Mid-year review

Hello friends and family,

2017 is half-over and we wanted to highlight what has happened in that time:

This little neighbor girl moved away unexpectedly.  

We arrived back in Chiang Mai in January to find that a family in our neighborhood moved.  Their son was Jack’s friend and came over almost daily.  My heart sank because although we had conversations with them, we had not yet fully laid out the gospel.  Sometimes we share the gospel with people on day 1, but with this family we knew it would be a slower pace...but now it seemed it was too late.

One Saturday afternoon, the dad popped in to visit and get our phone numbers.  We were so excited!  He stayed and we caught up on their lives and he began asking questions about us.  This opened the door to share Christ with him!  He asked more questions, like “Why are you here (in Thailand)?”  “What if people don’t believe what you do?”  After he left, I was just jaw-dropped.  Again, God brought people to our door to hear the story of Jesus.  

After this conversation, it seemed like we had few opportunities with people.  I discussed my frustrations with Ken one night and then next morning prayed something like, “Lord make me ready to share with whoever you put in my path.  Hours later, here’s what happened:

I was grocery shopping and an elderly man, wearing 2 pairs of glasses approached me, “Is this brand of cheese any good?”  This man was American but had lived in Thailand for over decade.  He shared many stories and told me he was a writer and a Buddhist.  “Really? I asked, “It is a fascinating religion….interesting that it has no creation story.”  He was curious about what I said and after much conversation, told me I was a wonderful representative for my people (Christians).  He said that Jesus never claimed to be God, so I got to walk him through scripture (on my phone).  He had never heard that before, yet he didn’t want to follow Christ.  We talked a bit more and parted ways.  He said he rarely meets people who will talk to him.  

These exciting moments are usually chased with sadness.  Few want to hear about their Maker, and even fewer want to follow Him.   Will you please pray?   Pray with us that eyes would be opened and that we are ready to give an answer for the hope that we have!  

Max, getting a haircut.

Callie celebrating her birthday at school.

The kids are doing really well!  Jack and Callie attend Thai school 3 days a week and we homeschool twice a week.  Max is home with me everyday.

 I continue to teach a few teen girls  arts-and-crafts once a week.  Two of them got baptized and I was able to attend.  I cried as the handful of people who make up the congregation gathered around and sang a hymn in Thai.  Baptism is a beautiful picture, but to see it here, where less than 1% are Christians, it is soul stirring!   

I can't share pictures of the kids I work with, but here's a craft we made out of a pair of socks!

Ken has taken on a lot responsibility at the school in addition to being the Director of the homeschooling department.  The school needed a Deputy Superintendent of Operations.  Ken has an MBA, so he has been working 2 jobs to help. (These are not paid positions).  Through the school year we didn’t see much of him, but with summer here, we’ve enjoyed seeing his handsome face a bit more often!  

In Ken's free time he chases snakes....

  

...and sweeps up the termites during termite season.

We took a trip to visit, encourage, and provide academic testing for a family near the southern border.  We're thankful for these families who are often alone in their homeschooling journey.  They encourage us by what they do and we encourage them to continue and assist them along the way.

This ice cream shop has been around for 3 generations!

They mix egg yolk and pour it over the ice cream.  It has a caramel-like texture.  

Since this family lives so close to the ocean, we had fresh fish for dinner!  Amazing!!

We made this to focus our hearts on what Christ did for us on Easter.  We moved a marble each day.

We hosted Easter dinner at our home.  Such a sweet time!

Sometimes things don't go as planned, like when the power goes out  and it's 102 degrees.  Or when you attempt to wash your hands and there isn't water...for over 48 hours.

 After 2 days of the "dry spell" the water trunk filled our tank to get us by.

At a friend's house, keeping cool during hot season...

Celebrating Songkran, Thai New Year's!  Nationwide water fight.

We increased our Thai language study while Ken had some extra time in June.  We’re so encouraged that the Thais can understand us most of the time as we play with sentence structure and attempt to use new words and phrases.  Sometimes I feel a huge sense of accomplishment and other times I laugh at myself, like when I asked a man what time the door was opening for an event we were attending….except I said, “Yesterday the door opened.”  Nice, huh?   His look of confusion encouraged me to try again and then all was well.    Here’s another winner- I was trying to explain to some teens how to play Skipbo (a card game) but later learned the word I was using for cards refers to gambling. So what I really said was, “Today we’re going to play a gambling game.”   Yeah, that’s what I said.  One can only improve, right?

This summer we've been involved with a small group from our church, praying for and laying out a Thai/English church service to launch in August. It is exciting, yet a time of expectant waiting to see what God will do and if people will come. We need you to join us in praying.

I'll leave you with this:

She insisted on buying this outfit while we were along the Myanmar (Burma) border.



Thank you for praying and supporting our family to share our Hope with the people around  us.  HE is worth it!