Well, our time in Thailand is rapidly coming to an end. It is hard to believe that we are leaving latter today. This morning Aaron and I took the motorcycle to the bank and it seemed strange that we would not be cruising around town anymore. Spending a month here has allowed us to feel more like we are living here and not just visiting.

Illness came with vengeance to us one more time before we left. Aaron and Jennifer both got stomach bugs this week and Thursday they were both knocked out.

This week we spent most of our time visiting the job sites that we have been working on and saying goodbyes. Everyone has been so appreciative of the help that they have received and lots of neighbors have checked out what is going on. We hope that they will ask, why did these people come. We hope we did some planting of seeds while we where here. Lets hope they grow in the good soil. Here are some pictures of saying goodbye and completed projects.

We will go to Khon Kaen today and sight see some this afternoon. Then we will fly to Bangkok tonight. Tomorrow morning (Saturday for us) we will leave at 6:00am for home. We will arrive in Omaha at 4:30 in the afternoon on Saturday. We look forward to returning but we are also sad to leave the new friends that we have made. We are also sad to be leaving Pat and Rad. They have been wonderful hosts and friends to us. Please pray for them and their ministry here in Borabu. They are excellent examples of Christ's love and caring.

This Sunday was First Fruits Sunday at Living Water Church. It was a beautiful day and we had a joint service of all of the members. The believers brought offerings of rice, fruits, and even a chicken to be sold to raise money for the church.

The obvious highlight worship was the brilliant and profound sermon delivered by the acclaimed guest speaker from America. Those in attendance loudly applauded his God inspired words which must be the only sign of a successful sermon. Ok, maybe that is overstating it but I know Pastor Weldon will read this and I need to impress him! On a more serious note I did deliver the message today and focused on giving the best of ourselves to the Lord. Much of the service, Aaron was focused on a sack in front of the communion table that was moving. At first we thought that it was a partial bag of rice with a rat in it. We latter realized that it was a chicken. It was very entertaining. It made up for the dull sermon. We even had a child dedicated during the service.

After we had dinner we returned to the sanctuary for the sale of the items that were brought. Rad had also brought some items for the children to buy. Bidding went well. Aaron bought a pumpkin because Rad promised that we would have pumpkin pie if he did. Kaelyn also bought an item. Both of them had to bid and they said their prices in Thai. Everyone enjoyed it and had fun hearing them bid. We returned home from church a 5:00 this afternoon. Even though we have several days left here, we of course officially said goodbye today at church. We had prayer and everyone kept wanting us to take them along.

This week we will be working on some repairs for Pusan, a man with polio. We will also do a little more work to a house that we had already worked on. We will see what possibilities present themselves.

The second half of this week the children and I (Jennifer) taught English at another school. At first glance, this school looked like it was much more academic and that funds were available to make it a nice and adequate learning environment. The room where we taught contained a computer and television and had a nice tiled floor. On the chalkboard was advanced conversational English and many other signs of English learning. I skimmed through some workbooks and discovered completed pages that showed a high level of English knowledge. I wondered if my current lesson plans would be adequate. As it turned out, the children were not any farther along in their English skills than the first school we had been at. In fact, as I looked around the school later in the week I discovered that only one level of one building looked nice and that the teaching and school schedule was just as lax here as the other schools we had observed and heard about. It seems that teachers are not very motivated to teach and if they are gone their students just do whatever. On Friday four teachers were gone and during our teaching break I did not observe any classes in session. Students were wandering around, drawing on chalkboards and passing the time in whatever way they wished. It has become apparent that school in the village setting is just a motion to go through and not an adequate education. Most students do not graduate from high school in the villages and if they do it may not even be comparable to an 8th grade education in the U.S. It is really sad to see the lack of care for students and their education. Students in these schools don't have a chance to receive higher education because they don't have the knowledge to pass entrance tests for colleges and/or universities.



It was a joy to see the children enjoy learning English. Many students came and watched as we were teaching. In this picture some younger children came in and sat down to observe. Sometimes both doorways and the windows would be packed with students watching the lessons.

Mai Sabai (Not Fine)

Sorry for the lack of updates this week but I have been under the weather. We have all been passing around the flu. Here it is just like home, it's winter so it's cold and flu season. I felt bad that maybe we came and made everyone else sick but they say it has been going around here too. Jennifer is the last one that has not been sick so we hope that it doesn't happen when we travel.
This afternoon Aaron was able to play soccer with some boys down the street in an empty lot. Some other boy's were playing a game with a small woven bamboo ball and a low net that you had to kick the ball back an forth without it hitting the ground.

We enjoyed another wonderful time of fellowship and worship, this time in Bang Daeng. Last Sunday was a joint worship with the two groups so today was different in that way. Rad and our family worshiped there, while Pat was with the group in Borabu. Before church, while the adults had bible study, we taught the kids English and made bracelets for a craft. There were 20 children at the service in Bang Daeng which is great to see. While we were worshiping, the crew that we hired to work on the kitchen and wash room was busy working away. I kept thinking that maybe they would hear the message and see the caring that there was for one another and God could use this moment to work in their hearts.

After church we ate, as always, and the kids played with the balls that we brought. It is great to teach them how to play with a football and Frisbee. Because of the big trip yesterday, we all crashed when we got home at 3:30.

In the evening we made New Years Cookies. I would like to think that these are the first ones ever made in Thailand!

This week we are working on 2 building projects in Bang Daeng. On Tuesday, we will organize a soccer game with a kid that is about Aaron's age and his friends after school in the town. Wednesday through Friday we will be teaching English at another school. One of the teachers there is a believer, and it will be good to see how this school compares to the last one.

Saturday, we took a day trip to the boarder between Thailand and Lao. We traveled north along the Friendship Highway to Nong Khai located on the banks of the Mekong River. No monkeys attacked us on this trip. It is always interesting to see the scenery along the way to the places we travel. Even after 2 weeks, I still marvel at the rolling landscape with fields and trees interspersed. Along the way we stoped at some markets to do a little shopping.

The Mekong is very impressive. It is the middle of the dry season here so the river is well below where it is in the summer time. The most interesting part of this trip was to hear Pat and Rad's stories of crossing the river as teenagers under the cover of darkness and the threat of gunfire. Thousands of people died crossing this river in search of a better life. It was very meaningful for us to share with them this place which is very important to their journey with the Lord. It reminds us that God is always with us, when the path is easy or when it get rough.

This week we have been working a house in a village called Nongchit where a believer named Bualean lives with here 13 year old daughter. The house is very old and most of the posts are made of wood. Because of this, termites have done great damage to the wood that supports the house. It no longer sits level. The house is also not raised up very high.

The outhouse is another story. When we examined it the wood that made up the frame was rotted out in almost every critical spot. Inside there was no water supply and a dirt floor. There was only a toilet. Bualean used this area to also store her rice.

When we started working to tear down the structure, it was apparent that virtually the only thing holding it up was the tin sheets on the outside. It came down very quickly. When we got to her rice, I lifted up a bag and under it was a large rat. This was not so surprising. What was surprising was a 5.5 foot snake that was also hiding in the pile. We killed the snake and when we left they skinned it and made it into soup.

Bualean's life has been hard and to make matters worse, she has AIDS. Hopefully she has enough time left to raise her daughter. However, the improvements that are being made to the house can make some aspects of Bualean's life easier. The new wash room will include a tank with water so that she and her daughter can wash inside. They will no longer have to carry water to flush the toilet. We have hired a crew to lift the house and place new concrete posts under it. When we were deciding how high to raise it they had me stand up next to it so it was tall enough for a falang to walk under. (Falang is slang for a foreigner but mostly a white person) Underneath the house will be a cement floor and an area next to the house to cook on.