...and a Happy New Year!

 Happy New Year, friends!

2018 brought the unexpected in all the right ways.  

• Our Thai church is growing
• Our ladies' Bible study has 7 women attending weekly.
• A men's group was started and meets weekly.
• We're having a baby!
• The kids are in school and have all flourished there.  They are memorizing scripture and teachers are speaking God's Word into their lives.  They have also made friends. :)

 The house we moved to in October has a great yard and covered area.  It was the 

perfect place for our Thai church to celebrate Christmas together.  Watching God's people 

gather together fills my heart.  

 This little hill with the huge tree and a couple swings is the favorite spot for the boys.

They were covered in dirt by the time they left.

 We played some silly games together.  Teams had to blow up balloons

and fill the pantyhose until they made antlers for their "reindeer."  

Games are such a fun way to bridge the cultural and language barrier...

laughter is universal!

 This is our neighbor from 4 years ago.  She invited us to a concert

at her church!  Sometime between then and now she has been involved with church.  

She was so excited to see us and we were excited to see her and celebrate with 200 people.  

(We were the only non-Thai people in attendance!)

 Callie and I went on an adventure to find supplies to create a firepit and 

wire hotdog/marshmallow roasters.  Would you believe we found it all at one store?!  

This cement piece was for the fire and the wire was for the roasters.  Not pictured

are pieces of wood we used for the handles.  The man at the shop cut all of the pieces and

then Ken drilled holes in the wood.  I was just thanking God for making it so easy

to find and make it all!  (And it cost about $7 for everything!)

 Christmas day: Our Thai daughter and I went shopping for 

Christmas lunch.  

 Fresh coconut milk!

 Moo-gah-dah:  Pork and mushrooms soaked in Oyster sauce.

So yummy!

 I love this grill-master!  

 Mango sticky rice for dessert.  These kids LOVE mangoes!

 The day after Christmas we toured temple ruins.  It's

a humbling reminder of the history of our host country.

 I'm so thankful that we are here.  Our Father has done so 

much this past year in our lives and in the lives of the people around us!  

 This little guy has been asking wonderfully deep questions, like "Why did God create

Satan?" This brings about great discussions and interesting perspective

from a 5 year old.  

 We had family come to visit!  Feeding the elephants....

 Sweet friends sent baby gifts with my throughtful sister 

who brought them to us.

 Because they could...

 We found this caterpillar-like creature on the sidewalk.

A family hike at a national park.  37 weeks pregnant and probably my 

last hike. 

Please praise God with us:

• Provision: Our house is getting settled into here and the Father is giving us opportunities to use it for His glory.
• Preparedness: We are ready for this little baby!  People have given, lent, and gifted us with so much.  Baby #4 has what he needs for life here.  Ken and I have met with a nurse who has been here for over 20 years, who helped us prep for birth here.  (No epidurals, etc). 
• Family:  We have a college "daughter" as part of our family now.  We're thankful to have her with us as long as God allows.  We praise Him for her love and desire to serve Him.
• Upcoming trip to America:  After the baby is born we will be coming to America, (we'll need a passport and paperwork completed).  

Can you help?

We want to meet with your church or group to share what we're doing.  We will be in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennesse, Georgia, Washington state, and Oregon.  Can you help us arrange opportunities to present our ministry?  Please email, send us a facebook message, or text us!  Our current support will not sustain our family and we don't want to leave Thailand.  Thank you!

To our supporters and prayer partners:  Thank you!!  I hope you can feel the joy and delight we feel at what's happening here!  Our Father is so good to allow us to participate in His work and you are a huge part of it all.  We can't wait to share with you face to face this summer. 

Merry Christmas!

 Merry Christmas from the other side of the world!!  Friends, we're excited for you to catch a glimpse of what the Lord is doing here, so take a look:

Christmas party with the ladies group:
I spy one little guy who spied food and wooed the ladies into
giving  him whatever he wanted.

Fresh coconut water at a friend's house.  The woman with the machete in the
background is one of my closest friends and helps me with translating at Bible study.

Celebrating this kid after his choir performance.
Do you think they look alike?

While Ken was out of  the country for 5 days, I took the kiddos to school and took a 4 day (all day)
course to learn to be a Doula.  It was so helpful as I prep to have this baby.
I had some anxiety with Ken away, but God grew me through this time.

God gave me the idea to do a Jesse Tree project for the ladies in Bible study.
Many of them want to share Christ with their families but need some equipping.
I recruited 14 friends to make ornaments, one for each of the Bible stories, starting in the Garden of Eden
and ending with the nativity story.  

This was such an exciting day, when everyone brought what they made and
we exchanged ornaments so that we each got a complete set. 
10 sets were set aside for the Thai women as a surprise.

I didn't take any pictures of them opening their box of Jesse Tree ornaments but it touched my heart to see their joy.  They were also given the Jesus Storybook in Thai, so that they could read the story of the day and see how it all works together to tell one story.

  Each bag contains an ornament to represent the story of the day, from Creation to Christ. 
 Ken built the wooden trees and Callie and I stamped the bags and filled them. 
Thank you to our supporters! Part of the money you give goes to evangelism and outreach like this.

It came!  The Jesus Storybook in Thai has been backordered for months, but it arrived close to the time of
starting our advent.  

We played  some fun games and they laughed so hard!  I had a prize box they could pick from.  One woman who struggles between the religion she grew up with and the truth of the WORD chose this book. 

 It's a book I had when I was a kid and it folds open like a star, telling the story of Jesus entering the world as a baby.  What's amazing is that I had this book on display, near the prize box.  She assumed it was a gift option and took it, not even knowing the content.  I love that she left with the this truth for a friend to read to her later.  She told her friend that she felt it was a sign, because she had asked God for a sign.  Isn't that amazing? 

Will you thank God with me for the work he is doing here?  We have many praises this month!  The ladies in Bible study have began asking questions!!  This goes against the ways of the student here, but it's so beneficial when they ask the things they don't understand.  Today's question was about Isaac.  One of the women asked if he was God.  (She cannot read or write so she comes to listen; Thai is her second language).  We were able to explain to her how Christ would come through that chosen family and how we can be grafted into that family as well.

Prayer Requests:

Safe delivery of baby Mungle  (There are no epidurals in Chiang Mai, and only narcotics for pain).

Supporters:  Our family grew this year, with the addition of an older child to our family, and a soon-to-be- here baby.  With that, come more monthy expenses.  Please consider being a monthly supporter or giving as you are able.  

Here's the link: http://www.letsopenthewindow.com/donate.php 

Mail:  (Not necessarily a prayer request, but) If you have sent us mail we may not have received it.  We have lived here over 4 years and have received 4 or 5 cards.  Recently someone told us they have sent us 2 cards that never arrived.  I'm so sorry, friends!  I wasn't aware that this was a problem.  

Disclipleship: We see such need for Thai believers to be discipled.  Please pray that we are able to cross cultural gaps to clearly explain the Word to brothers and sisters here, so that they can grow and teach others.

Pumpkins, Piercings, and Poetry

 Happy Thanksgiving!
We have so much to be grateful for!

Baby dedication at church.  The 5 year old is my buddy.  He likes
to come sit and speak English with me.  He's getting really good!  The mother is my friend
and attends Bible study with me, and the dad attends with Ken.

We came across this amazing tree on a family hike.  

Max attends 1/2 day kindergarten.  It's exhausting, but he loves it.

I love finding shirts that get "Lost in Translation."

He really wanted Pokemon gloves and I had some yarn.
He's pretty excited.  I guess they make him feel fierce or something.

I had a group of Thai teens over for a sleepover.  We crafted until nearly midnight.

Here's their sock creation kittens (before tehy added the eyes).

The next morning we went out for breakfast. 
It was really yummy and so filling!  

My parents came to visit!!

Fearless boys at an exhibit. They drew a crowd and many people took
selfies with them.

Milestone: Callie got her ears pierced!  She worked towards being responsible and
felt such accopmlishment when she was rewarded with earrings.  

Bookbinding tutorial!  I kinda love that she's
a crafty kid. :)

Since my parents were in town, we were able to stay in the city, kid-free
for a few nights.  I still love this guy!  We don't get away, ever, so
this was a treat.

Goodbyes are hard, but this time was a bit easier.  They have
already booked tickets to come back whent he baby is born.  We are thankful!

This is one of our thrift stores.  It's outdoors, (no A/C) and you can't wear shoes,
so you walk on tarps on the ground. I use the shirts I find as fabric, or
scarves as table runners.  

And this is fabric shopping.  It's a huge market with many stores.
The fabric is piled everywhere and with a big pregnant belly it's hard to
fit through the aisles!

About 20 families gathered for a trunk or treat.  This is really special for the kids for a couple reasons:
They get candy and they can get creative.  We did a magic show at our trunk.  Jack is getting really good and the kids
were intrigued.  It was a great opportunity for Jack to shine as he often avoids the spotlight.

These are a few of my Bible study friends. I love these ladies!!

He just loves his baby brother.  

This girl is an acress in the making.  Her class
had a poetry recital and she did so well!  She really
wants to get involved in acting in a play one day.

PRAISES:

• I have made it to 31 weeks!  The baby seems healthy and is measuring on track.
• We moved to a different house.  Friends, we have a yard, a yard where the kids can actually run a bit, and climb a tree.  It is such a gift and I feel so undeserving of our house.  We want to use it for God's glory: we have Bible study here, mom's group, and will host Thanksgiving and a church Christmas party.
• Bible Study: Ken and I both have groups that meet throughout the week.  We're thankful for people eager to study the Word with us and be discipled.
• We moved a Thai college student in with us.  We love her and the transition went well.  We're learning from each other and laugh often at how different our cultures are.
• We have around 50 homeschooling families this year that Ken get's to support through his work as Director of the program.  They are serving throughout the country, making our Father's name known.
• Jesse Tree: I'll do a blogpost on this soon, but God gave me (Summer) the idea of making ornaments to correlate with the stories of the Jesus Storybook.  14 other women joined me and we will gift theses handmade advent sets to the Thai women in Bible study, along with the "Jesus Storybook" in Thai.