Chon and Prasert

While Sarah was here, we were invited to be part of one of our Thai friends wedding.  It was fun for her to get in on the experience of a Thai wedding.

It started with their engagement ceremony at 10am on Saturday December 10th.

 Chon use to be on staff with TCCC and worked in our office.

Mike was asked by them to give a challenge at the ceremony.

In Thai culture the couple receives a blessing from both sets of parents. 

Amporn is Prasert's sister, who is also a friend of ours. 

Their beautiful wedding was at 3pm at a hotel in Chiang Mai.

They did the bride's bouquet toss in a different style, which was fun and unique.

Congratualtions Chon and Prasert!  

We are so happy for you and it was a honor to be part of your special day!

wknd of business & pleasure

Life seems to be busy and moving at jet speed lately with little time for blogging.  The Foltz family of six leave tomorrow for a two month summer furlough and it is a lot of work getting a family ready for that trip.  We know all so well.  We are enjoying extra time with grand kids before we say good-bye.

Last weekend we celebrated our 38th wedding anniversary in Bangkok.  It started out as a weekend of business in Bangkok- but ended up being more on the pleasure side. Mike had meetings and we had some other appointments, but the meetings got postponed after we had already gotten the non refundable air tickets.  With our anniversary coming up, we decided to go ahead and do the best we could to enjoy a weekend in the big city.

It started out by surprising Asia at her AP art show.  She is  from our home church in Waterloo and since they live in Bangkok, we do not get to see them as often as we'd like. She graduates this year and is moving on to college in the USA. She is developing into a very gifted artist as you can see.

The next day we finally got to meet the team that is here this summer from Univ. of Arkansas.  We have been emailing with Linda and planning this trip for a year, and it was so good to finally meet the team.  They worked with our Rangsit campus ministry in Bangkok last week and saw seven students pray to receive Christ with them and our Thai staff.

That evening it was time for  a Waterloo/Bangkok reunion.  It is so fun to have three families from our Waterloo church in Thailand together.

Since Bangkok is so big generating hours in traffic and our appointments were all around town, we packed light and moved hotels each night. From Sukumvit to BangNa to Sathorn, we enjoyed great restaurants in each part of the city.  The Roast Cafe is one of my all time favorites and we actually hit up two different ones.

Saturday was the wedding of two of our TCCC staff, Phai and Jing Reed.  We are so happy to see two of our staff working together decide to serve God together with their lives in marriage.

Their wedding was uniquely beautiful.  One of the students in the ministry created the aisle with a canopy of chandeliers.  I never got a photo of her ceremony bouquet, but it was made from jewels. This back drop was so beauteous, too.

Our staff all like to attend each others weddings, so it is always a great time for us to reunite together.

Then it was off in the traffic to another meal in the big city to celebrate our upcoming anniversary again! We recommend the Kitchen Table.  It will not disappoint you.

On Sunday, Mike flew to the south to do some work with the Moken ministry and I flew back up to Chiang Mai.  Before departing, we walked around the renowned Lumpini Park which was across the street.

On a Sunday afternoon, it is crowded with a lot of activity and entertainment.

This park is definitely uniquely Thai, like this outdated exercise gym/equipment center in the middle of the park.

Mike returned to Chiang Mai for our actual anniversary, and we enjoyed the evening with Jon and Marisa.  Sort of like a "double date" with your kids. We tried out the new David's Kitchen, and it was a perfect place to celebrate a special occasion. The service and food were very impressive.

Happy 38th to the love of my life. We did enough celebrating this year to last us till next. 

Congratulations Ga and Phil!

Ga and Phil had a beautiful wedding at the Payap University Chapel last Saturday.

I love the way the flower girls take their job so seriously!

Ga has been on staff and worked with us for many years.  In fact she was one of the first students in our ministry when we moved to Chiang Mai. This is a picture of some of the people involved with TCCC who were at the wedding.

Mike and I were honored to share the "Message of Encouragement" with them at the ceremony.

Ga loves white, so requested guests to wear white to the wedding.  Here's just a few of the pretty ladies, that I caught  on camera.

The reception was a fun one and although Thai's don't usually dance at weddings, Mike pulled me up for a short dance.

We are so happy for both of you, Phil and Ga in this new adventure as you walk with God!  We wish you a lifetime of happiness together both in Thailand and at your new home in New Zealand! 

Boom and Aom's Wedding

Saturday February 7th, we attended the very beautiful wedding of Boom and Aom Changsagol.  The Suebnateetam church was a pretty setting for their wedding day.

The reception was in the garden right next to the church.  Boom's sister, Blueberry was the wedding coordinator and did a beautiful job with decorations.

She made cute little center pieces for each table. 

The caterer's  area was a busy place preparing the meal for the reception.  On the left is Thai soup for each table and on the right is the rice for each table. 

Blueberry has a new baking business so she prepared the desserts for the reception.

My beautiful grandchildren were in the wedding.  Summer carried one of the rings, and Hayley was one of the  flower girls. 

 Collin carried the Bible that was read at the ceremony.

Nathan was not in the wedding party.  His job was to not knock anyone over as he ran up and down the ramp. 

The children all did a great job in the wedding.

The Changsagol family loves pictures, so there were 4 photographers at the wedding that did a much better job than my amateur photos here.  You can look at this album for some beautiful pictures of our grand-kids.  They were taken by Win who is a very talented photographer and loves to take photos of the kids. 

Wondering what Collin and New are communicating to each other here.

Aom was a beautiful bride and pretty much looked like a princess. 

Blueberry has a beautiful voice and sang a love song to her brother and new sister-in-law.

Boom and Aom asked Mike to give the message at the ceremony.

Of course, he had to share some of his memories of Boom as a toddler when our families started working together. 

An important part of every Thai wedding ceremony is for the bride and groom to kneel before their parents and receive their blessing on the marriage. It is a tender time and I always get choked up. I was actually teary during much of this ceremony, especially when the bride cried throughout her vows.

Boom and Aom are with BJ and Lamai here.   And did I mention earlier that they love pictures and that there were 4 photographer's covering the wedding?

The reception area had several places set up for picture taking.

Boom and Aom are assigned to the campus team at Khon Kaen University.  This is them with their teammates. 

The food just kept coming and coming at the reception.

It was good to see a lot of old friends of ours and theirs from our 20+ years working together here in Chaing Mai.

Congratulations Boom and Aom!  We are so happy for you and are excited to work together with you in ministry with TCCC. May God bless you in your new marriage together!