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.