The Mays’ Weblog

Hello everybody.

Mollie wanted you to see a picture of her toe. We went to a reservoir at the week end and she was standing on the ladder which goes from the rafts into the water when a small puffer type fish with extremely sharp teeth set in a circular mouth, came and took a bite out of her toe! It bled profusely of course but fortunately was deep enough to be practically pain free. So now she has a scoop of flesh missing, about the size of a frozen pea.

Our half term break at the beach, a gruelling 14 hour drive away, was worth it as we had a lovely time with the Wongs there. On the way back to Chiang Mai we stopped in Bangkok and visited the OM mission ship, Doulos, which happened to be docked for 2 weeks.

It has an enormous resource of Christian literature in its on board shop and it was very exciting to see the place packed with Thais finding out all about it and being given tracts and information about local Thai churches. The ship sails all around the world (they have been to 8 countries this year so far and will be in Cambodia, Malaysia and Singapore before Christmas). They bring resources by way of literature, run youth training, dramas, story telling, all as tools to preaching the gospel, and some relief work in areas that are very poor, but their main focus is evangelism.

We met some friends there who had come down from Chiang Mai and worked on the ship 20 years ago. They managed to get us a private tour into all the places where no one else could go, including the on-board school for children of the workers.

It was a fascinating life, as while on board you can try your hand at many different practical jobs e.g. baker, engineer, deck worker, carpenter, administrator, I.T support, teacher, housekeeper etc….plus your ministry work of going out in teams to do story telling, dramas, building projects etc. I thought that for a gap year student it would be a fantastic opportunity to work with people of all different cultures. The crew were from many different nations including Europeans, South Americans and Asians so that wherever they dock there are people who can develop communication with the local people.

The Doulos is in the Guinness book of records for being the oldest serving passenger ship as it was built in 1914, just 2 years after the Titanic. It felt very special to see it, as it has had over 18 million visitors come to hear about God in 500 different ports.

Being here, it is such a privilege to hear so many stories of what God is doing all around the World, using just ordinary people working together.

We are really enjoying having the Olivers next door and excited to hear all the contacts and developments that are happening for them up at the orphanages that we visited earlier and told you about while we were in England in the summer. We are hoping/planning to go up there with them to do something special for the children there for Christmas.

Prayer request. ..God is still blessing us with good health and the children are very happy.

Andy still has too much work really but please just pray that God will give him the energy and strength he needs to carry on doing an amazing job (he is the only qualified science teacher and there should be at least 3 so he needs to hold it together a bit. Plus he is a perfectionist and so wants all the lessons to be wonderful, exciting and fantastic learning opportunities.

Isaac still finds the pace a bit of a struggle at times but we are so grateful for all the teachers this year who are completely devoted to helping the children to achieve their best and enjoy school too.

We love you and miss you all especially at Arun, lots of love to you.

Esther, Andrew J,L,M,I

Ok, so I know its a slippery slope, but here I am looking after little orphan Josiah (4weeks old ). His mother was a prostitute and said she couldn’t afford him so he has been taken in by some friends round the corner and is being looked after by some helpers in a nearby house along with 3 other children. The idea is that they are brought up with in a Christian enviroment with good educational opportunities to make a difference in Thailand when they are older. They are not going to be adopted. Its an interesting idea and the couple running it are wondeful people but I can’t help thinking that what would be best for these children is a proper family and parents who love them and the security and joy it brings, than a relatively institutionalised upbringing even if it is caring and safe compared to the future they would have had if they hadnt been rescued . Anyway,the people who oversee the project were ill today and the helpers were worn out from several sleepless nights so I volunteered to look after this little one for the afternoon. Pray for him, wont you?