The schools library...
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Here I am teaching about God's definition of beauty...
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Josiah, Pii Thak and Mercy having some fun with the horse at the school we were at yesterday...
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Valentine's Picture....John and I were trying to look each other deeply in the eyes for this picture but we couldn't keep from laughing...Fun Fun Fun!! Not one of my best pictures! HAHA!
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A decent Valentine's Picture :)
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Pii Thak passing out tracks...yes she is wearing a jacket in the HEAT!! to keep the sun off...
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Village store...
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Clinton visiting a house...
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There are always tons of children wanting to know what we're all about...and spend time with us...
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A house...
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They all gather around Brian's truck to visit
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Asia (Josiah's best friend) helping pass out tracks...She's such a doll!
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Thai people don't use diapers and their kids are usually potty trained by 1 year old!!! I just couldn't believe it! If I had to I suppose I could...but I THANK GOD that they have cheap diapers here for 170 baht ($4). Who wants to be pee'd and pooped on for a year!!! Think about if you didn't have an option?!?!?
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Isn't she beautiful!!!!
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Those eyes!
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Some young village girls with Mercy (MaryBeth and Brian's youngest)
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Clinton setting up to show the film...
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Isn't she sweet!!!
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John, Brian and MaryBeth is in there too! :)
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John being silly on his bike! And that is a toothpick in his mouth...someone said it looked like a cigarette...hehehe. He's a true blue TEXAN huh? In America I don't think you'd ever see John in a cowboy hat but being here some how makes you appreciate where your from and makes you want to embrace it...so John saw this hat in Bangkok when he went to Chaing Rai and figured it would be a good sun blocker...I think he looks handsome with it on!!! Go get 'em cowboy!!
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Valentine's / English Camp

HAPPY LATE VALENTINE’S DAY!!

I hope you had a wonderful Valentine’s Day – I know I did!  John did so GOOD  this year!!  I woke up to beautiful wildflowers on my side of the bed and a hand made card!  It just means so much more when things are hand made doesn’t it???  Then later that evening John had asked Katherine to watch the boys so we could go out together.  That explained why Katherine so gracefully avoided answering my question “Are you busy on Valentine’s Day??”  

Anyway, we were able to go out on our first real date in FOREVER!  It was wonderful – we brought Katherine home 2 roses and some ice cream (she’s sweets freak!)  We had to show her how much we appreciate her – it’s really hard not having family and friends to call on to have a night out every once in a while.  Don’t get me wrong though…this team is like family but we are always SOO BUSY!!!  

Anyway, today is the last day of the 3 day English Camp – Yesterday went wonderful!  It’s so much fun…but at the same time it’s sooo much work.  By the time me and the boys got home I was BEAT!  Josiah had taken a good hard fall to the rocky ground and was having a hard time getting over it and was badly in need of nap…Jude was hungry, hot and sweaty!!!  My feet were aching and my head was pounding but all in all it was so much fun!!!!  

It’s not easy teaching English and helping out with activities while watching two boys.  John was out passing out tracks in the village we were in.  Micheal was there so he helped some.  One really funny thing is that the Thai people do not let their children cry…the need is met at the exact moment that the child cries out…NO JOKE!  So…when it was just Katherine and I…baby Jude started to fuss…that’s all it was…just fussing softly….and all the kids stopped the game calling out…. “Luk ronghigh, Luk ronghigh” which means the baby is crying.  

I told them it was ok and tried to continue but they weren’t really satisfied until I walked back patted him and then said “Mai ben rai ka…Luk mii sabaii jai”…meaning “don’t worry…baby has comfortable heart…”  Which means to them…he’s ok.  Although it is against Thai culture to not stop everything for the crying baby.  No matter what it is.  

The school is about 45 minutes away and deep into the country.  I took some pictures and will be posting them soon.  It’s very peaceful out there.  Last night we were going to show the film in that village but it was raining so we could not.  So today Katherine, Brian and I are going out to the school to teach and share again – then I will return home with my boys and get food and then John and I have Thai language class…after that John will go out to meet up with Brian and Katherine to setup everything for showing the video.  

Well, I don’t want to make this a super long post so I’ll try to cut it short here.  Plus there is breakfast to be made, a 3 year old to wake up and an English lesson to be prepared.  I will post again soon with pictures from the school.  Thank you for praying…caring and reading!!!  If you happen to read this before 4am your time…then pray for me..I’m going to be teaching the children about real beauty and that they are a masterpiece designed by the one and only true God and that His son came to make a way for us.  Pray that the message is clear and that it finds good soil in the hearts of these children so they will remember it always.  

May you be blessed!!!

Steph

The day that we left we had to get Jude's passport picture taken and while we were waiting for it to develop - I said to John "We have NEVER had a family picture taken...why don't we just do it...we don't have to be dressed up or all pretty looking...let's just do it a la natural?" Of course John was cool with it so we had this shot snapped...it was only about $5 for Jude's photos and these...crazy huh! Pretty good compared to the $35-100 you might spend in America...We just happened to all be wearing navy blue too!!
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Josiah in our hotel at Bangkok - isn't that hat adorable!!
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Does this shock you? Brian was taking Asia and Mercy to the park and he asked if Josiah could come too...and this is how they went. If the park wasn't very close he would not have done this...but this is absolutly normal here in Thai culture...although we do this VERY VERY RARELY and they ALWAYS wear helments.
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Believe it or not...these to seats fold down to make a surprisingly comfortable bed...
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Posing infront of the train
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Josiah checking out the view...
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John and Josiah infront of the train...note the arm leash...absolutely necessary...Thai people love to pick up your kid and take him to show their friends...without asking...and without thinking a second thought about it...VERY VERY SCARY for us!
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Us riding the sky train
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Waiting for the sky train after a VERY VERY long morning!
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He's sooo chunky - I LOVE IT!
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There were tons of sharks and amazing fish to be seen...
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We had a great time...
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While we were in Bangkok we found this place called "Siam Ocean World" - we were so excited to be able to let Josiah have the opportunity to see stuff like this. It was incredible - fish like I've never seen before and StingRays as big as a King Size Bed!!! Amazing!!! What an opportunity!
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Josiah and the Lionfish...
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Josiah and I watching jelly fish
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Mike from Monsters Inc was there too!
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Spiderman...inside a huge mall we found off the SkyTrain...
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Sully - Josiah was a little caught off guard when we found all these statues...but he soon realized all was well and started posing for pictures... :)
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YODA! Wait...were are Yoda's eyes???
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John and Josiah posing in front of all the traffic - although this picture did not catch the reality of it...at all...
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View from the back of the tuktuk
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Josiah on a tuktuk - note the mask the tuktuk driver is wearing - the SMOG is horrible.
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John snapped a pic of us on the tuktuk...
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Right off of the sky train in Bangkok there was this neat dancing fountain - Josiah loved it.
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Jude and Mommy...our eyes look a bit funny because I attempted to remove the red eye...so excuse the strange looking pupils...hehehe
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Josiah posing for us...
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The boys...
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Brotherly love!
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Wide eyed Jude...
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The boys checking out the view out the window of the train...
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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!!