Merry Christmas

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

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

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

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

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

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!!

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.