A Bunch of Burts

Today, I have been married to my sweet husband for 15 years. That sounds like a long time, and yet, it does not seem that long ago that we began our life together.

No, he did not shove the cake in my face

We have been through many many things, some so wonderful, and others so painful. But for all of them, Greg, I am so glad you have been by my side.
I thank God for you, for the man you are now, and for the man He is making you into.
Thank you for loving me each day, even when I am not so loveable. You are my love and my favorite companion. I am blessed to be able to work with you every day and share our whole lives together in ways I had not thought possible or practical.

Life has been an adventure in common and uncommon ways and I so look forward to the next chapter of our lives. You are deeply loved by me!
I pray that our girls would find husbands like you, a man who loves the Lord, his wife and his family, who makes them laugh and holds them when they cry.
Thank you Lord for this man you have given me!

Ema was indignant when she saw that I did not post a picture of her eating a huge burger on Easter too.
So here are the kids and thier tasty lunches!

Happy children!

How did you celebrate Easter this year?
Did it sneak up on you? Were you under a foot of snow? Did you have a big meal with family? Did you praise God that Jesus did not stay dead, but rose again?

How wonderful a day to remember, that Christ was not bound by death, but willingly endured it to enable us, His creation, to live forever with Him in Glory.

Is there better news? That our Savior triumphed over sin and death and broke the bondage those two things have over us? What a contrast to the message that surrounds the people of Thailand. Buddhism’s end goal is to be swallowed up in death. To disappear into the void, to cease to exist. Eternal life is not necessarily attractive to a Buddhist, because to them, they are trying to escape the cycle, to come to an end to their lives, an end to their ‘tries’ at being a good enough person.

Eternal life for them means work, not rest. Praise God that the Truth is He did all the work for us! We can fully rest in His finished work.

We are so thankful for the church we have become a part of here in Chiang Mai. Holidays are always hard to be away from home and family and friends, but we are finding fellowship and communion with the Body of Christ here in Chiang Mai, and are honored to be able to worship with them.

We attended the sunrise service, which, to the dismay of the kids, involved meeting at church at 5:15am. We then caravaned out to a resevoir for a worship service, egg hunt and breakfast.

The eggs here in Thailand are brown. They were undyed and hidden in the dry brush and leaves. Out of 150 of them, we found 2. But no matter, we all shared the eggs and other food that was brought for breakfast.
Some of our breakfast fare was a bit ‘exotic’ for us, but most was very good. (I chose to stick to the chicken eggs and decided I was not up for ant egg omelet. Sorry Pastor Bill )

Can you spot what I brought to breakfast? I was a bit puzzled when no one seemed to be eating them. Then I realized that they thought the cinnamon rolls were a snack, or dessert for after breakfast. How silly! Cinnamon rolls are not snack, they are breakfast!

After church, we tried to find a western-style Easter Dinner at one of the restaurants in town, but were not too successful. The kids and Greg decided that hamburgers would suffice and so enjoyed a rare meal of a juicy and messy burger!

It may not be a spiral sliced ham or lamb roast, but it was good!

May the reality of Easter be present in your hearts and minds each day, looking to Jesus for your daily needs and strength.

He is Risen, He is Risen indeed!

After one of our many moves, and I had to once again decide what should go into the cupboards. As I was unpacking, I had an
A-HA moment.
Our kids were old enough to help wash and put away dishes, but I always seemed to be the one to put them away since the dish cupboard tended to be one of the uppers.
By putting the everyday dishes and cooking equipment in a lower cupboard, everyone could easily put dishes away AND get them out for setting the table.

Perhaps not the most organized cupboard, but manageable.

And children are not the only ones who tend to drop things if they have to stand a chair to get to them. Don’t ask how many sets of glasses and plates we have gone through at my house, before the kids began helping with dishes.

We have the kids rotate each week through chores of washing, putting away and clearing the table. All the dishes, ‘tupperware’, ect, are low and easy to reach. No excuses! Well, at least no one claiming they cannot reach things anyway. We hear plenty of other kinds of excuses.

I am heading off to see what other wisdom is available today at Shannon’s Works For Me Wednesday. I always find something useful and interesting there!

Last weekend we had the opportunity to get of Chiang Mai and visit a family about 31/2 hours NE of us. Their village is one of the locations we are considering joining, but it was fun to just go up and visit them. They have four children and our kids had a great time reconnecting and playing.

A treat of soda makes for cheerful kids in a hot car! Notice the sleeping dog. I believe this was before she threw up on Ema. ick.

Well, maybe Zach and Ema had a better time that Leah. There was no girl her age, but the 6 year old thought Leah was very cool and wanted to play with her all weekend.

Over the course of the weekend, we found out some very important information about this family, things that could make or break a relationship. They like to play the same games we do!
A couple of their favorites are Scum and The Farming Game.

Now I know The Farming Game is not a widely popular board game, but we enjoy it, especially Zachary. He chooses it more than any other game we have. It is a game that resembles Monopoly in design, but revolves around farming, (no surprise there,) and harvesting your different crops based on a roll of the dice. It was created by a farmer from Eastern Washington and had a short run in NW stores. Since it has been out of production for quite some time, we were quite surprised to know that this family not only knew of the game, but it is one of their favorites.

Greg had the chance to go out on survey with the dad, looking at potential villages for them to locate and base their church-planting effort from. A first for Greg, and one he enjoyed very much.
As we focus on our language learning in Chiang Mai, it is important for us to remin focused on why we are learning language. To bew able to take the Word of God to those who have not heard, who have no reliable Gospel witness in their language or culture.

Along the way to these villages, they stopped by the banks of the Mekong and Greg took these great pictures.

Please keep praying with us as we have many things to think about as we try to come to a decision in the next few months about where the Lord would have us work.