Stickywrites

Chris and Tang are here! We are so excited to see them here in Bangkok. Chris, Andrew, and Tang all used to work together here in Bangkok at a joint venture group of a couple big companies – about 5 years ago. Now Chris & Tang live outside of New York – they are visiting her family that lives here.

We were able to enjoy a great Thai dinner together at an old favorite place of theirs, AdMakers. We also passed through a big mall, where there is this display of punching bags hanging down in the middle of a circular passageway. I have been dying to jump in there and punch away – so Tang helped me out….

We will all be going to an old co-workers wedding in a couple of weeks, and I am very excited to go to my first Thai wedding. Apparently it is very offensive to wear a black dress to a Thai wedding (every other color is permitted, but black is reminiscent of sorrow and funeral garb), so I must now find something else to wear since the only nice dress brought here is black. Can’t wait!

We found a place to live and are very excited about it! It is only a 5-minute walk to the office, or as Andrew likes to think, a 2-minute motorcycle ride. (I’m adamant about us NOT getting one, and he is very keen on the idea….)

The only issue with it is that there is no kitchen. Here in Thailand many people enclose their back patio and make it into a room – a utility/kitchen area. This is what we have decided to do as well, and the landlord was okay to split the price of building the enclosed room and electrical wiring with us. We will be responsible for furnishing the entire place and renovating the place with certain improvements…adding air conditioning units, plumbing, water pump, stove & gas, phone line installation, cabinets, storage, drawers, appliances and the like. Suddenly I feel like a homeowner…something I have never been before, especially not in a foreign culture where communication is limited and difficult with our broken Thai!

Right now outfitting this place seems overwhelming for us to tackle, but we are overall SO GRATEFUL for this place the Lord has provided. It is a huge answer to prayer and we feel very comfortable with this landlord. Here you must be very careful about landlords and their honesty and trustworthiness and our guy seems to be very invested in this place and honest with his dealings. Thank God for this as this is also a direct answer to our prayers for someone we could trust!

Please continue praying for us with this situation – we need patience as we look for appropriate furniture and cabinets and outfitting an entire room which must become a kitchen eventually. Pray for us to be good stewards of our finances with which we’ve been provided so that we can cover all the bases with making this house livable. And praise God for His provision, timing, and Thai staff that have helped us negotiate and acquire this townhome.

Our team was privileged to have the opportunity for a team retreat at a beach resort this past weekend, in a town near the island of Phuket, a great follow up to our big Pray & Plan meeting a few weeks ago. Four Thai staff and all 5 families came with all 13 kids in tow. We were thankful and grateful to our interns, Tori, Irene and Catherine Rogers (teacher at ICS) for watching the kids and doing a kids program while we had all of our meeting times throughout each day and evening. They did a great job and the kids performed some songs for us towards the end.

Andrew and I met a waitress at the resort who witnessed the tsunami at our resort almost 2 years ago. She said that when the water receded way far back, that there were tons of fish flopping on the bare ocean floor, so people were all running out into the dry ocean to pick up all the fish! About 15 minutes later the first wave came. Five people died at that one resort. It was strange to hear a firsthand account from someone who experience the tsunami.

Thanks to our supporters who made this trip possible. It is a key time for all five families, interns, and Thai staff to come together and learn from Dave, each other, and have important workshops for planning & praying about the next year, 2 years, 5 years and 10 years of this ministry here in Thailand.

On our way home from the new HUUUUUUUGE Bangkok airport, Suvarnabhumi (pronounced Soo-von-uh-boom) we got a little turned around in the parking lot. PJ got a free ride while we searched for the Henry’s car. This airport just opened recently, after building it for a couple of years…the old airport just completely shut down one day after 90 years! All the airplanes flew themselves 13 minutes across the city from the old airport to the new on the day of the Suvarnabhumi opening. Andrew & I flew into the old airport one last time before the new one opened a week later. The great thing is that our area is developing very quickly because of it’s proximity to the new airport, and also suburban sprawl.