Found Housing

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.