Neighborhood Change

It's been a while. Too long, I know. Our neighborhood has changed a little recently. My friend across the street, Nan, moved to another house in Chiang Mai. The other girls living in the house are still there, with Nan's aunt staying there as their chaperone. The aunt is quite friendly and we've gone over to visit her a few times. She's not there all the time though, since her own house is in a different town and I believe she works there as well.

Also, Hope and Haven's  two little friends Idea and Image have started school again, and both of them are attending all day long, so our girls have no friends in our neighborhood during the day. We have been able to spend time with them in the evenings recently though, and Hope and Haven always enjoy that. One of these days, I think we'll plan on all going to the big pool close by. I think that would be a blast for all of them.

We have a compost pile outside our back door. Many of the seeds from different fruits and vegetables have sprouted and grown back there. We have some volunteer papaya trees actually producing fruit. We also have a pumpkin vine with six big pumpkins growing on it. I think it will be fun to share the produce from our volunteer garden with all of our neighbors. Hope and Haven love to take gifts around to our neighbors so I can't wait until the papayas and pumpkins are ready to pick and share.

Robbie's language school is going well. He just entered a new module, Module 7. I'm not sure what the topic is. Module 6 was Thai Life. He learns vocabulary and different stories related to each topic, and this helps to broaden his knowledge and ability to apply the language. We're hoping to be ready to leave for Surin at the end of this year.

Thank you all for your continued prayers and support.

Pollution

The last few months, Chiang Mai has had some very nasty pollution. I decided to take a morning shot and an evening shot. Not much difference between the two. Praise the Lord, it seems to be diminishing recently, so that is a blessing!

Pollution in the morning...

Pollution in the evening...

Tukae

A few weeks ago we went for a Sabbath walk with some friends and saw this creature. They're not very nice lizards, but it was great to actually get a photo of one. We hear them all the time, but have only seen a couple of these elusive tukaes.

Lop Buri Monkeys

There are monkeys in Lop Buri, Thailand. These are not zoo monkeys. These are long-tail macaques that live around a temple that was built in the 8th century. They climb all over it, sit all around it, and their young scramble and play everywhere. The monkeys are not contained at the temple. They cross the street and steal bags of food from people passing by. They swing along power lines and climb up to the rooftops of buildings surrounding the special "prasat" from ages past. There is also a special temple (more recently built) for worshiping the spirits of the monkeys (or something like that). A jungle gym of sorts has been set up for the monkeys, and people sell food for tourists to feed the monkeys.

Earlier this month we passed through Lop Buri on our way to some meetings. We didn't have time to stop on the way down, but as we were traveling back to Chiang Mai we decided to stop and have a look at the monkeys. It was worth it!

Hmong Village Camping

Several weeks ago, we had the opportunity to go experience camping in a Hmong village. We drove for several hours, a couple of which I spent hanging on to the edge of my seat and stomping on my non-existent passenger brake. The road went up at a 45-50 degree angle in some places. It didn't help that our trip up the mountain took place after dark. There were major ruts in the road making our drive slow and unpredictable, when adding in the hairpin turns.

Once we arrived in the village, we tried to set up our tent and eat dinner quickly so that we could bathe and go to sleep since it was so late already. There was a fire burning near one house near where our cars were parked, and several of our group sat around talking with the villagers there. The church in Chiang Mai has many youth who are Hmong and they participated in this camping trip/evangelism. Some of the villagers speak Thai as well as Hmong, though many of the older generation do not.

The next morning, we woke up to the sounds of the thousands of roosters crowing all over the village and in the forest. Out our window we were greeted with the curious stares of the little children looking back at us. We got dressed, brushed our hair, and headed out for breakfast.

After breakfast, we spent the morning helping to clean up the village. The school bathroom was the focus of the group that Hope and I found ourselves a part of, although my focus was more on keeping Hope focused :)

After lunch, it was time for games and just playing around some. I took the opportunity to shoot a whole slew of photos. It was fun to get so many good pictures of the time we spent there.

After games and playing for a while it was time for baths (before the sun went down so that we wouldn't be too cold), and dinner. Our girls were tired, so they headed to bed before the evening program began. The evening program was a concert put on by mostly the youth of the Chiang Mai church. I was also asked f I would sing a song that I had sung at the church a few weeks before, and there was also another foreigner who sang a song as well.

The next morning was spent getting ready to go and handing out clothing that had been collected to bring to the villagers. We really enjoyed our time in the Hmong village. Although I couldn't speak any Hmong I enjoyed visiting these precious people and pray that they will come to know Christ and His love.

Festivals

Chiang Mai just finished participating in two Buddhist festivals. One of them, Loi Krathong, is celebrated throughout all of Thailand. The other, Yi Peng, is celebrated at the same time, but only in Chiang Mai. It is a festival from the time of the Lanna kingdom in northern Thailand.

Loi Krathong is celebrated by floating offerings down the river in order to honor and appease the spirit of the river. Offerings of flowers, incense, coins and candles are placed on banana leaf or bread boats.

Everyone gets their own krathong, or offering, to float down the river. I am sure that many people float more than one. 

Yi Peng festival is celebrated by releasing rice paper lanterns into the night sky. Thousands and thousands of these lanterns are released on the actual night of Loi Krathong, as well as the days leading up to and right after Loi Krathong. The releasing of the lanterns signifies the letting go of bad luck and as people let them go they pray for good luck. Each lantern is released with prayers, not to the God of heaven but to their ancestors and the spirits.

Thank you for your continued prayers and support as we are learning more and more about Thai and Northern Khmer culture, and how to reach them with the gospel of Jesus.

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."