Friday, October 28, 2011

Sundown Worship While Camping

Last weekend, we went with the Chiang Mai Adventist Church youth on a camping trip. It was an overnight trip, but it was a lot of fun. This is one of the videos from the sundown worship we had Sabbath evening. The song, if you don't recognize it, is "As The Deer."

Friday, October 21, 2011

An Evening with Our Neighbors

This evening, as we do often, we went out and Hope rode bicycles and played with a couple of younger girls who live around the corner from us. The third picture shows a wall behind the motorcycle in the far back. That is the house of this family behind that wall. Where the grandpa is standing is our driveway. So, this family does not live far from us at all. Hope and the older girl, Idea, like to trade bicycles. The bicycle that Hope is riding in all these pictures belongs to Idea, and vice versa.





Hope loves having this family come out and play in the evening. I love it as well. The mother of Idea, and her sister Image, is very sweet. We have talked some, and I keep praying that we'll be able to have more meaningful conversations. 



The grandfather is also very kind and watchful of all the kids as they are driving around.


Idea is younger than Hope, but here in Thailand the children start preschool at three years old. Some even younger. Idea's younger sister is already in preschool and she just turned two.


Our next door neighbor, Suchee, came out and played ball with the girls right before it was time to head inside for dinner.


This is my friend, Dik, with her younger daughter Image. Please pray that our friendship will deepen and we can speak of more than just our children.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Another Critter

Robbie found this guy a few nights after finding the snake. I think he was old and that our handling of him wore him out still more, because the next morning he was in our grass, unmoving.


Tuesday, October 11, 2011

In the Driveway

This is a harmless Checkered Keelback. We killed it first and asked questions later.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Backdoor Bird

Out our backdoor we saw this bird across the rice paddy. Amazing colors!


Sunday, October 2, 2011

Evacuation and Cleanup

On Wednesday of last week, we knew there was flooding, but we didn't think that it would affect us too much. By Thursday morning, the floodwaters were seeping up into our yard. By that evening, the water reached to our bottom steps at our front and back door. Through the night, I monitored the level of the water. 

What I didn't realize until the next morning was that the water had covered our septic tank, and the lid of the tank had popped off and was floating. In the morning, there was quite the stink. I went out in plastic bag boots and managed to put the lid back on and weight it down. Unfortunately, with that happening, our toilets no longer flushed, so we made the decision to leave for a couple days and come back when the water had receded and we could clean up and use all of our own facilities again.

We are thankful for friends that we have here in Chiang Mai who so graciously opened their home to us! They are a real blessing. We know that the Lord takes care of His children and we are so thankful for His watch-care.

Going to see if we would be able to drive our truck out.

We couldn't get our truck out, so we had to pack light and walk.

Many people were out, some just observing the floodwaters, others
walking to where they could get transportation.

This truck stopped and gave us a ride on the back

One of the guys on the truck

Upon returning two days later, we set about rinsing down our driveway
and the yard and cement around the house.

I started scrubbing down the walls. 

Our whole yard and house stink because of the floodwaters, the algae and fungus that is growing now, and the yucky matter that was introduced into the floodwaters and settled back into the ground around our house. We hope it will rain and rinse it all away without causing another flood. We are thankful for your prayers and know that God protected us, and our house, from the flood.