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.

Baptism Sunday

Today was baptism Sunday at Living Water Church. Ten new believers were baptised today! We were so thankful to be a part of such an important service. Because of the special service, both groups met together in Borabu. The members from the Bon Daeng area were bussed in. We first went to a lake a short drive from the church for baptism of some of the members who chose immersion. We then went back to the church for the service and the others were baptised by pouring. It is great to see young and old baptised at the same time.

We then brought greetings from Bethesda and introduced ourselves. However, that is kind of irrelevant since we sort of stick out. There is an old grandma that talks to us and always touches and looks at our skin like she is amazed. She told Rad that before she was a believer she never saw white people but she is so glad to see them now. In my introduction I said that I was from a small town of about 1,000 people and many farmed as did they. I also said that we are all brought together through Christ whether we are in villages that are close or separated by an ocean.


After that the four of us sang Jesus Loves Me and then called the children forward to hand out the school kits. The children were very appreciative and I showed them all the items that we put in the kits. As I pulled each one out I said what it was and they repeated in English. They were very excetied. I also presented the signed soccer ball from the 2nd & 3rd grade M&M class and told them each church would get some new balls to play with. We then dismissed the children to go and provided them with fabric paint to write their names and decorate their bags.


We then celebrated communion and had the remainder of the service. Following the service we all gathered for an Issan meal. Aaron and I have been trying hot peppers and today we found a really hot one in this meal. We stuck to chicken, greens, and sticky rice. We stayed away from fermented fish! I also had 2 silk worms. The children kept asking for more like they were candy. The children had lots of fun playing with the balls and learning how to play with a Frisbee.

We returned home about 4:30 and I took the kids on a motorcycle ride to a market. We of course always stick out and as we watched a man butcher fish that people were buying he would keep giving Kaelyn a really close look. She was not impressed.

Weekend Fun

I titled this post weekend fun even though allot of our weekend has involved a very sick Kaelyn. Saturday morning we took her to the doctor for the second time wanting a shot for here fever. Rad went with us to translate but told me (Gary) that I should drive because she didn't like driving downtown. The grand total for 2 doctor visits, a shot, antibiotics, and Tylenol was 160 baht or $4.57 ! We think the worst is behind us but please pray that she can get past this.

We had plans to see more of the area around Borabu but instead did not leave until mid afternoon. We drove to one of Rad's least favorite places to go, a monkey park. We thought that she was maybe exaggerating how close the monkeys got, but we found out that she was right! The monkeys were everywhere. Up, down, left, right. EVERYWHERE! Bending down to take a picture or pausing too long in one place was dangerous as the monkey would feel challenged and hiss or act like it was going to attack. Jennifer had the monkeys mad at her every time she would even look at one. When we returned to the pickup the monkeys were in the process of ripping Pat's antenna off and had flipped upside down the windshield wipers. Not to mention making the car a mess in other ways!

We then drove to Maha Sarakaham for supper and ice cream. Rad found out it had been my birthday Monday and I got sung to by the waitresses at Swenson's.

Home Visits

In the last few days we have visited all of the repair project sites that we plan to work on. There are 4 of these including 3 homes and the site of the other worship site for Living Water Church in Ban Daeng.

The first home that we will work on is that of a believer that has AIDS. Her husband has already died of the disease. She lives in this home with her 13 year old daughter. Their house is uneven and falling apart. They have no wash room and must shower outdoors. The building around their toilet is hardly held together and the termites have nearly destroyed the branches that are the frame. We did not have the camera with us on this visit but we will be working on it with a local builder Wednesday through Friday and you will see photos of the progress.

Next we will be working on the home of Grandma Nung in Ban Daeng. Two sides of her home are just woven bamboo and no longer keep the rain out. We will be putting metal on those sides with a few windows for light. The steps up to the main floor are also nearly completely destroyed from the weather and we will be relocating those under the house so they will be protected.

After that we will be doing some work at the location of the meeting location in Ban Daeng. The church meets on the site of a believer's home and so we will be doing some work to make this a nicer facility. The first part of the project is to enclose the kitchen area of the home and provide it a concrete floor. Every Sunday following the service there is a meal so a functional kitchen is very important. The second part involves construction of a restroom facility.

The final construction project that we are involved in is at the home of Pusan. Pusan is a barber with polio who lives close by. He also needs windows and better walls to his home which he shares with his family. It is amazing that he is able to make it to the second floor of his house with his physical problems. However, he is a very active member of the church playing instruments for worship.

For all these projects we are hiring local builders who will be in charge of the work. We will be helping them but if we do not have time to complete them it will be their responsibility. Labor in very cheap here and so this is a very good way to complete many projects.

Today was the first day of teaching English. We are working in a school in a village about 15 minutes away from Borabu. Classes went well. Flexibility is the name of the game when working with children of different ages and abilities. These kids have a very basic amount English knowledge, some appear to have almost none. However, they are very eager to learn. We worked mostly today with colors, numbers, from and to using a ball. With the older kids we added days of the week, weather, over, under, and behind. Each class would greet us with, "Good morning teachers. How are you?"

During recess we discovered that we were in charge of recreation. Today we just played ball with them and had fun on the playground. Tomorrow Aaron and I plan to teach them the intricacies of American football tactics and strategies. I asked them if they knew American football and I was met with blank stares. So I asked them if they knew Rugby and a few seemed to know the word but not what it was. I then drew a picture of a football in the dirt and told them in Thai that it was a ball and I would bring it tomorrow. It should be interesting.

The girls just followed Kaelyn around like she was their queen bee. She was a little overwhelmed by all the attention but had lots of fun playing. Anything she did was the cool thing to do. The boys had lots of fun playing with Aaron. Aaron was a little concerned at first that they were so good at soccer and he had not played much but they were just excited to get to play anything with him. The hospitality of the Thai people is hard to top.

Tomorrow (Thursday) will be another day of teaching. Rad will arrive tonight after being back in Canada for 2 weeks visiting their children. Pat has been a great host but I am sure he is looking forward to more help. They are extremely busy in their ministry

Praises to join us in:

• Aaron's return to good health
• Safe travel all the way to Borabu
• Rad's safe return home
• Baptism of new believers this Sunday (more to come)

Please pray for:

• Kaelyn to get well (started to feel sick today)
• All of us to continue to adjust to the culture
• Growing together spiritually as a family

Viewer Mail

This may not be Late Night with David Letterman but apparently we do have questions being asked and we will try our best to answer them.

Q: How are you connecting to your blog?
A: While we were in Bangkok we had internet access in our hotel room that we could purchase so our posts were pretty brief. In Borabu, Pat and Rad have internet access through their local phone company. Here there is no usage fee and so we will try to send more pictures.

Q: How are the temperatures and humidity?

A: Here in Borabu the temperatures are very pleasant. Highs around 86 and lows around 65 with 75% humidity. It is very nice in the shade but in the sun it feels hot. Also, there is no breeze which makes it hot in the sun.

This is a post for Tammy, Tara, Dana, and David only! OUCH 3 times already! From Gary

On Monday we left by train from Bangkok to Borabu. The other trains were getting washed but our train stayed dirty and we had a hard time seeing out the windows. But, what we did see was very interesting. We saw many people working in the fields and many new processing plants north of Bangkok. We met a 3 year old girl on the train that Kaelyn made friends with. Kaelyn gave her a page to color and crayons. It was adorable to see the girl say thank you by bowing her head with her hands pressed together. Latter we tried to have her play with Kaelyn's doll but she would not. I showed her how the eyes open and close and I don't think she had ever seen something like that and would not touch it.
Pat was at the train station to greet us and we went to his house. We spread out on the floor and got all the school kit supplies out. We put the bags together with the items we have. We will get notebooks latter. In the picture with Aaron and Kaelyn is Fa the daughter of Jip who is a member of the church. I inflated a soccer ball and the kids all rolled it around the floor.
On Tuesday we will go to visit a school where we will teach and familiarize ourselves with the area.

After arriving in Bangkok we have spent a few days seeing the sights and culture of Thailand before we leave on Monday for Borabu.

On Friday we went to a Tiger Zoo south east of Bangkok. They have over 200 Bengal tigers and around 16,000 crocodiles. We were able to watch a crocodile show and an elephant show which are a big part of Thai culture.

On Saturday we visited the center of town which has a war memorial called Victory Monument. Here we were able to walk through a large area of vendors selling their goods. Gary was able to feel very tall ducking under all the awnings. We also visited the area south of our hotel where Jennifer stayed in 2006. It is amazing to see all of the people trying to sell their goods and food. It is also heartbreaking to see elderly ladies running a food stand that only a handful of people must visit per day. Aaron and Kaelyn have also experienced people on the street asking for change. The children placed some change in a man’s cup who had no arms and he bowed his head and kept it bowed until they left. He was humbled but so were we that their small act was received with such appreciation. We are very isolated from this sort of poverty.

On Sunday we took a trip to Ayutthaya. This is the ancient capital of Thailand and in the 1700’s was burned to the ground by invaders. It was very interesting to see the ruins of the ancient city. This was something that Aaron had especially looked forward to. While we were there we took the children for an elephant ride. We visited the former Palace that was used in the 19th and early 20th century by the Royal family. We then took a boat ride to a Buddhist temple. The ride was fascinating seeing the homes along the river.

One other note. Aaron and Kaelyn are celebrities here. They are constantly getting touched and Kaelyn is asked to participate in many pictures.

We look forward to tomorrow as we head by train to Borabu.