OceanicThai

This time it is a New Year's party at the beach and across the street at the Karaoke bar. They are both blasting music and we don't plan to get much sleep tonight. We took photos and video of the local kids doing dances at the beach show/party. When I got there just before 7p.m. the monks were still chanting. The boat the local men made is ready to float tomorrow at noon, on New Year's Day. Almost everyone in the entire area cut their fingernails and hair to put in the boat to take their sins of this past year away. A priest came to encourage everyone to "do good" to their families, their nation, their community.

Saturday we did the party at the Nam Chem church we help out in, Wednesday we brought a group of 5 Baang Sak kids to the party at the Pak Ping church in Bang Niang. Thursday we picked up my dad from the airport after grocery shopping in Phuket. Friday we took the Southern Thailand Orphanage kids and the couple who runs it out to dinner then another church Christmas party at the provincial center of Phang Nga. My dad wanted to do something special for the orphans, so this is what we did. I think they had a lot of fun, and it was special for them. We also wrapped up presents for all 16 kids that went. The littlest ones stayed behind with the other orphanage staff. We got back at 10:00p.m. and I was amazed at what a trouper my dad was, considering jet lag. Today we had a Thai-style "beginning construction" ceremony, but done in both English and Thai, and of course as Christians, not as Theravada Buddihists would do, meaning we did not invite spirits to come dwell in the ...

We went out today to the houses built by the foundation Dean worked with and passed out Christmas cards and brochures about the center that is going to be built in the next several months. It was a great opportunity to meet the people of Baang Sak, this village, and see the houses Mercy Foundation built. I think they must be the nicest of all the foundation houses built here. I encouraged all the local Thai kids to come learn English at the center once it is built. The parents want them to learn both English and computers so they can get a good job someday. It is a good opportunity for their future, especially with all the resorts that are opening up around this area. I am wishing and praying for someone to come help me homeschool the kids, or that an international school will open up near here. There is so much more I want to be involved in, but my first priority is my family, and I can't shirk on my kid's education. I have been gaining proficiency in Thai and I can do ...

Click the title above to see pictures. This marks year 2 since the tsunami and this area had memorials up and down the coast. This is a day of rememberance and mourning, but Thais don't mourn like we do in America, even funerals are parties. It doesn't mean people aren't sad and devasted, it is just another way of dealing with pain. Eating, trying to have fun, trying to laugh, spending a lot of time with friends and avoiding being alone, that is how it's done here. Today marks the anniversary of thousands of deaths, and a day of great suffering for people in this part of the world, on the Indian Ocean. This is also the day that marks a great outpouring of compassion from around the world. Blessings to each of you that helped in some way here on the Andaman Sea.

We had dinner at Amnaat's house again last night, Wednesday evening. His younger son turned 5 years old. Grandma and a sister-in-law cooked up a Thai feast for everyone, mostly adults. We sat at a table outside and on mats. It probably didn't look like a birthday party, there were no decorations, no hats, no cake, just a handful of kids who were related to each other and a bunch of us adults eating Thai food. There were birthday presents, though, and he was all excited. Amnaat's wife died in the tsunami here in Baang Sak. He lives in a tsunami foundation house that belongs to his mother-in-law, built by Dean the guy we are working with, who got the project going to get 51 houses in this village rebuilt. Dean is quite a hero here. Now he is gearing up for his last building project, an Outreach Center for the community, to offer English, Computer, Guitar & a daycare center for working moms. We will be helping at the center along with another Thai Christian couple from Eas...

I was showing our wedding picture to a Thai neighbor yesterday when it dawned on me that today was going to be our our 15th wedding anniversary. Our friends just laughed at us, what a thing to forget! We forget all kinds of things, living here. Anyway, we asked Gee to watch the kids so we could go out on a little date tonight. She brought her little son, Pooh (As in Winnie the Pooh,) is his Thai nickname and they all had fun together. Jasper played the toy piano and Pooh danced around. They watched Tom & Jerry cartoons & ate fried chicken, Thai style, with rice. We, meanwhile, went to a local restaurant, The Viking Steak House, and had Jaegerschnitzel, my favorite dish there. 550 Baht seemed expensive for our meal until I realized that it was cheap for American standards, $15 for the total bill. Then we went out to buy milk and some other things for the house. We weren't even gone 2 hours, which we both found pretty funny. We thought about taking a romantic walk,...

Mayhem, madness, insanity, frenetic, frantic, mosquito-infested, sweaty, smelly, muggy, dusty, trashed out, loud, bezerk, outdoors tables laden with spicy, noodley dishes and mounds of rice, garish plastic decorations and multi-colored streamers and lights, babies crying, dogs barking, kids screaming, music-blaring, MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THAILAND!!! Celebrating Christmas is very different here in Thailand. It is not a national holiday, so it is a "business as usual" kind of day. Most Thais think Christmas is the day Westerners celebrate the birth of Santa Claus. Everywhere all over the country here this month Thai churches are gearing up for their annual Christmas party, which is probably like no other party you have ever attended! Everything is set up outside. A stage will be set up for the program/show with a bank of ear-shattering speakers and microphone. Dinner will be prepared for crowds of hundreds, children and adults. The cooks will wake up at 3-4a.m. to go to the mark...

We had Dean & his crew of volunteers and helpers over Wednesday evening, I made them pork roast, mashed potatoes, spaghetti, & Marcus brought over a big bowl of mac&cheese (his very favorite.) After dinner I said, "I have all the ingredients to make chocolate chip cookies! You feel like making them... please??" :) :) After a bit they chased me out of the kitchen so I wouldn't worry about the ruckus they were causing, (or should I say the mess they were making.) It was fun. So Dean, Brian, Marcus, and Puum (she is Dean's helper) made cookies. Mostly Dean made them, and we all helped eat them. It was a fun time together, and between batches of cookies we prayed together for the work here. I'd like to get more people here for our weekly dinners, more of the neighbors and more of our Thai friends. Yesterday Ton, a young man trying his best to live and pastor a tsunami-church on $100 a month, came over for dinner. I'm hoping he and his friends ...

If you click on the title above it will take you to the blog I set up with Samruam. He told me the story and I translated it from Thai to English and typed it on his blog for him. He told me how he wanted the blog to look as I set it up, and when he comes to visit us I can update it for him.

Natural Woven Bag Originally uploaded by oceanicthai .

Handwoven Handbag Originally uploaded by oceanicthai .

Wrap Skirt Originally uploaded by oceanicthai . Here is another product the women's group makes.

Lovely skirt/scarf set Originally uploaded by oceanicthai . This is a lovely skirt & scarf set that they have made.

Samruam & Guy Originally uploaded by oceanicthai . This is the couple that I blogged about before, who came from their church in a next-door region to help right after the tsunami and lived in a tent for months and months. They are running an orphanage in the Takua Paa area, a few minutes away from the Nam Chem area where 1/3 of the residents died. They organized a women's tsunami survivors group to make garments and crafts. They bought all the women's products, but haven't been able to find a market for it. They wish to support the orphanage and help these women make a living. We are very interesting in helping them.

Kennedy was opening a can of strong chemical paint remover that he had just bought and it exploded in his face. He called for help and a worker the owner had hired came running and brought him a bottle of water. From there, he managed to make his way to a water spigot and rinse his eyes off for several minutes. After that he walked to the house, told me he might have to go see a doctor, and went upstairs to rinse off his eyes some more. I quickly called some friends to come and take care of the kids, left them with the workers till the the friends could come, and sped Kennedy off to the Emergency Room. This hospital isn't very good, it has a pretty bad reputation, but it was the closest thing around. They didn't have a special eye-rinse, but the nurses on duty used saline solution hooked up to a IV line to thoroughly rinse his eyeballs & eye area off. (He said that hurt worse than anything else.) It worked pretty well, actually. He has slight burn marks around his ...

Amnaat made a big batch of grilled fish and crabs, bought some battered & fried bananas, & made Pak Khanaa', a stir-fried vegetable dish that's really tasty. We brought chicken & steamed rice, Dean, Marcus, Kellie, Brian & Puum brought drinks & ice, & something else, Lisa & Matt & their friends brought a yummy Thai Yam salad. There was fruit & we all had plenty to eat. There were other Thais there, but I think they were mainly neighbors. There were over 20 of us. I was disappointed more Thai people from the church didn't show up. We have made it our goal to start visiting people in this neighborhood, once we totally recover from this illness. We will start with those who became believers last year. Our party ended up being at Amnaat's house, a central Thai man that has spent a lot of time with the foreign (caucasion) folks who helped rebuild all the 51 houses of this village area. Last time he was over at our house he told us he wan...

P1010073 Originally uploaded by oceanicthai . The shell of this bug is a beautiful iridescent green. It looks like it may be a Flower Chafer beetle according to the book, except that the bottom is more rounded on the Chafer. Jasper insists its a Snapper Beetle, or a Click Beetle, because "you can see the drum on the other side if you look." He's probably right. I think my son knows more about bugs than I do!

Ken's Art Work some of Wendy's 007 Originally uploaded by oceanicthai . He probably won't eat another for a long time, but he did chew this little guy down.

P1010078 Originally uploaded by oceanicthai . Poppy and Jasper love their Rhino beetles here in Thailand. It is sitting on sugarcane, but it can eat watermelon, cucumber, and other juicy fruits.

Jasper has fully recovered, with Kennedy feeling stronger every day. Poppy says her lungs no longer hurt and the only symptom left of her pneumonia is a cough. I am taking longer than everyone else to get better, but every day I can do more and need less rest. In another week or so we'll be able to go Christmas shopping...that will be so fun. I already know what I'm going to get Kennedy. Jasper wants Lego robots, and Poppy wants another pegasus and a dragon. She's crazy about "mythical creatures" right now and always has a highly imaginative saga going on in her room between all the stuffed animals, Barbie dolls, horses, dragons, & Godzilla. The funniest is the Werepoodle, in my opinion. That's a stuffed black poodle she bought from Chok Chai farms with a dancing poodles show, we visited it last year. In her Werepoodle story, he escaped from the ChokChai farms, where he used to be a show poodle and became the "Werepoodle" which is half po...

While we were gone 3 Sundays in Chiang Mai, Luy, the man running the foundation for underprivileged children in Nam Chem, taught Sunday School to the children in my place. This is just the thing we want to see happen, Thais stepping up and doing ministry instead of us. He will probably want me to take over again now that I'm back, but in a few months when I move from the Nam Chem church to the Baang Sak church here maybe he will be ready to take over permanently.

Kennedy came back from church this morning (I stayed home, still recovering) to tell me everyone will be coming over to our house on Wednesday to have dinner. Amnaat will bring fish, we will cook rice in our rice-pot, and I think Matt & Lisa will bring something, too. So it will be both caucasians and the local Thai neighbors that come to church. That's great! I came up with this idea weeks ago but wasn't sure if anyone felt too enthusiastic about it. We have been gone for 3 weeks, out of the region, so I guess the idea caught on somewhere in there. I wanted to start a weekly dinner for Thais here in the Baang Sak neighborhood interested in coming as well as those of us who work here in the ministry. It looks like there will be many more whites than Thais at first, but we are planning on visiting folks in their homes every week now, so we'll invite them to come, too. There is nothing like sharing a meal to develop a friendship, and it is important here in Thaila...

My cold turned into a sinus infection, then a gastro-intestinal bacterial infection, so by the time I staggered into the hospital with my barf-bag I was in pretty bad shape. I remember the nurses giggling and saying how awful I looked as they loaded me up in a wheelchair. They didn't do that to be mean, Thais laugh at everything as a kind of stress-reliever in situations. I must admit, though, I felt a little irritated that they were giggling at me when I felt so horrible. Then they loaded me up on a gurney, heaped a warm blanket on my shivering body and stuck an IV in my hand. I clutched my plastic bag and they rolled me into the room I would be in for the next 3 nights. Every 30-45 minutes I would unplug my IV from the electrical socket and drag myself and it into the bathroom. IVs and gastro-intestinal bacterial infections are a bad mix. I'm sure the IV saved me from severe dehydration, but it was a big bummer to drag into the bathroom every 30-45 minutes for 3 days and nigh...

It was "Charlotte's web" out of control this morning for Kennedy. He found a little fuzzy thing, touched it, and out exploded zillions of baby spiders. He looked frantically around for the bug spray (sorry Wilbur) but I had left it upstairs on my quest to kill a giant tropical cockroach in the kid's room last night. He eventually found it but was pretty freaked out by the whole thing. I guess while he was running around the baby spiders were running all over the place trying to get away. Poppy tried, to no avail, to keep them swept in a pile. These will grow up to be the CD-sized spiders that really pack an evil punch if they bite you. We killed their mom later in the morning. We just can't share our house with giant spiders. Why do so many weird things happen to us? I guess some of it is because what seems normal to most Thais is pretty weird to us. Although I know for a fact they scream at giant spiders and cockroaches, too! Especially Bangkok-ians. They are al...

Not at the same time. I think he must have smelled the cat urine underneath somehow and decided to add a little of his own. Yuck! We stripped the bed, again. Last night Kennedy caught him with a really big frog and tried to take it away so he wouldn't kill it or choke on it. Our puppy wanted it pretty bad, I guess, and gulped it down whole so no one could take it away from him. Today he gulped down an entire chewy and started choking on it. Dumb dog. It's a good thing he's so cute! His name is "Buk Luk" a Thai name that means cute & fat. He was a gift from our last househelper. I never thought I'd like a tiny white poodle, but he sure has personality galore & is excessively cute. He thinks he's a rambo dog, but he's just a runty little thing. We gave him an English name too, "Froot Loop" like the cereal. He likes cat food, broccoli, raw potatoes, pasta, chocolate, apples...but not dog food.

I answered the phone and an older Thai man told me, in Thai of course, that he was the internet satellite representative and he had arrived at the falang's house (the white person's house.) I said I'd come right out and he called me "Nong" or younger, a familiar term only appropriate if I had been the Thai housekeeper. I was giggling to myself all the way out the door. When he saw me he put on his polite look and expected me to say something in English. When I started talking to him in Thai and he realized I was the same person on the phone he looked a little mortified. Then Gee came out, my Thai friend, and I told her what happened. We both laughed hysterically. It was a big faux pas on his part in this culture, and of course he lost face. All in all he took it pretty well and we all had a good laugh.

I killed it. Or rather, I plugged it in the wall and a surge of developing-world irregular electricity destroyed it. We've been e-mailing Dell in 3 different countries and it looks as though we will be covered under the warantee. I think we are getting the new motherboard from the U.S. and a technician will be sent (?) to come help us since we are in a remote area. We are still trying to figure out what the 3 people in Bangkok, Malasia, & the U.S. have decided on doing with us. We are impressed they are willing to help us like this, though. This laptop was the gracious gift of the Mission Board of Shadow Mountain Community Church. So for now we'll use this desktop, no problem.

We've been in our new rental house 3 months now. The owner comes in the evening and works on the garden. She comes with her husband, niece, & a hired man. I enjoy talking with her. She is Chinese in background, so is her husband. They have been so good to us, we appreciate them. When we first rented the house it was under construction, very simple, with no garden and no roof over the steps to the second floor, which, oddly enough, were built outside. When we came back from our 4 month trip to the U.S. we were astonished how beautiful it was, and were sure they were going to change the rent, but they didn't. It is still $300 a month and we love it. I need to post a picture of it.

This morning Gee brought me 3 little bags of chili candy to keep me awake today. She said I looked pathetic. I fell asleep on the couch while the kids took their mid-morning break & slept through memory verse. Poppy was mad she had to go straight to math without doing memory verse first. I've been eating chili candy and its finally getting to me. What I really need is another good cup of coffee.

I can't sleep. Across the street from us is a shabby little Karoke bar that blasts its horrible cacophony right into our bedroom window. Most days of the week both of us are dragging around sleep-deprived because of this place. When we were looking at the house at first several months ago, we were worried about the Karoke bar across the street and asked the owners about it. "Oh, don't worry, they will keep you company. You won't be lonely!" At first we were having dreams and fantasies of what we were going to do to make it go away. Blow it up, for example. Unfortunately, we can't do anything, not even complain about it. They are within the law, as long as they shut off at midnight or 1a.m. or something like that. Things are not the same here as America. The other Karoke bar in this area is owned by a policeman. You get the picture. So we just kind of lay in bed in resigned misery. It is miserable. Tonight I went to bed late because they were loud and I knew I ...

That is the used price of one that sold on e-bay today, the same exact one my friend Gee is asking me to sell for her. She told me she's never held $250 in her possession before, let alone $500. But here she is with this bag that retails new for an astonishing $800. She can hardly believe it herself. Here's the story: She and her boyfriend were working at a resort when the tsunami happened. She saw people running for the hills and screaming, so she ran too, 6 months pregnant. She made it, and her baby is now 18 months, his name is Pooh Bear (nickname.) Her boyfriend was a guard at the resort before and after the tsunami, and a while after the whole thing had happened he found this bag in the mud and brought it home for her. She found a big can of olive oil and a bottle of wine in it. She used the olive oil to cook with, because she's dirt poor. Her boyfriend probably drank the wine. She cleaned the mud off the bag and started using it. She noticed, though, that people kept ...

We have 2 female cats, Euphrates and Tigris, Siamese and Siamese/Balinese. Several weeks ago we discovered a feral cat skulking around our house here, probably looking for food. Several nights since we've been awoken in the middle of the night by our domesticated, docile cats fighting off this beastly critter. Kennedy says it gives him the creeps. Anyway, it started eating the catfood off the porch so we moved the food to our bathroom inside. A few nights ago we woke up to cats fighting in the house , and then on our bed, on top of us. I woke up from the screeching to feel a very warm, heavy sensation on me. It came through and got my nightgown wet, and I realized, to my horror and disgust, the cat peed on me! Euphrates, (our female cat) had been so frightened she just let out what must have been a full bladder right on top of me in bed. Yuck. I told Kennedy and we both got up to inspect the damage. Not only was the cover on my side soaked, and all our sheets (& my nightgown)we...

The ants are going to drive me nuts. Every time I go out to weed I am bitten all over my hands and feet by these horrid tiny red ants that make me itch and itch for days. I ran into piles and piles of them outside. I was hopping around trying to pull weeds and not let the ants bite me too bad. My face was all red from hopping around and pulling tropical-size weeds and vines out of the ground, my hair was all wild-looking, I was covered with red mud. I'm sure I was quite an amusing sight to all the Thais driving by. The little white lady with ants in her pants!

A friend introduced us to a mutual friend, a Thai man and his wife who run an orphanage just 35 minutes away from us in Nam Chem. We've known them for about 3 months now, and Kennedy visited the orphange. He is Southern Thai and has been a Christian for over 10 years now. It is always so encouraging to meet a Southern Thai Christian who has been a believer for a long time. Anyway, I made a blog for him. I can't upload the pictures for some reason, I'll keep trying. I am happy that we know someone who is legitimate and has a real heart for ministering to others. His name is Samruam Promkiri and his wife's name is Somkit. They have 3 children. The foundation they are with, Covenant Foundation, is Thai run and going through some really rough times financially. They were being supported $750 a month for their personal expenses and $1,250 for running the orphanage, which is pretty good. Their foundation has told them they will only be able to give them $750 a month...

There are still some standing buildings on the beaches where the tsunami hit. This is one of them on the Khao Lak beach. The cloth tied on the posts is in rememberance of those who died. Incense and candles are put near them, too.

The epicenter for the Vegetarian Festival of Southern Thailand is 20 minutes away from here in the town of Takua Paa. It is a festival brought over from China by tin miners. As the story goes, a terrible illness broke out in the worker's camp, and the miners felt it was because they had failed to celebrate the festival since their migration from China to Thailand, and the spirits were angry. Thus began this annual festival. Every year the spirits, 10 Buddhist kings that reached Nirvana and who want to return to bless the people, choose people they will enter and use to bless everyone. Those chosen go into a trance-like state and get into a line at a peircing station where skewers will be thrust into their cheeks and sometimes into their forearms or other parts of their body. Then they go around the town in groups to tables set with tea and fruits by those households that want to get blessed. There is a lot more detail to it than this, of course, but this is probably plenty f...

Such an innocuous name for this festival. Kennedy will write about his time at the festival's center a few days ago. It is almost over now.

Thai pastors and church-workers came to Nam Chem's community center to start the workshop Kennedy coordinated for this week. Our guest speaker, Dr. Bob, and his wife Noreen, came in yesterday. Our "boss" came in on the same flight, Paul and his lovely wife Ruth. We'll finally get some extended time to talk this week after the workshop and in-between our move. Phanu also came, and he has translated for Dr. Bob's workshops 3 times now in Bangkok. What a blessing to have someone who understands the material so well do the translation. I bought flower arrangements for the workshop (Thai culture) from the flower-shop lady next door. She is buying most of our furniture. It's best that way, after 7 years and 3 moves everything is definitely a little (lot) worse for the wear. I'm not even sure it would make another move intact. It is good to be back here. Despite all the previous complaining we heard from our kids about Thai food, they are thrilled to be ea...

Kennedy made us another cappucino after lunch but I am definitely feeling the jet lag...kind of like being half here and half in the twilight zone!

I woke up at 4:30 a.m. due to the time change. (If only I could wake up that time every morning!) I took a bike ride shortly after 6. It is so lush here, all the rain has made all the trees and bushes green and flowering again. It is lovely. We watched the sun rise from our shophouse garage door area & Kennedy brewed us some cappucino. Yum. I think the days of lattes are over, not strong enough, too much milk. The kids have been humming, singing, talking with the neighbors and playing happily. They are glad to be back, and so are we. It is muggy & tropical, this morning is overcast. Our cats are still alive, thanks to Eew, who took care of them while we are gone. Mold has been growing on practically everything, but we expected that. (Except the ceiling, I didn't expect mold on the ceiling!) Our stuff looks dingy, but it is all still here, what a blessing. Whenever we leave there is always the possibility we won't have much to come back to! We are going to take our first...

Kennedy was able to finish this portrait of Poppy a few weeks ago. We fly tomorrow night, 22 hours from California to Thailand. Our 8 pieces of luggage and 4 carry-ons look like they exploded, stuff everywhere, in the livingroom. Tonight we will re-pack and weigh each piece. Whatever is left we will put away again to try to stuff in our suitcase next time around. I like to bring as much as possible, because whatever we bring will, sooner or later, end up in the hand of a person that can use it. We are also bringing gifts to friends, that's one of my favorite things to bring back. Eew, my friend, gave me a special necklace when we left, and one for my mother, too. I will bring back gifts to her and her 2 boys. I talked to my best friend today, I'm hoping she will come and see me this coming year. I hope all our friends come sooner or later.

...and excited to go back to Thailand, where the bugs are much bigger!

We are going back in just a little over a week from today! What a fantastic answer to prayer!

Every time I come home I gorge myself on books from the library or books from friends. This year I read less because I became temporarily addicted to my daughter's Nancy Drew computer games. (Fun, very fun.) I noticed that Poppy, too, is becoming a bookworm (& Nancy Drew computer game fan. At least it's a thinking game, she is actually learning something, instead of blowing things up.) However, I still read some good books: My very favorites of the Summer: "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell (Thank you Les & Pricilla for lending me the book.) "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell (Thank you Wendi) "The No.1 Ladies' Dectective Agency" series by Alexander McCall Smith "Long Wandering Prayer" by David Hansen (Thank you, Dave & Irene) Others: All of the "Left Behind" series except the latest (Thank you Bear Creek Church, for lending me books.) Sonlight Homeschool Curriculum Core 4 books for Poppy's homeschoolin...

And one more trip, this time to San Diego. The kids don't know it yet but a friend is planning to take them to Disneyland, what a treat for them! This Saturday we're having a garage sale, so all week we have been busy cleaning, organizing, pricing, and getting ready for the big selling bonanza. I don't know who has more junk to sell, my parents or us. Friday we will celebrate Jasper's 7th birthday early. We'll be in San Diego on the big day, so we'll have our cake and presents a few days before. The theme is G.I. JOE. We tried to tease him that he was just going to get socks and underwear, but he didn't believe us. We'll have lunch as a family, including the grandmas and grandpa, and then we'll go home for cake and presents. Someday I hope we can have a real American birthday party with lots of friends. It's one of those things I hope they don't feel cheated about later. On the other hand, they never had to feel stressed that their p...

This is another landscape in the town near our village by the church's property.

This is the church property with taro root growing on it near where we used to live in the village of Wang Aye Poe.

Kennedy finally posted some more art. The landscapes are new, the other ones are older. Madonna is one of my all-time favorites.

We have been a week away from our kids now, and another week to go. What a strange feeling to be away from them so long. We went to the Chicago art museum yesterday-wonderful art, just too much to absorb in one day. Later we met with friends and went to the Russian Tea House (Tea Time? something like that.) Delicious food, our friends ordered entrees, we just ordered Borcht. Kennedy has been doing some beautiful landscapes, he hasn't posted them yet.

Kennedy has been to another painting class, with a little help from his mom, aunt & grandma. (Painting classes aren't cheap.) He also just finished a portrait of Poppy. Now he's doing a self-portrait. He brought home 2 paintings from his class and I can't wait to see them framed and put up. We have someone interested in working with us to help teach our children, I am excited! I asked Poppy about it this morning and she is excited about it too. I am eager to get back to Thailand and start a ministry with the youth of the area by teaching English and developing relationships that way. It will be great for those kids to have a good influence in their lives, this is the worst drug area in the entire region and the youth are a mess.

Not long now, 6 more weeks in the U.S. and then we are on the jet flying off to the other side of the world. Kennedy just finished a lovely portrait of our daughter. I'll ask him to post it on his blog. It has been so good to see friends. Our kids have had a blast here. The hardest thing about coming and going is that it is so comfortable here. The weather, the furniture, the house, the culture, my bed, (especially my bed!) Oh well, having an uncomfortable bed helps me get out of it in the mornings better!

Grandpa has been teaching Poppy some new chess moves and she finally beat dad! Now she's begging me to play...how long will I be able to excuse myself?

Well, we've been here 2 months now. It's been a lot of fun. So much food, such comfortable weather, soft beds, so much privacy, libraries, parks, sidewalks, bike-paths, wow...we are so blessed here in this country. I am always amazed when I come back from Thailand. It's always a good time to watch our skinny kids gain weight and do some fun things here they can't do in Thailand. I laughed out loud when Jasper was complaining how America hardly had any bugs and they were all so little! He has been having a great time eating desserts, going to Karate, talking to people (they speak English!)playing with toys and helping Grandpa. He is going to be 7 in July, a "big boy" now. Poppy is enjoying gymnastics, eating lots of cheese, making friends, and getting great books to read from the library. She is crazy about her grandpa & having a ball spending time with him. She will be turning 10 in a few days. It has been great to re-connect with friends and mee...

Art Scapes of Thailand Here are 2 of my favorite portraits that he has done.

It always happens to me, coming or going, I have culture or reverse-culture shock. Whether it is going to Thailand or coming back to the U.S. there is this adjustment period. It really does feel a little like going into shock for a few days. I am just getting over it now, after being here for almost a week. We've only been gone for 6 months or it would probably take me longer to get over. It feels like I am putting on my "American" self, now. All the social rules change, our role in society, our status and social responsibilities change. For example, in Thailand we are at a higher economic and social level than the average Thai, which means, in that culture, we have more privileges, but also more responsibilities. Expectations change tremendously from 1 country to the other. As we board the plane I must change mental gears, and usually once we arrive, I feel disoriented and like isolating myself. This is just normal stuff, though, most folks go through this, some more th...

We are back, for just 4 months, if all goes as we wish it to. We are here to finish some business with our new mission organization and to raise more support. We can't return unless we raise more support. Finances has been the hardest thing about joining this new mission. Our old mission let us squeak by on whatever funds we decided were sufficient. This mission has a far better healthcare coverage, it just costs a lot more. We are also required to raise 70% of the suggested budget for Thailand. We are so eager and anxious to return, so we are praying the funds will come in quickly so we can return in August.

Here is Ton, a friend of ours, a young Thai Christian, sampling Ken's expresso. Kennedy has been meeting with young Thai men who are really excited about church multiplication and/or house churches. He has the seminar on church-multiplication set up for August and will be distributing brochures & booklets on it next week to key people in this province of Phang Nga and also Krabi. It is exciting to see how our ministry is forming. We are hoping that the family that just arrived 2 months ago will choose to partner with us, they love our ideas of business and would like to go that route. It would be excellent if we could continue to use our religious visas and they could use a business visa.

We went on a visa run to Burma the day before yesterday and ended up on a wild toad ride. We drove around the town of Ranong looking for a boat to take us to Burma and found a small sign advertising boats for visa runs. We drove into the small dock area and found ourselves surrounded by Burmese packing some smelly fish product. There was rank water all over the cement dock and fish products everywhere in all manner of containers. Men, women, children and toddlers were busy going about their daily routine, they lived and worked there in that stinky place. A man bargined with his limited Thai and limited English and we got a boat for 400 Baht, or $10. I thought we were going on the relatively safe looking large boat with life-preservers. We ended up in a small long-tail boat with no roof or lifevests, holding umbrellas to keep the sun off ourselves. Two boys came along to help, one got off on another boat and the other stayed the whole trip, perched on the prow. We sped along a big bay ...

Homeschooling Here is Kennedy teaching Jasper Saxon Math 1.

Things are coming together for us as far as our ministry. These past few months have been survey months, to make a careful evaluation of who is working where and how we can best fit in. It has been hard not being able to pour ourselves into a specific ministry right away, but we were frequently encouraged that doing a survey first was an excellent idea. Now, as the "who, what & where" is coming together, I am so thankful we did the survey first. We will be working with several other churches and organizations in the community to help in the effort to evangelize, disciple, and teach new believers in the tsunami-hit zone. Our ultimate goal is to see reproducing churches planted, not by us, but by the Thais themselves. It has been exciting to see how God has given us the relationships we have needed to network together with other believers in this area that have a similar vision, so we can effectively help each other. Kennedy is organizing a church-multiplication seminar for...

The ants have taken over our shophouse. It started with one thin line of them at the front door, now they are in everything. It is hard to make dinner when I can't set anything down for more than 5 minutes, sometimes less! I put the spoon down from stirring the chili and when I pick it up again, ants. Ants eat our toothpaste, our bar soap, our garbage, our clothes in the laundry basket (especially the kid's clothes, which have bits of food on them.) They are in every room, in every crevice, and throughout the day we will be picking them off ourselves. Ants have ruined our electronic equipment, building nests in our keyboard and getting into our laptop. It is enough to make a person nuts!

We were in Chiang Mai for 3 weeks. We went up across the Burmese border to get visas, the border guards up there always give me the creeps. It was fun in Chiang Mai, as it always is; great to see friends, great restaurants for cheap prices, and great shopping. Chiang Mai is the handicraft center for the whole country, it's the best place to buy the beautiful arts and crafts of Thailand. There is silversmithing, woodcarving, weaving, metal beating, paper-making, laquerware, tribal crafts, it is really amazing.

Funeral at our old village. They are bringing the body to a cremation pyre.

They really are. Naughty neighbor boys. Our neighbors! They are the kids that were part of the packs that came over to play around our house when we used to live in the village. I posted this picture because it is funny, seeing them here as novice monks and knowing that they look like something that belongs in National Geographic. An "ooooo!" picture. But they are just kids, normal kids like any other kid here in Southeast Asia, on any other day you would find them teasing their sisters, making their moms scream at them, acting like "tough boys" with their friends, riding their bikes around, doing all the things that boys do all over the world. Right now, though, they are trying to be spiritual, for the sake of their dead relative for whom they have become novice monks for the day. For their mothers, who are probably feeling really proud of them and hoping they won't do something silly to embarrass the family. Hoping, too, that the merit they make this day for h...

Jasper Jude, my son. Six years old, he loves bugs, sea-creatures, space, & mechanical things. He draws imaginative detailed drawings that fill the page with his wild creations. A tracked vehicle with compartments to hold "critters" and rods off which dangle mosquito cages, going along a road with volcanoes and treacherous drop-offs, a scheme, presumably, to save the world! (Critter and bug world, that is.) Jasper Jude has a variety of nick-names. His Thai name is Mii, or bear. We call him Jazzy, Jazz, among other nicknames. He is also cat-boy, that's his favorite. We call him bug-boy, too, because of his love for bugs and "critters." Our house is full of them. Some just come in, some are our kid's pets. We found that if we let them loose in the house they live longer than just sticking them in a bug cage. There are so many bugs and lizards in our house we hardly notice them. Sometimes they fly out of a corner and scare our househelper, Eew. I think she...

Here is Poppy, at Thai church, she looks like she feels a bit sleepy. Her Thai nickname is "Meew" or "Cat" in English. She used to be a cat-lover, so our friend named her Cat. These days she is a horse-lover, but her old name has stuck. Poppy loves to dress up as an elf, or a fairy. (She is so skinny and tall, she looks like an elf!) She loves to draw, especially horses. She asks me, "Do I have a little gift in art, mommy?" I tell her I think she does. She is bright, a perfectionist, and spends most of her time in an imaginary world of her own making. Her dream is to be a science teacher, riding on a horse, taking students on bug-collecting trips. She is good at chess, grammar (oddly enough,) and is starting to read and write in Thai. She loves to read. She doesn't like to write, though, to my surprise. Maybe that will change once she learns to type. She is a terrible speller, we laugh together a lot over her funny spelling when I read her creative wri...

I found this blog to be peaceful and thought-provoking. She posts beautiful pictures of wildlife, particularly birds. No, I am not Catholic. Maybe after all the garbage blogs it was wonderful to find this one. You can click the title here to get there.

An atheist professor of philosophy speaks to his class on the problem science has with God, The Almighty. He asks one of his new Muslim students to stand and..... Professor: You are a Muslim, aren't you, son? Student : Yes, sir. Prof: So you believe in God? Student : Absolutely, sir. Prof: Is God good? Student : Sure. Prof: Is God all-powerful? Student : Yes. Prof: My brother died of cancer even though he prayed to God to heal him. Most of us would attempt to help others who are ill. But God didn't. How is this God good then? Hmm? (Student is silent.) Prof: You can't answer, can you? Let's start again, young fellow.Is God good? Student :Yes. Prof: Is Satan good? Student : No. Prof: Where does Satan come from? Student : From...God... Prof: That's right. Tell me son, is there evil in this world? Student : Yes. Prof: Evil is everywhere, isn't it? And God did make everything. Correct? Student : Yes. Prof: So who created evil? (Student does not answer.) Prof: Is ther...

It's getting hotter here. We are drinking more water, wearing cooler clothes, sweating more. We will start to lose weight now, as our appetite decreases from the sauna-like weather here. The tourists are starting to leave the area, too. It is getting uncomfortable. We have an air-conditioner in our bedroom. Next month I will start doing more homeschooling in the bedroom so the kids can concentrate. April is the hottest month and the Thai schools will shut down. Last night it was still hot, but in the morning it was cooler. In April it will be hot day and night. In April we will get the glazed, overheated look and all we do will be in slow-motion. Thailand, you are so beautiful, but so hot and stinky!

In another post I wrote about how Asians feel westerners neglect their children by putting them in a separate bedroom. I'll never forget the Thai's reaction to our carseats for the children. They were horrified! They felt that with the restrictive belts that forced the children to sit in one place the entire time they were in the car that a child's carseat was, indeed, a torturous device for children. One time we were going to have our child sit behind us in the car seat instead of sitting with us. My Thai friend was so angry with me, she couldn't believe that I wasn't going to sit next to my child. "How can you leave him in that seat by himself!" She got up and moved next to him. "He will be too lonely!" One lady said, "I guess they are just used to this (torture) seat." Finally, after seeing our children travel this way for months, years, my Thai friend said, "Wow, they actually seem happier in this seat than out of it. Maybe it...

Jae Gan, the word for flower pot. That's my new word today. The neighbor brought over a huge bunch of beautiful tropical flowers. She is decorating her shop for the Ngaan Khun Baan May, the party for the opening of her new shop. They are busy scrubbing and preparing shellfish, horsecrabs, big silver fish and all kinds of delicacies for the Buddhist monks that will come and chant to bless her new store. She is setting up chairs and tables for the dinner she will invite the whole shophouse block over for. My friend Eew warned me not to refuse if invited to come to dinner. It would be disrespectful, she is our neighbor and her husband has a high position in the government, too. I have a gift ready for tomorrow. Flower arrangements seem to be the norm, but since she is opening a flower shop I'm sure she would prefer something else. So I have a big basket with goodies, a favorite to give at the New Year. I'll have Eew inspect it first, though. Everything must be done carefully, ...

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The Thai pastor of our church here asked us to teach the Bible to the Thai lady that works for us, Eew. So today Kennedy started with the first lesson of New Tribes Mission's Chronological Bible lessons, a great way to teach anyone about the origin & message of the Bible. Earlier in the day one of the men that came from Northern Thailand to be a volunteer here after the tsunami came asking for advice. He gets a small salary from our church here, and would like to work with new believers, but the pastor wants him to help with the building of the orphanage instead. Situations like these are hard. There isn't much we can do for him except pray for him and encourage him to take his problem to the pastor himself. The problem is, that isn't how things are done here. You aren't supposed to confront, especially an older. For him, it is not just his older by 25+ years, but the guy that pays him, and his spiritual leader. We offered to talk to the pastor, which is the usual ...

That's what a Thai friend told me this morning. "I look at you and your life is perfect. The only thing you lack is a home." She sees we don't have to worry about getting enough food. We have enough money for all our needs and more. We can buy airplane tickets. It is true, I told her, my life is good. We live in a shophouse, my kids don't have any furniture and sleep on the floor. We have a simple lifestyle with mostly ugly and worn out furniture, but everything is relative. To the poor Thai we have nice furniture. To the poor Thai we are rich and privileged, they have never flown on an airplane and probably never will. If I compare my life to the life of my friends at home in America I can feel sorry for myself easily enough. But when I compare my life with most of the folks here in Thailand, and then in China, India, and most of the rest of the world, I can be thankful. I can rejoice. I try to keep it all in perspective. I am not from a poor family. I like nice...

I miss not having to wear mosquito repellent in my own house. I miss being able to put food down while I prepare dinner and not worry about it getting covered in tiny ants. I miss being normal. I miss having close friends. I miss the cool weather & seasons. I miss being able to have nice things without people criticizing me and asking how much it cost. I miss wearing whatever I want & not having to dress dowdy. I miss not having to worry about everyone getting offended at the drop of a hat.

This is a picture of the worker shacks at the back of our house. Jasper & Poppy will not grow up like their American counterparts. I worry sometimes they will resent the fact that they didn't grow up in the middle-class culture they are from. Instead, they have grown up being a foreigner, often among the poor and exposed to things most people only see on "National Geographic." Perhaps they will resent the fact they didn't enjoy the affluence we could have given them; the same-language/culture friends they could have been surrounded by, the comfortable, spotlessly clean and beautiful American home they could have grown up in. The piles of presents at big birthday parties, or the beauty and glitter of America at Christmas time. (The glitter of America at any time, really.) Instead their friends have been from poor Asian farming communities; so different it would take another article to describe them. Our home was a rough Thai country home, full of bugs and lizards, ...

Kennedy has been all over the tsunami-hit areas talking to the Thai pastors working there. He has been meeting with other Thai pastors in the area as well, in about a 100 km radius from where we are here in the city of Phang Nga. It has been very interesting to listen to him debrief each interview, and hear how they answered his questions. We have been learning so much and it will help us tremendously as we plan our own future here. Thais don't think the same as westerners, and throughout all the interviews of the past months, we have been struck again and again at just how difficult it is to be a pastor in Thailand, & hardest of all, to be a Thai pastor in Thailand. The expectations are overwhelming, and many pastors leave because of the intense criticism from their own flock. We are seeing the great need to encourage these pastors whose culture demands so much from them.

I have been biking most weekday mornings, but I haven't been doing any situps or crunches. I bought an excersize ball, now I need to blow it up & use it. My last one became our family beach ball. It's starting to warm up here, but the evenings and mornings are still comfortable. In a few more weeks we will be sweaty and hot all the time. Come April we will be in a virtual sauna, lose our appetite, it will be hard to do anything that month because of the intense heat. Thai schools have their break that month, it is too hot to do much.

Our visas run out end of February and we need to go to Chiang Mai to get a new one. We also have some other business there, so we'll spend about 13 days in the Lanna Kingdom, (Chiang Mai, as it used to be called.) We are looking at condotels, some as low as $100 a month, that are what they sound like, a cross between a hotel room and a condo. The lowest ones aren't so wonderful, but they rent for either $12 a day or $100 a month, can't beat the price! They have higher-priced ones; really there is something for every budget. We will look for something clean and quiet. Breakfast included would be nice. There is one beautiful place that is running a special for $20 a night including breakfast if you stay a week. Breakfast and a bed for the kids would make it $30 a night. Living here so long makes it hard to want to pay the extra $10 a night. I think we will bring a mattress & sheets for the kids and some extra croissants and yogurt in the morning for the kids. They might g...

Poppy & Jasper's friends from church, Gip, F, Ap, Mee, were jumping with joy when their parents gave them permission to go on an outing with us, "by tiaw." First we had lunch; spicy fried pork with bay leaves, fried eggs, fried chili peppers and meat, all over rice, 90 cents a plate. Then we toured the sad little zoo of Phang Nga. After that we went to the city park, Forest Monk Cave. For Thailand it is a large and particularly lovely park. We found some bananas and fed the monkeys. We ran around the caves and ate a Thai version of crepes, 25 cents each. Then we went to the newly installed playground equipment and the kids played & played. I was so happy for our kids, they finally feel like they have friends. We will try to get them together with their friends every week on Sundays. Ap and F get horribly carsick, so we can't go too far. Someday we want to take them to the beach, they haven't been for years, and they are so close by. Like most Thai families...

They were all waving and shouting "hello" frantically, and when I finally made it over to where they were swimming, in their clothes, they grabbed my pale hands with their small brown ones and started asking me a million questions. They were children of both Buddhist and Muslim parents, the ones that owned the line of "long-tail" boats along the seashore. They told me they lived nearby, and with one girl on one hand and another on my other hand, they took me exploring around the tidal pools, telling me all they knew. When they found out I had kids they raced off to get them, too. All 4 of us played together with them, about 16 kids aged from 8 to 12. They gave us rides on their funny rag-tag boat, picked up a sea cucumber for us to touch, and we had a wonderful time playing in the water together for nearly 2 hours. They asked us why we didn't move there near them. I started wondering why not, too! What wonderful friends they would make for Poppy & Jasper. Wh...

Today is Wan Dek, Children's Day, in Thailand. All over the country prizes and treats are given out, and every park, zoo, aquarium, whatever, is free today. Children of all ages dressed up in costumes and danced on stages. Today is the most exciting day for a child in Thailand. Games, crafts, blow-up slides & balloons...fun to be had everywhere.

Taboos...it is easier now to simply know them by feeling instead of having to try to remember them all, like several years ago. Several years ago I was afraid to say much, do much, because there were so many cultural taboos here in Thailand that I had read about, heard about, or been corrected on. Today, many times I don't think about it first, but I feel it first. First there is a bad feeling, then the reason will come later, swimming up from some part of my brain. Sometimes I don't know the reason, it is merely intuitive, and then when I ask a friend about it later they will explain why. Sometimes, though, they can't explain why. Just like sometimes I can't explain the "why" of my own culture to them. Often I have been asked, "Why do you keep your children in a separate bed, even in a separate room?" It seems kind of mean to Asians. I couldn't answer that one. I just know we westerners have done it a long time, except when there wasn't room...

My friend came to see us this past weekend. I was so happy to spend time with her, talking about life and showing her around. We went to the ocean, we took her to look at the tsunami-hit areas, the monuments and the reconstruction. When she left I felt awful. Then I realized much of what I have been feeling these past few months has been loneliness. When I'm with a friend I feel wonderful, all the bad feelings go away. How could I not recognize such a simple emotion? Perhaps because it made itself manifest in so many unrecognizable ways. It is the most comforting thing to be with a friend that you are not a "foreigner" to, because that is the feeling we must live with here day in and day out, being a foreigner. Looking strange, acting strange, eating strange food, speaking a strange language, probably even smelling strange. To their credit, our Thai friends and acquaintances work hard to make us feel welcome, and we, too, work hard to do things "the Thai way." N...

The flowershop lady starting her business next door to our shophouse was outside planting rows of palms, honey-sweet flowered bushes, and some other low palm bush in a row down her driveway. Horsetail and other tropical reeds in large pots were placed at intervals. It was all quite lovely after all the garbage and rancid water that used to be there. I went out to talk to her, it is the polite thing to do. She told me about a house her family was selling near the area we are going to move to. It sounded small, but very nice, on a lot of land full of fruit trees. It's hard to hear these things. To think of having our own small house on a lot of land is a wonderful thought. We have never, in our 14 years of marriage, lived anywhere longer than 3 years. The thought of having a nice little home of our own to raise our children in is a wonderful thought. It's easier not to think of it, really, because I don't think it is going to happen and if I think about it too long, I start t...