Mrs. G's Blog

2012-01-27T10:40:00.001-06:00

In my last update, I said that I would write again in a few days or a week. What a liar I am. It has been almost one month, but time flies by so fast that I can miss whole days sometime. There was this movie I saw once with Richard Gere. He was a defense attorney defending some nutcase on the pretext that he (the nutcase) couldn't remember killing somebody because he "lost time." This is not exactly the same thing, because I know for a fact that if I had killed anybody I would remember. I have been working steadily for nearly 2 weeks learning a new computer program so that I will be up to speed when our new video equipment arrives here in Thailand. So, you see, it has been a concentrated time of doing the same thing every day. One day runs into the next and before you know it 2 weeks is "gone." However, if during that 2 week period I had actually killed anybody, it would have been out of the ordinary, and I would have remembered.

Moving on. It is now Friday night at 11:00 PM. Tom, Carolyn, Pook and I went out to our regular Friday after work evening meal. Pook had been listening to Tom and I talk about Korean food. We both hate it, but I hate it more than Tom does. He can actually eat some of it. I, on the other hand, can stomach very little of it. So Pook decided that she just had to have Korean food just to see what it was like for herself. There was a new Korean restaurant recently opened pretty close to us, so we opted to go there for our evening meal. Unfortunately, the food was very authentic. I chose a dish that I was familiar with (did I mention that we lived in Pusan, South Korea for 6 months?) Anyway we all ordered our food. Mine was beef soup and 765 tiny side dishes, just like they do it in Korea. Everybody else got a main dish and they also got 765 tiny side dishes that were different from our tiny side dishes. Washing dishes in a Korean restaurant must be a nightmare to die for. Everybody liked their main dish, but the side dishes were a real cultural extravaganza for Pook. Kimchie, which can only be described as a variety of weird veggies all soaked in vinegar until they are fermented, is kind of the Korean national dish. It comes in millions of varieties and I can barely tolerate any of them. I am not a vinegar person. But Pook is a very brave person who likes a challenge and likes to learn and try new things. So she tried everything that we had and we had about 9 kinds of Kimchie. As we were leaving the restaurant, I asked her if she enjoyed her cultural experience and she said that she did very much enjoy the experience. I asked her if she liked the food enough to eat it again. She said "No." I took this to mean that she did like the cultural experience of learning what Korean food actually tasted like, but she didn't like the food itself. On the way home in the car she mentioned that she didn't feel too well. Kinda like me the first time I ate Korean food. Tonight was the first time in 10 years that I have eaten Korean food and hopefully I won't have to eat it again for another 10. Next Friday night we have plans to eat Japanese. Pook likes raw fish and loves other Japanese food as well. I only like raw fish if it is cooked, preferably deep fried in nice light batter. I have trouble even watching people eat raw fish. I don't like the smell of raw fish either, so Friday night should be another interesting experience. I am going to sit as far away from Pook as I can, so that I do not see or smell the raw fish. When I walk past fresh, raw fish in the market, I have to hold my breath and hurry through before I have to breathe again. I must have had a really traumatic experience as a small child in the fish department to have these issues.

I talked to my daughter on the phone today. She lives in Lithuania. I was supposed to call her at Christmas. The last time I talked to her on the phone was December the 12, which is her birthday. I must have "lost time" somewhere in there. But they are all OK. If I don't hear from them, I know that everything is OK. If things are not going well, I hear immediately. Likewise, if I call her unexpectedly...like ever...she wonders if somebody died or is in the hospital.

Everybody is OK. Pray for us. Time is flying so fast that we are losing it. We need health and strength to do our jobs. The Lord is blessing our ministry here in Thailand and we are looking forward to some things coming together that have been in the works for awhile. We will let you know more about this as the time gets nearer and more finalized. In the meantime, I will write more later, maybe soon, or maybe not. Depends on if I find that time that I lost somewhere.

2011 is GONE!!!

2012-01-01T07:11:00.002-06:00

Another year has flown by, we are all older and hopefully wiser, however...we are not any faster. The office here in Chiang Mai has been closed since Dec. 23 and will reopen again on Tuesday, Jan. 3rd.

Pook went home to LopBuri for Christmas with her family. Everybody else stayed here in town and rested and enjoyed cool weather. It is nice to wake up of natural causes. No alarm clock to jolt you into consciousness , just coasting awake as the sun filters through the window. Really nice.

As many of you may have noticed, the world did not come to an end at the dawning of 2012 like the Mayan calendar predicted. The Mayans practiced human sacrifice which proves that they didn't have their act together anyway, so why would anybody listen to them? So now, since the world didn't actually come to an end, it is time to plan for the year ahead. I was waiting till today to actually begin planning just in case, but now it is time to get it in gear. I only have 3 and a half hours to get 2012 mapped out. Here are my plans so far. Tomorrow morning I plan to get up, Lord willing.

The next part may take a little more time to sort out. However, the following day is Tuesday and the office opens back up which means back to the alarm clock jolting. We do not know what 2012 holds for any of us, but we can look back on 2011 and see God's hand of blessing and provision in our ministry and in our personal lives and in the lives of our family, friends, and co-workers.

Pook saw both of her parents accept Christ as Savior, Tom and my granddaughter, Kaylee, was saved in 2011. Thousands of Burmese Bibles went to their home. The illustrated Bible story book saw several new languages translated, one of which was Russian. The devil fought that Russian translation for all he was worth, but God had the last word and it was finally finished after almost a 3 year-long struggle to get it translated and proofread. Our Pakistani translators finally won their refugee status victory with the UNHCR, and are now on the fast track to relocation. They are growing spiritually by leaps and bounds and have real joy in the Lord. The persecution they have suffered in Pakistan is unfathomable to those of us who have never had to walk that path.

These victories were certainly not without struggles. The whole team here has been through the wringer with health issues, financial problems, and all the other things that satan throws in the path of those who are striving to serve God. But God has seen us through and we are looking ahead to 2012 with the anticipation that He will do the same again this year.

We do actually have a few plans for the upcoming year. We plan to expand our video ministry and are now purchasing the equipment to do this. This is a real step of faith, because the equipment to do this is not cheap. We are waiting on the Lord to see what and/or who He will send our way this year to help with this. We, of course, will always be striving to get the printed Word into countries where it is desperately needed. That project has been our life for over 33 years, and we are plowing forward with that, as we always have.

I will write more a little later, possibly this week or next. Until then I will answer a question that is asked me all the time by almost everybody. Everybody wants to know what we need and what they should pray for. I tell everybody the same thing. We need health, and strength to carry on, please pray for that. However, on the physical level I would like for you to pray for us to have a dependable vehicle. We have a van that is on its last leg and a car that goes into the auto shop yet again on Tuesday. Neither of these vehicles is dependable enough to leave town in, so we have to rent a vehicle every time we need a border run for visas or shipment of literature. So, please pray that the Lord would provide us with a good vehicle of His choosing that will meet the needs that we have.

Talk to y'all later on down the trail.

I Lost November Somewhere

2011-12-17T04:29:00.004-06:00

Wow, November flew by so fast I nearly missed it. Actually I did miss it here on the blog, but I did have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving. It is my favorite holiday. No drama of gift buying, trying to figure out what people would like to have for Christmas. I have just made my life easy by simply giving money to all the people on my Christmas list. I figure it is a waste of time to give them stuff that they will return anyway after the holiday.

For Thanksgiving Dinner here in Thailand, our office staff all got together along with a new missionary couple and had a pot luck. It was truly an international dinner. We had Hmong, Pakistani, Chin, Karen, Thai and American co-workers here for the meal. Turkey is too expensive here, so the guys grilled chicken outside on the grill. Pook made pumpkin pies from scratch. Her first time and they were great. She is practicing up now for Christmas dinner having made 2 pecan pies for her pastor's birthday. Wow, the pecan pies were even better than the pumpkin. She is going to make a cheesecake for the Christmas dessert and I am going to bake a chocolate cake.

Last week was very special here. For the first time ever, Tom, Noah, Carolyn and I got to actually watch the small boat being loaded with 300 boxes of Burmese Bibles and 100 boxes of John and Romans. As the Bibles slowly crossed the river and landed on the other side, I couldn't help but think of Adoniram Judson and I wondered if perhaps he was watching from the portals of heaven as the Bible he translated is, after nearly 175 years, being put into print once again, having been abandoned by the Bible Societies for a new version. This old Judson text now has clear, and beautiful fonts and is being put into the hands of the Burmese speaking people that he labored and gave his life to reach. It was a very poignant moment, one which makes all the struggles that we go through here seem very small compared to what the early missionaries had to suffer to see the work go forward.

Noah, is the man that proofread and got the old Judson Bible ready to reprint. He will be leaving us in just a few short days. We will never know until we get to Heaven just how much his three years with us accomplished. We so hate to see him leave us, but we know that God will use him wherever he ends up. Another thought crosses my mind, seeing the Bibles going across the river. The Bibles are going home and so is Noah. God bless you, Noah. We love you very much and will miss you greatly.

Flooding in Thailand

2011-10-18T04:49:00.002-05:00

The rainy season is not over here and flooding is bad. Many of the cities in Thailand are under water and many people are displaced and living in deplorable circumstances. The crocodile farm in Lop Buri, where Pooks parents live was flooded and the crocs all escaped. She has photos of a big croc on somebody's doorstep looking into a house. Her folks do not have water in their house and they are OK, but many of the provinces are submerged. The elephant birthing center in Ayuttya is under water and the elephants are all living on top of the wall that surrounds the compound. The whole city of Ayuttya is uninhabitable. And there are many smaller communities in the same situation. Jeff and Theresa Lange are in Chiang Mai now because they were told to evacuate their place down in Bangkok. The water is still heading south and the people who are supposed to know this stuff say that it will reach Patun Thani, where we used to live and where the Langes still live, in a day or two. So they are basically stranded here until something changes. Pray for them, their belongings, and all of our former neighbors who did not leave because they had no place to go. For those of you have been here and know where these places are, Thommasat University is being evacuated. The road between here and Bangkok is under water in many places and some communities are completely cut off. Please pray for these people. It is hard to describe in a blog how bad it is for many people here in Thailand.

The last 6 weeks since we have been back in Thailand have been normal. Normal...meaning we are busy as one arm paper hangers. Never a moment to stop and relax. Tom keeps telling me we can relax after we are dead. Somehow the humor of that statement is not hitting me just right. Tom and I have both had some health issues and have been to the doctor. We have been told that we are fat. Really!?!?! I hadn't noticed that!!! We have been told to exercise. I can't believe we are actually paying people to tell us these shocking things that we already know. To make a long story shorter, but not nearly short enough, we joined a swimming and fitness place. It is very cheap to join these kinds of things here in Thailand, so we bit the bullet and did it. We have been swimming several times and are feeling much worse than we did before we joined. Nevertheless, we are told that perseverance will do the trick. We are also changing our eating habits. It has been wonderful. Saturday, I threw up, Sunday I was wiped out, and I can't even remember yesterday at all. Today it is rainy and cold and I am not going swimming in the rain and cold. Pneumonia ya know, is not good. Tom is juicing green stuff (veggies) every day and drinking a lot of it. He is wondering why he has diarrhea. DUH! Why is diarrhea so easy to get but so hard to spell that you have to do a Google search? However, we are committed...not to an asylum yet, but to our eating and exercise campaign. Pray for us. Getting healthy is no easy job.

The First Month Back in Thailand

2011-09-12T06:03:00.004-05:00

Tom and I are headed in to our 4th week being back in Thailand. Tom is just now getting back on his feet...literally...after a miserable time with gout that had him crippled and on crutches. He flew to Bangkok a few days ago to get another opinion about whether he actually had gout or osteoarthritis. Yes, it is gout, which is much better than needing a knee replacement which is what the doctor here told him. A second opinion is always the best way to go. He is up and around and feeling fine. Amazing.

David Martin, from our home church in Fort Worth, arrived last night and is right now asleep on my couch having finally crashed from jet lag. He is only going to be here for 2 weeks, so I hope he gets over it quick. I know that when I travel to the US or back, it takes me at least that long to get my days and nights back in order. Ah, well, he is much younger than I am and he will probably recover much quicker. I hope so. He was able to bring over the things that we had to leave behind for lack of space in our luggage. He brought coffee, and chocolate, as gifts. Yaaay!!!

We are sorry to see Alyssa leaving in just a few days. We were delayed twice getting back to Thailand, and we have not had near the amount of time with her that we would have liked. She is a really fine young woman, and she has an open invitation to come back any time. I certainly hope that another person comes over to take her place.

I have finally gotten all the checking accounts balanced. No small feat considering I have 7 bank accounts here and 3 in America to keep straight. Financial accountability is very high on our priority list. We know where everybody's money goes almost to the dollar. It is a job that I really do not relish doing, but I realize how needful it is. Starting tomorrow, I will begin to clean up some of the files on the server and store them on drives that can be stored elsewhere in case of fire, flood or theft. I like this job much better, but it is tedious and very time consuming. We are once again without a full-time tech, but we are managing as best we can with our limited knowledge.

This has been an incredible year for me. The trip to Africa and spending a good amount of time with our grandchildren was, of course, the highlight so far. I am also thankful that we were able to see some friends that we haven't seen in several years in a couple of our supporting churches. I got to see one of my most special girls that worked with us off and on for about 4 years. Susanna Domangue is not married with a wonderful husband and young son and another boy on the way soon. I miss her very much. Her Dad is the pastor of the Galilean Baptist Church in Houma, Louisiana. This church has been standing with us for over 30 years. It doesn't seem possible that time could go that fast. It was so good to see all the Galileans while we were in America.

I wish that there were a few more hours in the day. I usually tire out before I can get done what I would like to, but I guess more hours would help, would it? What I need is more trength and stamina. Pray for me to that end. And pray for our staff. These are our current regular staff:

Pook - Office manager
Noah - Burmese coordinator
Asim - Urdu translator
Klo - Karen translator
Jang Lang - Hmong translator
Kaw - Hmong translator
Carolyn - Foreign language coordinator

We no longer have a video editor or a computer tech on staff. Please pray that God would raise somebody up to take over these jobs.

Please pray for Alyssa as she travels back to Oak Harbor, Washington, that she would have a safe journey and that she would be able to share her thoughts and the things she learned here with her church.

Returning to Thailand

2011-07-28T18:18:00.002-05:00

We have finalized our tickets for Thailand unless, of course, we change them again! As of right now, we are heading back on the 6th of August. Tom is still in bad shape with gout in one of his feet, so hopefully he will be up and around very soon or we may truly have to postpone our trip back.

The time home this time has been a wonderful time of seeing our daughter and taking her to Africa with us, seeing our son-in-law and grandkids and seeing some friends that we haven't seen for quite a few years. It's all been good except for the gout.

We have several things that we have to do in preparation for our return as there always is, but it seems like everything hits the last week. It never fails. The summer here in Texas this year has been so exceptionally hot that we were not able to get much done outside. No matter how much we water the flowers, the heat is killing them anyway. The grass is crunchy from the drought and even breathing outside is difficult, almost like sticking your head in an oven. It is 10 to 15 degrees cooler in Thailand right now than it is here.

Lisa and the grandkids are now back home in Lithuania. Brian will be here for another month or so finishing up some meetings before he heads back. Lisa had to go back to get the kids back in school when it starts.

Going back to Thailand will be easier now that we know that our church is stable and our new pastor has his feet under him. It is so hard to leave friends behind, but I am so thankful for the internet. At least we can keep in touch in real time. The world is a much smaller place than it used to be.

Please pray for Tom that this gout goes away soon. He has a lot to do and not much time to do it, or we may have to delay our return to Thailand a second time.

Just Us Again

2011-07-16T18:26:00.003-05:00

Brian, Lisa, and all the grandkids left on Thursday morning about 10:00 AM. The house was way too quiet after all the activity of the last month. I was so lonely that I almost put the movie "Ice Age 3" into the player so it would sound like they were still here. They watched that movie at least once or twice a day while they were here and never got tired of watching it.

During the month they were here, we all made a trip down to south Louisiana to visit the folks at Galilean Baptist Church in Houma. It had been quite a few years since Tom and I were there and many more than that since Lisa had been there. Susie Domangue was there to meet us. Her mom and Dad went all the way to Atlanta, GA to get her and haul her home for a couple of weeks so she could be there. It was a great blessing to see her and her family. It was hard for me to believe that I had not seen her in over 4 years. The old saying goes that "the days go by slowly, but the years go by quickly," and it seems that it is true. She and her husband Matthew Yaksh, have a little boy now named John who is 17 months old. I still have not gotten to meet Matthew, but he had to work and was not able to come to Houma. The time with the Galileans was so good, though and we enjoyed our time there so much. The next day we headed to Lake Charles to see Tom's family for the day and then we headed for Vidor, Texas, for Sunday morning services with Grace Baptist Church. Charles and Sarah Lott have been friends for many years and we were glad to get to see them again also, although the time was too short as it always is. Sunday night we were in a church in Humble, Texas, which is a church that took us on for support a little while ago, but one to which I had never visited. It was good to meet the folks there. This church also took Brian and Lisa on for support and we are so glad for that.

Brian, Lisa and the kids were able to do a few fun things while they were in Texas and Louisiana on that short trip and the kids got acquainted again with the fact that they are Americans. All four of them have lived their whole lives in Lithuania and in many ways are more Lithuanian than American. The kids stayed in Arkansas for about 3 weeks with Mimi and Papa Joe, their other adopted grandparents, while Lisa went with Tom and me to Africa. Brian was busy up in Illinois getting them moved out of the parsonage and ready for their new pastor to move in. The men of the church and Brian did a lot of repair and remodeling work and Joe and Jessie Morrell (Mimi and Papa Joe) were a tremendous help in keeping the kids while he worked.

As I am writing this Lisa and her family are on their way back to Illinois to their home church. Lisa and the kids leave for Lithuania the end of this month. Brian will leave the end of September. Lisa has to go back to get the kids in school. It was a wonderful time spent with Lisa in Africa and with the whole family for a month here in Texas. We will miss them very much. Two year gaps between seeing them is a very long time.

Tom and I are still in negotiations for when we will be leaving to go back to Thailand. I will let you know when we are going back when I find out myself. Until then, please keep praying for us and let us hear from you. The best way is Skype or email.

Africa Part 3

2011-07-14T16:20:00.004-05:00

After leaving Krueger Park, the George Hammett family took us half-way to his dad's house and Sam Hammett picked us up and took us the rest of the way to Francisville, Botswana. The roads are very bad, but we saw many animals on the way up. There were many elephants, zebras, giraffes and monkeys.

In Botswana, we accompanied Bro. Doug Hammett and his family to a Sunday service. They are meeting for the moment in a rented room. There were about15 people in attendance not counting all of us. It was a really good meeting and we enjoyed meeting the people very much. The African people that we met were all friendly and accepting of us. We loved being with them for the short time that we had.

The next day we drove up to Victoria Falls. Tom and I had always wanted to see the place where David Livingston's heart is buried. As it turned out there is a monument on both sides of the Falls and I am still not sure which one is where his heart is buried. We stayed on the Zimbabwe side of the Falls. No other word can describe the place but awesome. Awesome is a very much overworked and overused word, so I do not use it much, but Victoria Falls is deserving of the word.

There is so much mist from the falls that the whole area around it is a rain forest. There are literally hundreds of baboons and other monkeys that call this area home. Baboons can get very large and they basically own the paved walkways and they are in no way intimated by people. If you meet them on the trail, you will be the one to move out of the way. Their teeth are reeeally
long. Seeing them up so close was almost as intriguing as the Falls, but not quite.

Africa was the trip of a lifetime and there are not enough words to describe the experience. The Lord made it possible and we will be eternally grateful for the privilege.

Africa Part 2

2011-07-07T16:12:00.005-05:00

Wow, this is why blogging is difficult for me. Since last post Tom and I have been traveling with our daughter, son-in-law and 4 grandkids. We were in 3 churches and it was a real joy to renew friendships with folks that we have not seen for many years. But before I go into that, I will finish up the account of our Africa trip.

I can certainly tell you this...NO trip to a zoo will ever do much for me again. Seeing the animals on their own turf is a privilege that few experience and I will be forever grateful for the Lord's allowing us to enjoy it. We saw many, many elephants, zebra, giraffes, baboons and other monkeys, the lion, hippos, a couple of the major deadly snakes, but the snakes were not near us and I'm glad of that. We saw hundreds of Impala, and other large antelope, a few of them VERY large. We saw a bunch of warthogs which were very funny to watch. Other things included hyena, which was so close that we rolled the car window up. We are not Indiana Jones:) The Bushbabies were also cute and fun to watch.

We saw the Civit Cat of coffee fame for the stout-hearted or stupid, whichever you prefer. I personally wouldn't pay $40 for a cup of coffee that the beans went through the intestines of a small cat and were then collected, hopefully WASHED!!!!...and then the coffee beans are ground and made into coffee. Foldgers coffee will work for me just fine and is only a few cents a cup if you brew your own at home.

We went on a self safari, with Lisa driving our small rental car. We drove through a group of trees whose branches made a canape over the road. The trees were FULL of monkeys. They were running and jumping all around the car and were so thick that we rolled up the windows again because we were afraid they were going to jump into the car with us. It was getting dark and we could hear a lot of jungle noises, so we then left the windows up, because we are cowards and unfamiliar with the sounds we were hearing. When we got back to the camp the gate was closed and we were locked out. The guards must be familiar with idiot tourists though, because they were in the guard shack and let us back in with only minimal chewing out:)

All in all, it was the trip of a lifetime and will probably never be repeated by Tom and I. We are so thankful to the George Hammett and the Doug Hammett families who made it all possible. Thank you folks for your hospitality and friendship.

Part 3 will be Botswana and Victoria Falls, and the Baboons.

AFRICA

2011-06-11T11:09:00.005-05:00

We were in gone for a total of16 days, from May 11 thru the 27th. It took one full day to get there and a day and a half to get home, leaving us 2 full weeks on the ground in Africa. We flew out of Dulles in Washington, DC. Our Daughter, Lisa, met us in DC and went with us on our trip. Her husband, Brian, volunteered to keep their 4 children ages 12 to 2, so that she could go with us. It is a blessing to have a good son-in-law.

It was a straight flight with only one stop in Dakar, Senegal, West Africa, to refuel and take on some new passengers, but since we didn't get out of the airplane, I don't count it as a country I have been to. In my world, I have to actually get out of the airplane and out of the airport before I count it as a country I have visited.

Dakar was about half way. Like I said it was a VERY long trip getting there and back. We landed in Johannesburg, South Africa, in the evening and were met by George Hammett. Then we set off on a 4 hour car trip up to the city where he and his family live called Tzeneen. Not sure of the spelling of this town. For the next week George and Kristin treated us like kings and were our tour guides, and hosts. We were able to go with George to one of his Studies and to meet several of the people he is working with in his city. It was great.

These folks also took time out of their lives to take us to Krueger Park, which is a very large game reserve, about the size of the state of New Jersey. We took two jeep safaris, one morning and one evening, and one driving tour in our own vehicle. We saw every animal there was, with the exception of the cheetah and rhino. What we did see were scores of elephants, zebras, giraffe, monkeys, one full-mane male lion about 15 feet from our open sided vehicle :O That was a teeny bit hairy! He did not seem surprised to see us and stopped in the middle of the road to look at us. We were all speechless to see him and nobody moved or breathed until he mosied on off the road and into the bush. This was the first safari and it was in the early evening.

More later, hopefully tomorrow. My grandson is trying to eat bugs. Gotta go!!

Almost a Year Ago

2011-06-08T11:04:00.005-05:00

My last blog post here was almost 1 year ago. A case of too much to do and too little time to do it. However, several folks have requested that I try harder and get the blog up and running again. No promises will be made, except that I will try in the time I have.

We are in the United States for awhile at the moment, but we are now living in Chiang Mai, Thailand, having moved from Bangkok over a year ago. Tom and I as well as our whole team like this city much better. Although it has 3 and 1/2 million people, compared to Bangkok's over 13 million, it has a small town feel to it. There is nowhere in town that we can't get to in a matter of minutes rather than hours, as it was in Bangkok. We have better housing, amenities, but much more important than all of that, we have access to a large and varied ethnic community of folks who want to help with the translation projects that are always underway.

Right now we have 7 paid staff, and 3 missionaries including Tom and I. In addition to these, we have short term helpers coming and going all of the time, much like it has always been. For all of of you who come to help, we thank you. For those of you who have stayed for the long haul we appreciate all of you more than you know. Many have come at their own expense, to take up the slack, putting their own lives on hold while working with us. God reward all of you according to His riches.

As far as Tom and I are concerned, neither of us are getting any younger and various and sundry health problems keep popping up. Fortunately, health care in Thailand is excellent and inexpensive, so for that we are most thankful.

Our 40th wedding anniversary was June the 4th. We were in Thailand, I sitting in my chair and Tom in the living room, when he told me that he wanted to go somewhere very special for our 40th. He asked me where I wanted to go. I gave it some thought, considering all the wonderful places we had visited over the years that I would love to return to, but I knew the one place that I had waited for 47 years to visit was the only place that would be "IT." I told him that I wanted to go to Africa! It was humorous in the fact of the dead silence that followed that statement. I guess the dollar signs were flashing in his head or he was in shock or something:) Anyway, he said, when his voice returned that is, "Let's start making plans." I said I wanted to go in the African winter, because I can't tolerate the heat well any more. Isn't it amazing that Africa was just heading into winter when our anniversary was rolling around? As I mentioned before, Tom and I both have health issues, but by the Grace of God alone, all of our ailments miraculously just halted for the 16 days that we were in Africa. There is no such thing as "luck." It was all planned and orchestrated by the hand of the One who is in control of it all. In the next few days, I will tell you about Africa and other blessings of the trip. I promise I will not procrastinate on this one.

It's Been Long Time

2010-07-04T06:42:00.002-05:00

Hello Friends,

It's been a very long time since I have updated this blog. Basically this should bring you up to date on us on everything that has happened since moving to Chiang Mai. We have lived here a little over 3 months. It has been a time of great progress in many ways.

It took us quite a while to get settled in up here as far as living is concerned. We got the office up and running quickly and then we turned our attention to our living quarters. The office, and Tom and my house share one house. The house is divided perfectly for us to be able to share the one facility. It gives us the added security of living in the same place with all of the expensive computer and video equipment. It also makes going to work in the morning easy. Just walk across to the other side of the house. Hey, it works for me. The only room we share with the office is the kitchen, but it is working out very well. Everybody does their part keeping things put away and keeping it cleaned up.

The ladies' dorm is another house right behind ours. We have steps going over the wall to keep from having to walk around the block to get to the office, so it is just steps away. The men's dorm is in a shop house down the road a little way. Noah, our Burmese translator, lives upstairs and we have literature stored downstairs. Later on, we may have to acquire another house for the men's dorm and turn the shop house into just storage, but for now this is working.

A little over a month ago now, Tom had a major accident when he fell through a plate glass closet door. He cut his arm at the elbow very deeply and had to have two hospitalizations and one surgery to repair the damages to the nerves in his arm. He is still having trouble healing and is still in some pain, but should make a full recovery, but it will take several months to do so. Please continue to pray for him.

Noah has finished re-typesetting the Burmese Bible and it is now ready for printing. This job took the better part of a year and Noah is ecstatic that it is now completed. He has now turned his attention to the many other projects in Burmese that are awaiting him. He is working hard and turning these translation jobs out as fast as he can.

Carolyn and Pook are working on various projects and are both doing well. Carolyn has found a Chinese physician who is treating her for various health related problems and she is responding well to the treatments.

We are looking forward to Jeff and Sarah Evans coming over the middle of August and also April Wilson from our home church in Fort Worth. We know that they will be a great asset as they have all proven themselves to be in the past. April will be working on video projects and the Evans family will be working on various computer related stuff and many other things as well.

The "Good and Evil" project is being worked on in several languages. We are struggling with the Russian translation of the book at the moment. There are many tribulations with the Russian language edition. Over the past many years, the devil has always fought particularly hard against anything in the Russian language and the G&E project is no exception. Please pray.

Please pray for our country this 4th of July! It seems like the news from all over the world points to the Lord's soon return for His own. Amen! Even so come, Lord Jesus!!

Hopefully things will settle down a little now and I will be able to keep up with this blog better and more often. Pray for me also. I am not getting any younger and I am definitely getting more tired by the day. I want to thank all of you who give and pray for this ministry and for Tom and I in particular. We appreciate it very much.

We Got Moved In

2010-03-21T07:51:00.005-05:00

Time has flown by and we have been very busy. On Monday, March 1st, Tom, Carolyn and I arrived back in Bangkok from the United States. We immediately began packing up our belongings for the move up to the northern city of Chiang Mai. Once again we were caught off guard by how much stuff and junk we have collected over the last 5 years. Much of it was left to us by other missionaries who came and went, some was purchased by us for some use for which it was no longer needed, and then some of it was stuff that we just really wanted to keep even though it had no real needed purpose. It took us just a little over 2 weeks to get it all packed and ready to ship. The last thing they took out of the house was the air conditioners. They took them out in the morning and that afternoon Carolyn and I flew up to Chiang Mai and checked into a hotel and waited for Tom, Noah and Pook to finish up in Bangkok. Although the landlady told us a price and said everything would be finished by the time we got here, when we arrived, nothing had been done. There was no security bars on the doors, the air conditioners were not all installed, and we will have to replace the toilet in one of the bathrooms because of a leak in the tank. We have been the better part of the last week getting all of these things taken care of. Most of the laundry is caught up and Noah and Tom will start setting up the office tomorrow and as soon as we have more electrical outlets installed, we will set up all the computers. The big server made the trip fine and is up and running as well as all of the laptops. The Internet is running, however it is very slow and we will need to get another plan for faster download time.

Even with all the delays, we are very happy to be up here and are looking forward to living here. By the end of the week, we should be almost up to speed. Thank you for all of the prayers that have gone up on our behalf. We appreciate them all very much.

Found Housing

2010-03-08T02:01:00.003-06:00

Tom flew to Chiang Mai on Wednesday and scouted out areas of town for us to live in. On Thursday afternoon I joined him, and we began looking at houses in the areas he had chosen. These places had to be located in accessible areas so that our workers can travel there without problems, so basically they had to be on the main public transportation routes. One area was really nice, but had a problem with flooding. One area was new and looked good, but it was too far off the main roads. Actually there were many places that were suitable for Tom and I because we have a vehicle, but our workers do not. A friend of ours found some houses in an area that is suitable both for us and for everybody else and we were able to rent two houses very close to each other in the same neighborhood. Actually our back walls touch, so we are very close.

Tom and I will live in half of one house and the other half will be our ministry offices. The house is completely divided so that our part will be completely separate from the office area. The ladies will share another house that has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Both houses are single storey, so we won't have to do stairs anymore. And, praise the Lord, both kitchens are actually inside the houses and not out on the back porch. All in all and for the time being, we feel that this set up will work for us well. We are all excited to be moving up to Chiang Mai. It is a much smaller and easier city to live in. It has only 3 and 1/2 million people compared to Bangkok's 13 million. By comparison, it has almost a small town feel to it. It is also cooler up there and the air quality is much better.

We have already hired our first staff member. She is a Burmese lady who will be working with Noah on all things Burmese. She starts to work with us as soon as we get up there and get the office set up.

In Chiang Mai, we will have access to people who speak many regional languages, which is the reason for the move up there in the first place. The fact that it is a much nicer city is a wonderful added blessing.

Headed to Chiang Mai for House Hunting

2010-03-03T23:48:00.003-06:00

I am feeling pretty good today so far. I went to bed last night at 6 PM and slept till midnight then was awake from midnight to 4 AM, but went back to sleep and slept till 8 AM, so all in all I got plenty of sleep but just had a gap between. Carolyn is not much better than she was when we got back, so please pray for her. She still is not sleeping more than a few hours a night and that is not good.

I am heading up to Chiang Mai in a couple of hours to join Tom. We will be looking for housing for ourselves, our staff and for an office. Please pray that we are able to find what we need. We need the housing and office space to be fairly close together so that travel will not be too far. Tom, Carolyn and I need single storey places and we need the office to be ground level also. There are a lot of places available, but cost is always an issue. We need something that will meet our needs that we can afford. Finding places that will meet our needs are no problem, but they are not cheap. Chiang Mai is the ex-pat capitol of Thailand and housing prices are higher there.

We were able to get some packing done yesterday and that will pay off soon. It is amazing how much stuff people accumulate in 5 years. There are at least 20 boxes of just books. They really take up a lot of space, but Tom and I aren't able to get a compromise on what we are getting rid of. He won't get rid of any of his and I'm sure not getting rid of any of mine, so up to Chiang Mai they will go. If either one of us did the book pitching, I would throw 50% of his away and he would throw 99% of mine away. Some things even married people don't share. We know better than to try to dispose of each other's books. World War III would ensue. Keep the peace, pack the books, that's our Motto.

You probably won't hear from me till I get back from Chiang Mai. I am not taking my computer. It is too heavy, but I may be able to use Tom's for emergency correspondence. Carolyn and Pook will be here to hold down the fort while we are gone. I do not know when we will be back but it could be a couple of weeks. God bless and thanks for praying.

Jet Lag is Real!!! And I have it.

2010-03-03T04:20:00.002-06:00

Today is March 3rd. I am barely functional as I write this at 5:20 P.M. I have been awake since 1:00 A.M. and I am about to crash and burn. Tom woke up at 3 A.M. and we both got up and had breakfast at 4:00 A.M. This is what happens when we fly half-way around the world in one day. We went from winter to summer and from day to night and our bodies are screaming "What day is it? What time is it? The older we get the longer it takes to get our days and nights turned back around. The first day back I slept for 20 hours. I thought that would fix me right up and I would be OK, but voila, it didn't work. So now i AM WRITING THIS blog and pushing wrong keys and spelling things wrong and am in an almost stupor trying to stay awake just a little longer, so I can go to bed and sleep all night and wake up in the morning. It is very hard to type with your nose on the keyboard, so I am not correting any more speling errors. Just raad it and try ti figure it out. I have to go to bed, ever if it isnt dark outsied yet. Good night.

Back in Bangkok

2010-02-28T20:53:00.003-06:00

We made it back to Thailand safe and sound on Sunday night Bangkok time. We made it through customs, stopped by the grocery store, and still made it home by around 11:00 PM. By the time we found the essentials, and got settled down for the night it was around 12:30 AM. Both Tom and I were able to sleep all night without waking up and right now we are feeling good.

Thanks to all of you who prayed as we traveled. We had a safe, uneventful flight, which is always a plus. No trouble getting through customs in Bangkok and hopefully we will have our days and nights turned back around in record time. Carolyn, however did not fare as well. She is fairly wrecked and exhausted. Please pray for her as this transitioning back and forth half way around the world usually takes a heavy toll on her immune system.

The first thing I noticed upon arriving back was the poor air quality. All of us are having breathing difficulties, which is normal for Bangkok. We are now unpacking our totes...actually Tom is unpacking and I am sitting here blogging and drinking coffee. First things first, right? Pook had the air conditioners turned on and the houses cleaned and that was a real blessing. Coming home to a clean, cool house is incredibly helpful to the tired mind and exhausted body.

For those of you who may have forgotten, Bangkok time is exactly 13 hours ahead of Central Time right now since Texas is on Daylight Savings Time. So when it is 10:00 o'clock in the morning in Texas, it is 11:00 o'clock at night here. This is a gentle reminder to those of you who might try and call us. Three o'clock in your afternoon is not a good time for us. We will be sound asleep and grumpy if we answer the phone at that time.

I will have to remember the same thing if I call my daughter in Lithuania. I am now 8 hours ahead of her and not 4 or 5 hours behind. She probably wouldn't appreciate a middle of the night call from me either.

Please keep us in your prayers as we begin preparations for our move to the city of Chiang Mai. Pook has already done a lot of work here in packing up all of the books of which there are many. I will begin immediately packing and sorting thru the things we are taking and those that we will be giving away. Pook was helpful in not watering the plants, so they all died. Since I wasn't taking them with me anyway it worked out perfect. God is in the little things, too.

Right now, as I sit here at my desk, it seems like we never left here 5 months ago. Our lives are truly like a vapor that appear for a little time and then pass away. Our days are flying by swiftly and there is much work left to do. Pray that our strength holds and that we are able to finish the job that the Lord gave us to do. To all of you that we left behind, we love you and we miss you. Leaving all of you is the hardest part of being here.

5 DAYS

2010-02-22T09:16:00.003-06:00

For any of you who have packed up for a move overseas, you will understand this. I have hit a "stress crisis." I have 5 days left to finish packing, get the house in order, and get my head organized. Getting my head in order is the hard part. Everything else is easy. Saying goodbye to friends ranks fairly close to somebody dying. Sunday was hard, but Wednesday night will be harder. Pray for me that my physical strength will hold out and that Tom, Carolyn nor I get sick at the last minute.

We want to thank all of you who are praying. I will try to post another update before we actually leave the country, but if not, church family, know that we love you and will miss you all very much. Thank you for all the prayers, love and support. We will be praying for all of you also.

Last Meeting Before Leaving

2010-02-19T07:25:00.005-06:00

Tom and I are headed to Temple, Texas for a missions Conference. This will be our last meeting before leaving the country on Saturday, Feb. 27th. We are looking forward to this meeting and for a time of fellowship with this great church.

I have officially hit panic mode in the quest for leaving the country. I have all the big stuff done, but the little things are the things that drive you crazy. Making decisions about trivial things drives me crazy. Things like "Should I take this or that back with me this time or get it next time through." We are limited to 100 pounds of stuff each. That is 2 - 50 pound bags each. Two of those bags carry nothing but computers, cameras, hard drives, our office and paperwork. That leaves only one bag each for clothes and personal items. Personal items include all our vitamins and supplements that we take and that is usually quite a big chunk of space. As you may be able to discern, we have very little room for clothes.

Another thing is getting the house ready to be "in storage." We have friends staying in the house for a little while and then it will be empty. Fortunately, we have folks to watch over it for us in our absence, but we still have to show people where everything is and what to do while the house is empty. Also, after we leave we have somebody clean the house because on leaving day there is not time to tidy up.

Myra Noel, who has been house sitting for us the last few years is buying her own house. I am so excited for her. Right now the negotiations are going and we are praying that it is settled in the next few days. The house is beautiful and in perfect move-in ready state. Please pray with us that it passes all the inspections for FHA approval. If it passes inspections, she should close on it quickly.

I will let you know in a few days how the meetings went. I hope to be able to post some good news shortly. Pray for this meeting, it could be crucial to the next steps in our ministry in Thailand. This church is heavily involved with us on several levels and we own them a great debt of thanks. Also you must remember that no work for Christ goes unchallenged by Satan. He is a relentless foe. Pray.

Snow in Texas...A Perspective

2010-02-13T14:48:00.006-06:00

I am writing this blog as I look out the window at the melting snow. It was an amazing winter for us to be in Texas. We haven't seen snow here for years and it was truly enjoyable. We got a little over 12 inches, which was a record for Fort Worth for snowfall in a single day. When we lived in Colorado, two or three feet of snow was normal, but depending on where you are located the definition of "normal" changes.

And so it is with living in another country. What is normal here would be not only shocking somewhere else, but maybe even critically life threatening. When the cool season in Thailand hits the temperatures can drop to the high 60's and low 70's. Thai people wear heavy coats, even parkas in these temperatures. There have been a few instances of Thai people dying from exposure if rain mixes with 70 degree temperatures. Our Hmong brethren suffered in these conditions during the last cool season in the refugee camp. We struggled to get blankets and warm clothing to them in time for their "winter." Yes, perspective is everything. When Thai people are wearing coats, our team is in short sleeves and thankful for the cool.

Right now it is exactly 2 weeks till we leave to go back to Thailand and one of the things that I really dread is the heat. Another thing that I am not looking forward to is packing up 2 apartments and our large office and getting ready to move. I don't like packing.

However, I am very much looking forward to living in Chiang Mai. Every person who has ever been on our team like Chiang Mai much better than Bangkok. Compared to Bangkok, Chiang Mai is a small town. If you can call a city of 3 million small. But compared to the 13 million people who live in Bangkok, it has a small town feel. Like I said...it all goes back to perspective.

Neither Tom nor I were able to see any of our family members this trip home. Sometimes we just can't work things out for a myriad of reasons. We are hoping to return to the United States this summer. We have a wedding to attend and we hope to see our daughter and her family if they get to come home for their first furlough in more than 5 years. Hopefully we will be able to purchase a dependable vehicle and maybe then we will be able to see our extended family. Until then, we are thankful for email, facebook and other means of communication that modern missionaries are privileged to have. The problems of today's missionaries compared to the problems that the missionaries of yesteryear faced...it's all a matter of perspective.

We Have Confirmation

2010-01-23T12:10:00.009-06:00

We have confirmed tickets to go back to Thailand, leaving Texas February 27 and arriving Bangkok February 28th. It has been a wonderful furlough and a restful time for us, but now we feel the pull to head back and prepare for our move to the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai. All of our team look forward with pleasure to living in this new city. We don't look forward to the move because it will be massive, and we will probably be "out of commission" for a couple of weeks while we move and set up our offices and living quarters in our new location.

Tom and I both need housing on one level. Stairs are too much for us now and Tom has learned the hard way that they are dangerous. He still has a large knot in the flesh of his upper leg that may take a couple of years to heal according to the doctor. We need housing and offices close together like they are in Bangkok. This means walking distance. Please pray with us that we find just the right place to house our staff, our offices and ourselves.

We have just over a month to get all of our business in the U.S. taken care of. It will take most of the time remaining to finish the repairs on our house and shed as well as getting all of our paperwork and banking, etc. taken care of. I still have not had the opportunity to see my family because of transportation snafus. The van that we borrowed was totalled by a little old lady in a big caddy who ran a red light, but I plan to make my way to east Texas in a week or so, in a rental car. I sure hope that works out.

April Wilson just completed a very short video for us that will be on our website soon. Also Myra Noel is in the process of buying her own house. I am so excited for her. I only wish I could be here to help her get moved in. If she does it really fast maybe I can. We go to look at some houses with the realtor today. Hope she finds her dream house in the next couple of weeks. Also Sue Domangue Yaksh just gave birth to their first child yesterday. For those of you who may not know, these three ladies have served as short-term missionaries with us, for varying periods of time in several different countries. They have all been a great help and blessing to us many times over.

We plan to return to the U.S. in the summer to attend Nat Williams and Anne Hammond's wedding. We are hoping that our daughter and her family will be home on furlough at that time also, but they do not know for sure if they will be able to afford to come at that time. So things are iffy. They usually are. More later.

2010 Has Arrived!!!

2010-01-06T16:27:00.005-06:00

The holidays are officially over. My grandkids finally got their gifts and only about 10 days after Christmas. Thank you to those of you who were praying that it would get there. What should have taken 10 days actually took 38. So much for mailing early.

I really like January. It is the month that the days start getting longer and the nights shorter. I like long days and lots of light. I would not like to live in a place like Alaska where in the winter months the sun comes up just in time to start back down. I have SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), and it causes me to run into walls if I don't get enough sunlight. The first time I had it, I thought I had an inner ear infection, but the doctor who was familiar with SAD, diagnosed it quickly and told me to buy a sunlamp and use it for 10 minutes a day. Voila!! I was cured. At the time I was working in a building with no windows. I went to work before sun up and did not get home until after sundown. Some people get depressed, but with me it was a balance issue. I would head through a door and hit my right shoulder on the door frame. I was disoriented and dizzy, but the light therapy cured it in just a matter of days and now I recognize it and head outside for the cure rather than sitting under the sunlamp.

I want to thank all of you who sent cards and gifts. They are much appreciated. We have sent out thank you cards, but invariably somebody gets missed, so please accept our thanks via this blog, if your written card does not arrive.

Two or three weeks ago an elderly grandma ran a red light and totalled our van. Alas, master, for it was borrowed! Tom suffered a broken rib, but was otherwise unhurt. The lady and her small grandson were not hurt. The unfortunate part, other than Tom's rib, was the fact that the van was worth a lot more than the blue-book value. It was immaculately maintained, and had been promised to another missionary after we were done with it. I feel really bad about it. The man who loaned it to us gave us the best car we ever owned several years ago. He has been a blessing to us and others many times over. He paid for the rental on 2 of our storage facilities in Thailand for a year. Pray that the Lord will bless him for what he does for missions and missionaries.

On New Year's Eve, we made a mad dash to Temple, Texas, to see friend, mentor, and missionary Milton Martin. He had a life- threatening heart arrhythmia that he had had for over a week. The doctors said that he needed to have a shock treatment to put it back in sync. They had to do some blood tests and it was found that he had leukemia. To say the least, it did not look good, and we were all quite concerned. However, the shock therapy worked and by the time he was back in his room at the hospital, he already looked 100% better. The doctors also said that the preliminary tests indicated that the type of leukemia that he has is non-aggressive and that he can live for years with it. For these things we are most thankful. All holidays come and go, but Thanksgiving never ends. It is my favorite holiday, because if celebrated properly it is everyday of the year.

Heading for the New Year

2009-12-26T09:46:00.006-06:00

Tom and I had a wonderful Christmas yesterday. We stayed home and did nothing except rest. It was very similar to Christmas Eve. We didn't do anything that day either. Tom is recovering from a broken rib that he received in a minor car accident the day before that. Me, I don't have to be told to rest. I can do it if I am left alone, so we didn't go anywhere or get involved in any frantic last shopping day before Christmas activities.

Our grandkids did not get their Christmas package even though I mailed it on November 30th. Now I am just hoping that it gets there at all. There being Lithuania in eastern Europe. Good thing they are used to having Christmas at odd times of the year. They have had Christmas in November in time past and also in January. If there is a time when all of us can get together, that is when we have Christmas. This year we decided to send actual gifts instead of money. Probably won't do this again. The cost of postage was almost as much as the cost of the gifts. Oh, well, you try different things and eventually sort out which works best.

We had a white Christmas here in Fort Worth. The first one in 80 years, I'm told. It was nice to be able to stay inside and just look out and enjoy it without having to get out and drive. I really hate driving on slick roads. I got my share of that living in Denver, Colorado, for 10 years. I don't miss the snow. Once in a blue moon works fine for me, and if it happens to be on Christmas, that is a plus.

Right now we are enjoying eggnog lattes that are much better than the ones Starbucks makes. Myra Noel gave us an espresso pot. The coffee is Blue Mountain Garoka from Papua New Guinea compliments of Ken and Velda Black. Ahhhh...the simple pleasures. Gotta get to Wal-Mart and grab a couple more quarts of eggnog before they are gone for another year.

I am so glad that Al Gore invented the Internet. It is so good to receive texts and photos instantly when your family lives half way around the world. It is good to send greetings around the world at the speed of light to those you can't be near for the Holidays. We really have so much to be thankful for. No matter what happens with the economy, health care and everything else, just remember that the Lord Jesus is still in control, in charge and watching over us.

Oh, yeah, and Al Gore didn't really invent the Internet, and I am not the Queen of England.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-24T06:28:00.006-06:00

It's 6:30 AM Christmas Eve morning. Tom is still asleep and the house is quiet. I had a wonderful dream and it ended just as I woke up. As a matter of fact the ending of the dream is WHAT woke me up. I know some of you are thinking that I was dreaming some esoteric Christmas dream or whatever and have words of wisdom and an application for this season. I do and I hope all of you appreciate this as much as I do.

I dreamed that I was in the huge Cabelas Sporting Goods store here in Fort Worth. I was carrying a watermelon under one arm. (Now, Tom will immediately know where this is going as soon as he reads it.) Anyway, I was carrying this watermelon to the side part of the store where they had an indoor shooting range. The man behind the counter handed me a rifle, and low and behold it turned out to be my own customized 270 elk rifle. You know how dreams are; I ended up with my own gun. At some point the watermelon got set up down at the end of the range and I aimed and pulled the trigger. Just as the watermelon exploded wonderfully and in slow motion, I woke up smiling. It was so fun. Something I have always wanted to do.

It's Jesus' birthday celebration, but He gives us the gifts. Remember to take time to give Him thanks for the many blessings He gives both great and small; eternal salvation, family, friends, a real nice hunting rifle...and watermelons. Don't forget the watermelons.

Thanksgiving is Not Over

2009-12-12T08:12:00.004-06:00

The first thing I noticed upon arriving back in the United States the last day of September--SEPTEMBER, mind you, was going into Wal-Mart and seeing Halloween decorations on the shelves right across from Christmas decorations on the other side of the aisle. Nothing about the holiday, which is one of my favorite, Thanksgiving, was on display anywhere. Seeing folks in the mad frenzy to get into the "holiday spirit," I was reminded that I was now back in frantic America. In my world the holidays begin about mid-November. Halloween is a one-night event where we give out tracts and candy to the kids who come to our door. One night, no decorations, and over. Then there is a 3 week break , in my world, where we look ahead not to Christmas, but to Thanksgiving. Having a day to remind us to be thankful is needful, because we are not all that bright, and we tend to forget. We get caught up in the spectacle of Christmas and all the hustle and bustle just takes over and we forget the things that God has done in our lives. In our frenzy to buy gifts for the kids, we forget to thank God that we have the kids. We forget to thank God for the money, if sometimes meager, to buy stuff for the people in our lives. In our mind-bending endeavor to figure out what to buy for those people in our lives that we love and appreciate, we forget to be thankful that we have those special people in our lives that make our lives worth living.

Yes, we all know that we should be thankful every day. That is a no-brainer, but we still need to be reminded on this special day of the year to be thankful for the people in our lives that matter, and for the blessings that God has sent our way.

By the way, if you really want to make me mad, here's how; call Thanksgiving "Turkey Day." It really won't make me mad though, because I will just consider the source and I will understand that you are just celebrating your own holiday. You are the Turkey!!

By the way; Happy Birthday to our Daughter, Lisa, who was born December 12th. She and her husband, Brian Johnson and their 4 children, are missionaries in Lithuania for the last 12 years. These are the things I am thankful for. Family, friends, and most of all, a Saviour who paid a heavy price for our salvation.

Thanksgiving

2009-11-04T08:40:00.004-06:00

Halloween is now over. I was able to give out candy and gospel tracts to about 50 kids. The kids were impressed by our "library." One little kid said "Wow! They must have at least a hundred books!" Actually, we have a couple thousand, but to a small child a hundred might as well be a thousand. It was interesting to me that they would notice. I guess that books are not a big part of 21st century life. Anyway, it impressed them.

Now I am looking forward to Thanksgiving. It is sad to see Thanksgiving skipped over and mostly ignored today. In the stores this time home, I noticed that Halloween and Christmas stuff were up and for sale at the same time. Not one mention of anything to do with Thanksgiving. Sad that people are unthankful, uncaring, and unholy. No wonder our country is in the shape that it is in.

I have had to fast forward to Christmas myself though. We have to ship stuff to Lithuania and it has to leave ASAP. Our son-in-law and daughter are missionaries there for the last 11+ years. The grandkids are getting older and the price of their "toys" is getting higher, but our goal is to buy stuff while our money is still worth something! Our grandkids appreciate our financial goals to help keep the economy moving. By this time next year, they may each get a greeting card and a pencil set.

Tom's October meetings went very well and now he is home. I dusted off the stove and started cooking again. He does not seem to appreciate popcorn for supper like I do. Cheese and crackers doesn't work for him either. And they say women are complicated creatures. I wonder where they get these weird ideas.

We are both finally living on US time again. We are sleeping at night and waking up in the morning. It took me a lot longer this time home to get situated. There was something about waking up at 3AM and not being able to get up and vacuum the bedroom that messed me up. I usually couldn't go back to sleep, but come about 2PM I had to take a 3 or 4 hour nap. But I think I am OK now. I am as OK as I get anyway. For some people my version of OK and their version of OK is 2 different things. There are some who say that I am not OK. What's with them?
My Dad always used to tell my Mom, "You and I are the only sane people left in the world, and sometimes I wonder about you." I am beginning to understand that more now that I am getting older.

At any rate, I and I alone am fine. The rest of you need some work. And right now I need to get to work. Rest period is over. I love you all, even though you are all a little off kilter. Pray for us as we pray for you. Let us hear how you are doing and most importantly remember that life is uncertain, eat dessert first.

Been Home for Almost a Month

2009-10-15T10:11:00.003-05:00

I am finally over jet lag and rested. It seemed to take a very long time and the older I get the longer it takes to recover. I am feeling almost normal now. However, one must remember that "normal" is an ambiguous term. Normal for me is being able to get up in the morning and sleep at night, which is the hardest thing to do coming from the exact opposite time zone on the planet. I was on the verge of collapse during the daylight hours for 2 solid weeks and simply could not stay awake. Then I would be awake at 3:00 AM ready for the day to begin. I am much better now. I still want to go to sleep around 5:00 PM for the night, but I push past that and seem to be pretty much back on track.

To all you who have been asking, yes I have been to Wal-Mart. Several times. In the past 3 weeks I have eaten Cheetos, drank Dr. Pepper, and been to the local Thrift Store. We have been wined and dined by many. Well, not wined, but to say we were Dr. Peppered and dined wouldn't rhyme.

I am really enjoying the cool temperatures. The perpetual heat of Thailand is very draining for me. I am even enjoying the rain. Actually, I am enjoying everything about being home. The thing I miss the most being away from home is hearing my own Pastor preach and being around my church family. I miss them very much. The mission field would be much easier if I could take them all back with me. How I thank the Lord for instant messaging, blogs, e-mail, Skype and Facebook.

No matter where you are, you always miss someone. Right now I miss Pook, Noah, Nakon and Bunga. They are holding the fort in Bangkok while we are here. We really are blessed to have a good staff. They work hard and have many struggles in a land where 2 of them are the only Christians in their whole family. Please pray for them. Pook is the office manager, Noah is the Burmese Project Manager and he handles all things Burmese, Nakon is translating the Bible Curriculum from Oak Harbor into Thai, and Bunga is working on the Good and Evil Project. They are busy and they have heavy responsibilities to carry.

Tom leaves in 2 days for a group of meetings and will be gone for 2 weeks. There are several things to be done here before he leaves and not much time to do them. So what else is new? This all falls under the heading, "normal." He has recovered from the fall down the stairs that he had in Thailand right before we left, but he is still very tired and not recovered from the trip.

He will be doing a lot of driving during this trip, so please pray for his safety on the roads. Pray for Carolyn and me as we get back to work. There is work to be done and we do it wherever we are, whether in Thailand or Texas.

Many thanks to all of you who have prayed and have given to see this ministry go forward. We appreciate it very much.

Home Again

2009-10-02T06:57:00.003-05:00

I know it has been a long time since I posted on this blog. We were very busy in Thailand, tying up loose ends and preparing for travel to the US. Many things were accomplished at the last minute before we left. Hundreds of boxes of literature were shipped into neighboring countries and made it safely to their destination. We want to thank each and every one of you who prayed for the last shipment. You made the difference and everything arrived safely.

Tom is still recovering from his fall, but is doing well. We are all still dealing with varying degrees of exhaustion and jet lag, but things are improving slowly but surely. It certainly was wonderful to be back in our home church. This was the most important and blessed thing. Hearing our pastor preach (in English) and be with friends that have stayed by the stuff on our behalf. I want to thank you all for your prayers and help. Special thanks go to Judy McKinnie, who handles our finances. Without her we would be in a mess for sure. I will miss dog-sitting Tootsie while I am home this time. Tootsie was Judy's Boston Terrier who passed away while we were on the field this time.

We have already picked up a new supporting church and we are so thankful for that. Tom has meetings planned in many different places. Sunday he will be kicking off our annual Missions Conference here at Metropolitan. This is the first Missions Conference that we have been home for in several years and we are really looking forward to it. Mostly I will be looking forward to it. Tom will be traveling some of the month and will not be here for all of it.

Many changes are evident during our absence. Since we were home last time, several of our young people have gotten married, several children have been born, and several of our older members have gone home to glory. We will miss them, but not for long. There are new faces that we don't recognize and haven't had time to meet yet, but look forward to that.

All in all and the end of the matter is this: we are very glad to be home in Texas for awhile.

Loose Ends

2009-08-09T08:09:00.003-05:00

These last few weeks before we leave for furlough have been very busy and there is no sign of letting up. Right now we have 2 videos in progress and we just received a 40 foot container full of literature that has been delivered to the Thai/Burmese border. Tom and various members of the staff have made 2 trips up to the border in the last month. We will need to make at least one more trip up there before we head back to the States.

We are all very tired and are all still battling different sicknesses. It seems that none of us can remain well for very long and for months now, none of us have all been well at the same time. One week one of us is sick and the next week it is someone else. Tom is really tired and we are all really looking forward to going home for a rest.

Today was Mother's Day here in Thailand. Mother's Day is celebrated on the Queen's birthday and Father's Day is on the King's birthday. The Thai church services were dedicated totally to the celebration of our mothers. Thai culture is very much dedicated to the veneration of parents. There is no Social Security system, so the children are expected to care for the parents in their old age.

It is funny that where my daughter lives in Lithuania, (eastern Europe), Mother's Day is on one date and it is different in Thailand, and yet again different in America. Every country that celebrates Mother's Day has it on a different day of the year. Depending on where I happen to be and where my daughter happens to be at the time, I get Mother's Day greetings at really odd times. Anyway, today I was Pookie's mother and we had a good day at Lat Phrao Baptist Church.

Anyway, to all you mothers out there, no matter where you are or what day it is celebrated in your particular country, Happy Mother's Day.

All of the Americans here on our team are really looking forward to coming home for a much needed rest. Carolyn will be staying with us in Fort Worth for a couple of weeks rest before heading home to Tennessee. Anne will be heading home to Pennsylvania and will be looking for a job. Please pray with us about this. Anne worked for a year and saved all the money that she could in order to come to Thailand and work with us for a year. She will need to find a job in order to support herself upon her return and as of yet she has no leads.

Carolyn's church in Tennessee is without a pastor. It is very unsettling to be in a foreign country without a pastor at the helm of your church. This leaves her not knowing if she will be able to come back to Thailand with us when we return. We certainly need her and are very much hoping that she will be able to return with us. All of these things need prayer, so please continue to pray for us as things are unsettled for all of us right now. We have quite a few loose ends to tie up so that the office will run smoothly while we are away. We are looking forward to seeing many of you when we return.

Two Months Till TEXAS!!

2009-07-26T23:24:00.010-05:00

Tom and I leave Thailand for furlough on or around Sept. 22nd. We will be in the US for a few months. The whole team here is tired and we have all been battling various illnesses for the last 3 months, off and on. It seems that somebody around here is always sick. One gets well and another comes down with something. Like I said it has been a constant battle for 3 straight months. So far, none of us has gotten "swine flu." It was running wild in our province according to the news, but no matter how hard the media is working to keep everybody scared, it is a non-issue. Just don't sneeze or cough on the airplane, or you might get quarantined in some layover country. Don't laugh. Gary Karle saw one guy taken off the plane in Tokyo and hauled off to who knows where. Hope the guy finally made it out of Japan.

Right now we are trying to get a lot of loose ends tied up before leaving for the US. There are several languages of the "Good and Evil" book that are very nearly finished except for a few tweaks. We are waiting for just a few words to be translated here and there in 4 or 5 languages. The Japanese is stalled out for lack of 4 words that the translator hasn't finished. It is very frustrating when people drag their feet toward the end of a project.

We are trying to get a couple of videos published and uploaded to the web before we leave for the US also. Ben Hall from Lehigh Valley Baptist Church is here with us and he is working on that now but as usual, we are having a lot of computer trouble at the moment. The router for the office computers went out and they are trying to replace it even as I write this. The internet at the office is down because of said problem, and several of the computers are off the network and we can't get them back on. Basically, we are still in desperate need of a computer geek to join the team permanently. It will be a full-time job for some individual. What we have been praying for for the last almost 5 years now, is a young couple to come along side us and learn to take over this ministry when the time comes that we are either too old or too dead to carry on. If you are that couple, please get over here and make it soon!!!

We had a water leak at our facility up on the Thai-Burmese border and it flooded the floor where the literature is stored. Several boxes were damaged and we were going to throw them away. But God is good and His word will never return void. We sat the boxes out on the sidewalk to be picked up by the trash collectors, and within a few hours people had passed by and saw them, opened the soggy boxes, and took it all! This is not the best way to do literature distribution, but nevertheless, wet and soggy, the literature got into the hands of the people. These few boxes were all that remained of the Burmese tracts that we had on that boarder. That was last week. We have a 40-foot container that will be here next week sometime and that will be immediately transshipped to restock the facility up there and also to stock another facility that we have rented in another location. Oh yes, and as a wonderful side-note: the family who paid for the rental of the facility for the whole year has already sent the money to pay the rent for this next year and also for the other facility in the other place. Praise God and thanks to these folks. They have been a blessing to us for many years in more ways than one.

There is a lot happening here in Thailand, but much of it can't be reported on in detail because of the instability of the region. While Thailand is free and relatively safe, the countries surrounding us are not. Those of you who know about our ministry understand this. We appreciate your prayers for us and for sending folks our way to help and minister for short terms. We have had many quality people over the years who have come and lent a hand where they were needed and because of them our work has gone forward.

Romance and Glamor -- We got it all !!!!

2009-06-12T03:45:00.007-05:00

Yes, life on the mission field is very romantic and glamorous, or at least that's what many people seem to think. YEAH, RIGHT!?!?!? There is nothing quite as romantic as the sound of rats squealing on the roof of an Asian "dirty" kitchen while you cook or as glamorous as killing a snake in the kitchen by throwing boiling water on it from a distance. The tricky part of that one was keeping an eye on it so it didn't slither off somewhere and hide while the water in the water pot boiled and I filled three huge glasses so that I could stand across the room and pitch the water from about 6 feet away. I hit it all three times. Now there is a snake skeleton stuck between two water pipes next to the washing machine. I was going to have Tom get it out, but by the next morning millions of ants had reduced it to just the skeleton. I thought that was very good of them to do that, since bones don't stink. Anyway, the ants are gone and the skeleton is still there, lodged between the pipes. Romantic. Glamorous. Weird. You ask "Why don't you move it." The answer, "Perhaps when his friends come by they will become fearful and leave before I boil them too." People who notice it say, "Do you know you have a snake skeleton over there in the corner?" And I say, "Yep." I'm not one of those 10,000 words a day women. Let 'em wonder. I like to watch the looks on their face.

Another really glamorous thing is going on right now. It's rainy season here in Thailand. Every time it rains something happens in the electricity. If you try to turn on the lights on either end of the house it blows the breaker. We have to wait till the rain stops and things dry out a few hours before we can use the switches. If the electricity is on it will usually stay on, but you can't turn it on if it is off, unless it dries out a little. So we have a choice. If we see it getting dark outside like it is going to rain, we have to turn on all the lights we will need for the next several hours and leave them on while it rains. Thomas Edison could probably explain this, but he's dead.

And for the "coup de grace," for the last three weeks most of the team has been sharing a rather nasty viral infection. Six of us have passed it back and forth more than once and Carolyn and Pook have both had to visit the local resort, better known as Bumrungrad Hospital. Gary Karle and I know where every bathroom in the largest mall in Bangkok is located, and Tom has taken enough Imodium to last a year. As of today, none of us are over it completely and Tom and Gary had to go to Nepal. I hope they stay well enough to get the printing done that they went there to finalize.

Romance and glamor. Ya just gotta have it!!!

Back in Bangkok

2009-05-10T08:50:00.002-05:00

Tom and arrived back in Bangkok on Friday afternoon. The time we spent with our family in Lithuania was wonderful. We have a new grandson, Levi Thomas, who was born in February. This was a much needed respite from the heat of Thailand. Spring is just now breaking out in Lithuania and all the fruit trees are blooming and the flowers are beautiful. Tom wore his jacket the whole time we were there, even inside the house. I was very comfortable wearing a fleece jacket also. I guess our blood has either thickened or thinned, or whatever they say it does when you live in a hot climate. 50 F. does seem really cold when you haven't been that cold in several years.

Our grandchildren are doing well and the two oldest are now fluent in the Lithuanian language. Maybe too fluent. There are words that they do not know the English equivalent for. My granddaughter wanted permission to go to "Lithuanian word." I asked her what it was in English and she couldn't tell me. You know, the place where the animals live. The "zoo." Ah, yes, the Zoo. At summer camp in Latvia last year, the counselors did not believe that they were Americans, when they asked them where they were from. They speak Lithuanian without an accent. They speak English at home and Lisa is homeschooling them in English language, spelling and American History. The 2 older kids both go to Lithuanian school and the third one starts in the Fall. Brian and Lisa have been in Lithuania for 11 years.

When we arrived, Brian asked me what we wanted to see and what we wanted to do. I told him "I don't want to go anywhere and I don't want to do anything. I want to do absolutely nothing for the whole month." That is exactly what we did. We stayed at home and did absolutely nothing and I loved it. Both Tom and I needed the break more than we realized. This was the first time in several years that we really rested. There were several days when Tom and Brian didn't even get dressed. Lisa and I got dressed, because we went to the store almost every day. They have a store called Maxima that is the equivalent to a small super-Walmart, where they have clothes, food, housewares, etc. Utena is a small town, so driving to Maxima every day was just enough work for one who is "on vacation." Wow, Europe is veeeery expensive!! Food and clothing are outrageous.

If there is a downside to our ministry, it is for me, only getting to see my grandchildren once every year or two. In the life of a small child, a year makes a big difference. The oldest three knew who we were, but of course, the baby will not remember us when we see him again. By the time the month was over, we had barely had time to reconnect and then it was time to leave. I am really thankful for the ability to talk on skype and at least see them and let them see us on camera when we talk to them. Modern technology has made things so much easier for us in the 21st century.

While we were gone, things ran well here in the office. We have a good staff of people with us now and they kept things moving. We are very thankful for Anne, Carolyn, and Pookie. Without them here to hold the ropes, there would have been no way we could have been gone for a month. Thanks, guys.

Leavin' on a Jet Plane!!!

2009-04-05T01:07:00.003-05:00

Tom and I leave for Lithuania, tomorrow night at 9:00PM. Actually, that is when we leave for the airport. Our plane doesn't leave until Tuesday morning at 1:00 AM. Almost all international flights arrive and depart at around midnight here in Bangkok. We make at least one or two airport runs a month around here and sometimes considerably more than that. At least at that time of night there is no traffic to speak of, so actually that is not as bad as it sounds convenience-wise. It is a quick trip there and back when you don't have to fight the horrible Bangkok traffic.

We will be out of the office for a month, but now we have a way to do stuff on our office computers without even being there. Don't ask me how all this works. It is some kind of virtual networking stuff that is way over my head. Please pray for our staff as they will be here fending for themselves. None of them drive except Pook and she doesn't have a driver's license. So they will have a perfectly good van sitting here and all they have to do is talk Pook into going to get a license. She can and does drive, but she really needs to get her license renewed. It expired about 3 years ago, and she never got around to doing anything about it.

Noah will be back in town today sometime. He has decided to work with us full-time here at the Bangkok office, and we are really excited about this. There is also the possibility of hiring another young man who lives on the border, who can't leave there. However, and this is really nice, we have the translating office there on the border for him. God is good and many of these Burmese translating projects are really coming together.

The laundry is all done and hanging out to dry. All that is left is the packing and that will be the tricky part. Now travelers are only allowed one 50 # bag and a dinky little carry-on. This does present a problem when you have to carry computers to keep the work from grinding to a halt while you are gone, video equipment and cameras for filming and taking pictures of the grandkids, a ton of gifts, and another ton of stuff our daughter wants us to bring her because it is much cheaper to buy here. Good thing she has a washing machine, because we aren't going to have much room in our bags for unimportant incidentals like clothes :)

Lithuania Bound

2009-03-30T23:33:00.008-05:00

Tom and I are preparing to leave for Lithuania one week from today. We will be out of the office for one month. I hope to be able to post to this blog while we are gone, but that is iffy, considering that I will be playing with my grandchildren and may not have any spare time for blogging:)

I will try to catch you up on things now, so that you will know, at least what I am up to. I am working on getting a prayer letter out. It will be both electronic and paper. (Paper, what is that!) I found out recently that some of our friends actually don't believe in having Internet. Which is kind of like not believing in food because some of it is bad for your health, or clothing because some of it is immodest and revealing. OK, you guys, so go naked and starve. Not Me!! I have Internet!!! I can say this with impunity because of either 1 of 2 things. The people who don't believe in Internet won't be able to read this, or else they are reading it and have gotten over whatever problem they had. Either way, I HAVE INTERNET AND I AM VERY HAPPY!!!!

Oh wow!! I digressed there for a second. Had a little funny party all by myself. The other guys in the office look at you when you are laughing all alone. They want to laugh too, so I tell them what is funny and they just look at me. I don't think they get it. Oh, well. Now I will return you to the regularly scheduled program.

Tom is returning from the Burmese border today having spent a few days up there getting very valuable translating and proofreading done on the Burmese New Testament. It will be ready very, very soon and we are really excited about this. The devil has fought tooth and claw, but victory is in sight. The reprint of the Thai Good and Evil is done, and will be shipped to us from Chiang Mai and will arrive tomorrow. We have a container load of Burmese stuff coming from America. I can't exactly say how much of how many are coming, but there are 400,000 Burmese John/Romans printed and ready, 10,000 New Testaments, and 2000 Bibles. I am not sure of the quantity of each that will be in the container, but we are really excited about this. The John/Romans are printed off of the new, clear negatives and they will be wonderful. The New Testaments and Bibles are printed off the old negatives, until we are finished with the re-typesetting and proof-reading of the New Testament and Bible. It is this New Testament that is in the final stages now. Please pray for Noah and the translating team. They will be staying at the shophouse that we rented on the border while they do this work. They are not safe. Some of the team members are illegals and prayers need to go up they don't have any trouble with the border guards and police. Noah has a passport and he should be OK, but you never know.

We also need prayer about finances to rent 2 more small storage depots on the boarder for this literature when it arrives. We already have the large facility, but the year is almost up. (One individual paid for the whole 1st year in advance.) The other 2 only need to be very small. Just large enough for the literature and room for 2 people (Tom and myself) to stay when we go up. Basically one room and a bathroom. Or maybe just one room and we stay at a hotel. I'm not sure about this yet. The large shophouse has been a great blessing to us. It is being used as guest housing, translation center, literature storage facility, and training center. We really need to be able to keep this one, so please pray for the financing of it as well as the 2 we have yet to rent. By the way, the other two will be in two other unnamed cities on the border. The border is too long to keep everything in only the one location. The folks need to be able to come over the border clandestinely, get the stuff, and get back quickly and without getting caught. They can't travel far. Most people have absolutely no concept of what life is like for these folks. They lay their lives on the line to get the Word of God to their people. How many of us would do the same.

While you are in praying mode, please pray for another van for the team here in Thailand. The one we have is underpowered for the mountains where we travel, falling apart and uncomfortable. When you are old, comfort matters a little more than it did even 10 years ago.

We are also in need of housing for guests; the invited ones. People keep showing up on our doorstep in need of a place to stay and assuming that they can stay with us, without ever bothering to ask ahead of time if we have accommodations. Believe it or not, we have had several people come over here on vacation expecting us to provide housing and taxi/tour services at no cost. These are not the ones we are concerned about. These vacationers can stay at the literature storage building also known as "the Cage." It is really crummy as a place to stay, unless you are a box of literature. But then again, maybe this is a good thing as it will discourage freeloaders from returning.

Who we are concerned about are the legitimate folks who are coming to help and do internships. Both the ladies and men's dorms are full with our semi-permanent staff. We need some kind of divided facilities, or 2 facilities to house single men and women, separately. If there is any way possible, we would like to be able to consolidate and have the publishing office and guest quarters housed in one large facility. As it is now, we are spread up and down the street in 5 separate facilities, but because they are all very small, we still do not have enough room for everybody. At the moment, a young man is sleeping among boxes of "Good and Evil" books on the bottom floor of the boys dorm, which is also doubling as a storage facility. This guy had surgery last week and can't walk up and down stairs. As one can imagine, this is pretty unacceptable and inhospitable, to put a semi-invalid in a storage room. At least I find it most unacceptable, so help me out with this one and really pray that the Lord will open up a larger, affordable facility here on the street so that we can accommodate the folks who really need to be here.

Also pray for the health of the whole team here. We are all experiencing mild to serious health issues. For the three of us who are pushing 60, they are pretty serious. For the others, under 40, they are still ranging from mild to moderate. At least the health care over here is high quality and cheap. We have Bumrungrad International, an excellent hospital and I should know, I've spent time there on 5 separate and miserable occasions, one time lasting a whole month.

Just Rambles and Prayer Requests

2009-03-19T03:55:00.001-05:00

As I sit here in the office I hear the sounds of workers around me. One is speaking in Thai on the telephone transacting some business or other. To my left, one of our Thai co-workers, Bunga, is pasting text into one of the languages of the “Good and Evil” book. To my right is the Project Head of “Good and Evil,” Pookie. She is the one talking on the phone. To her right is one of the American ladies who has worked with us for almost 11 years, who is now in charge of the home office in Texas. Her name is Myra. To her right is another American lady from Tennessee who has been with us for about 7 months and who plans to stay indefinitely. Her name is Carolyn. To her left is Anne, from Pennsylvania who has been here for 7 months and who will stay as long as she possibly can. Her visa expires in 5 months, but she is hoping to extend. She is here with very little financial support, so she will stay until her money runs out basically. Behind me, the man translating the Bible College curriculum into Thai is called Burm. To his right is Noah, the man from Burma who is working on the Judson Bible.

Only 2 of these folks are members of the same church. Berm and Pookie belong to the same local church here in Bangkok. So that means that there are 8 churches represented here. Each morning at prayer time before our work day begins we go before the Lord and commit our day and our work to Him. It is a blessing to pray for the various things that take place from day to day here, but also for things that each one of us receive each day via e-mail and phone calls from other places around the world.

Tom and I leave for Lithuania on April 7th. We will be gone from the office for a month. Myra leaves to go back to America in 5 days. She is the closest thing we have to a computer geek at present, so we pray that all the computers stay up and running and virus free since there will be no one here to do any maintenance on any of them while Tom is gone.

We look forward to seeing our daughter and son-in-law and our grandchildren. We haven’t seen any of them for over a year, and we haven’t seen our oldest grandson in almost 4 years. He did not come over to Thailand last year with his mother, brother and sister, because he was in school. That is the hardest part of being on the mission field, not seeing your family for long stretches at a time. However, we do get to see them from time to time unlike the early missionaries who left for the field knowing they would probably never see their families again. Travel, technology and the advent of things like telephones and e-mail have made life so much easier for most missionaries today. I can call my grandchildren and see them and they can see us with the help of a tiny camera mounted on the computer. We have no real concept of what the early missionaries sacrificed to serve the Lord in foreign and many times, hostile lands.

Almost immediately upon returning from Lithuania, there will be people coming for various periods of time to work with us. A man from our church who has been coming over for the last 3 years during his vacation time from work. He has been a great help and blessing. There are several folks from a Bible college who want to intern for a specified period of time and then there are the unexpected folks who stop by and lend a hand for a few days at a time. Right now, we need to rent some additional facilities to house these folks. We have need for guest quarters because what we have now are full. Three ladies are sharing the second side of our small duplex townhouses, the men’s townhouse has 1 permanent resident and maybe another soon. We have some tragic facilities in our resource center, that can only be used for men. No sane woman would dare stay there. What we need is some type of facility that can be used for both men and women and possibly couples. Where the trouble comes in is that sometimes we have single men and women and they can’t share the same house. Please pray with us that something can be rented that will meet all the housing needs.

Progress and Other Stuff

2009-03-18T03:45:00.007-05:00

A couple of days ago the translator from Nepal came to Bangkok for a conference and was able to spend a couple of very full days with us helping us finalize the "Good and Evil" book in his language. It was a great blessing having him here. The men's prayer time every morning was unusual with each of 4 men praying in 4 different languages. One man each from Nepal, Burma, Thailand and America. The ladies prayer group represented 6 different churches. Truly, the ground is level at Calvary. Every person just a sinner, saved by grace. It is a great privilege to work with people from many countries and ethnic groups and to lay aside our prejudices and pray to the God of all peoples, and tribes and tongues. It is amazing to think that the Creator of all things chose simple, unqualified, ordinary folks to do His work. We thank Him for the opportunity to be serving Him in a place that He has personally chosen for us, doing a job he has given us to do and for a time such as this.

Myra Noel has taught Noah some more pagemaker skills and he learns very quickly and has good understanding of what he is doing on the computer. He is very savvy with the computer and as a translator. He is 25 years, but looks 12. The first time I ever saw him I thought that the Burmese translator had brought his son with him. But, he was the Burmese translator! We hope to be able to hire him to do some other translating when he finishes the job he is doing now. He is a humble servant and works hard and carefully at his job.

Today Pook, Anne and Bunga all worked on the Nepalese "Good and Evil," so that we could print out a proof copy for the translator to take with him to the conference and have some other Nepalese folks proof-read it. He has also said that he can find us a translator for the Dzongkha language of Bhutan. This people group was one of the main target groups at the Sydney 2000 Olympic games. For the last 9 years we have been struggling to get some things into print for these people and up until now have not had good success. The opportunity to get the "Good and Evil" book translated into Dzongkha is once again a prayer focus of ours. Please pray with us that this will come to fruition soon.

The Techies Gone Away

2009-03-12T05:46:00.003-05:00

Jeff and Sarah Evans, from Faith Baptist Church in Temple, Texas left us last night at midnight. Bro. Jeff started working on the computer system the day he got here and worked solid till the same hour that we had to leave to go to the airport. They took one day to sight see, buy souvenirs, and get a suit made, but other than that they worked solid for 2 weeks to get our system back up and running efficiently. It was in real bad shape. We had virus', worms, and just user idiocy. I just found out that before the Evans' came over their church took a whole service and prayed over what they could do to help us out over here. How we thank God for faithful prayer warriors, who are holding up our hands over there, while we are working over here. Without the prayers of God's people, we can do nothing. Thanks you Faith Baptist Church and Pastor Mike Lewis.

Our next prayer request is on the horizon. A man from Nepal is coming on Saturday to finalize the last few things on the Good and Evil book in Nepalese. Pray that this will be completed in the time we have. He will only be here for 3 days.

A great blessing to report is that one of the languages that we have been working on for a long time and for a very dark and evil regime is printed and already getting into the hands of the people who desperately need it. Can't say anything else, sorry, but just pray because God knows where they are and all the details that we can't share. Pray for the safe arrival of the books to the said country, and for the distribution of same. There are folks risking their very lives to do this.

Please continue to pray that the Lord will send us a computer technician that will be able to stay here and work with us. No matter how hard we try, the computers will only work well for so long until they need maintenance and we aren't the ones that know how to do it. Tom doesn't have time to do it, and the rest of us do not have the technical skills.

The team over here are all very tired. The weather is getting hotter by the day and the devil is fighting against us. We are taking turns being sick, not sleeping at night, and various other digs he is getting in. Please pray that he will be bound and that the work will go forth in power.

A letter written in response to a letter asking the question… “Are You Lonesome Tonight?”

2009-03-08T07:28:00.003-05:00

Yes I am lonesome…Tonight, Today and most days. It is the life of a Soldier; to be away from family, and other loved ones, for long periods of time. However, I wasn't forced into this position. This privilege was offered to me by a mighty King, and I accepted of my own free will, fully knowing what I was getting myself into.

Yes, Lisa is far away. She left and took my grandson with her. She is a Soldier. She is the daughter of Soldiers. She is raising my grandson to be a Soldier, I hope. I wouldn't have it any other way.

I miss them. I miss my baby. I long for the feel of his little skin and the sounds of his little voice. But then I see the other multitudes of little babies here in the Philippines and around the world, and the King, in whose army I am a soldier, whispers to me. “These babies are just as precious to me as your baby. Obey my voice and I will use you as a tool in My hand to bring in many, rather than one.”

God will do what God will do. He will do it with or without us. He doesn't need any of us, but if we will let Him, He will allow us the privilege of being there when he does something. God is doing something here and He has graciously allowed us to be a part; tools in His mighty hand.

There is too much emphasis today put upon some kind of a mystical “call.” There is a plain command in the Bible. “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.” Period. Nothing mystical. A plain and simple command from this same King I keep telling you about. I've known you long enough to know that you've probably guessed Who this King is I keep referring to, so there is probably no explanation necessary.

Some people spend all their lives waiting for a “call.” While they wait for the call, they don't do much, just wait. People are falling off into hell by the thousands while they are waiting around. Waiting for a call is nothing more than an excuse invented by old slewfoot himself, to paralyze. I have found that the ones who actually even hear the call are the ones who are already serving the King on some battlefield somewhere.

My advice to those waiting for a call is this: find someplace where God is moving. Go there and get right in the middle of it. Live like the King is coming today; work and pray like He won't be here for a long time. Jump into some battle just like you know what you are doing. You know full well that you don't know squat, but act like you do anyway. After all, the King is there and He does know what He is doing, and that is good enough. He doesn't need you, but He will let you be there and stand on His mighty feet while He dances. He will sometimes put the sword in YOUR hand and your hand in His and let you put in a few swings. He will let you watch Him do exploits. It is a glorious time and an awesome thing to be there when the King does stuff! While you are in the heat of one of these kinds of battles, you usually are in a position to hear the still small voice and the “call.” You can't hear someone else's call, only your own. The still, small voice is so still and small that it is sometimes difficult to hear even your own “call” and it is not possible to hear somebody else’s.

To miss this, is to lose the reason to live. To miss this, is the greatest tragedy that a Christian can suffer. The only thing worse in the universe is to reject the King entirely and end up in Hell.

So, in answer to your question, Yes, I am lonesome...but not for long. I am weak...but not for long. I am tired…but not for long. I am poor…but not for long.

A Soldier…But not for long.

This was written several years ago, while we were living in the Philippines, but its truths still apply. Now I have 4 grandchildren. My daughter and her husband are still missionaries in Lithuania. They are training 4 soldiers now.

Scared!!

2009-03-01T02:07:00.003-06:00

Well, the IT guy and his wife arrived from Texas. He took one good look at our system and he said it scared him. Fortunately for us, we didn't have enough sense to be scared before, but now we are. He said our system is in really scary shape. We knew it was bad, but we didn't know how bad till yesterday. Please pray. This is a serious situation and needs to be fixed before we lose our publishing resources. Pray that this man has enough time and we are able to get the parts and components we need to get this system safe and functioning the way it is supposed to. Also please pray that he is able to get my laptop fixed, because it has all the financial records on it. I have everything backed up, so hopefully it will just be a matter of re-installing windows and getting the virus software upgraded. Keeping these computers up and running is a major job. We still need a full-time IT guy. It won't be long before we are going to need a bigger office. On Friday, 9 people were in there working on all the computers.

Tuesday is Pookie's birthday. When anybody has a birthday over here, they get to pick where they want to eat their birthday meal. Pookie has chosen the Oishi Buffet. Lots of raw fish. She and Psalm used to eat so much sushi that I had to sit at the other end of the table. I don't eat raw stuff and sometimes I have trouble even smelling raw fish and watching other people eat it. Fortunately for us, they also have lots of cooked food and also you can pick your own stuff and they will cook it for you and bring it to your table. Pookie turns the big 21.

Today We Bought New Chairs

2009-02-25T04:38:00.002-06:00

A couple of days ago, we were all at the office with a loud SNAP was heard and then a crash. When we all looked around Tom was lying on the floor, still in the chair in a sitting position except he was lying on his back. One of the rolling legs of his office chair broke and he bit the dirt, as we say in Texas. So today he found 4 new office chairs to replace some of the ones that are becoming dangerously crummy.

A BIG answer to prayer: We have an IT guy and his wife who are ON THE WAY!!! Thanks to Bro. Mike Lewis and the Faith Baptist Church in Temple, Texas. This will be a very big help to us as our computers are glitching all over the place and we are just hanging on trying not to lose anything until somebody gets here who can get the computers and servers stabilized and doing what they were meant to do.

Myra Noel made it here safely from Texas. Safe, but very tired. Pray that she will get over the jet lag quickly, because she has a big job ahead of her. Please pray for Carolyn. She got a bone scan a few weeks ago, and she has osteoporosis with a high risk of fracture. They put her on Boneva, but one pill costs $60. She takes one pill per month for 6 months, and then goes back to the doctor for another scan. Pray that her bone density improves greatly.

The rest of us are all doing well, I think. At least we are still up and running. We are praying for another 2 workers, whether we hire them or they are volunteers. Tom would like a Thai man to travel with him to the neighboring countries.

Thank you for your prayers on our behalf. We can always tell when people are praying and we can also tell when they are not. Keep on keeping on. It will mean the difference in whether the job gets done over here or not. The battle is won or lost in the prayer closet, not on the battle field.

Busy Month Ahead

2009-02-21T00:35:00.003-06:00

Noah arrives today and Myra Noel arrives at midnight on Tuesday. They will be putting in long hours on the proofreading and typesetting of the Judson Bible in Burmese. This is going to be something that needs to be saturated in prayer. Those of you who know about this project, and have been praying, we want to say "Thank You" and please keep on praying. We are hoping to finish this project up in 1 month, but that may be wishful thinking on our part. Things usually take longer than hoped and planned for. At the moment, we are having computer problems with more than one of the systems and we are in desperate need of an IT person (translated "geek") to come over and help us keep these tricky computers and servers doing their job. We also need another full-time worker to help us with the "Good and Evil" project. Pookie is over-worked and underpaid. She is doubling as overseer of the G&E as well as Tom's almost full-time assistant. It is way too much for one person, so please pray about us being able to acquire another dependable worker to take the burden off of her.

The Judson picture tract is still having art work retouched. It is taking longer than expected also, but when it is finished, it is going to be a great tool for Burmese people. People have asked us if we plan to translate it into Thai. The answer is NO. It is a tract that is only culturally relevant to Burmese people. This is the reason it is important to train folks in these other countries to write their own materials: so that they will be culturally sensitive to the needs of that particular culture. There are many tribes and ethnic groups in Burma as there are in China, Thailand and other countries in this region. They need their own people producing literature for their own particular group and they need to be taught how to do it. Please pray for the funding of these regional training facilities, and more importantly for personnel to help us run them.

The Hmong are all headed back to Laos very soon. Please pray for their safety as they face a very uncertain future in their homeland. The church leaders have vowed to spread the Gospel message thru Laos. Pray that God would give them everything they need to do just that. We love these folks. They have become personal friends and fellow labourers for the Lord. Pray that the country of Laos will reap the benefits of their testimony and evangelization efforts. They may well pay a very high price for serving the Lord in that hostile country.

Midnight Run

2009-02-12T01:33:00.002-06:00

Night before last at precisely 10:00 PM, I am shutting down the computer when I hear Anne calling me across the kitchen wall. "My eye, it really hurts." It looked pretty bad, and because an eye is too serious a thing to mess around with, I told her we needed to go to Bumrungrad. No, it's not another city. It is the international hospital that all who work here with us go to for medical attention. It is quite a distance from our house, but since it was the middle of the night, we got there in a taxi pretty fast. We went to the emergency room, but there was not an eye specialist there, so she had to see just a regular doctor. He shined a flashlight in her eye and said there was no foreign object but he wanted her to come back and see an eye specialist. He did however, giver her drops for pain to put into her eye. We were back home by midnight. We were very glad that Pook was still up and able to go with us. She wanted a Starbucks as payment for her services, but I absolutely refused. Coffee at midnight and she would have been bouncing off the walls till morning. We never, never, under any circumstances allow Pookie to drink coffee at night. We went back to Bumrungrad today. Anne has a scratched cornea, and will have to keep one eye closed for 12 hours a day. Sleeping at night counts, but the daytime 4 hours we haven't figured out how she is going to do that yet. We talked about an eye patch--"Anne the pirate." The doctor said that she was probably sleeping with her eye partially opened, and it was getting dried out. Why would she sleep with one eye opened? Does she have trust issues? Watching for lizards jumping on the bed? What? Anyway the visit to the ER cost her all of her money that she had set aside for February. But then Gary Karle, from my church, who has been supporting her since she got here, sent her money, and now she is back in the black. Oh, yes, and by the way, my doctor told me that I could resume taking showers. Ten weeks of sponge baths has been quite a challenge and I am glad that is over. Veeeeeerrrrry glad!

Tom returned from the left country yesterday and it was a very good and profitable trip. There were divine appointments and that is about all I can say because of where and who, etc. God is still in control, no matter who doesn't like it. Nanner, nanner, nanner.

Several of the computers are offline or in some way not operating properly. We need a geek to come over here for a few weeks and get us situated again. I say again, because maintenance of the computers is an ongoing thing and we are having a hard time keeping things going smoothly with no one here to maintain them full time. Please pray that God would send us someone to help us in this very important area.

Catch-Up

2009-02-09T00:38:00.002-06:00

A lot of things have happened since January 10th, which was the last time I posted something on this blog. On January 12, Alex Coats left us and believe me, he is greatly missed. He was a great help and a blessing to us while he was here. The very next day, Our pastor and wife, Larry and LaRue Atkisson arrived. That was a great time of fellowship and catching up on how our church is doing. We did a little sightseeing the first few days they were here, then we left for the Hmong refugee camp in Petchaboon. We were able to introduce the new believers to our pastor and we were there for a Sunday service. Many of the believers have gone back to Laos in the last several months. Some voluntary, some not, but the men in the church are all vowing to stand firm and spread the Gospel message with they get back to Laos. They will all go back sooner or later. Please pray for them that the Lao government will leave them alone and not go back to the massacres that caused them to flee in the first place. Those whom we have heard from in Laos, say that so far things are OK, and none of them has been shot or mistreated that they have heard about.

After leaving the Hmong camp, we journeyed to the Burmese border and spent a couple of days with the Believers there. We were taken to a garbage dump, where many refugees are living, while they pick through the stuff for things that can be recycled. Many children, some just infants live in these horrid conditions. The ground is literally crawling with flies. Dysentery and other diseases threaten their lives every day, and yet they would rather live here than in Burma. Freedom comes with an unbelievable price for these folks. They would rather be free to live in total poverty and squalor than to live in the country of Burma. Many of these people are ethnic tribespeople. The Karen people are being hunted and murdered with impunity in southern Burma every day. The military regime that controls the country offer them no protection, but rather they are the ones who are doing the killing. Americans have no idea what these countries are like. None of these statistics ever hit the news media. You have to be here and see it for yourself.

After leaving the border, we traveled to Chiang Mai for a few days, to meet with translators and printers. We did all this traveling in our van. There were 7 of us in all. Pook, Anne, and Carolyn all accompanied us, but by the time we got ready to leave Chiang Mai, the 5 of us "old folks" had had all we could take. We hired a driver and let the 2 young ladies, Pook and Anne, bring the van home to Bangkok. Like I have said many times, "getting old is not for sissies." We came home on Friday or Saturday, and Sunday morning and evening, Bro. Larry preached at the church They really liked his preaching style, although it was different from their own. Once he shouted and everybody jumped about a foot, then everybody laughed. Nobody knows but me how much I miss Larry's preaching. It was so good to have them here for almost 2 weeks.

Larry and LaRue left on Monday night and Tuesday morning, Tom and I flew back up to Chiang Mai for a missions conference sponsored by one of the missionaries up there. It was a very excellent conference and we met a lot of real nice folks. We came home Saturday the 31st, and went back to work on Monday, Feb 2nd. I had to begin sorting out the finances that I hadn't touched in almost 3 weeks. On Thursday, our daughter, Lisa Johnson, gave birth to our 4th grandbaby, Levi Taylor Johnson. Both of them are doing well. Our daughter and her husband, Brian Johnson, are missionaries in the country of Lithuania. They have been there 11 years.

Oh, yeah, I missed something in here. On the 1st of February, 2 young men from Lehigh Valley BC came. They will be with us for a few days, then they move on to Indonesia, and then back to us for a few more days next month. Tom and these guys left Sunday morning for a trip out of the country to a place that shall remain anonymous. This brings me up to date. Today is Monday, February 4th. Pook, Anne, Carolyn, and I are all taking the day off. Last week was very busy and stressful and today we crash. At the moment, I think they went to the bowling alley. Me? I'm blogging.

A great Article by Ron Graham

2009-01-10T09:01:00.001-06:00

That None Should Perish
By Ron Graham

“Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?” Ezekiel 18:23. Are you wondering why Jesus is tarrying and not retuning right now for His Church? The answer is stated above by God Himself. God takes no pleasure in knowing the wicked perish.

God knows who will come to a saving relationship with His Son Jesus and who won’t. Each day that passes is another day that someone becomes a new creation in Christ and will join the rest of us in the Rapture. You and I can’t see all those who are being saved on a daily basis, but know this, not one day passes that there isn’t rejoicing in Heaven because someone has accepted Christ as their savior.

Think back, if you will, to the day you were saved, I’m sure most of us who are born again can remember that exact day. Now go back one more day, what if the Lord would have come for His Church on that day? Where would you be right now? I’ve often asked myself that same question whenever I sit and ponder why He tarries. It’s humbling to come to the correct conclusion of just why Jesus hasn’t returned yet. There are still those who will be saved, and thank God for that.

I have many family members and friends, as I’m sure many reading this commentary have who still need to come to the truth of the Gospel of Christ. My prayer is that all of those I’ve mentioned would be saved before it’s too late, but I know there’s a time coming in the very near future when God will not allow any more time to pass. That’s a sad thing to contemplate when we know so many aren’t ready. We rejoice in the fact that the Rapture of the Church can happen at any moment, but what about all those who have continued to reject Christ to that point?

“For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” Romans 11:25. Although we don’t know how long it will take for this complete fullness to occur, all the signs point to it happening very soon now. God alone knows who those individuals are who will make a profession of faith in Christ before it’s too late. Perhaps the next person you approach with the Gospel of Christ will be that last person God is waiting for. We should all appreciate the fact that there is an exact number of people who will be saved before Jesus Christ pulls His Church out of harm’s way, and only God knows that number.

“Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water,” 1Peter 3:20. God waited 120 years after telling Noah to build the Ark for that evil generation of people to repent. We know, historically, God sent the flood to destroy them. Why? His patience had run out. Only eight people were spared the calamity that befell earth.

God gave the Assyrians four-hundred years to repent; He stayed His mighty hand and allowed Israel to become slaves under Egyptian rule. Alas no repentance from the Assyrians was forth coming so God finally freed the Israelites and instructed them to take the land of the Assyrians and put them to death. Israel, by disobeying God and not wiping out the Assyrians, were given a “thorn in the flesh” as the Assyrians continually harassed and warred against them.

God sent Jonah to Nineveh to warn them of the coming wrath of God. They repented and God stayed His mighty hand. In time Nineveh returned to the evil it once embraced and God finally followed through with His promise and wiped out that once great city.

We know that the Israelites were time and again disobedient to God, and God chastised them for their disobedience. They would return to fellowship with God for a while but only to fall back into their old wicked ways and down would come the hammer again. “The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked,” Nahum 1:3. The Israelites are Gods chosen people, the apple of His eye, but they too are running out of time.

Through all this rebellion it’s obvious God is longsuffering, and patient. “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9.

Old Testament or New our God is always the same, and He’s patently waiting to accept His Children into His Kingdom. But one day that patience will run out, and then the Church will be raptured. Left behind will be all those who tried God’s patience to the furthest extreme, basically pushing the envelope just a mite too far.

Life doesn’t need to end that way for anyone. But there needs to be a change in people’s hearts, a change of mind and of direction for those who are perishing. Today we see coldness in the hearts of many in our society. The uncaring, unfeeling people with one intent in mind–it’s the pursuit for that gold cup of wealth and prosperity to the exclusion of all else. Why is it so very important to obtain so much wealth that we can’t begin to spend it, just to leave it behind when we die? God on the other hand is waiting for us to lose interest in earthly riches and pursue the riches that can only be spent in Heaven. Where is your treasure?

Jesus is waiting for everyone who is procrastinating to come to that point where they turn from the love of self, riches, and fame, and turn to the love of God. How long will He wait? Those who have made it their purpose in life to disparage God’s word, or to completely disregard the warnings of their pending destruction are increasingly playing with fire, the Lake of Fire that is. People have turned their backs on God to live a life of debauchery, fornication, homosexuality, greed, hate, malice, you name it. If it isn’t something God’s word promotes as righteousness then it is an abomination to God. Yet He’s patient to wait for those who seem to be stuck in these lifestyles to come out and begin a new life in Christ.

It’s a scary thought to think of anyone going to Hell. Family members who have come to the erroneous conclusion that there is no God, or that they have been basically good all their lives and so God won’t send them to Hell, heard this lie perpetuated by those who follow Satan himself, and they’ve fallen for it. I know many in my family are living under that same delusion. What a burden this places on the hearts of believers. God’s waiting because He doesn’t wish that any should perish. But how long will He wait?

God is patient and longsuffering, we understand that, but at some point we must also realize He will have had enough. He’s shown us many times through His favored nation, Israel, as well as the other nations that I mentioned previously, that He can and will run out of patience. What will that mean to those who haven’t put their faith and trust in His only begotten Son? For the majority of those individuals left on planet earth to cope, there will be utter destruction as a finale. A few will come to repentance and believe, but most certainly Satan will get the lion’s share.

When we read that God wants none to perish we must realize that it’s not His decision to send anyone to Hell. That decision lies in the laps of each individual on the face of this planet. So many have cursed God because they believe He’s at fault, that He damns people to Hell, that He is unloving and unfeeling. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. That scripture verse doesn’t sound unloving or unfeeling to me, but full of love, God’s love which transcends all love.

God loves everyone in the world, not just those who are already saved. We humans are at fault for our disobedience to God and consequently at risk of eternal punishment in the Lake of Fire. The world blames God for every little stubbed toe, not realizing that it’s God who holds the universe in the palm of His hand. The world portrays God in an erroneous way, and people must come to understand that the world’s view is not correct, and the sooner the better. The sooner the change of mind (repentance) happens, the result will be everlasting. After all tomorrow may be too late.

I know many have a very difficult time believing in a God who has created a place like Hell, but God didn’t create Hell for human kind. God created Hell for Satan and all the fallen angels that rebelled against God. They have no choice where they will spend eternity, but we have. God makes it clear that we must make the correct choice. It takes a little thought, it takes a little understanding, and it takes a heart changed for God. All one must do to be saved is “that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” John 6:29.

The Greek word pisteuo, which is translated “believe” in English, is used in the Gospel of John ninety-nine times. Believing in the One God sent is the only prerequisite for salvation. People have had access to the English Bible for some four-hundred years now. There is no reason except for unbelief and disobedience, that anyone still living should reject the truth of the scriptures. “And He marveled because of their unbelief,” Mark 6:6. Unbelief is a difficult thing to comprehend, even so, quite prevalent in all societies today.

Where do you stand? If you’re a born again believer in Christ that’s wonderful, praise God! But wait just a minute, where do your family members and your friends stand? God won’t wait forever.

God bless you all,

Ron Graham

Happy New Year

2009-01-06T03:49:00.002-06:00

Sorry I did not post anything in December. I was compelled to take the month off for health and other more pressing reasons. Thanksgiving day a dear friend was taken to the hospital and within just days was diagnosed with liver cancer and died a couple of days after Christmas. It was so sudden and unexpected that we all are still reeling from the shock of it. It was a wake-up call, though. Life is fragile and can end at any moment. We never expect when we say "see you later," that it may be the last time we ever say it on this earth. I was not able to go home to the U.S. because I had just gotten out of the hospital from yet another major surgery and was unable to travel. I have been trekking back and forth to the hospital every other day for the last month and it will be another week before I am released. I was able to go to church on Sunday for the first time in a month. I went grocery shopping a few days ago also. I am definitely on the mend. The ladies did the cooking for us for a couple of weeks and Tom and I appreciated that very much.

Our pastor and wife will be here on January 13th for 10 days and we are looking forward to seeing them. Alex Coats will be leaving us on the 12th and we so are sorry for that. He has been a real help and blessing to us here in Thailand for the last 3 months. Anne, Carolyn and Pookie are all doing well and working hard. They are a real blessing to us.

I want to thank all of you who have prayed for us and for the many Christmas cards and letters of encouragement that we received. We miss you all very much. Speaking of Christmas. We had a very non-traditional holiday. We didn't exchange any gifts and for Christmas dinner we had hamburgers, potato salad, baked beans and other picnic foods. It sounds really weird, but it was a wonderful, stress-free time and all of us enjoyed it very much. It was so different from the hassle that Christmastime usually is. I liked it so much I may do it again next year. Last year Tom and I had Christmas in November, while our daughter and 2 of our grandkids were here. Christmas has never been "traditional" in the American sense of the word for Tom and our family anyway. We have it when we are together, whenever that happens to be. One year it was in January. That was a great time to buy gifts because everything was on major sale.

Now that I am feeling better, I will try to keep everyone posted on what is happening in my world. Do pray for us. Getting old is not for sissies.

Wonderful Thanksgiving

2008-11-29T01:16:00.003-06:00

Yes, we had a beautiful day. We had a meal with all the trimmings for the 13 of us who are here. After the meal which started around 4:30 PM, we had singing, testimonies and preaching. It turned out to be a wonderful day to remember how much we all have to be thankful for. In these troubled times, I am thankful that God is still in charge of the universe and that we have no need to worry o'er the future.

It is hard to compare today to how it was back in the 50's when we grew up. Things were so much saner and safer back then. Today it is not even safe for children to play outside without total supervision. Being out after dark used to be the time to catch fireflies and put them in a jar and keep them until the next night and let them go. Now it's not safe to be outside after dark. Our children, who have grown up in this very dangerous environment, have missed so much. On the street where I live in Texas, children are never seen out riding bikes or playing. Kids go home from school, go inside their houses and you never see them at all. There were 7 registered sex offenders living within one mile of my house last year. And our home is in a nice neighborhood, not a crime ridden slum. Our country has certainly come a long way from God, morality and honesty.

What I am most thankful for is the fact that one day the King of Kings is coming to take us to our real home. It will be safe there. No sin, misery or calamity will we ever experience again. But while we are still here on earth, it will be interesting to watch God work His plan. All we have to do is remain faithful and He will take care of the rest.

Thanks to Beth

2008-11-22T03:17:00.002-06:00

Yesterday the group from Jeff's church, Fargo Baptist Church left. It is always a very strange feeling when you get used to having people around and then all of a sudden, they are just GONE! So today has been very quiet. Beth Skeving spent her last full day here in Thailand in our office teaching all of our staff Photoshop. The things she taught us were so valuable. Thank you, Beth for sharing your knowledge and expertise with us. I know that the things you taught us will be put to use right away and for the future also.

While the group was here, passing out tracts, our office staff worked our regular publishing jobs. We usually had the evening meal together and sometimes breakfast too. The group worked very hard and never complained. They distributed over 100,000 tracts while they were here. We appreciate their sacrifice of time and finances to come over here and do what they could to get the Gospel out.

Our staff has been very busy this week getting the Arabic translation of the the book "Good and Evil" ready to go to press. It was the most difficult book that we have worked on so far. Because Arabic reads right to left and not left to right, all the artwork had to be swapped backwards. This caused some real problems, and finally, again with Beth Skeving's help, we were able to swap all the graphics around and erase all the words that were spelled backwards, etc, etc. The Mongolian translation is hopefully finished. It cost $100 US dollars to mail one DVD to Mongolia, so we really hope that we won't have to send another. Shipping from Thailand to anywhere in the world costs a fortune, but $100 for one DVD really put us into serious shock.

Almost the whole team here has been sick with one thing or another for a couple of weeks. I just got over one thing when something respiratory hit. Carolyn, Tom and I passed that around and we all finally got over it, but in the process, Carolyn and I both missed a whole week of work. That really puts a strain on the ministry here to have 2 people down at the same time, but it wasn't just us. When we went to the medical center for Carolyn, the whole waiting room was literally full of people with the same hacking cough that we had. We are all on the mend now and are back at work.

The cool season in Thailand has finally arrived. It is a real blessing to not have to run the air conditioners all day everyday. For the next 3 months, we will be delivered from the oppressive heat and for that I am very thankful.

I want to thank Anne, Carolyn, and Pookie for allowing 5 ladies to live with them for 2 weeks. It was crowded in their little townhouse and I really appreciate their willingness to share what accommodations they had with the group from Fargo.

Mongolian Good and Evil

2008-11-12T07:19:00.002-06:00

Well, we hope that today was a momentous day in our personal history. We think we finished the Mongolian translation of the book "Good and Evil." I say "hope" and "think" because until the final proofing is done and the book is printed, there is always the possibility or even the probability that there will need to be additional corrections before the book is printed. However, we have been working on this project for many months now and we are really ready to see it in print. Pray with us that it is ready to start rolling off the presses.

Tom and Alex are coming home tonight from the Burmese border after meeting with several translators who are working on various projects. Tom and I are spread pretty thin, so we are so very grateful for the folks who are volunteering their time and skills to help us over here. Alex is from Maryland, Anne is from Pennsylvania, and Carolyn is from Tennessee and all of them are doing a wonderful job helping us with the many projects that are before us. We also have 3 Thai employees that are worth their weight in gold. They all consider their work ministry, and they work very hard.

Right now almost the whole team is in varying stages of sickness. We had to take Carolyn to the medical center today. The doctor gave her an intravenous (directly into the vein) shot of a strong antibiotic and a steroid for her lungs. Tom, Pook, Carolyn, and I have all had crud and today Anne started feeling sick too. So far, Alex, Nakon, and Bunga have escaped. Please pray that they don't catch whatever this is that is knocking us all down over here. The medical center was full today, and it seemed like everybody had the same cough.

One blessing is that cool season is beginning. Today, I went the whole day without air conditioning. It is so nice to be able to leave the doors and windows open and breath the semi-fresh air. No air within 50 miles of Bangkok is really fresh, but well, you know, you have to take what you can get.

One really funny thing today. The taxi driver who brought us home from the medical center spoke absolutely NO English and I think he only had about 5 teeth, none of them in the front. He kept talking and gesturing and having a meltdown because we didn't speak Thai. It was very funny to watch. I pointed and gestured and he gestured and talked incessantly. I thought I was going to have to beat him over the head to keep him headed the right direction, but we did make it home.

Friends?!?!?

2008-11-09T22:52:00.004-06:00

Here are some of our "little" buddies who live here in Thailand with us. One just like this and about this size took up residence in my house when we were gone for a few days a couple of months back. To give you some idea of the size, the tiles in the photo are 1 foot square. Lizzie is about 2 feet long and smells like sewer water. She is a type of water monitor which live around here. Last year a 4 footer was walking down the middle of the street headed to the canal near us. The dogs were going nuts barking, but none of them would go near. They bite and the filth from their mouth can cause life-threatening infection.

Wonderful Saturday

2008-11-08T05:28:00.002-06:00

Another blessed, wonderful Saturday is coming to a close. Today was a great day for Tom. He got all the computers tweaked just right and everything is ship-shape in that department and the new server is online and doing it's thing. I am not quite positive what that thing is, but it has to do with keeping everything we're doing over here backed up automatically. Almost everything done here is done electronically, so backups are very important. My day went well also. I was able to rest, relax, read, and write. A perfect day.

The first thing I do tomorrow morning before we go to church is cook 70 eggs. It's not as difficult as it sounds. Two 35 egg omeletts with ham and cheese takes about an hour and 15 minutes from start to finish. Fifteen minutes to break all the eggs and add the ham and cheese and then an hour to cook it. There is a group of 20 people coming to help Jeff from his church in North Dakota. They arrive in the middle of the night as usual. Breakfast is planned for 8:00 AM. I hope they don't fall asleep face down in the eggs!! If they can stay awake long enough, they can fall asleep in their lunch meal which will be at the mall. Good entertainment for the Thai folks watching. There are 10 women and 10 men. Five of the women are staying with my girls and 5 at Jeff and Theresa's house. The guys will stay at what we all refer to as the "Cage." It is a 5 storey shophouse that we rent to store the literature. The 4th floor has been set up for male guest quarters. That's because no sane woman would stay there. It is mostly "rustic." You may define that for yourself. Those of you who have seen it know what its like. In a word, well, there isn't a word I can think of that would describe it properly. BUT--and this is VERY important, it IS air conditioned. This makes up for all the other less than ideal aspects of the place. It has two bathrooms, if you count the one that is cracked off of the back of the building downstairs. I personally don't count that one since I refuse to even set one foot inside. Too scary. However, the men may use it, you never know about men. Jeff at first mentioned putting the 10 ladies in there to share the ONE half way decent bathroom. I couldn't stop laughing-- hysterically. Ten women--one bathroom. Not a great plan. So I volunteered the girl's house and our 4 bathrooms. Tom nixed loaning his bathroom; he is very territorial about his bathroom. So, they are now divided up with 5 girls sharing 3 bathrooms at our place and the other 5 girls sharing 2 bathrooms at Theresa's house. So the guys have the dump, excuse me, I mean the "Cage," sharing one or two bathrooms depending on how brave they are or hygienic they desire to be. I will keep you posted on the progress of the "Bangkok Blitz" which is what Jeff is calling his campaign and on what the girls, Tom and I are doing in the office as well. The group will be traveling, but we will be here in the office, so feel free to e-mail us.

What a Surprise

2008-11-06T21:26:00.003-06:00

Well, the election is over and disappointed as we may be, God is still on the throne. Tom and I have been traveling some over the past week, therefore there has been no news reported from our corner of Thailand. We flew up to Chiang Mai to get visa work taken care of and were able to meet with some translators who are working for us on several projects that are in the works right now. We were able to have one wonderful meal at "The Duke's," our favorite restaurant in Chiang Mai, have lunch with some new missionary friends, and then meet a young first term missionary at Starbucks for coffee. Does everything in the world always around food? Yep!! Might as well not fight it. We were able to go to the printshop that is printing the "Good and Evil" book in Chinese and see it in stages of completion. This printing facility is so clean it's scary. I have never seen a print shop this clean. It looks almost like a fake showroom. However, stuff was rolling off the presses. Wow, somebody pinch me, I must be dreaming.

Another reason for the long delay in writing is the fact that the night Carolyn arrived, a week ago, I got deathly ill in the middle of the night. I had chills, fever, diarrhea, and hurling, dry heaves. It was a very long night, and the next day I didn't get up at all. When I finally got things under control long enough to sleep, I slept for approximately 28 hours. I missed a whole day in there and that was confusing for the rest of the week. Nobody else got sick, so I really don't know what caused it, but I do know that already being overly tired didn't help matters any. If I ever learn that I am not 25 any more, that should help. I usually don't remember that until it is too late, however. That is the way it usually happens to both Tom and I. We both go full bore until we hit a brick wall, are knocked unconscious for a few days and then wake up vowing to do better, which we never do. Good grief. people are so dumb. Us included.

Moral of the story? Take a break before you hit the wall. God really doesn't need your help as much as you think He does.

New Team Member

2008-10-30T03:25:00.004-05:00

We have a new team member arriving at midnight tonight, Thailand time. Her name is Carolyn Chambers. Everyone from the US that comes to Thailand usually comes at midnight. It makes for a long day the next day because the airport is an hour and a half away and by the time the person gets through customs and we get home, it is at least 2 AM. We, who live here, will be very tired tomorrow morning and she will be either one of two things. She will either be wide awake at 4 AM, unable to go to sleep or we won't be able to rouse her from a zombie/coma state for 24 hours. And you never know in advance how jet lag is going to affect someone. I personally think that the Jews had it right by changing the day at 6 AM. That makes more sense than changing days in the middle of night. The new day beginning at night? It just doesn't make sense. If anybody knows who changed it and messed things up, please tell me. I have wondered for years who and why they did that. Daylight savings time is also very presumptuous. I think they should let God decide what time the sun comes up:)

Is We Is or Is We Ain't--That is the question.

2008-10-28T02:59:00.002-05:00

As many of you know, we have translation projects going on in many languages now. A lot of these languages are regional to Southeast Asia. While Bangkok is the largest city in Thailand by far, Chiang Mai is full of people who speak many different languages. Because Chiang Mai is a smaller city, finding these native speakers is much easier than scouring a city with 13 Million people, looking for someone in particular who speaks a desired language or dialect. For this reason, we are praying about packing up our whole operation here in Bangkok and moving it all up to Chiang Mai. It is by no means a sure thing, but something that we are praying about and seeking the Lord's will about. There are pros and cons to moving, of course, like with everything else. First of all it will cost a lot. Moving two complete houses and a large office will not be cheap. Also rent in Chiang Mai is higher than it is here, because it is a tourist town. But there are also many good things about Chiang Mai. The ladies would be able to actually drive a vehicle there because there is not nearly as much traffic as there is in Bangkok. I don't drive here. My heart couldn't stand the stress. There are a lot more English speakers living there, and we already have friends living there to fellowship with. There are a couple of churches in Chiang Mai, so there would be a place to attend services. However, when people fly into or out of the country, they do it from Bangkok, so that would be very inconvenient for visitors or when one of us has to leave the country. So, as you can see there are good things and bad things about moving. Either way is fine with us, and right now we are simply praying about it and seeking the Lord's will in the matter. Please pray with us.

Bookkeeping

2008-10-21T20:48:00.003-05:00

One of the most difficult jobs I do here in Thailand is bookkeeping. Many things are done here on a cash basis and no receipts are ever offered or given and it is up to the spender of money to remember how much was spent where. Yeah, like we are all going to remember this? Anyway, I also have to figure things out in several foreign currencies, which by the way, change each and every day. Needless to say, this is very stressful for me much of the time. I use an accounting program that was designed for morons like me, so at least it is very easy as far as the computer program is concerned. I have had at least 3 accountants look it over and they tell me that I am doing fine. My unaccounted for funds are under 3%, which they tell me is well within acceptable limits. I guess it will have to be acceptable, because it is the best I can do. I am looking at a receipt for 620 Baht. It is around $18 US dollars, today. Last week is was $19 and tomorrow it may be $17. It is all written in Thai. I have no idea what it was, which account it came out of, or where to record and file it. It sits here on my desk. I stare at it as if by staring at it long enough the words will all miraculously turn into English. So far that is not working. This is my least favorite job in Thailand.

My first job today was making a 30 egg omelet. That was easy. Eggs are fairly neutral linguistically. I can speak to them in English and they respond very well. My kitchen is difficult to describe. It started life as an external room on the back of the house. It has a roof, but no ceiling. The roof tiles slant down and over hang the exterior wall so the rain doesn't fall inside the room. The last time we went up country to Chiang Mai a 2 foot lizard got into the kitchen and then, somehow found a way to get inside my main house. We still aren't quite sure how he did that, but he did. When we got home, I could smell something that was yucky, but I just chalked it up to the house being closed up for several days. Then I started noticing things were moved around and knocked over. It seemed like somebody had been in the house, but that would not be that unusual, because when we are gone folks check on things for us. Anyway, Tom and I were standing at the kitchen counter and I was putting things away when the toaster started jumping around . I said, "Tom there is either a rat or a very large lizard behind the toaster." We started looking and we could see about 1 foot of the tail, so we knew it was BIG. Tom armed himself with a walking cane and the broom and we finally rousted him out of the main house and back out to the kitchen. We thought he would just go away the same way he got in. It was late and we were tired after getting home from our trip, so we just closed both doors to the kitchen and went to bed. The next morning, I very carefully opened the kitchen doors and NO he wasn't gone! He had climbed into the stove and 4 inches of his head and long neck were sticking up right out of the stove burner. "Tom!! GODZILLA is still in the kitchen." Tom armed himself with the cane once again and this time the big guy took his leave. I guess he figured he better leave or die, so he made like a Baptist Church and split. The same day we called a carpenter to come over and seal the kitchen up. The little geckos can still get in, but they get in no matter what, but the big stuff can no longer take up residence behind my toaster. STILL--I would rather chase lizards than do the bookkeeping.

We've Come a Long Way, Baby

2008-10-19T23:39:00.007-05:00

SCHOOL -- 1957 vs. 2008
How things have changed from the 50's to today:

Scenario: Jack goes quail hunting before school, pulls into school parking lot with shotgun in gun rack.

1957 - Vice Principal comes over, looks at Jack's shotgun, goes to his car and gets his shotgun to show Jack.

2008 - School goes into lock down, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.

Scenario: Johnny and Mark get into a fistfight after school.

1957 - Crowd gathers. Mark wins. Johnny and Mark shake hands and end up buddies.

2008 - Police called, SWAT team arrives, arrests Johnny and Mark. Charge them with assault, both expelled even though Johnny started it.

Scenario: Jeffrey won't be still in class, disrupts other students.

1957 - Jeffrey sent to office and given a good paddling by the Principal. Returns to class, sits still and does not disrupt class again.

2008- Jeffrey given huge doses of Ritalin. Becomes a zombie. Tested for ADD. School gets extra money from state because Jeffrey has a disability.

Scenario: Billy breaks a window in his neighbor's car and his Dad gives him a whipping.

1957 - Billy is more careful next time, grows up normal, goes to college, and becomes a successful businessman.

2008 - Billy's dad is arrested for child abuse. Billy removed to foster care and joins a gang. State psychologist tells Billy's sister that she remembers being abused herself and their dad goes to prison. Billy's mom has affair with psychologist.

Scenario: Mark gets a headache and takes some aspirin to school.

1957 - Mark shares aspirin with Principal out on the smoking dock.

2008 - Police called, Mark expelled from school for drug violations. Car searched for drugs and weapons.

Scenario: Pedro fails high school English.

1957 - Pedro goes to summer school, passes English and goes to college.

2008 - Pedro's cause is taken up by state. Newspaper articles appear nationally explaining that teaching English as a requirement for graduation is racist. ACLU files class action lawsuit against state school system and Pedro's English teacher. English banned from core curriculum. Pedro given diploma anyway but ends up mowing lawns for a living because he cannot speak English.

Scenario: Johnny takes apart leftover firecrackers from 4th of July, puts them in a model airplane paint bottle, blows up a red ant bed.

1957 - Ants die.

2008- BATF, Homeland Security, FBI called. Johnny charged with domestic terrorism, FBI investigates parents, siblings removed from home, computers confiscated, Johnny's Dad goes on a terror watch list and is never allowed to fly again.

Scenario: Johnny falls while running during recess and scrapes his knee. He is found crying by his teacher, Mary. Mary hugs him to comfort him..

1957 - In a short time, Johnny feels better and goes on playing.

2008 - Mary is accused of being a sexual predator and loses her job. She faces 3 years in State Prison. Johnny undergoes 5 years of therapy .

This goes to show how stupid we have become! Think about it!

A few Photos of our "Little Town"

2008-10-19T01:03:00.008-05:00

This is Anne Hammond from Lehigh Valley Baptist Church in Emmaus, Pennsylvania.

From the top of the Bayoke Tower, which is the tallest building in Thailand, you can see that the city stretches to the horizon in every direction. 13 Million souls call this place home.

Remember the Time!!

2008-10-18T01:18:00.002-05:00

We love it when folks call us from the USA. Especially now that we have a vonage internet phone line. People who have never lived overseas or those who do not travel don't think of the time difference from the US to Thailand. Thailand is 12 hours ahead of Texas time. That is the Central Time Zone. So when it is 3 o'clock in the afternoon in Texas, it is 3 o"clock in the MORNING here. We have had so many folks call us in the middle of our night, that we now turn off our vonage line when we go to bed. So, remember, your day is our night. If we do not answer our vonage phone it is either because we are not home or the phone is turned off because we are asleep. If it is an emergency, call our cell phones. We have missionary friends in Samoa and I never call them because I can never sort out what time it is there. If I see them online, then I can call them or Instant Message them and tell them that i am going to call them. Tom and I always turn our computers off at night, so if you do not see us online, we probably aren't awake or we are traveling.

Also some things folks are asking about. MAIL. Mail is a problem. Sometimes we get it and sometimes we don't. Rachel Hammett sent Pookie a box 6 months ago and we still don't have it and probably never will see it. If it had pop tarts or candy in it, we really don't want to see it now. We have had to cancel 2 sets of credit cards, because they didn't make it here. The third set is on the way along with our absentee voting papers. If we don't get that mail, just know that we are voting for McCain/Palin. I personally am voting for Palin and McCain is just the guy who comes with her. I am praying for the election. It is heartbreaking to see my country, America, going down the road to destruction.

The easiest way to communicate with me is via e-mail. I don't ever write on paper with a pen or pencil. I donated them to the Smithsonian, and now I just type and send. Pushing buttons is my life. Almost everything I do here on the field is on the computer: video editing, bookkeeping, all communication, banking, etc. I even read and do my Bible study on the computer. A few months back, the electricity went off and I was in the middle of my Bible reading. My old computer had a fried battery and had to be plugged in to work. I promise that this is true. I sat there staring at my blank screen and said, "Lord, how am I going to read my Bible?" I glanced around the room and my eyes fell on my leather Bible that I take to church and I thought, "Woe, I am spending waaaay too much time at the computer." Still, I really love Sword Searcher. I think of the early missionaries who, when they left for the field, were leaving forever, shipping all their worldly goods over in the coffins that they would be buried in. Letters took months to reach home and by the time they got there sometimes the one who had sent it had been dead for months. We have it so easy now. Telephones, e-mail, instant messaging and air travel have made our lives so easy and yet we still complain. God forgive us.

The "just life" stuff

2008-10-17T04:50:00.002-05:00

Tom and Jeff went up country till Tuesday, with all the men from Lehigh Valley BC, leaving all the women here to fend for ourselves. Yesterday evening all the ladies and the two straggler survey trip guys, Adam and Ryan, who were leaving the country last night, and Nicorn, and Steve Savageau from Jeff's church, all had a potluck together. Theresa cooked beans for two days and they were still hard, but fortunately we had a lot of left-over salad makings from the night before. I made chicken and rice and Pookie cooked meat balls. Theresa made the most delectable and delicious ice-cream cake, that would put the Dairy Queen ones to shame. Everything must have tasted OK because there was not one piece of lettuce, one grain of rice or one meatball left. It was like a flock of vultures had made a sweep. This leaves me with no leftovers for supper tonight and I think I am out of popcorn. Good grief, what will I eat? I think one of the guys brought pretzels. Yeah, that'll work.

the Lange family

2008-10-17T04:29:00.002-05:00

Jeff and Theresa Lange live right across the street from us. They have been missionaries here for at least 5 years now. They went to Chiang Mai, Thailand, went to language school, passed all their proficiency tests to get actual missionary visas, and are doing a good work here. They have 2 kids, Jon who is 5, and Gracie 18 months. We have our work and they have theirs, but many times our ministry circles overlap.

Who is Here Now

2008-10-17T03:17:00.002-05:00

Tom and I have several helpers with us here on the field. Over the years since 1998 we have had over 30 people work with us, first in the Philippines, then in E. Timor, Australia, South Korea and now in Thailand. Here in Bangkok with us at present are: Alex Coats from Victory Baptist Church in Maryland, Anne Hammond from Lehigh Valley Baptist Church in Pennsylvania, Kimjira Pekaow, also known as "Pookie," and Nakorn Kulachan, aka "Berm." We have just hired another Thai lady whose English name is "Lena." Her Thai name is Bunga Moungthai. Now you know why most Thai people have nicknames. If they didn't, we could never sort them out or say "Hi." Pookie and Berm are members of Lat Phrao Baptist Church here in Bangkok and Lena is a member of Romphrakhun Baptist Church, which means "Grace of God." We have another lady joining us in a couple of weeks from Grace Independent Baptist Church in Linden, Tennessee. Hopefully, she will be with us indefinitely. Her name is Carolyn Chambers.

This week we have a small team of men from Lehigh Valley Baptist Church in Emmaus, Pennsylvania with us. Right now they are up country near the Thai/Burmese border. We have folks coming and going all the time. Some staying for a few days or some for a few weeks. Two men just left last night who were in Thailand for a survey trip. A young couple just left here who were helping us for 6 weeks. David and Deborah Madill from Tennessee. We are so thankful for the many who are lending us their time and expertise and are allowing God to use them. One of the guys stopping over on his survey trip stayed up all one night to get our computer server up and running and backing up our files. Thanks Adam, I didn't get to tell you goodbye. Hope to see you again soon.

Pookie is teaching Lena computer graphics. Pookie is the one who teaches everybody how to do the computer graphics program that we use for one of our major projects. She also is our personal assistant and does everything under the sun that can only be done by a person who can actually speak the Thai language. Without her we would be in a lot of trouble over here.

Nakorn is translating the Bible Institute Curriculum from Oak Harbor Baptist Church that was written by Bro. Robert Seargent, into the Thai language. All the Thai pastors who have read it are screaming for it and the pressure is really on him to get it finished. We estimate that it will take almost another year to complete it and have it proof-read and ready for press. The pastors who are doing the proof reading are already making copies on their copy machines and using it in its unedited and un proofed form in their churches, and asking for the next book to please hurry up and get done. Oh well, Nakon, no pressure there.

Anne is doing the printing and in her spare time, (are you kidding??!!! If I were to say spare time out loud the whole office would erupt into hysterical laughter), she is also working on the illustrated Bible Story Book, "Good and Evil" with Pookie, who is head honcho of this particular project.

Why this Blog?

2008-10-17T00:58:00.000-05:00

This blog is simply to keep folks posted on the daily life of the Gaudet family here in Thailand. It will involve just mostly the everyday things that are seemingly of no great importance. It will keep family and friends up to date on the "just life" part of us. We know that so many folks think that the life of a missionary is some grand, romantic adventure where we are out there winning souls every day and living like Robinson Crusoe. People think missionaries are a special breed of human, far superior to the regular people of the world. Maybe this blog will help those of you who think these things to come to a better understanding of how ordinary missionaries really are and that all it takes to be one is a love for God and a desire to do what He tells us to do. It doesn't take a college degree in Theology to serve God. It doesn't take a college degree in anything. If uneducated fishermen could do it, so can we and so can you.