goings on around here

A trip to the zoo...that had a splash pad! Very fun and very COOL!

A family we have grown to love and with whom we enjoy spending time.

The loss of another top tooth...and a lizardy friend, Jack.

flashback induces fear

Hi all,
I took a bike ride today (albeit it was short) but on my way home I came upon a larger sized dog (almost looked like a chocolate lab) who was just sniffing around along the sidewalk (I was on the street). As I approached I noticed my heart began to beat faster and I slowed down (I was going down hill) and I realized that my fear of dogs (from Thailand bike riding days) is still strong! I began to tell myself, "It will be fine, this dog is owned by someone, it's not a stray" and "surely this dog is used to neighborhood children riding their bikes?!" And, as I passed by, making sure NOT to make eye contact, all my fears were unfounded and the dog didn't even pay me any attention! Just thought I'd share...there are still some deep cultural adjustments that might take a while to be rid of!
If you would like to read more about "soi" (street) dogs in Thailand, please see this link from our archives...

two-faced

I had a reality check today. Someone I know, someone who, I believe, is not a believer in Jesus and therefore someone who I must show Christ's love to, no matter what, is, as my husband said, two-faced. What an interesting idiom, no? I remember in high school how the height of name calling would be to call someone two-faced...oh those words would get blood boiling, that is for sure. (And, yes, I even went to public school). Why is telling the truth so hard for some? And, if I am honest, why is it sometimes hard for me? Like today, the incident that happened was really nothing...no reason for anyone to get upset about anything, but for some reason person X didn't want person Y contacting them so person Z contacted person Y to tell them that person X didn't want anyone to contact them...AND, person X originally told person Y to please contact them. You can see the confusion and you can see how two-faced person X looks...(telling two different stories to two different people). Alas, I cannot go on fretting...you may have guessed it, I am person Y...and feel so badly that I contacted someone who didn't want to be contacted by me...but the reality is, what more do I expect from someone who doesn't know the life giving love of Christ? Is this not the world in which we live? This sort of behavior should not take me by surprise and yet I found myself feeling badly about it and wondering why so and so would "lie" as it seems, at least to me. Here is where the rubber meets the road. Here is where I can take what RL Pratt said last weekend and say, I will love my neighbor, because I love God and I want my neighbor to know His love, here's where I say, "this isn't fun anymore." And here is where God says, "I never promised fun." Yep, one more notch on the growth plate...and I'll keep on loving, both persons X and Z and pray for their salvation.

Missions Conference

We had the wonderful privilege of being with our home church for their annual missions conference last weekend. It has been several months since we've visited Pinewood PCA in north Florida and so the fellowship was sweet. We also had the tremendous privilege of hearing RL Pratt speak on loving God and loving our neighbor, based on Deuteronomy and Matthew passages. It was an incredible weekend of encouragement and challenging teaching. And, we also got to share what God is doing in Thailand, which is always fun for us and hopefully encouraging for those who are listening. We had to switch off for a couple of the meetings to look after Adele who came down with a bronchitis infection. We also had Paul's neice watch her for a couple events. Paul and I together were able to speak at a small group Sunday night. We both came away agreeing that we loved the intimacy of small groups and the interaction was encouraging. So, if we're ever at your church and you want us to visit small groups, we're up for it!!! =)

Below are some notes of the first night of the conference. I hope you will be challenged as we have been.
Friday night Dr. Pratt spoke on Matthew 22:34-40 "And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. this is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depedn all the Law and the Prophets."
...some thoughts, his, not mine!
~When something you're involved in isn't fun anymore, we ask "Why are we doing this?"
~Loving the world today isn't easy.
~we think: "These people are nothing but trouble...they're threatening everything I hold dear, etc"
~When it gets difficult that's when we start to question "why are we doing this?"
~Why should we love them? When it's easy, we don't think about it.
Why? The answer...
The Mission of the Church...
It was a high priority to Jesus that we love our neighbors as our ourselves.
~He (Jesus) told them that they're whole religion hangs on this (loving the world)
A love of God brings a shift in our lives. My life belongs to God, not my own. How much are we to be controlled by it? with all our heart, soul, mind and strength- the inner person to emphasize how deply we are to adopt the agenda of our God to our lives. NOTHING should be precious to us. The MOST precious driving loyalty I should have is the agenda of my KING. If it's the King's agenda then we're to love it with all we've got. The top priority for a follower of Jesus is that they have loyalty to the King.

But, Jesus didn't stop talking after the first commandment because he saw the two commandments so closely related He couldn't NOT say it. This IS IMPORTANT...He knew they could Love God and hate people. The second commandment is not a long finish but right next to the first, a photo finish (in racing terms). "way up on the agenda of God is the human race."

Pratt went on to say that we (as mostly Presbyterians at the conference) don't care. God gets moved to the center and we don't care about people. If we exalt God by depreciating people we're wrong because God's agenda doesn't include this thinking- He wants us to have love for our neighbor. You CANNOT love God unless you're loving your neighbor. If you don't care about the world around you then we don't care about God's glory. Often we tend to think that if people have importance and value that it detracts from God's importance but this isn't true. People ARE the most important creature made.
The greatest affirmation of God's importance of people is the incarnation of Jesus!!!!
Some questions for reflection...
Are people this important to me? Do I value people that much? Jesus didn't come to this earth for worthless pieces of trash. He cared- now we must care. Our whole religion hangs on it.

My favorite day of the year!

I know I am late on posting about Easter, things leading up to Easter and all the other things that go along with such a wonderful and joyous day, but my philosophy in life (as many of you know) is better late than never. =) So, here are some pictures working backwards in time...so the first pics are from Sunday afternoon and then we move to the morning when the kids received their baskets and goodies.

The first picture is of the kids lined up in front of the door to commence the Easter Egg Hunt. Paul filled too many eggs with candy and even some with coins and a few with dollars...can you believe it?! So, we invited our pastor, his wife and family over to enjoy the bounty. They live two streets down from us, in the same neighborhood! I can't say enough what a blessing it is to have a godly woman just around the corner to talk with and be encouraged by (the Pastor's wife, of course). She also homeschools and also joins us for our monthly (or so) homeschool field trips with a local homeschool fellowship we are involved with. Anyway, back to Easter....the kids had SO much fun searching for eggs, and Paul did a good job of hiding them, especially for the younger of our children.

Calvin finding some eggs near a tree.

Adele pulling TWO from a pipe (with Mommy's help, of course!)

Just a quick snapshot of PJ in the midst of all the fun.

And, here we've jumped to Easter morning. Adele is opening her gift from Paul and I. We decided to get the kids Bibles for Easter. We felt like PJ was ready and Calvin and Adele were given pocket New Testaments. They LOVED having a Bible to take to church...and all three of them were found "reading" them during the sermon...and the younger two also used their Bibles as hymnals! =) It's really wonderful to see them participating in worship, no matter how small it might be. Perhaps one of my most favorite times of worship (this is very man centered, so forgive me!)... is when we sing the doxology and I hear all three of my children singing! It's a tremendous blessing to me...of course, it probably has a lot to do with the fact that they are woshipping God but also showing some musical interest.

And these next two pics are of Paul and the kids just before leaving for church. We got the boys some new church clothes and they looked so sharp and nice. So, I had to take some pictures! Well, and I know the grandparents want to see them too!

Anyone notice the friend on PJ's finger? Yep, he's still catching lizards, and he's getting quite good at it too. He has trained Simba to bring them the lizards he (Simba) catches to him and then he puts them in their "cage."

PJ with his new NIV Adventure Bible.

Calvin with his pocket Bible. I might add to this post that this Bible also was transformed into an airplane during worship...so it has its good points and its bad points!!! =)

All in all, Easter was wonderful. We did miss our families but God has been good to give us family here in our church. We thank God for this provision. We wanted to have some neighbors here to eat with us, but they already had plans. God knows and He is working all things out for His glory. We hope your Easter was blessed and joyful.

living lately

In case you're wondering why the lack of pictures, well, the short answer is our computer has been in the possession of Dell Computer Company. We received it back a little over a week ago, I think and I've been busy since then. They had our computer for about 4 weeks, I think...long story, but thankfully, we have it back and it's fixed! Yeah!



I'll catch you up on the happenings around here. In February we traveled to Tallahassee to visit a supoprting church. Paul's sister and family live out there, so we stayed with them for the weekend and enjoyed some time with them as well. Adele and their daughter Vinnie are about two months apart. They have a good time together. PJ and their son Ben also have a good time together pretending to be super heroes. Paul traveled out to North GA a week or so ago to visit another of our supporting churches. He had a great time connecting with those in the congregation as well as with the other missionaries there for the missions conference. I missed him here and had no one to call upon to come and stay with us (as was my usual protocol when he left on a trip in Thailand...there were always a single girl or two to come and keep us company!) PJ lost his first top tooth and now his smile is forever changed. I can't believe my baby is turning into a boy. Time sure flies. The morning the tooth came out the boys were in the living room playing as usual. They were wrestling around and having fun and then all of a sudden, I hear PJ say very calmly, "thanks, Calvin. You helped me out!" I hear Calvin say, very worriedly, "sorry, PJ. It was an accident." And again, PJ reassured him that Calvin helped him. Next thing I know they're running into the kitchen to me and PJ announces that Calvin punched him in the mouth and knocked out his top tooth! He was elated!
As seen in the pictures, we are working on indoctrinating the boys and Adele into American sports such as baseball. Both boys are doing well with hitting the ball. They like to hit them hard!

We've also been enjoying the birds that are coming into the yard to eat from the birdfeeder. We went camping last week one night and saw several osprey and even a Bald Eagle! It was incredible. As we canoed, we saw some swallowtailed kites and a red shouldered hawk. Sorry, no pictures of the camping trip. Suffice it to say that it rained, again, but it was much warmer and only rained during the night. We had beautiful weather and Paul's nephew Josh was with us, which was great fun!

have a look at this

I must admit on this blog that until I lived in Thailand did I really have any interest in politics. When we arrived in Thailand all was well with the world. Thaksin was the premiere and everyone seemed happy. A few months after our being there, however, rallys and protests began against him. And, just over a year after we arrived he was ousted in a bloodless, military coup while Thaksin was in NYC speaking to the UN. Since September 2006, we saw several governments take over and different groups rallying against another. And so, in the midst of all that, I found myself reading all the news and trying to get a good grip on what was going on. I think one very fascinating point of Thai politics is how religion plays a role, a very important role for all Thais.
As I have watched footage from the BBC I noticed how the people are covered in amulets hanging from their necks and I thought to myself this must be to ward off evil spirits and to protect themselves from harm. Then I stumbled across this article, also from the BBC, which confirmed my thoughts. I encourage you to read it. It gives a little bit of insight into religion and politics in Thailand.
If you ask me, I do not take sides. I am not Thai. I do not understand everything there is to understand about Thailand and her politics. What I do believe is that God is in control of even these protests. None of this takes Him by surprise and I firmly believe that all of this is His working out a sovereign plan that includes bringing many Thai people to Himself. The red shirt protest continues to go on, even today, though reportedly numbers have fallen to 4o,ooo. So far, it has been a peaceful protest. We can thank God for this and if you will, please continue praying for God to break down these strongholds.

Pray for the land of smiles, see below

Dear friends,
It's been a while, it's true but for tonight, would you please join us in praying for Thailand? The nation finds itself, once again, in opposition. Please read, watch and listen to the following links.
Thank you!
BBC World
Bangkok Post

Family, Foraging and Freezing

Friday and Saturday we stole away as a family to the Peace River, located somewhere south of Tampa, for a night of camping and a day on the river canoeing and fossiling. Before leaving Paul checked the weather and read that there was a chance of rain showers but it wasn't going to deter him. So, we loaded up, packed light (it was only for one night!) and headed off. We arrived, set up camp (see pictures below) and just about as soon as our tent was up and the tarp in place overhead, the rain came. It came softly at first but then it really started raining. So, embarrassingly, I loaded the kids into the van and put on a movie...yes, I know, I know, I wimped out. My excuse, of course, was that they only had one change of clothes and if the clothes they had on got all muddy and dirty we could possibly have some very unhappy kids the following day after time on the river, where the chance of getting wet would increase greatly! So, they watched an educational movie all about a desert in Africa and the bushmen there. We then headed to the local WalMart and purchased a few things to eat and a new tarp and then headed back to camp, hoping for the rain to stop (by this time it had slowed considerably). By the time we returned, we managed to eat supper (hotdogs and brats on an open fire) with marshmellows for dessert. We then piled in the tent to get the children ready for bed. Did I mention that it was cold??? Well, it was very cold, I guess you can figure that out by the pictures. Anyway, Paul read to the kids from Prince Caspian and then we headed back out to the fire. The kids needed help settling down (mainly Adele) so I went back into the tent after awhile. Everyone was just about asleep (including me!) when a huge gush of wind camp whipping through the camp. The whole backside of our tent collapsed on me and the kids. Paul was just coming in the tent to head to bed when this happened. So,I quickly pushed the wall back up...and got my shoes on to help Paul who was on his way back outside to anchor the tent down a little better. As you will see in the pictures, the tent/tarps ended giving us the feel that we were on a sailboat instead of camping because there were lines going everywhere. Ducking and stepping over the lines was a constant but thankfully no one tripped and got hurt! So, we slept soundly the rest of the night without any mishaps, thank goodness! We woke early the next morning, once again, freezing our tails off (it had to have been in the 40s, at least!). Paul got a nice warm fire going, we ate scrambled eggs and oatmeal for breakfast and Paul made me a nice big cup of joe. We were then ready to break down our camp and hit the water for a day of fossiling. We did just that. We found a few sharks teeth, ray teeth and other obscure pieces that we will probably never know what they are. I found (as my first fossil find) an alligator tooth (and I impressed both my husband and my son with that find as neither of them have found a gator tooth as of yet!). We had a lot of fun. It was cold. But, we had a lot of fun. Because of all the rain we had the day before and the week before the river water level was up quite a bit and so it made fossiling along the banks a bit hard. There wasn't much space to move around. Paul was the best outfitted with his waders on but all in all everyone did quite well with it. We ate lunch along the river up on a bank. We fossiled some more and then headed home. Fossiling is a lot like digging for gold. Paul made some sieves a couple months ago when he and PJ went with his nephew and so you dig up some gravel-like stuff, swish it around in the water until all the sand/dirt/limestone floats away on the water and you're left with the rocks and fossils. Then you start digging! We're hoping to find some good finds, we're hoping to make this a family hobby. I am thankful we didn't see any alligators, though I am sure they were around somewhere!

Adele hitting her limit with the picture moment!

Do I look cold?

They love hotdogs and these even had cheese inside! Yum-yum!

"Be not afraid for little grace..." Samuel Rutherford

In my one score and ten plus one years on this earth there is one fact that becomes increasingly clearer and clearer...and that is the brokeness of people. No matter where we're from, Christian or Buddhist, atheist or Muslim, we're broken, messed up people.
God's grace is needed moment by moment in our lives. It's not just for those who know Him not, it's just as much needed by the believer of 1, 10, 20 or 60 years. When we left for Thailand, I fully expected to see the brokeness of humanity in that dark place. And, I did see it. When we returned to the States I guess I had been gone so long I thought that Americans (mainly Christian Americans) would be just as I left them, or better off somehow than those believers in Thailand. Instead, I've found, once again, broken people, messed up people, people in need of that daily sufficient grace that flows only from Him who can freely give it. And, this, by-the-way, is NOT a bad thing!!! It's freeing and beautiful and I see God's goodness and grace through it all. Mostly, I have grown to see my own weaknesses and messed up ways and brokeness before God. How does grace go beyond an idea or thought in Scripture to daily living it out? I've been struggling to understand how does grace practically apply to daily life. How do I press on to do good works- for God's glory ONLY and by His grace when I have this deep-seeded monster called "works" (a works that is not of God, that is only concerned with making myself be glorified in the eyes of other people and a works that thinks if I do this, then I have arrived) vying for my affections? How do I raise my children to love the Lord of the Scriptures in grace? So often, "you're a good boy/girl" comes out of my mouth. So often I reward them for the good they've done. So often I punish them and pick apart behaviors according to my whims and standards- because I want to look good. How do I instill grace? How do I deal graciously with them? How do I bring works and grace together? One cannot escape the "works" part of our lives. How can we live so that all that we do (works) is the out-flow of our love for God and not out of pride or fear of man? I'm setting out on a journey to hopefully learn some of these practical out-workings of grace in a believers life. Paul recently read for one of his classes a book entitled Christian Spirituality: Five Views of Sanctification. At his suggestion I will be beginning to plow through this book. I will try to share what I am learning and how God is using it to bring me to a better understanding of His work in my life.
I haven't been able to fully grasp what it means to live IN grace (MTW has a conference by the name Living in Grace, which I highly recommend). It is all of God in the believer's life...it has to be. We, even as regenerate, have so much sin, nothing good can come from us. So, join me, pray with and for me and perhaps I will yet figure out how to live out this faith we've been given. Perhaps my children will gain an even better understanding of God, His love, grace and mercy and as a result God will be glorified and we may be just a bit closer to living the way God has prescribed for us to live, according to, and governed by and only found in the Scriptures.

And to complete the quote for the title of my post today and give hope that we are Christ's...
"Be not afraid for little grace. Christ soweth his living seed, and he will not lose his seed; if he have the guiding of my stock and state it shall not miscarry. Our spoilt works, losses, deadness, coldness, wretchedness, are the ground which the good Husbandman laboureth."
-Samuel Rutherford, 17th century preacher

shuttle launch

This is little out of date, but we saw a shuttle launch one afternoon in November (it was Paul's birthday). We were on our way home from visiting his family in Jacksonville and decided to stop and see the show. It was a beautiful day and much better than our midnight viewing of the shuttle launch in August! Paul borrowed Grampy's camera to get really nice pictures. Since neither of us have any training in how to take great pictures I think they turned out well!

A good visit

Yesterday and today we had our dear friend and team leader, Dave Veldhorst, from Thailand visit us. MTW Thailand is having a partnership meeting in Tampa tomorrow and so, we got to see this guy. We had a great visit and it was incredibly encouraging to hear what God is doing in Ram 2 (where we lived) and to think about future missions with MTW Thailand. It made me extremely homesick for all of you who are ministering there, both our Thai brothers and sisters and the foreign missionaries (you know who you are!) and I just can't wait to get back, but I am also trying to be content with where God has us right now. I am more and more thankful for Mission to the World and the way God works through us as an organization, and the godly men and women we have to lead us and their hearts for the nations. We are blessed! Many do not have these same sentiments but I am thankful that we do! I would ask you all to continue to pray for those laboring in Thailand, that God would encourage them and give them the strength to press on in Him.

oops...

My dear friend Rhianna, brought to my attention the possible confusion that the title of my last post (#4) could bring to all of you. I am very sorry if many of you out there thought you were going to hear a different story, like we're having a 4th child. =) I am sorry to report that no, we are not expecting #4 but we sure had fun celebrating #2's #4!!!! LOL. Rhianna, your comment made me laugh out loud...and wondered how many others thought the same. And just so you know, the thought never crossed my mind!!!

#4

I know I say it every year for each of the kids, but really, Calvin turning 4 really makes me sad. We were in Thailand 6 months when he came into the world and life was forever changed. He was always an easy and good baby. His arrival was God's conduit to helping me learn Thai...the Thais would speak to him in Thai and I understoond enough vocab to figure out correct sentence structure. And, now he's 4. It seems like he grew up overnight but I have pictures and experiences that help me remember those sweet baby days and those fun toddler days and now these hard 4 year old days when his temperment is up and down (much like his mother, I might add!) but he is still my sweet boy. He's definitely a momma's boy.


We celebrated his birthday on Sunday after church. We had shrimp and french fries (his favorite) and then we sang and opened gifts. We got him a round house for his train engines and he just kept saying, "I can't believe it!" It was pretty funny! Thank you to the grandparents for the gifts you sent him. He can't wait to take a bath tonight to play with the Lighting McQueen and Mater bath toys. And, he immediately looked through the book with me. He picked out a turntable to go with his round house from Toys R Us yesterday with money my parents sent to him. All in all, it was a great day. I hope he felt loved and celebrated. I certainly can't imagine our lives without Calvin Lewis.

Enjoy the pictures!

tufted titmouse

Here it is...Adele saying "tufted titmouse" and if you listen carefully at the end you can hear her tell PJ that he is "nuts". I just overheard PJ and Adele in the bedroom. PJ and Calvin were playing legos and Adele said something to PJ. PJ, not knowing what she said, asked her, "Do you want a bagel?" She said, "no" and then repeated what she said earlier. Then I heard him say, "oh, you want to build legos?" Bingo...Adele said, "yes". It made me chuckle to myself. =)

Neighborhood Meandering

We really love where we live. It's on the edge of town, it feels like we're out in the woods when you look out our back sliding glass doors, but it's not really out. Just beyond the trees behind our house is a church and then a county road. But, it feels out to us! This morning, Adele and Paul spotted a deer (!) just along the fence in our backyard. Paul managed to snap a picture of it but it is not yet on the computer. We often have Florida Sandhill Cranes in the field behind our house (to the right) and lately we've been enjoying songbirds eating birdseed that we've been feeding them. (Thanks again to Grammie and Grampy for the birdfeeders to PJ for Christmas!) Adele is even starting to spot birds and she can now sucessfully identify and say, "tufted titmouse" which is just so cute to hear her say! She often sees vultures flying about and says, "hawk!" with great excitement but of course it is not!

Anyway, today Adele, PJ and I went for a short walk down to the stop sign and back and on our way back we do think we spotted a falcon or hawk of some sort. So, we decided to turn around and go visit our neighborhood pond. I was sure there was going to be some new birds to see and write in our "bird book".

There were definitely some new birds to see. I believe we saw a kingfisher and some ducks that Paul later confirmed were Muscovy ducks (which he informed me that they are like mutt ducks...poor things, they are kinda ugly!). And, as we're looking about (PJ was all set with his binoculars) I am reminded by a sign (click on the picture to read the sign)of other creatures that lurk here in Florida...alligators! So, I start looking along the water's edge for the reptilian that I loathe and sure enough just down the bank there is one sitting, sunning himself and looking directly at us (or so it would seem!). He wasn't huge but he was big enough that I wanted to get out of there and go tell Paul what we saw. So, we went back to the house, gathered Paul and Calvin and as a family went back down to the pond to check out the wildlife. As a Floridian, Paul saw and it and said, "oh, that's not big at all...let's go down to it boys." And, I said, "Do you really think the boys should go down there with you? Isn't it dangerous?" "No" came the reply. So, Calvin joined him, Adele and PJ were close to me...and sure enough the gator jumped into the water when Paul and Calvin got too close for his comfort! I can assure you that I won't be going to that pond alone, EVER! So, here are some pictures of the gator. Sorry, I didn't get any good pics of the muscovys, but here is a picture from off the internet of what they look like.

Did you see this? Just in case you didn't...

Check out this news clip from Fox News Channel. My mom bought a small purse for Adele from W*lmart over the summer, just the right size for her and for her to play with (which she has many, many times). I checked the tag and sure enough it has the vinyl in it. If you have small children around, I think it's wise to watch this segment. As you know I don't normally post stuff like this but this seemed too important not to post!

Prayers and Requests

Dear friends,

We are finally home after a month of traveling and visiting. It was good and encouraging but we are glad to be home. We have hardly heard a peep from the kiddos since returning because they are busy playing with their toys they haven't seen.

This past month many reminders to pray and needs have been brought to our attention. I know right now is not a good time to ask this of many of you, but I would ask you to pray because God's economy is not ours and we know that when He calls He will provide. With that said, I would ask you to pray for two different ministries that involve people that we really love and respect.

The first is for the man who married us and his wife. John and Cheryl Boyte along with their children, JJ, Casey and Caleb, live in Anderson, SC where John is on staff with Reformed University Fellowship (RUF). God's hand has firmly been upon John's college ministry since it started back in the late 90s. About a year and a half ago, John and Cheryl felt God was calling them to RUF fulltime. Up to that point, he was doing campus ministry through his job at a local PCA church among many other ministries. John and Cheryl have a gift for mentoring and discipling those who come to Christ. They have been instrumental in many lives as they have encouraged, prayed and couseled many students and directed us to Christ. Paul and I (though I was never a student at Anderson University) were directly impacted by their love for Christ and their love for us. John is the person God used to get us to Thailand...and there are many other stories like that out there! Anyway, all of this is to ask you to pray for them as they continue to be in need of monthly financial gifts and, if you are able and as you pray, feel called to consider supporting them. If you would like to know more please email John at jboyte[insert "at" sign]ruf.org.

We also stayed with our teammate, Melanie Currie, on our way down the Eastern Seaboard. Melanie served with us for two years in Thailand and she has been approved to return to Thailand as a long term missionary. Our whole family loves Melanie. She's lots of fun and has been used of God to encourage us time and time again. Melanie has a real desire to serve those in the Maahaadthai Community of Ram 2 (where we worked). Maahaadthai is a lower income community...usually known as a slum but we try not to refer to as that! Melanie would like to return by this June. She now needs to raise more support and is at just over 50% of her need. Please pray, again for God to provide for her. Again, if you are interested in supporting Melanie, please see her blog on the right (Thai Currie) and contact her there.

In your prayer times, please keep these two missionaries in your prayers.. Please pray for encouragement for them and for God to grant His presence while they minister and wait on God to provide for their needs. Pray that worry would be far from them, knowing the God, who has called them, is faithful. Please pray that whatever happens with the economy, God's church would find it fit to keep giving to the work of worlwide evangelism. Let's keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, come what may and see what He has planned through all of this. Thank you for your prayers and for your generosity.

Christmas 2009

Our first Christmas in America is over. It was wonderful to be with our family here. We spent Christmas day in Florida with Paul's family and then we traveled to Pennsylvania to be with my family for the New Year. We celebrated Christmas with them New Years Eve. It was fun.
As you can see below, the kids are enjoying the snow, and so is Paul! Actually, Calvin doesn't like it too much, but PJ and Adele like it a lot.
Paul and the kids built a snowman...we got the perfect kind of snow for it the other morning.

Here is Calvin playing Grampy's piano...complete with a coonskin hat borrowed from one of the many cousins roaming around!

And, we had an enjoyable visit with Catherine and her dad just before Christmas. Catherine is a dear friend and sister who lives and works in Bangkok. She teaches music at an international school there. It all hit me when I saw Catherine and I cried, realizing the family we have left in Thailand. It was a sweet visit with them and I am so glad we got to see them.

For now, we're surviving the cold weather and will be traveling to SC in a little over a week to visit with supporters and friends. We greatly appreciate your prayers for our family during this time. Our trip up was uneventful and done in one day! (That is a testament of God's goodness to us!) And, please pray against sickness for our family as well. We all got some bug that hit yesterday. Please pray for complete healing and protection from future illness while we travel. I think we're all doing much better today.

Beach Party in December

Can you believe we were at the beach in December? The weather was COLD last week. One night we had a low of 48 degrees, but yesterday the weather was gorgeous! It was around 80 degrees and our little friend, Kaelin (pictured in the front next to Adele) turned 4 and wanted for her birthday to play on the beach. So, we got together and had a big time on the beach. We made a drip castle, ate two bite cupcakes and sang happy birthday. The kids also had a blast.

Pictured here is Adele with her friend, Selah. Can you tell them apart? We often get our girls confused with their blond hair...and they're about a month apart in age as well.

Here we are making a drip castle which later turned into a drip cake and Kaelin blew out a drip candle! Big fun...how I thank God for new friends.