A Little Bit of Christmas

It's been a bit busy here the past couple weeks. That is to be expected with Christmas. God has been so good to answer your prayers for good outreach opportunities. We were able to proclaim the Gospel so much...continue to pray for God to plant seeds and grow them in the hearts of the Thai people.





Christmas Eve we were frantically trying to wrap gifts as well as deal with two very excited little boys. We tucked the boys in but Calvin just didn't want to settle and so he started his whimpering. After a few minutes, it stopped. Later, when I went up to check on the boys, this is how I found them. Big brother with his arm wrapped around little brother to keep him safe and sound. It melted my heart! Thank you Lord for these children who love each other and look out for each other (and yes, they do have their spats...less you think otherwise!).



A few days before Christmas we got word from some fellow PCA church members that this guy, Abe, was in need of some medical attention. He lives in a nearby country but the medical treatments aren't available there so his leadership thought it best to send him to Bangkok...and as our Lord would have it, to us! Abe has been a blessing to our family and has settled right into our lives and our home, for which we thank God. To get him in the Christmas spirit, we forced him to wear this hat and decorate our Christmas tree with candy canes!!! (I'm just kidding we didn't have to force him too badly). Anyway, please pray for Abe. He is still recovering from a flare up of Chrone's Disease but we rejoice with him that he didn't have to be hospitalized and was able to be with us for Christmas, too! Pray that he would be back to normal health before he has to go to Chiang Mai on January 12th.







Adele has a growing interest in her baby doll! I love that she loves to feed her, rock her and tries to sing to her in her play with "Dolly." We got her some accesories for her dolly for Christmas and they have been a big hit with Adele.


Christmas day started with Paul praying and then opening of gifts. We ate breakfast afterwards and then we went to church to worship. We were treated to some special music by the Veldhorst wife and children and Aunt Melanie. It was beautifully done and such a blessing! We then headed home to prepare for the feast we were hosting later that evening (and for little boys, they played with new toys!)
[Pictured playing Risk from left to right)- Abe, James, Paul, Jonathan and Dave]

[Pictured watching "Little Women"- Rachel, Katy, Jan, Bekah, Melanie and Calvin]
Christmas night we had the American component of our team over for a meal and other fun. The guys played Risk, the women watched "Little Women" and the kids played Legos. =) It was a lot of fun. We also drank some wassail and sang "The 12 Days of Christmas".
One evening after Christmas I also enjoyed a hot cup of cocoa with a candy cane and marshmellows with some homemade apple pie. Thank you to Rachel for sharing her hot cocoa and marshmellows that her mom sent her! It was a yummy treat, that is for sure.

And to finish up our Christmas season this year, Paul preached his first Thai sermon on Sunday. Needless to say he was nervous but God graciously sustained him and helped him through each word and phrase. Thank you to all who were praying for Paul.

So, that was our Christmas in a nutshell. I trust each and everyone who reads this blog had a blessed day treasuring Christ in your heart.

Baptisms at New Community Church, Bangkok

Dear friends,
Yesterday we saw three women and five children receive baptism. What an encouragement to see these women publically confessing their faith and also asking God's blessing on the lives of their children!
These are not in correct order (had some technical difficulties).
First, we have Nong Phet (with his mom, P'Wi).

















Then, Nong Phet's sister, Faa.
































Then, Nong Mina...P'Pawn and P'Chai's baby girl.


























Then Phough Jai, daughter of P'Geek.



















Then Phough Jai's brother, Dur, son of P'Geek.

P'Wi

Fon

P'Geek, below.

Ajarn (Dr) Natee explaining what baptism is, pictured with the three women, Fon, P'Geek and P'Wi.

The parents with their children.

Praise the Lord with us! And, please pray for these families that are seeking to grow in Christ. Pray for the children that they would grow up to be bold believers of Jesus, serving Him with all that they are. Thank you for your faithful prayers for the Thai people...God is buiding His kingdom, praise His name!

meeting Aunt Lynne

A couple weeks ago, Paul's great aunt was here for a few days to visit Children's Christian Fund. The ministry had her time pretty full but we found an afternoon (the day before she left) to spend some time together. It was a lot of fun to get to know her and hear her impressions of Thailand. She left less than a week before the airport closed and I am so thankful she didn't get stuck in all that. Here are some pictures from our time together...

Aunt Lynne brought goodies for us and one special treat were these markers.

She also passed along this cute mobile for Children's Christian Fund. The kids really enjoy it.

Christmas Cup 2008

PJ's footballing skills are continuing to progress although today the birds on the pitch distracted him from the game some! His team is the Hammers (he likes to think it's a shortened version for Hammerhead shark!). Today, they had the Christmas Cup. The mini league played so well this morning and it was a beautiful morning in Thailand for football. It was cool and overcast(Adele and Calvin were in long sleeves and Paul and I wished we had brought ours along too!) and the kids played for 1 and 1/2 hours. =) It was great, but they were definitely getting tired by the last match. Anyway, here is PJ's team before their first game. Not sure what is being discussed but it must've been interesting! By the way, this is an international league...so some of the kids are Thai, German, British, Indian...and that is just on PJ's team!

Here they are in action.



And, the Hammers came in 2nd Place! PJ is SO very proud of his trophy. They also gave each footballer an ice cream. Yum-yum. Way to go Hammers!

Here are all the mini league division players.

And the last picture is with PJ's Coach, Dave and his son, "Sun."

Catching Up

Last week, we stole away to the beach town of Hua Hin for a couple days. It was beautiful weather (one day it was so cold we didn't even go swimming in the pool!) and the kiddos enjoyed the sand and surf.

A few weeks back I took the kids to the park and when Adele's feet touched the sand there she screamed and I thought "uh oh, not a good sign for the beach." But, she LOVED it...as witness!

Calvin enjoyed his time as well.

I have a funny story to share. When we were away was when the airport was seiged by the anti-government protesters but we were clueless. We didn't know anything about it. So, we're eating at a restuarant our last night in Hua Hin and one of the waitress's asks me if I am afraid about all that is happening. I tell her no, I'm not afraid because it's downtown and we live out near the new airport!!! She then asked me again, "you live near the new airport" and I said,"Yeah, really far from all that so there's no need to fear." Later as I was sharing this with Paul we got a really good laugh out of it becuase she probably thought I was off my rocker! I also should have said that I don't fear because I trust God but it just didn't even come to my mind to say that.


PJ playing in the surf.

And, off the subject a bit, we did homeschool Monday afternoon outside. The weather was so lovely and cool. I think it was probably in the 70s but I am not sure. PJ enjoyed the change in environment. =)

Catching Up: Campus Thanksgiving Party

Life was busy the last couple weeks in November, so that is why these are a bit outdated.










We had a campus Thanksgiving party the Friday before Thanksgiving. It was a lot of fun and we saw lots of people from different "cliques" at the campus come. In all (including MTW missionaries and staff) we had 36 people here at our house. We did BBQ (which is always a big hit, especially if Yu makes spicy sauce, naam jeem). We played games and enjoyed each others company. Thank you for praying for that night and please continue to pray for these young men and women.

(First pic, Paul and Avi skewering squid for the BBQ; Second pic, our prep team having lunch together).
Avi (the guy pictured with Paul in the first picture) is another story all to his own. He is actually here with YWAM until the end of January. I believe Dave met him somehow and invited him to English worship. He is Indian and speaks English very well. Anyway, Avi has some extra time on his hands so he is helping our team out in different ways. He's been an encouragement to get to know as he has suffered for his faith in India but it surely doesn't stop him. Please pray for Avi as he ministers here. He's here to learn about cross cultural ministry thru YWAM.





Another encouraging sign at this party was the leadership Thai Christians took. Here we have Huu (standing up with green shirt on) and Max (sitting next to her with red shirt) leading everyone in a game of Maffia. They loved this game.








And, Paul had some "games" planned too. The object of this game was to see who could blow the raw egg into the other person's mouth the fastest. (Pat, the guy on the right won!) The Thais weren't too eager to try this one out!!!

And, perhaps the thing that got me the most excited about the whole night was this guy's shirt! It says,

"NITTANY LIONS

PENN STATE UNIVERSITY"

Need I say more???? When I saw this I about flipped. Of course, he had no idea what his shirt said but I explained to him why I got so excited when I saw it. You never know what you're going to see here! And, no, he's not high, the smoke from the BBQ outside got in his eyes. GO PENN STATE!

*for those of you not familiar with central pennsylvania, I will enlighten you. Penn State is about a 20 minute drive from my parent's house, thus making my little hometown die hard Penn State fans!

catching up part 2; Paul's birthday

Paul also recently had a birthday. (He's even older than me; something I don't let him forget!!!) So, once again, we waited until our day off to celebrate. I made Paul a cherry pie (one of his favorite). This year, PJ was so much fun to watch preparing Daddy's gifts. By the way, I think PJ has the same knack at getting/creating gifts he knows others will really enjoy. So, PJ made Paul several lego trucks, boats, etc. He was very proud of his workmanship...and of course, Paul was too. PJ also drew him some birthday "cards" with drawings of dinosaurs and other animals. It was very sweet. It's been fun to talk about gift giving with him and to see him really enjoy making things and giving them away. So, as I alluded to earlier, I am a horrible gift giver. I had some ideas in mind for what I wanted to get Paul, but after searching malls and markets came up with nothing and so, he went out and got himself his gift!!! (A bag to put his golf clubs in for when we travel). I felt (and still do) horrible...but at least he got a pie! =)

Paul and his three whippersnappers.

PJ's Birthday greetings

It reads "HAPAE BRTHDAY LOVE, PJ" (not edited)

And, PJ's lego cars/boat he built for Daddy. (unfortunately they have already been reformed into other cars/boats!)

Birthday happenings

I had a great birthday. To start, my birthday fell on our day off so Paul gave me a morning to sleep in! That is always nice! And, then we did some celebrating at lunch time. Paul got me this book, which I have been hinting at for some weeks now. =) And, he got me a beautiful painting of a Thai village (but also looks like it could be in Africa) and a Thai tissue box holder and a really, really, really cute pencil with a frog on it. I must get pics of these things on this blog. I often feel badly for Paul because he married me...because I am just not a great gift giver. But, Paul, on the other hand always seems to know what a person will enjoy. I often go to him for ideas for friends, family, etc. He just knows what people like and his ideas are always so unique. Anyway, the book is about having a "greener" Christmas. The author lives in Britain so some of the recipes are truly British but much of the book is simple crafty ideas using reused, recycled objects. I've been pouring over it the past few days thinking of what I have here in our house that I could "whip" up.



The rest of my birthday we decorated our Christmas tree, listened to Christmas music and then our friend Catherine took me out for dinner and a show! It was great. One of the international schools was having their fall musical and they were doing "The Wizard of Oz." So, we went and enjoyed this timeless story. I need to say that these high schoolers had beautiful voices and good acting too. It is always interesting to me to watch a "western" play or movie with Asian actors and in an Asian setting. For example, when the tornado came ripping thru Kansas, instead of Dorothy's uncle yelling, "a twister is coming" he says, "a cyclone is coming!!!" It made me chuckle...your average Asian wouldn't know what a tornado or twister is...thus the change. =)

I also want to say "thank you" to all who sent e-cards and well wishes for my big 3-0. Yikes! I might as well get used to it, huh?! It was a great day.

noises in the night

It was 3AM. Adele woke up crying for a bottle, I groggily made her one. As I was leaving her room, I heard a noise outside on the street. It sounded like someone messing with our trash can, or a neighbor's perhaps...should I take a peek out the front bedroom window and see what was happening outside? I bravely walked into the front room not sure what I would see when I pulled back the curtain. I looked down onto the street...nobody, just our blue trash can overturned and our trash all over the street...I was mortified. What a mess we will have to clean in the morning! I wonder what caused this mess. A "soi" dog or a mean hearted Thai person who doesn't like us? I am confused and a bit scared,the fact that it's the middle of the night doesn't help! Then I head back toward our bedroom, I hear a noise again though so I pause before opening our bedroom door. I ponder, should I go and take a peek again? There is definitely someone out there right now, in front of our home, doing who knows what! I am a bit scared but somehow gather the courage to go and take a peek again. I look down onto the street and there he is. He has a cart dolly and on it sits a barrel. He proceeds to go through the trash spilled out onto the street and collects what is recyclable placing those items in his barrel and putting the non-recyclables back into our trash can. I pray for him. I pray God would bless him. I know it sounds absurd but I purposefully don't take our recyclables to the recycling center (yes, they do have them here) because I have known for some time that the poorer folks of this nation make a living by getting those recyclables and exchanging them for money. I am humbled as I watch this man make his living. I am thankful that in some convoluted and weird way I can help him do it. My heart at ease, I go back to sleep praying for the "recycling man".

On a side note but also goes along with the title of this post, the 8 days the airport was closed there was a quiet about our house at night that we've never known. Our house sits in a flight path and so often around 10PM we start hearing flights taking off or landing for most the night. It's become a background noise and doesn't keep us awake but I sure did notice the noise missing. It's amazing how adapted we become to our environments!!!

[A Thai recycling center in Ram 2]

Proclaiming the Prince of Peace

I turned 30 yesterday. Wow, it seems pretty impossible that I am 30 already! Sometimes I still feel like a kid but then when I get around the younger crowd, I realize that, yes, I am 30 and growing older!!!

Monday, we had mom's group and they surprised me with a beautiful birthday cake. I was most definitely surprised and blessed by their kindness towards me. It's so neat to see God building community among us. Thanks to all who were praying and continue to pray for these women.

I just have to give a shout out to Rachel. Rachel is an intern with us. She's pictured with little TonNaam in the second picture. Every other Monday Rachel comes to mom's group to help with crowd control for the little ones that come. The kids LOVE her and we moms really appreciate her service to us as well. Thank you Rachel!!!

P'Pawn (third picture) led our group on Monday. She is highly involved in our ministries handicrafts ministry and so she led us in card making. The women really seemed to enjoy the craft and for those who felt not very confident had their confidence boosted when they saw they could make these cute little Christmas cards! It is always interesting to me to see how the Thai Christians bring up Christianity. After eating our birthday cake, P'Pawn stood up and asked if anyone knew why the whole world celebrates Christmas. Silence. No one answered. Then she proceeded to ask each woman directly "P'...do you know why?" Each and everyone said, "I don't know" (in Thai of course). It always blows me away when I hear how little Thais truly know the story of Christ. So, P'Pawn proceeded to share the story of a humble girl who was special in God's sight who was miraculously with child, the Christ child who would take away the sin of the world. It was beautiful to hear her proclaim and it was beautiful to see the women intent on listening to her words. Praise the Lord for this opportunity. And, pray with us as we meet again on the 15th where P'Bee will share the rest of the story. =) Pray for God's Word to fall on fertile hearts.