where she was able to give them a Chick-fil-A cow mascot. She's the one white face in the middle of the group at House of Blessing. The kids loved the little cow, as you can see. Her grandfather is the founder of the Chick-fil-A restaurant chain in the USA, but these kids don't have a clue what that is. They just loved the little cow.
Rachel and I with two precious girl orphans today at the Agape Home .

She's done some work with the Coke company- so found these hats (that are made out of Coke cans) pretty funny in our night market.

I miss you already Rachel as my house is real quiet tonight. Enjoy the rest of your travels!

Hat Yai

What a privilege it was for Mike and I to travel down to visit our campus teams in Hat Yai and Songkla last week. These teams are close to the Malaysian border, where there is a large Muslim population. The people are not as open and although our staff are faithful to meet with students on campus each day-- they don't see near the results that we do here in northern Thailand. It is easy for the teams to feel discouraged- so listening ears were one of their biggest needs in being encouraged. They have recently set up a new center in Hat Yai. Go and Noy are telling us here about the students they are working with.

The new center, that is used for meetings and student gatherings. We went out with the whole team for a special lunch. They got to choose and "Sizzler" - it was! The southern region has 6 children and 3 more on the way.

Their perseverance and faithfulness in the day in and out ministry, is a big testimony to us. We know how to better pray for them and ask you to lift them up in prayer also.

South Region Director: Mitch & Ging, (Maysar, Amos, & Micah)
South Region Associate : Noy Sum Suay

Hat Yai Campus Team:

Go & Maam (Issac & Iva)
Olay & Gay (Gaius)
Noy, Fon, On, Jet

Songkla

The team in Songkla gets our award for "perseverance". So many times after they have been meeting with a new Christian, once the student returns home to visit their parents, they are told they are not to allowed to be a Christian or to see any Christians anymore. Here we are meeting with the leaders of this team over iced coffee and fresh fruit shakes, sharing about their concerns with the team and ministry. We started out at a different table but there were wild monkeys in the trees and the waitress advised us to move. (no joke) That's the beach in the background. One of the campuses is literally across the street from the ocean. As we finished our meeting the music was cranking up and the fresh fish was coming out for the barbecue to begin. That evening we had dinner with the whole team and of course they chose the MK Suki restaurant again. I'm pretty sure it should be voted our staff's all time favorite. Its fun to cook the food together as you eat.
Please pray for Boy, War, Ree, Jip, Awe, and Waz- as they continue to pour their lives into the students on campuses in Songkhla.

3 day old miracle!!

"You saw me before I was born

and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe.

Every day was recorded in your Book."

Psalm 139:16

"You know me inside and out,

you know every bone in my body;

you know exactly how I was made,

bit by bit,

how I was sculptured from nothing into something."

Psalm 139:15

"I am your creator.

You were in my care even before you were born."

Isaiah 44:2

Meet baby "Gospel". The parents don't always know what name to choose, so Shopping gave him his nickname. He was so incredibly small, that I asked how many months he was born at, but they don't keep track of time and didn't know. When his dad brought me to him, these little girls were the ones caring for him, while the mother stayed close to a fire. I was already so extremely hot (since it was noontime in the tropics) without even getting near the fire, but they must have some belief or tradition that the fire helps. The miracle of God creating a new person inside of his/her mother,

is one of the most inconceivable miracles for me to fathom.

I love pregnant mom's (I know 14 right now),

I love the miracle of birth,

and I love newborn babies.

Congratulations on your baby's being formed bit by bit:

Marisa, Elisabeth, Mandy, Virginia, Kristie, Amber, Kara, Karena,

Hannah, Meredith, Maam, Gay, War, and (one that is still a secret.)

Thanks to the Chiang Rai church team

This group of 19 students just finished a week of work on Phyam Island. They are from a church in Chiang Rai that our long time friend, Pyson, is a pastor of. I took this picture the night before they left for the village at dinner time in Mike's rental house in Ranong. They made alot of progress on the street being built through the village. The motor broke on the cement mixer, but it just meant they had to switch to manual mixing. Thanks Pyson and team for your hard work!

Galations 2:10

"ALL THEY ASKED IS THAT WE SHOULD CONTINUE

TO REMEMBER THE POOR..." GALATIANS 2:10

Ma Prang is the oldest lady in the village (no one knows her real age) and one of the poorest, also. She has four children, but because of different circumstances she has 9 children of family members living in her little hut. They did not own a boat. An extra boat was available and the team decided this family was most worthy and needy. Enjoy the progression of her responses when she hears the news from Mike.

Talking about her situation first.

Hearing the news that her family will receive a boat.

Praying together to thank God for His help to their family.

Some of the family members that will benefit from the use of the boat,

that they are standing in.

A day on the island

Once we arrived on the island, I took a walk around to visit whoever I could find. Actually I heard there were four new babies and I was anxious to find them. Everyone was going about their daily routines and I saved a few memories on my camera.

These girls were busy working in their kitchens preparing a meal......

These "black sea worms" as they call them are one of their "gold mines" in fishing. They get them from the ocean floor and they are a delicacy- especially for Chinese people. They sell for 300 baht/kilo (about $4/pound) .

This guy had just brought in a shell with a lot of fresh meat in it - which they told me is very delicious. I guess you can see that the ocean and what they find there is their livelihood.

We've told you about the "nets" projects and how since it is so important to them, we've invested alot of time and money in nets. Each time I'm there, I see these nets strung out up and down the walkways, as they all take turns working on them. Both of these guys were working on them at this time.

Our staff are trying to teach them to clean up their garbage, as it is not natural for them. They tend to just throw everything down and anywhere too- until it gets pretty nasty looking. Shopping had passed out black garbage bags to them-- and I saw at least 20 bags being filled up on this clean-up project. I'm wondering how long it will take them to figure out that if they put it in a container to start with-- they won't have to have these clean-up days.

This is by far my very favorite. The ocean is the kids playground and they are so amazing to watch in the water, because they are like fish at such young ages. They spend hours in the water with no parental supervision. There were about 9 of them climbing up the pier steps and jumping in the water over and over. I have so many pictures of them showing how much fun they are having but since they don't wear clothes, it's a lot of bare little bottoms. I think I'm not suppose to post those on the internet, so this little guy is the only one I can post.

Back to Koh Chang (Elephant Island)

Last week, our time at the islands went by so fast, and I didn't get a chance to post about Koh Chang. We took the boat trip from Phayam Island to Chang Island early in the morning and the sea was very peaceful and beautiful. This is some of the gorgeous views we saw as we travelled between the two villages on an early morn. trip. These homes are just around the bend from our our village on Koh Chang.
Approaching Koh Chang at high tide. Thanks to all the projects who helped build the pier. You can see it even has steps now. It makes the loading/unloading so much easier, and is the favorite meeting place for all the villagers. I just talked with Mike who is in the south and they just had another death of a family member on the team that works on the islands. That makes 3 family member deaths in the past month. A mom, a dad, and now a brother. This death was caused by a drowning suicide. Four of the team (the 2 couples) just left for a 24 hour drive to northern Thailand to be with the family. In the meantime, Shopping has brought 14 of his family members to work on the island with him this week. Mike said that all 14 of them slept in his little rental last night- and then left for the island today. They are trying to build a path/street through the villages on Phayam and that will be their project this week.

Kites for Collin & Summer

Dear Collin and Summer,
Three weeks from today, we will be travelling from Thailand to the USA on a long airplane ride. We can hardly wait to see you and play together again. We found these kites or "Wow's" at the beach and thought they would be really fun to fly together. We bought one for all of us. Can you look for a big field or park in Arkansas to fly them high in the sky? We are so excited!
Love and hugs,
Papa and Nina

Fishermen

It was really fun to pass this boat out in the middle of the ocean last week as they were pulling in a huge net full of fish. It definitely took some good team work to get it in the boat. Jesus used fisherman so many times in the Bible as illustrations and the Moken people love watching those parts of the Jesus Film.

One of those days...

Yippee.... I'm back in our home in Chiang Mai and feeling the "There's no place like home" syndrome! Today was a day of waiting at Thai government offices to get some needed tasks done. First 1/2 hour at the immigration office to get a permit to leave Thailand and come back into the country..... then 1 1/2 hours at a bank to try and set up automatic payments for bills so that we don't have to pay them one by one at each location every month (only half successful on that one as more documents are still needed).... and then the shocking one was the stop at the Drivers License renewal office. My license was not expired and I just needed a simple renewal. The laws have changed and I need 4 different documents and I need to take a Drivers Training course, even though I've been driving in this country for 22 years. I'm quite curious to find out what I will learn in this course- should be interesting! I'll let you know!

Dr. Pepper

When Boonjome and Lamai came back from their trip to the USA- they brought a gift for Mike that they know most Americans really miss. Dr. Pepper is not sold here, which makes people who like it crave it all the more. At the LTI camp, Mike received this cute football shaped bottle of Dr. Pepper from them. Knowing that our American Stint team would enjoy a taste of it, Mike made a little ceremony out of serving the delicacy.

Almost looks like communion, doesn't it? It was actually a "cheers" to Dr. Pepper fans!
Vinnie definitely had the greatest appreciation of it, causing others to want to share their savor with him.
This is the stint team leading the camp sport time which they did each day. They did a great job-- it may have just been the Dr. Pepper that helped them!

LTI (Leadership Training Institute)

It is semester break right now, on the Thai university campuses. School is off almost the whole month of October. Each of our four ministry regions uses the school break to have an annual student camp with those students who have been involved during the first semester of school. We just came back from a visit to the one for northern Thailand. It is still going on as I write, October 17 to 20. Last night they asked Mike and I to share with the students about the beginning days of TCCC here in Chiang Mai. How well we remember moving up here and not knowing a single student in 1992. How encouraging to see the room full this year of 160 students and 20 staff worshipping God together, just from Chiang Mai. They are having a great time with a full daily schedule of big group meetings, small group discussions, seminars at different levels (depending on how many previous trainings they've been to), sports time, eating, sleeping and just doing the "camp thing" together for 4 days. These focused four days are usually some of our most fruitful days out of the whole semester. Their enthusiasm is contagious as they spend time with each other and grow together. Please pray for these camps and lasting fruit in each of the regions. Tomorrow morning we leave early to visit our campus teams in the southern most part of Thailand, Hat Yai. Pray that God will help us to be an encouragement to them while we are there Sunday to Tuesday.

WE JUST VOTED!

Our absentee ballots are sealed and we will now take them to FED EX or the US Consulate for the free mailing. We're feeling the wonderful freedom of every American to make their vote count, but we are confused about one thing. The deadline for absentee ballots is November 10. It seems that means, our vote will not really matter if it does not get there in time to be counted Nov. 4 on election day. However, does that mean that if there is a discrepancy again-- that it is our one absentee ballot that could make the difference when it is counted - after election day? Sorry- we are not too up on American voting politics-- but it seems it's the best way to explain this instruction on our absentee ballot. It reads: " The ballot must be postmarked on or before Nov. 3. The ballot most also arrive at the Auditor's Office in Iowa by noon on Nov. 10 or it cannot be counted." God Bless America!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MICHAEL!

Today, it's just the two of us celebrating Mike's birthday- but it is exciting that we are together in our own home. Today he turns somewhere between 50 and 60- and it's closer starting this year to the upper halfway part. (If you know what I mean)

This post is in celebration of the life of one incredible dude! I am so thankful for his life and all the remarkable characteristics that God has built into him.


Just to name a few:

1) Servant is a word to really describe him. He is the best example I have ever seen of someone always available to serve others, no matter how inconvenient it is and never with a complaint.

2) My daughters and our staff women have told me that they want to marry a man just like Mike. Those feelings speak volumes in my opinion, of a life well lived.

3) His enduring love for me! :)

4) Patient and cool. After knowing this guy for more than 34 years, I can honesty say that I've never seen him lose his temper or blow up. Even last month when I lost something pretty important, he did not blame me or accuse me.

5) A sincere heart to honor God in every area of his life and sensitive to God's spirit in him.

Happy Birthday to my incredible life companion! It's been amazing to live this adventure with you!