Children's Program

Jeff and the older children accompanied another missionary family to share the Christmas story and Gospel at a local Thai school. Jeff was so surprised at how much the school allowed to be said. The children were all so very thankful to participate. We actually met the family they ministered with at a Baptist outreach. We were visiting the school Jeff will be teaching English. In the parking lot there was a big group of Hispanic folks. Jeff, who speaks Spanish, was very interested. After exchanging contact info we biked home. Not wanting to go to another Thai Christmas event, we asked about seeing the outreach church Sunday night. We found out that we live less than a mile from a missionary family who offered to pick us up. This same family invited us over over for lunch on Christmas. It was great visiting with such a kind family.

Aum

Our friend Aum and her parents came to visit us here in Chiang Mai. They took us to the Royal Park which is a tribute garden to their beloved King. It is similar to The Butchart Gardens in Canada with magnificent gardens and cultural displays. After the garden we visited the Chiang Mai Night Zoo, which her father was involved with. They treated us to their company and Thai food which was very wonderful! It was so nice to see a friend all the way from America here in Thailand. Aum is a student at OSU, and her home country is Thailand. She came to visit her family during winter break and made a side trip to visit us as well. It was a wonderful time was for everyone.

Chiang Mai Night Safari

After the tiger show,  and on our way to the Safari tram,  there was a line of different animals to touch... Like a Thai petting zoo. This Burmese python was given to Aum to enjoy. The children just got to pet it, but. I thought that was close enough!

New Bikes

We are riding our bikes to the local market together. We recently bought several bikes to make transportation easier. Most of our bikes have a partner seat. Two of our bikes actually fold in half with a special hinge for easier storage. Those same bikes have a child seat in front of the adults eat. The other day we rode our bikes 25 km, which was a little bit much for the whole group. Maybe if it was a straight shot it might be easier, but we needed to stop several times for different needs. It is great to travel with Google Maps because we are able to go on side roads with the walk application.

Biking with Dad

Every rode a bike to the dam near our home.  The boys borrowed bikes from the neighbors next door.

Building Furniture Together

Jeff and the boys work on very carefully assembling two dressers. It is a great educational experience.

New Bikes

Living in a  village with out a car and not being able to even apply for a driver's licence for another three weeks, we decided to get some bikes. Jeff found three the other day.  Two are city bikes with basket and a partner seat on back. I quickly realized that two girls was too many.   . Both are very excited about their new helmets. I realize faithful is still too small for this seat. I did ride the bike to the market that night with Raymah on the back. She is big enough to hold on and keep herself balance. We will look into getting a baby seat for Faithful.

Beautiful Bananas

We are very blessed to have many banana trees in our yard. This banana bunch hangs right by our table outside. We live outside most of the day and use our little table for homeschooling and eating.

Journey to Thailand

Our journey to Thailand began on Thanksgiving Day, after staying with Samantha's family,  Elaine and Paul. Paul drove his truck to the airport. The luggage in the back and the younger children in the front. The children had a great time singing for him much of the way to San Francisco. Jeff drove be Odyssey van with his mother, Susan as the co-pilot and Jubilee faithful and me and all the carry-ons. Susan parked and helped us as we checked in our luggage. We flew China Eastern Air, and as you can imagine, the line was full of Chinese people. ☺. We were glad to get there early because we needed to relax after the rush of preparing, driving, and checking in.

Passing through Security went just fine, and we ate lunch from sandwich and snack bags before we boarded the plane.

As we got on the plane we noticed there were many empty seats. A huge provision from God was that faithful had her own seat on the 13 our flight! Wow! Looking back I really don't know how we would have actually survived such a long flight with her on my lap.

The seats were bigger than the domestic flights we were used to. All the chairs had their own TV screens. It had movies, TV, Etc. The neat part for us was the little games they could play; Samantha spent her time helping the boys figure out different children games like memory, matching, and popping balloons. With little access to this kind of play in our regular life, this provided hours of help on the long flight.

And the food! I thought we would get one meal. I packed a whole carry on bag full of food thinking that we would be hungry. But shortly into the flight they fed us a meal, a few hours later a tuna sandwich, and then another meal 2 hours before landing. Jubilee sadly felt nauseous on the descent into the first stop in China, and finally vomited. We were glad for our flight was so smooth otherwise. Thank you Lord Jesus for taking such good care of our little flock!