Sarah visits the Moken on Elephant Island

Before Sarah came to Thailand, I asked her what she wanted to do while here.  She answered repeatedly and insistingly that she wanted to go down and see our work with the Moken Sea Gypsies and visit the children at our Ranong Kid's Home.

Well, we decided that we would make that happen for her in spite of the extra travelling it meant to go to southern Thailand. We love to bring visitors to them and they love having them.

Boarding our little Nok Air (Nok is "bird" in Thai) flight was the first mode of transportation to get from Bangkok to Ranong.

Then it was the 2 hour ride in one of the Moken's long tail boats.  Sarah learned quickly the popular way to pose for a photo is Asia is with two fingers up.

Sisters exploring the Andaman Sea together. 

Sarah brought some clothes to give to the villagers, so as soon as we arrived we started putting them on children in the village center.

It was nap time for the preschoolers, so soon after they put on their new clothes, they went back to sleep.

A happy little girl with her new pink shirt and mama. 

As we walked around the village, it was so fun for me to show her their typical village life. 

More mama's with new clothes for their babies. 

This mother has two children in our Ranong Kids home and two younger children in the village school.  She is so proud of her children and asked us to pray for her and her children.

She is beautiful and decorates her face with the cultural powder to be even more beautiful. 

As we passed by some of the huts, they were repairing their fishing nets, to go back out fishing that evening.

I remember this young gal from when she was a child herself, and now she was so happy to receive some clothes for her baby.

Later in the day, Mike had a meeting with the villagers in the church  to get updated and have them share their needs with him.

Sarah was able to observe and then she even got to share a bit with them, too.

She's congratulating the guy who won the game, "Guess Sarah's age.". 

After the meeting they were given treats of hot instant coffee and chocolate and Sarah was amazed at how special this was to them.

Pia works with the Moken in the village and in Ranong regularly and helped translate a lot for Sarah.

After we finished in the village, we had the village head take us in his boat to the other side of the island to sleep that night at a very simple resort.

There are actually several tourists resorts on the other side of the island that are very basic and simple, We usually sleep on the church floor when we go to the village, but I asked Mike if we could take Sarah to one of  the resorts.  I was thrilled that I finally talked him into this, as I've wanted to go there for years.

It was less than 24 hours, but such a relaxing break.

Our bungalows were right on the beach and we listened to the sounds of waves and ocean all night long.  No fans or AC or screens on the windows, but what do you expect for $12 night.

This was just the start of her trip, but life on Elephant Island was a pretty good way to begin it all. There is more to come.

Christmas in Thailand-2016

So many photos!

So many fun and memorable times!

So little time to share!

This December has been one of my best.  Having my sister come visit for 2 weeks for  the first time since 1993 was such a treat and dream come true.  Lori arrived the day that she left and they overlapped for just a few hours in Bangkok.  We've been going non stop all month, with both Sarah and Lori- but when you have such a short time for a visit in a foreign country, you have to squeeze in as much as possible.

Yesterday, the family all left town in the early morning hours (on my birthday) and then I crashed. After weeks and months of anticipation and time together, it's now over!  I am settling back into life alone in this big house with just Mike and I, and just as there are seasons for everything, it is bittersweet and feels good to get reorganized again.  

I'll be sharing more, but here are a few highlights of our month of December...

While Sarah was here, I had all of our northern TCCC staff girls over for a Christmas party.  We had dinner and Christmas cookies together.   After the meal I talked about  how our families have influenced us, and we shared photos with each other of our childhood. We ended the evening by teaching them how to make 'yarn angels'.  They turned out so cute and it gave them a new Christmas decoration to remember from our evening.

We were cozy with 25+ packed into our living room, but they enjoyed the sharing together so much.

It was also fun to have Sarah here for our northern TCCC staff Christmas party. This gang really knows how to party, and we had such a fun evening with games, dinner, singing, and gift exchanges. The theme this year was "Winter Wonderland". 

Mike shared with our staff a bit of the history of TCCC in Chiang Mai.  Our first years, the Christmas party was always at our home- until the numbers out grew our space.  How encouraging it was to reflect over the growth in those beginning years.

We hosted Christmas Eve dinner at our home for 17.  Jon's parents and sister and family are here this year, so our grand-kids got to have their holiday meal with both grandparents.  That doesn't happen very often. We enjoyed having Sam, a teacher at GIS and Austin (of course) join us, too. 

Along with Christmas every year, is my birthday celebration.  Since the Foltz's and Lori left in the wee early morning hours of the 27th, we had lunch together on the 26th.

 It was special this year to have two of four daughters here with me. Yay for mother/daughter matchy tops! 

We sure do love our tropical  fresh fruit shakes and Hayley photo bombs! Happy Holidays to all! 

TCCC Staff Women's Retreat- 2016

Our first ever TCCC staff women's retreat was a huge success.  Thank you to so many who prayed for us and  gave money for it. More than 80 women who are all full time staff,  came to a resort in Chiang Mai from the four regions of Thailand (Bangkok, the south, northeast, and north) where we have ministries.

It was so fun to watch God bring so many details together and to witness many peoples different strengths being used in order for it all to take place.  Marisa did a great job with the ambiance of the room with fresh flowers and beautiful decorations.  People donated small gifts so that each time they came to a meeting they received a different gift.

Three speakers came from Arkansas and taught us so much.  Sarah taught us how to study the Bible with a new method, Rene shared with us about "Grief and Loss", and Linda taught us about Jesus as our Shepherd and how to  follow Him.  They were all three such a blessing.

Quite a bit of the time was spent in small groups, discussing what we were learning from the speakers and each other.

Marisa's table must have been very interesting.  Ha ha

Our Thai staff also helped lead in several ways, ie;  testimonies from them at each session, leading the worship times,  a different MC each day, etc. I loved seeing the different parts of the body work together.

On Wednesday night they had a line dance party. It was so fun to watch Thai girls dress up as cowgirls.

I love the way our staff "get into" any theme we suggest.  These cowgirls were legit and so cute!

And they learned the line dancin' steps so quickly.  They certainly had a lot of  fun with a new and different activity. 

On their evaluation forms, the most common comments were "this was my first time at a women's retreat," "I would like us to do this again and more regularly,"  "we needed more time," "God taught me a lot". 

Thank you Linda- for spurring me on to do this together with you.  It was such a gift to each of these girls and so worth all the work and effort. Yee Haw till next time!

USS Midway

While we were in the San Diego area with my family last month, we had one free day to spend together before all departing home. I'm like 'white on rice' when it comes to doing fun things together as a family. The activity that we decided we all would enjoy was to tour this giant aircraft. It helped us to make the decision when we found out that  Rod's friend would give us tickets.

We all enjoyed this aircraft carrier of the USA Navy a lot and spent most of the day there.

Their self guided tours were so well done and narrated by Midway sailors. It was so interesting to hear the sailors themselves tell us of their experiences. 

The Midway  was commissioned a week after the end of World War II and the largest ship in the world  up till 1955, operating for 47 years. It was used during the Vietnam War and Operation Desert Storm.

225,000 sailors served our country on this mammoth carrier. 

Mike taking in just one of the commander rooms.  We cannot even imagine the weight of the decisions made in these rooms.

I had never been on any aircraft carrier like this and was so amazed at the size.  There are 25 aircraft's on it still.

There was so much to take in from the sleeping quarters to the engine room, the ship's jail, post office, kitchens, dining rooms, barber shops and on and on.  A whole city was on the ship, and we still did not see it all. 

It gave us  an appreciation  and desire to want to honor the legacy of so many who have served America. 

 It was so fun to see the "Unconditional Surrender" statue. 

A big thanks again to you who have fought for America's strength, freedom, and peace. We are grateful for you everyday!

King Bhumibol Adulyadej 1927-2016

I have no doubt that you have heard that the King of Thailand passed away on October 13, 2016. After being in the USA, it was the first news that we received as we arrived in the Bangkok airport. It has now been over one month of mourning and I have learned so much from the Thai people during this time.

He was so loved by the Thai people.  They referred to him as their Papa, in the way he influenced this country.  He was the world's longest-serving head of state and the longest reigning monarch in Thai history, serving for over 70 years. During his reign, 30 different prime ministers served under him.

He has been the king that we have known during our 30 years here and for a total of 8 decades.  He is the only king that all our friends have ever known. They do not  know what life will be like without him.  His picture was always in the front of every home and business. We could see his photos everywhere, not because the people "had" to, but because they wanted to. His pictures were not always formal photos, but people felt like they new him in a personal way and his pictures were ones that they related to.   Some of his most popular photos were with his pet dogs, or playing his saxophone, or with a camera around his neck.  He did not live a luxurious life but worked hard to help his people and that is why they loved him.

As long as we have lived here, every movie theater has played a national anthem to the king before movies are played in the theater.  When the music starts everyone in the theater stands up and stands very still to show respect to "His Majesty, the King of Thailand." while a video with pictures of him is shown

This video of 177,000 people singing the Royal anthem shows the magnitude of mourning going on here.You can fast forward to the 6:00 mark.   Here is another video explaining where all the people gathered on that day.

The whole country has been wearing monochrome colors since his death.  We have now passed the one month mark, and they are still wearing dark colors of black, gray, white, etc. People who work for the government will wear them for one year.  I am impressed that even though the rest of the population could go back to their bright colors, they are choosing not to.  They are truly still grieving his death.

I feel like the attitude of such respect to their leader is especially in stark contrast to us as Americans watching the presidential election last week.  It was hard to watch our American culture from over here across the ocean.  We have much to learn from the Thai people in respecting those in authority over us.