I Lost November Somewhere

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.