Trip to Bangkok

Wow – it’s been a while!  We just got back from Bangkok two days ago.  The whole family had to go to Bangkok to apply for Jude’s passport, American citizenship and social security number.  Bangkok is like Dallas on steroids – it’s huge…everywhere you look there are huge buildings for miles and miles…and SMOG!!  At the end of the day Josiah had black build up in his nose from the nastiness in the air.  There are many many many farangs (foreigners) in Bangkok so around every corner there is a Thai trying to get money out of you.  We shocked many Thai people because we could speak Thai and we knew that a ride on a TukTuk should only cost about 20 baht instead of 200 baht.  

It was actually very stressful at times – we mostly used the Sky Train to get around in Bangkok – TukTuks and Taxis are just too expensive.  One of our cab fares to go to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was 500 baht!!!  What’s funny is that that is only $12 dollars but to us that is a lot of MONEY!!!  

We had to take a train instead of flying.  It was a LONG trip – 15 hours on an overnight train each way.  The train ride was neat and Josiah LOVED it.  He had so much fun on the way there because he made friends with a young Thai girl about his age.  They played and played and then I read them both a book about Jesus with my limited Thai.  

Everything went great at the embassy – it was kind of euphoric being on American soil again.  There were a lot of Americans there – it felt good to see and hear Americans…sounds weird huh?  Well, you might not be able to understand till you’ve been away for a year…

The real highlight of our trip was getting to eat at SUBWAY!!!  Gosh it was sooo delicious – it was, by far, the best meal I have had in a year!!!  John and I enjoyed every expensive bite!!!  The bad thing about it was that it was not only American in taste but American in price – for the 3 of us to eat it was 600 baht which is about $15 dollars!  We decided that it could be another year or more before we get that opportunity again so it was worth it.  

We also found DORITOS!!!  We are carefully rationing out the Doritos to last for a while…You know how everyone always says it’s a small world – well that saying is more real to me now than ever before.  While we were in Bangkok we met Americans who are missionaries in China that came to Bangkok for a conference…and get this: they are TEXANS and they knew people from SHERMAN!  WOW!  I just couldn’t believe it!  And we also met another missionary couple that was passing through from NaPaul.  

Anyway, we’ve finally got that trip out of the way (although John still has to return in 3 weeks to pick up Jude’s passport).  *Sigh of relief*  We were almost able to get Jude circumcised in Bangkok but it didn’t work out – we thought it was $200 but it turned out to be $250-300 and we didn’t have the money.  We think we’ll be able to get him circumcised here soon – just not sure yet.  

This next week we are doing a 3 day English Camp in a village near here…I’m really excited about it – these kids will remember this for the rest of their lives.  A bunch of farangs coming to their school – I can’t wait to be able to share the good news with them.  

Well, I know this is long but I’ve got more to tell you…but I’m going to finish up tomorrow.  It’s time to get some food together.  Thank you for reading – please be agreeing with us in prayer that the finances will come in.  Love you all!!