The Mays’ Weblog

Hi again folks, Andrew here,

We have just put some more pictures on the gallery of our trip to San Kampaeng where we went last Saturday to check out the Hot springs there. You will not see Jacob in the photos as he was away on camp with ‘Boy Scouts of America Chiangmai 171 Troop’ He went somewhere up North into the hills - we have no idea really. the scoutmaster is some old bearded and whitehaired guy who got lost in the jungles of ‘nam way back and has pretty good survival skills. Fortunately he passed some of them on and they all arrived back smelly but safe. Jacob did all the cooking for his group for the weekend. They are going camping every month! Luke is going to cubs on monday nights as well. They are allowed to wear the union flag on their uniforms you will be pleased to hear! Photos to follow on that one.
So back to San Kampaeng….we arrived eventually….you may have heard that the Thais will say whatever will keep you happy; the sign posts on the way were a bit like that..2Km to go…20Km….3Km….etc. We paid the 50Baht (60p) to get in (all of us) a wandered about getting used to the sulphurous fumes. There were loads of little huts and shelters offering foot massage, back massage, hot spring water baths etc. We did not have our swimming stuff so had to resist (not difficult) but found the little stream you will see in the pictures. The water is about as hot as we could bear and took a few minutes to actually get our feet immersed. It was great! I could feel the skin peeling away along with any parasites and verroucas. We sat for about 15 minutes enjoying the beautiful (I have come of age and can use the word without feeling awkward - nearly) view. We eventually removed our lobster feet from the murky depths and I can tell you, my feet have never felt cleaner and softer!

We wandered back to the car past the straw huts, signs promising eggs and drink, and a child defecating on the grass. It is one of the strange inconsistencies of this wonderful land that it is taboo and unseemly to wander around without a shirt on but is OK for your child to strip naked and perform bodily functions in public places.

However, back to Chiangmai we went and into the pool for an afternoon swim. Its a hard life.

There are some pics of Luke’s birthdat party as well - we had a good time bowling with friends.

Missing you all loads - it was great to see the video of baptisms at Arun last Sunday - it made us miss you even more.
Love from us all,
Andrew & Esther XXX

Hi everyone.

Thankyou to every one who sends us emails. We love to hear from you. I know sometimes we are slow to reply - that is because Andy often has a lot of work in the evening and my typing is very slow - just two fingers at a time. I can only do one or two emails an evening so we will try and keep the blog up to date with news and keep emails short, but dont give up sending them will you .

We are still doing the rounds of churches. Yesterday we went to two …one in the morning, 9 till 10.30 then another in the afternoon, 4.30 till 6. The morning one we went to (and last week too) is the most charismatic one in Chiang Mai. They have an international meeting first then a Thai meeting afterwards which is aparently a bit of a hoe down (the pastor is a very lively Australian). Because the church runs two
orphanages, the Thai meeting is full of children. Next week we might stay in for a bit of it and see. This week there was a visiting speaker from England (Ross Paterson) who has been working in china for about 40 years. He was extremely challenging. We have met more people that work in neighbouring countries than work here and talk about being prepared to give up all seems much more widely accepted and talked about in a matter of fact sort of way. Everyone has given up something to be here but there is much joy and freedom around and everyone we have met seems genuinely fullfilled. It is very exciting tohear about everything that is happening. We can’t give any details but the work and progress in SE Asia is still escalating.

Thankyou for keep praying for us. Mollie is much happier at school and all the children are gradually making friends. Please keep praying for them. The school day is an hour and a half longer than at home and the amount of homework they get in one night is as much as they get in a week at home. It takes all evening and they are tired from school at the start. It is a rather draining system.

We are making some friends too. A norwegian family who go to the same church and live three doors away are very nice they come from a big church in norway. Their paster is a speaker at kingdom faith most
years (Adrian; yes, it IS the hurdygurdy man!) as they have strong connections with the Horsham church. They are working here for 2 years and then their church wants them to set up some childrens work /church in Bangkok. Interesting. Thought the Wongs might like to meet them.

Please pray also for Andy. He is having tooth ache he needs a root canal filling but hasn’t really got time to go to the dentist.

We will try and up-date more regularly so it isn’t such a marathon to read. Still missing you all masses and wish popping home every so often was possible.

Loads of love, Andy and Esther