A Bunch of Burts

Many of the men were not available for Greg like the women were, they were out in their fields or tending their rubber trees.
Since Greg did not have ‘crafty’ projects to work on, he helped out the Fullers and Schumachers with some projects around their houses.

The Schumachers had just moved into their new house, (that they built), and still had some painting that needed to be finished. Greg is handy with a paintbrush!

The Fullers had another project for him. They have a language helper/house helper, Dam, whom they would like to begin teaching through the Chronological lessons. She would also be helping them get the lessons ready in the Isaan language.

Since she is not a Christian, she is not familiar with the Bible. To make the lesson easier for her to follow, Greg created a Scripture packet for her so that when, in the lesson, a verse is referenced, she can just look in her packet and not have to fumble through an unfamiliar Bible.

He also helped with their chickens and turkeys. The Fullers are raising turkeys, hoping to get some of the villagers raising them, as a means of creating income.

Of course we all had to take our turns snuggling the Schumachers new sweet baby boy, Samuel. They are just begining to walk the adoption path with this cutie, and would appreciate your prayers along the way!

So, what did you do this summer? Take any trips? Find a fun new place close to home? What was your favorite thing?

During our time in the village this past month, we had a chance to participate in some of the daily life of the villagers. The ladies of the village spend a good portion of their time weaving.

This grandmother is weaving cloth on a hand loom. To make the whole length, it will take her between 2-3 months!

Weaving cloth is a huge undertaking, and so I did not get to do any of that, but I did learn how to weave grass mats. These mats are used for floor coverings, and often in place of chairs.

Many of the houses have thier communal or ‘living room’ in the open part of the house and instead of sitting in chairs or other furniture, you would sit on the floor, on one of these mats. The mats are also often the ‘table’ for meals as well. Although they are pretty sturdy, they do wear out, so they need to be made over and over again.

The grass had already been cut and dried for me, but I was able to do all the other parts of the process.

The dried grass tassels needed to be folded up so they could be dyed. We are doing the dyeing at Mae Phet’s house. She is one of the ladies who taught my friend to make mats, and now she is teaching me.

We are dyeing the grass in an old metal bucket. The dye is just some crystal dye we bought at the little store down the street. Each packet of color was only 5 Baht.

Aren’t the colors pretty? Now they just need a day to dry. Or two, it is rainy season.

Of course the next step is stringing the loom. The comb, the part with the slats that I am sitting nearest, is usually bought from a specialized craftsman, but the rest of the frame is made by each family for their own use. We are doing our weaving at Christiane’s house, the other lady you see with me. She is one of the two NTM families who live in this village full-time.

Each slat of the comb has a little hole to thread string through. I admit, I made a couple of mistakes and we had to start over. ooops.

The girls took their turns weaving too.

After a while, you can no longer reach sitting behind the loom, so you have to sit on it! Took me a while to find a comfortable position on those boards though.

Finally! A finished mat. And yes, I am cutting off the edges with a machete. That way everyone has to tell me how nice my mat looks. After all, I am holding a big, sharp knife.

One of the best things about work like this, is you cannot do it alone. This project has to be done by two people. One to work the loom and one to push the grass through. The village ladies can do up to three mats in a day, and are able to spend the time chatting and working at the same time. Although my first mat took almost three days, by the end we were able to do one a day. Not bad for a novice mat weaver, right? We also had many visitors who wanted to come by and see the two foreign ladies weaving a mat! So we had to stop and chat and that added time too.

As I worked with Christiane, we too had the chance to get to know each other better, as we worked together. I imagine, and hope, that one day, as this team in Dong Noi begins to teach the Gospel, perhaps the ladies of the village will spend mat making time talking about the lesson they heard, the truths presented and the ways they are begining to understand the Great God who made them and loves them enough to give His own life for them.

Would you pray for this village? Please pray that the team learns the language and culture quickly and that the Holy Spirit would work in the hearts of the villagers that they would be open to the Gospel and the Truth of God’s Word.
They are beloved creations of God, just as we are.

Tina

We arrived back in Chiang Mai this week, and have had a chance to catch our breath a bit.

Our time in the village was very profitable and we are glad to have been able to spend time with both the families out there, taste the reality of village life and see us all get excited for moving into in our ‘own’ village in the coming months.

I know I said pictures would be coming, and had thought I would be able to get some posted while we were still there. Since we did not have internet in our house, it just did not work out that way, but here they are now!

This is the house we stayed in. The front part is just a storage area, and the real house part starts where the upper story is wooden.

The path between our house one of the other missionary families. Those are freshly planted rice fields on either side of it. At night, we needed to be careful and watch out for snakes, they like to eat the frogs which live in the water of the rice paddies.

This is a small herd of water buffalo. Each morning the buffalo would be led out to pasture and each night brought back in and penned up, sometimes underneath the house of the owners. The neighbors had a herd of about 7 or 8, and when they were coming or going, they left behind aromatic evidence of thier passing.

This cutie is Gaem. Her name means ‘cheek’. Can you tell why?

This is a more traditional old style house, with much of the living area outside. Many people had thier ‘living room’ areas under the roof, but not closed in at all. Sort of like on a big porch. Their kitchen were there as well as their TVs. Yes, most everyone has a TV. The large pot looking things are cisterns to catch rain water, used for bathing and cleaning and cooking.

Another house with their lounging area outside. This is a family group eating lunch together. There was someone on this porch at almost every time of the day. The older lady on the right was very nice and kept trying to get us to stay in the village. She told me that if I would stay for a long time, she would teach me how to weave their skirts.

Another of the grandmothers of the village. This lady had a bout with colon cancer not long ago, but is free from cancer right now. We pray that the Lord would extend her life to allow her to hear the Gospel from the team here at Dong Noi. Her house was at the end of our street and always had a smile and greeting for us.

Kids on the stairs in the house. No running allowed up and down these stairs!

We all had a great time out there, but were certainly tired each night! Next time I will show you some of the weaving the girls and I learned how to do and what we made.

Tina

Actually, we have already arrived.

Rice fields in the NE with the mountains dividing Thailand and Burma in the background

This past Sunday we arrived for the second phase of our out-and-about summer. The first phase, being pseudo students at a Bible school for tribal believers in the NW of Thailand finished on the 18th of July.

We packed up, drove back to Chiang Mai, washed laundry load after laundry load, and left bright and early on Sunday morning to drive across the country to begin phase 2.
Well, it was early on Sunday morning, but not so bright. The sun was not up yet. We needed to make the trip in one day, so we needed to get on the road by 4am. We almost made it — 4:30– not too bad.

We are living in a village with one of the other Thailand NTM teams for the next 3 weeks. We are hanging around with them, watching how they go about language and culture learning on their own, (no language schools out here!) and observing what life in the village is truly like.
We are getting a taste, that is for sure.

The donging of the bells around the necks of the kwaai (water buffalo) as they walk past the house in the morning to the fields. (and the distinctive aroma of course. )
The chickens that roam free and squawk and chatter.
The daily morning annoucements that are broadcast over a PA system, which is pointed directly at our house. (Hey, no need for an alarm clock!)

I have walked around the village a couple of times, just exploring and meeting people.
This village has some very friendly people and the ladies are eager to have me sit and chat with them. Of course, I can only speak with them in Thai, and their first language is Isaan. Some of the older ladies speak little to no Thai, but still will happily chatter away, while I try to pick up the thread of conversation.

The rice planting has just been finshed, and the fields are all green and beautiful.
The rains have arrived, along with some pretty impressive electrical storms.

As hard as is it to be a sort of permanant transient, we are praising God for the opportunites we have had this summer to step out of our comfort zones, to improve our Thai, to learn so many new words, and build new relationships. We are beginning to see the end of our time in Thai study, anticipating moving out to a village of our own and are eager to begin that work which the Lord has been preparing us for, and preparing for us.

Stay tuned for some pics of this village!

Hard to believe we only have two more weeks out here at CDM. Isn’t that always how it is, just when you get used to a place, familiar with the stores and begin to build relationships, it is time for us to move on again.

We are eager to move on to our other adventure this summer, our week with a team in the NE getting our village or upcountry orientation time and seeing the culture and language learning in a non-school environment at work, but sad at leaving behind the friendships we are building here.

We do have plans to sneak back at some point for a visit before they are done with the whole course of study.

Just wanted to share some more pictures of the gorgeous area we have been living in for the past month or so. God’s creation is so wonderful, and we cannot help but praise Him for His mighty hand and be in awe of His greatness.

Let them praise the name of the LORD,
For His Name alone is exalted:
His glory is above the earth and heaven.
Psalms 148:13