Our friendly neighborhood elephant

Ok, so we usually don't see elephants in our neighborhood but last night as we were walking home from the church we saw an elephant on the main street off of our soi. I asked the man if I could take a picture of his elephant and he said yes. There have been so many times in the past six months that we have seen elephants but never have our camera! So, here you go, again, only in Thailand!

Having a blast

It doesn't seem to matter where PJ is, he finds a way to have a good time. What a joy to have a child as pleasant as he is. We thank God continually for the blessing in PJ. He spent most of his time on the houseboat playing with small matchbox trucks and boats.

Swinging in the Hammock

Here's PJ with his church friends enjoying a hammock ride.

Our "hong non" (bedroom)

So, this is where we slept. As you can see the walls were pretty airy!

Christmas Day

As mentioned in a previous post, we decided to go on an outing with our church overnight to a houseboat. We did not know what to expect but we did expect it to be quite different than any houseboat we had ever seen or been on before. We left at 9AM Christmas Eve and arrived about 4 PM. It was a long ride. We were about six hours from Lopburi, west...and we think we might have been VERY close to the Burma border. So, as you can see these housboats are VERY different than what you or I might have imagined. They are made mostly of bamboo and are pretty rickety. They are all tied together...so we actually didn't float away...we just stayed in one place floating. We were on a lake. When we arrived they said we could have the only room with a bed off the floor due to me being pregnant...I was so thankful for that bed even though it was hard. There were all sorts of critters crawling around on the floors and I knew if we had been asleep on the floor I would not have slept well at all. The amazing thing about the sleeping was I thought for sure that since the walls were made completely of bamboo that we would be eaten alive by mosquitoes...but we weren't. I didn't get one bite, nor did Paul or PJ!
It was quite an experience going with all Thais to this place. We were able to chat with the one pastor and his wife about their backgrounds and their families...neither family are Christian but they have been Christians for 20 plus years now. It was encouraging seeing all the youth that were on this trip too. We spent a lot of time with one girl in particular. When we left the houseboat we went to a hot spring...PJ really enjoyed swimming in the hot water there. Paul nor I brought swimming suits or towels so we didn't get in but just put our feet in the water...it was amazing that there is water that hot in Thailand...naturally! Apparently the Japanese discovered this hot spring during WWII.

Pie Time!

So, here are Jan, Jose and myself with the cherry pie I made...I even made a lattice crust top!

Christmas Dinner

So, here are the two cooked chickens we ate for Christmas dinner (lunch). Paul being the great husband that he is got me a crockpot for Christmas! I was so excited and had it plugged in ready to cook up these two fine chickens. I was on the phone with my mom when I was unwrapping the chicken on the left from its plastic wrapping (we bought these at the grocery store and not the market). I was rinsing it off under some water and as I flipped it around I had quite a surprise...the HEAD was still on the chicken!!! I threw the chicken into the sink and said, "Oh, mom, the head is still on the chicken!" She, of course, couldn't believe it. I quickly ran and asked Paul to cut the chickens head off for me...and he said, "Just cook it with the head on." Being a civil American I said, "I am NOT cooking our Christmas dinner with the head still on." So, he cut the chickens head off. As you can see in the picture the chicken to the left did keep his feet and toenails on while being cooked. We didn't even try to cut off his legs. It made for quite a sight but at least we didn't have to look at it's head! The other chicken came just as you would buy it in the States.
So, the story continues. Just as I was finishing up putting the chickens in the crockpot to cook, the power went out! So, I had to roast them in the oven. They still turned out good and our neighbors really enjoyed them but I was really looking forward to trying out the new crockpot! O well, life in Thailand...never a dull moment!
I had some firsts this Christmas. I am not usually a good cook, or rather a natural cook. I follow recipes to the letter and even when I do that they usually don't turn out. But, I am getting a little better, I think. Anyway, I ventured this Christmas to making homemade gravy from the chicken drippings...and it turned out! I also made a homemade pie crust for the cherry pie Paul requested I make for the meal. Pie crusts (until the other day) have been a vice of mine but this one turned out! It was fun to accompolish these small (yes, small) tasks but it made Christmas feel special and not so weird.

Thiaw to Bangkok

Last Thursday we traveled to Bangkok to eat a Christmas breakfast and exchange gifts. We left Lopburi around 7:45 and arrived at our teammates house around 10 AM. The breakfast food was DELICIOUS! We even had GRITS! (For those of you from other parts of the USA, grits are a very common Southern dish and since our teammates are from Georgia we had some! And even though I usually am not a grit eater, they were the best I have ever had!) Our Thai staff, intern and short term workers were all there. A fun time was had by all!

Enjoying the fruit of his labor

Here's my PJ enjoying a heart shaped cookie with some red icing. As you can see he had been crying for some reason just before I snapped this picture of him. Again, notice all the flour on his body!

"huh?"

This is a new classic saying and expression of PJ's....the look while he says, "huh?" It's really funny and often times we repeat ourselves four times before we realize he is just saying it just because he has nothing else to say! Anyway, last week I baked cookies all day one day (it took that long because I only have one rack in my oven, but I am NOT complaining!). After baking all morning and after PJ woke up from his nap he helped me cut out sugar cookies. It's hard to tell from the pictures but he was covered in flour from head to toe. He really was very careful picking the cut-outs up and placing them on the pan to be baked. I think he is taking after Paul in his baking abilities!

33 Weeks and Counting!

So, here is a picture of me (a very large me!) with my birthday gift from Paul...a ROCKING CHAIR!!! I was sad that I had to leave my rocking chair in the States but Paul came thru and found this beautiful wicker style rocker for me. I LOVE IT, to say the least. I sit in it all the time and have enjoyed many reading sessions with PJ already. So, this picture is also for all of you who want to see how BIG I really am. All continues to go well with the pregnancy. The baby is head down, so now we just have to wait until the end of January, Lord willing!

PJ's Christmas Wonder

Paul and PJ decorating our tree.
Notice PJ's hair cut. Paul gave it to him and did a great job too!

Christmas Reflections

Last week we decorated our house with some of our Christmas stuff. I had gone to Bangkok on Monday for another doctor’s appointment and stopped at our team’s office for a few items. I picked up the essentials…our stockings and Christmas ornaments and I intended on bringing my nativity scene but lost my brain and left it there! SO, on Tuesday, Paul went to Big C (the local grocery store somewhat like Wal-Mart but of course not the same!) and bought a 3 foot artificial Christmas tree. To be honest, I was surprised they were even selling them here in Lopburi.
Oh, I also brought back a couple Christmas cds. So, Tuesday we put on the music and began decorating the tree and hanging the stockings. Of course it didn’t take a long time to do all this! But, it was so fun to watch PJ and the wonder he had (and still has) when we turned the tree lights on and turned out the lights.
We finished up our last week of language school for the 2005 year. We will begin again on January 4th. Our plans to celebrate are quite different from years past. Usually, like most of you reading this, we are home with one of our families celebrating this joyous time but this year, God has called us to celebrate here far away from the commercialism of an American Christmas. Sure, I miss family and friends but I don’t miss the huge commercial push that you have in America. Although, the reality is that so few people know the real meaning of Christmas here that they don’t celebrate AT ALL, which of course is the whole reason we are HERE! So, anyway, our plans include baking cookies (yummy!) this week and going to Bangkok on Thursday to spend the day with our teammates and Thai staff. We will be enjoying a Christmas breakfast together and a time of gift giving. Then on Friday we will be celebrating a meal here in Lopburi with our Dutch neighbors (this is also the day we will open our gifts from each other). Then on Christmas Eve at 8AM we will be meeting our church for the thiaw I mentioned in an earlier post. We will be with them until Christmas Day and we can only assume we will get back rather later in the day. We are really looking forward to the week ahead and though I am sure there will be some hard times in the week, we are learning on a deeper level what Immanuel (God with us) means. Just last night I was rocking in my rocking chair (Paul gave me a rocker for my birthday on December 2nd) and I was listening to some beautiful Christmas music and had the Christmas lights on and I began crying. Of course, we miss our families and friends during this time…I don’t think we would be human if we didn’t, but God is giving us the grace to persevere and trust and serve Him above ourselves and what we would selfishly desire. I couldn’t help but reflect last night on the great sacrifice Christ made to come to earth as a helpless little babe and to leave the splendor and perfection of Heaven to come to earth…and let’s face it even 2000 years ago earth was no where near the perfection of Heaven. I also read the Christmas account found in Luke 1-2. How thankful I am for the Word of God to sustain us through these times and how thankful I am that even though we are on the other side of the world, we can still celebrate Christmas and perhaps we will come out of Christmas ’05 with a much deeper understanding of what it meant for Christ to leave His heavenly Father and home to come to a people who would not understand Him out of obedience to His Father and love for those people (US!!!!). Reflecting on that great sacrifice brings great comfort and peace as we enter this season. Please continue to pray for us during the next two weeks that we would truly reflect on Christ and His coming and His second coming and that we would be thankful for His bringing us here to be used of Him in whatever way He sees fit.

Our Week in Review

Well, this past week has been an interesting one. Our landlord's father passed away and he was Buddhist...so we attended his Buddhist funeral. It was very interesting to say the least. We went to his cremation yesterday at the temple and Thursday evening we went to another part of the funeral service. Most of the service was in Pali (an ancient language that the monks use when chanting) so even if we wanted to understand, we couldn't. Mainly, we were there for our landlord and his wife (Phii Lina is a Christian). Everyone here dresses in black and/or white when attending a funeral and it's custom to give the family money as well. That is where the similarities stop between a Buddhist, Thai funeral and a Christian, American one! Please keep this family in your prayers. Phii Lina is the only Christian in the family but we are praying more will come to faith in Christ. Our landlord has had to enter the monkhood for three days to gain merit on behalf of his father. I have been praying that he will see some stark differences while he is living at the temple.
Other news is that we will be going on a "thiaw*" with our church here in Lopburi from Christmas Eve until Christmas day. I am really looking forward to this time for God to knit our hearts together and to build some stronger relationships within the church. We continue to enjoy attending this church though it is hard most Sundays when we understand so little of what is being said for two hours! Anyway, we will be going on a houseboat in Kanchanaburi province (I think that is about three hours from Lopburi). It's near (if I understand correctly) where the famous Bridge over the River Khwai is (this is the WWII landmark known mostly from the movie, The Bridge Over the River Khwai but more importantly thousands of troops died building this piece of track from Thailand to the Burma border for the Japanese. It is really part of a sad WWII story. If you would like to read more about it there is an excellent book out entitled "To End All Wars" by Ernest Gordon. It's a true account from Ernest Gordon about his specific experience in WWII building part of the train track). Now, before you get all excited about the prospects of our outing on a houseboat, let me just make a disclaimer that we have no idea what that means. It may be totally different than what you and I may think of as a houseboat. I am sure we will have pictures to post when we return! At any rate, we are looking forward to this time and would appreciate your prayers for us as well. Most likely, we will celebrate Christmas as a family when we return home from our thiaw on Christmas day.
*"thiaw" is the thai word for a fun outing that is usually only one to two days long. Since most Thai people cannot afford to go on a full vacation they take these short "vacations." A thiaw could be just a day out admiring the nearby sunflower fields or it could be a trip to the Gulf of Thailand to enjoy some fun in the sun. No matter where they go, the Thais always manage to have fun and to eat often!
Another interesting tidbit of our week in review is that I began reading and writing in Thai! And what a challenge. I totally feel like I am in kindergarden all over again. It is hard work and there is so much to think about all at once but it's also exciting to know that eventually (maybe in 50 years!) I will be able to read roadsigns, books, the Bible (!) in Thai! Being illiterate here in Thailand is not very fun and I am sure once I learn ALL the rules (and I am hearing from other studentst that there are a ton of them) a whole new world of learning will open up to me. For now, I continue to take one day at a time and review, review, review!
So, that is about all the news on this end of the world. I am traveling once again to Bangkok tomorrow to see my doctor, have lunch with our teammate and pick up some of our Christmas stuff and so I would appreciate your prayers for safety as I travel. Oh, speaking of, there is a student here for just a few months who goes to Bangkok every weekend and I will be riding back with her tomorrow! I feel like that is a huge answer to prayer, thank you GOD!
This coming week will be our last week of study for 2005. We will have two weeks off from school before starting back up on January 3rd. Please pray for us during this holiday time!

This one is for Grampy

Well, as you can imagine, PJ was thrilled when we came across some tractors at the winter festival last night. His obsession with heavy equipment, tractors and trucks seems to grow with each day! Here he is driving a new Kubota. I never thought we would see such a sight in Thailand, but right there before our eyes we saw Kubotas and John Deere tractors. Of course, for Grampy's sake we had to take a pic of the Kubota!

Gotta love having FUN!

This lady pictured with PJ is a good friend and fellow student here, Jose. She and her husband are from Holland. They are our neighbors as well. PJ loves them and especially loves playing with Jose...as you can see here he was having a blast (and I think Jose was too!). I am thankful for the way in which God has answered our prayer for good friends here in language school. I truly love and respect this woman and am thankful to know her. She is so encouraging and full of godly wisdom. I know I can go to her at anytime, with any problem and have a listening ear.

Decorating Cookies with PJ

I am really excited about Christmas this year with my little two year old, PJ. He is such a blessing and has been since he's entered our lives. It's a great time of learning for him. I remember even last year when we did our Advent Calendar how excited he would get to open a door on the calendar. This year we have an Advent book of doors. We have begun opening one door a night...again PJ looks forward to seeing and hearing what is behind the door. Anyway, one of our friends here made homemade gingerbread cookies from a German recipe she has. They were delicious. The best I have ever had, I think. Anyway, she also brought icing, sprinkles, chocolate candies with which to decorate the cookies. We, of course, encouraged PJ to decorate some cookies. He really wasn't sure about it but he did enjoy eating the chocolates from the bowl! Here we are with some green icing decorating a star.

Christmas in Thailand

This past Wednesday evening we had a combined fellowship (we usually meet every Wednesday with our fellowship group for prayer, praise and Bible study. This fellowship group is made up of mostly LLC students and mostly westerners but there are some Asian nations represented as well.)
Anyway, everyone brought a dessert dish that is common at their Christmas feast from their respected country. I made snickerdoodles. Though my mom didn't make snickerdoodles EVERY year she did make them occassionally. I really made them for Paul because it is his favorite cookie and yes, Mom Henry makes them EVERY year, (I think). So, it was fun to bless my husband but also share this yummy cookie with our friends here as well. So, some of the desserts that showed up were pumpkin bread (VERY good!), sugar cookies, gingerbread cookies, brownies, pumpkin soup, a dish from Holland (that I don't know how to spell or say!), wassail, and a tea/coffee drink common in Hong Kong. It was a lot of fun. We sang Christmas carols and drank wassail and then had a white elephant gift exchange. Now, you probably wouldn't DARE to have a white elephant gift exchange with Thai folks because the white elephants here are SO respected but we attempted to do it even with the internatinal mix of folks studying at LLC. (We have folks from the USA, Canada, Mongolia, China, Malaysia, Holland, the UK, New Zealand and I think I got them all, so even though we are all Christians our customs can still be very different.) It was a lot of fun and there were some pretty nice gifts received. However, we learned a very important lesson that night about Asian verses Western culture. One of the couples from an Asian country didn't fully undestand the concept of a white elephant gift exchange. And so they bought nice gifts and were shocked when (it happened to be Paul and I) were trying to encourage others to take the gift we got. Mind you, we liked the gift, we were just having some fun...you know how it goes! We didn't realize we were offending them and they didn't understand the idea of the white elephant gift exchange. Needless to say, we found out that this couple was upset...and then we felt TERRIBLE. What to do? Well, I went to the couple and told them that we were sorry, that we really liked the gift (and also by this time some other missionaries had explained the idea of a white elephant in a bit more detail so they understood the cultural differences a little better too). I still feel badly about it. It's so easy to forget that other cultures do things different...especially when almost everyone around you is from a very similar culture. We also learned from this couple that even taking the time to unwrap the gift is very important to them and to several other Asian cultures it turns out...and here we were (all the Westerners) ripping into the gifts and throwing the paper on the ground, etc. How offensive we must have seemed and yet none of us thought twice about it. Well, I don't want to labor on about this but thought it was an interesting culture point to share with you all and also to let you know that we once again were humbled the other night. Please keep praying for us!