A Bunch of Burts

For months now, Greg and I have been under siege as the kids begged for some kind of a pet. We had originally said to wait until we move to a village before we discuss any pet procurement.

Before we began with NTM, we had dogs and cats, and then for a time before we left for Thailand, we had a turtle. We all loved the turtle, even me. She was very well behaved, quiet, and could entertain herself for hours at a time, days, weeks even.
Very unlike a dog.

Leah attended a birthday party two weeks ago, and the family hosting the party happened to have three little puppies who would soon be in need of a home.

For the past two weeks, all members of my family, except for me, have been pining for the cute little girl puppy.

When Greg returned from his trip to Kanchanaburi he was still thinking about the puppy. We ‘agreed’ that if it was still there, we would take it. It was. Shucks. Her name is now Ginger.

Actually, she is pretty cute. I do like dogs, I just don’t really like the ‘baggage’ that comes with a dog. Hair, muddy footprints, whining, you know.

But so far she is doing well, and only one accident in the house, which I did not have to take care of. That was one of the requirements for getting a dog. I am not responsible for any messes it makes. I have done dog messes, and I am done with them. Unlike when we got our previous dogs, which my husband brought home for the kids to have, the kids are acutally old enough to take care of this one, and its oops-es

Of course she had to have a bath before sleeping in the house.

I can hardly stand to tell you how many ticks Greg pulled off that dog. Do you really want to know? Triple digits. ick, ick, ick.

As far as we can tell, she is now tick free. I was very pleased with how compliant she was while she was searched, multiple times for ticks. Very mellow.

I do think she will be a good dog. I will like her I am sure. She is sort of cuddly, and looks at me beseechingly with her doggy eyes. Ok, I like her too.

And yes, she speaks English.

Free Stuff.

To the ears of a die-hard garage saler in a country where they are few and far between, those words sound fabulous!

Those who know me can attest to my love of garage/yard/bargain hunting. I do love to get something we need or can use for a great price, free is even better.

We do have garage sales here in Thailand, mostly hosted by other ex-pat families who are moving back to their home country or have been here long enough to accumulate enough stuff to warrant such a sale.

Although I jump at the chance to attend such events, (hey - it is one of the few places to find clothes to fit my un-Thai sized body), I have yet to find anything at those sales for prices comparable to a good US yard sale.

Sharon, at Rocks in My Dryer is hosting a giveaway bonanza this week. And free, just the cost of leaving a comment, and you could get some wonderful stuff. It sounded interesting and so I took the opportunity to head to the night market and found a couple of fun things to give away myself.

I am hoping that at least a couple of the other giveaways will be open to those of us who do not live in the US.

Item #1

A Thai silk scarf/table runner.

This is a silk piece measuring 10 inches/ 25.5 cm wide and 75 inches/190cm long, including the fringe.

It is black and gold with the color pattern reversed on the opposite side. There is no ‘wrong’ side.

Here is the full length view. Lovely, isn’t it?

Item #2

Thai hilltribes quilted zipper bag. (I believe this is the Lisu style, from Northern Thailand)

All the work is done by hand. It measures 6.5 inches/16.5 cm wide and 4 inches/10cm tall. It does have a flat bottom and a zipper top. This a very common style of handicraft, which surprised me when I first came. I did not think of quilting when I thought of Thai style handicraft, but this is traditional for this people group.

To enter, leave a comment, or a question for us about Thailand or why we are here.
This is open to anyone with any kind of address.
Winners will be chosen over the weekend of Feb 1-3 and a winner posted on Monday.
There will be two winners, one for the scarf and one for the bag.

Now go check out some of the other offerings at Bloggy
Giveways.

NOTE: COMMENTS ARE NOW CLOSED, WE ARE DRAWING THE WINNER!

As I have been making treats for my Thai neighbors and friends, they have often found our goodies to be too intensely sweet for them. That is not to say that they do not like to eat the treats I offer, or enjoy sweets, but that our western, sugared, buttered, baked and then frosted confections are a bit over the top for them.

I have found that in many, many desserts, I can cut the sugar up to half, and it still tastes great. Sometimes even better.

In 2006, the per capita sugar consumption was 44.5 lbs. Pounds! Each person!

I have this memory of a book I read as a kid about a baker/candy maker who was trying to make more profit on his treats, and so began to cut back the sugar he used bit by bit until he was hardly using any. He did it so gradually that no one noticed until…. Sam Sugar Slurper, (or whatever the character’s name was) came to town. He ate one of the low/no sugar treats and fell into a reverse sugar coma. I think the story was about trying to cheat and not getting away it, but what stuck with me was that NO ONE else noticed the sugar content slipping away. ( by the way, anyone else remember this story?)

This weekend I made no-bake cookies, which generally call for a large amount of sugar. I used half and my family still gobbled them up without noticing the difference.

So there is my ‘works for me’ today, less sugar. Easy.

As long as we are on the topic of less sugar and still eating fun treats, anyone know how to make crunchy granola bars at home, without corn syrup? . ( I know it is not ask-for-a-tip week, but I couldn’t resist. )

There are many more suggestions and answers to your dilemmas at Rocks in my Dryer

This week at our children’s school is Teacher and Staff Appreciation Week.

Our kids attend Grace International School, a school founded by 4 mission organizations. Nearly every teacher and most of the administrative and support staff are themselves missionaries, serving at the school as a ministry to families like ours. The only exceptions are the national employees.

Each year as the school grows, the need for teachers grows as well. We the parents and students are taking this week to try to communicate how much we appreciate their obedient response to the Lord’s calling and direction to teach and serve at Grace International School. Every one of these men and women could be doing what they are doing anywhere, but they are here, serving our kids.
Thank you Grace teachers and staff for being here in Chiang Mai and using your gifts and talents here to honor God and serve us.

(There are many needs for the upcoming school year at Grace. Do you know anyone who could fill any of these needs? Can you? You can see them listed here.)

And let me tell you, we have wonderful teachers!

Zach’s 4th grade teacher

Scripture tell us that gratitude flows from the knowledge of God and glorifying Him. Ungratefulness is what we get when man is lifted up instead of God.

'because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful..
Rom 1:21'

We bless God and glorify Him by giving thanks to Him.

'Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise.
Be Thankful to Him, and bless His name.'
Psalms 100:4

So in the spirit of Teacher Appreciation week, I have my own thanks and appreciation to publically declare to the people God has blessed me with.

Thank you Greg, for being my wonderful husband, who loves me regardless of my loveabilty.
I appreciate they way you are eager to serve God where ever he leads us, even when I am afraid or unsure of where that may be or how it will look. Thank you for your desire to be a husband and father who seeks after God and His will for our family.

My Superhero, conquering cockroaches, crazy drivers, language barriers and spicy food

Leah, Ema and Zachary, I appreciate each one of you and thank God for giving me such treasures as you three. Thank you for trusting us as we trust God for our family’s direction and leading. We appreicate how you are growing in the knowledge of Him and learning to walk with Him by yourselves and not just by our side.

We are blessed to have a great number of people who are our partners, our team members, our undergirding as we are here in Thailand. For all you who pray for us, what a blessing you are. There are days when we struggle and feel so incompetent and unqualified to be at this end of taking the Gospel to those who need to hear, but we are encouraged and strengthened by your prayers and notes of encouragement. Thank you!

We are also humbled by all those who give to financially to enable to live here. It is a sacrifice we do not take lightly or forget. We appreciate your willingness to give so generously. Your giving blesses us and others. Thank you for being God’s means of provision for us.

My dear friends, C, K, M, M, P. You have made the effort to maintain our friendships although we are now far away. Your notes and emails and yes, even packages! show your love and care for us. We cannot tell you how much your families mean to us. Thank you for responding to the nudge of the spirit and writing or calling, even if it was not a convenient time. You have often ’spoken’ just the words we needs to hear at just the right time.

Our families. We have taken your grandchildren to the other side of the world, and us too, (although we know where we stand in that pecking order!) You are faithful to remember them at birthdays and special days and to stay connected and foster that very important relationship. Thank you for all the effort it takes and for not compounding the distance for the kids by complaining that they are not close to you. That means so much to us.

How about you?
Who do you need to show your thankfulness to? Let us praise God together by our thankfulness in all circumstances and for all things.
Who is in your life that you are so thankful for?

We have so much we wanted to share about our Christmas and New Years, but with getting back in the groove of school and language study, it just did not happen.
We are well on our way to Valentine’s Day, but still want to share a pictorial look at our second Christmas in Thailand.

Our church Christmas program on the 16th of December. The kids had spent the previous month and a half of Sunday Schools preparing for the program. Leah, being the oldest girl in Sunday School was Mary. Zach was a shepherd and Ema was an angel. In the program. Not everyday.

Ema with two of her friends from church, and fellow ballerinas

I also took a small group of girls and taught them a short ballet. Short. One minute.

Since ballet is nearly the exact opposite of Thai dancing, it was a challenge. A good time to practice my language though, pick up a few a words, master some old ones, and give the girls some giggles at my faux pas. (When trying to get young dancers to close their arms in front of them, it helps to actually say ‘close’ buet, instead of ‘open’ beet.

The program went great, and Leah remembered all her lines, in Thai even!

Leah as Mary, and of course the only other falang boy as Joseph. Andrew really wanted to be a wise man this year, but Leah was taller than all the other Thai boys.

Zachary herding his sheep.

The night before we left to travel to the NE, the church came around caroling. This is a yearly tradition for them. All the carolers gather at the church around 8 and begin to make the rounds to the homes of everyone else in the church. They have been known to be out caroling until 3am!!

We made sure Philene knew we were planning to leave early in the morning for the NE, hoping for carolers before midnight.

They arrived around 11, and sang beautifully! In harmony no less. We welcomed them in for some goodies and hot drinks, and enjoyed having so many from church in our home, even if was for a short while.

The next day we drove off on our first solo road trip across Thailand. Would you believe we did not miss a turn?

Anyone going to Burma? China? Malaysia?

Driving in Thailand is not quite like in the States. There is no point at which you can just cruise along; constant, vigilant attention must be given to the road at all times. Most of the roads are officially, two lane. One lane going your way, one lane heading in the opposite direction.

In reality however, all lanes are at least 5 lane roads.
One lane going your way
One lane heading the other way
One lane in between the two official lanes, for turning, passing, driving ect.. (either direction is acceptable)
One lane beside each of the two official lanes for traffic in the opposite direction. (We tend to call this lane the shoulder )

In light of this, we decided to stay the night in Udon Thani, instead of driving straight through to our destination.

The kids really enjoyed the first English TV they had seen in nearly a year! No one even minded watching the Food Channel with me.

We spent a wonderful week in Nakhon Phanom with our dear friends the Sullivan and celebrated Christmas with them.

Ema managed to surprise Zachary with a present he really wanted

On Christmas Eve our two families took some plates of cookies out and caroled at the houses of the Christians in the muubaan. 3 houses. Although we were done way too quickly for me, it was great! One house belongs to a lady who has been studying the Bible with the Sullivans for over a year now. She struggled for a long time with trusting Christ and Christ alone for her salvation, but praise God has placed her faith in Him. She came out of her house while we were singing and tears ran down her face as listened us sing of our Savior’s birth.

When we sang at the Sullivan’s neighbors, they were not sure what to do. Russ and Nancy work with this family in leading a church in another muubaan, and they have been Christians for many years. It was a new experience for them to have people come to their house for the sole purpose of blessing them, with both the songs and a gift. Many times neighbors only come when they need something.

After Christmas we went to visit our friends the Culletts and Lynches in a nearby city, Mukdahan for New Years.
This city, like Nakhon Phanom is bordered by the Mekong River and looks across at Laos.

The ferry from Nakhon Phanom to Laos

We spent nearly a week there too, enjoying their company, playing games and eating way too many treats!
Unlike Chiang Mai, foreigners are not very common in Mukdahan, and when we all went to the Indo-China market, we tended to turn some heads.

The Mukdahan-ers may have thought we were interesting, but I thought a baby elephant walking down the road was much more. Apparently, I was the only one. You notice no one in the picture is even looking at it.

These two families are gearing up to move into a village to begin a new church planting work among the Phu Thai people. We are excited to see this process through their eyes. It was a good opportunity for us to hear how each step of their move from language study in Chiang Mai to village surveys to move-in prep has gone. This is the same direction we are looking to head in a year from now, sharing Christ with people who have never heard before, and in the future, celebrating Christmas with them, instead of just around them.

Eek, I should have warned you to get a cup of coffee or snack before you started reading.

Ok, just one more picture, but that is it for this blog.

Who says missionaries don’t know how to have fun?

Tina