The Mays’ Weblog

It is the second week of the summer holiday and we have just finished holiday bible club which is like the play Scheme/fun house at Arun. There is a drama and this
year the theme was James Bond and the story of Moses. I was Aaron in it and I had a wild time! There is also a craft every day, games and bible stories.There were about 150 children there and it was a lot of fun.

This is Luke’s strange group of friends:

There is an orphan boy called Bun who lives under a piece of tin opposite the school with his uncle. We have him round for dinner sometimes, but he doesn’t speak any english or central Thai, which is what we speak, sort of. This week uncle Nick is visiting us and we are doing a lot of things with him here. Today we are going to Ob-khan National park to have a mud bath swim.

Here is a picture of my mad friends. We were making a video about the parable of the tenants for a school project. I am on the right!

Have a good summer, Love Jacob.

Dear all,
I am taking the opportunity to write to you from Prachuap, several hours south of Bangkok, where we are staying at the OMF guest house with the Olivers, Crannages and the Wests, who are visiting from Angmering. It is very hot here and I am pleased to be sitting in the air-conditioned computer room for a bit.
I shall not bore you with our holiday details, as they are much the same as any other spring break at a tropical paradise Thailand beach, but will tell you instead about some of the encouraging happenings at school. The week before last was set aside as the annual spiritual emphasis week. This is a week in which special time is set aside to bring challenge and development to students’ faith. Every day there was an hour set aside for the guest speaker to speak to all the students together on a developing theme which in this case was that of becoming mature in our ability to love one others and allow ourselves to be loved by others as God intends. e had spent some time previous to this praying that God would open hearts and minds during this time. The students asked for additional evening sessions on two of the days in which they divided in to smaller groups and chatted and prayed for one another. This was entirely student-driven; it is wonderful to see the passion there is to grasp hold of what God has as he transforms lives and anoints individuals for his purpose.

The last day of the week was set aside for ministry to others in the community. I am a 9th grade (14-15yrs) sponsor and so escorted them to a nearby school where we have some links and we spent the day doing a variety of tasks; cleaning and painting the outside wall, replanting the garden area, repaving the playground, teaching English and running games and craft activities for the kindergarten and preschool children who are not on their summer holiday at the moment. The boys in my group worked very hard getting the wall finished and I was proud to be there alongside them. It looked great.

On the following day we had a celebration to end the month of prayer and fasting in the school and this was a really great time. there are a number of different churches in Chiang Mai which staff, students and parents attend and so we do not get to worship together as a rule so this was a special time and as we shared communion together I felt again what a blessing it was to enjoy such unity within this group, from different countries and denominations yet with a shared vision and faith.

On a practical note, we are still very short of teachers for many areas as the school grows. In the science department we need two more teachers for next year, without which courses simply will not run; we cannot stretch existing resources (me included) any further! See www.gisthailand.org for updated details.

Well, bye again for now,

Andrew

Well,as Andy mentioned in his last communication ,I have had the exciting opportunity of going to Cambodia with a group of 5 women including Jenny,to be part of a conference to military personnel.We had the job of telling the gospel to the wives and children because although the work has been going on for a while with the soldiers and officers ,up until now the women have not had any opportunities to hear the gospel message for themselves.

There has been a great deal of positive response among the men and quite literally thousands throughout Asia have made commitments to Christ over the past couple of years ,so this opportunity was for the women to start catching what their husbands are already experiencing .

Initially Cambodia seems similar to Thailand. The food is similar, some of the transport is similar although more bizarre,(the traffic is completelt crazy apparently like India although I have never been) and the people look similar. In fact the culture we found is quite different. Buddhism keeps Thailand a relatively peaceful nation and people rarely shout, lose their temper in public or show much emotion. People in Thailand mostly appear to be relaxed and happy. In Cambodia we sensed very soon that this is not the same. They have seven headed snake god statues everywhere and seemed to have embraced this as a main deity. Driving down the street it was common to see people having a fight on the side of the road and people arguing about things. Apparently Cambodians are the most vengeful people in Asia. The history of the Khmer Rouge really affected everyone who is over 30 and the fear and aggression caused by that is still somehow making its way down through the generations. We were told there is still a fear among people that the KR may return.

The vehicle below is a bus.

At the base where we were working there was a village church and various little bamboo huts where the village people lived. When we arrived we found that our schedule was about double what we thought it would be. Although this could have been worrying as we were not prepared for some of the extra sessions, we praise God that it was in those times that we found the things we quickly put together were the things the ladies most needed/wanted to hear and so it was really God working in that.

Jenny, Bronwen and Sandra worked with about 50 children, some orphans, and they did a fantastic job. The children really loved it and it was so amazing to see how everyone has their gift and was able to use it (Jenny even taught worship songs in Khmer!) Belle and I worked with the women. I have to admit this was a new thing for me as I have always and still do have a heart for the children, which has only grown in my time here working at the orphanage. PICTURE Anyway Belle had asked me to do it and so I had a go! We taught them basic gospel truths that some had never heard of; that God created the world and wanted a relationship with them and loved them. Love was another whole issue that we only scratched the surface of. It was Valentines Day on the Thursday and we talked about marriage in the afternoon. The idea of having to actually love their husbands was a whole new thing, they don’t even say “I love you” to their children.

We found these orphas living at the bottom of a temple hill. They make money by fanning tourists. We made gospel bracelets with them.

The next day, as there had been a fight among the children, we acted out a drama about forgiveness. We had planned to talk about prayer that morning but when we came to the ” forgive us as we forgive others” bit we had to stop as all the women had grudges they were carrying around against others for years and when asked they said they find it hard or never even try to forgive, so they all wanted God to help them and we prayed. It felt like a significant time, especially considering the history of the people. We took a lot of craft stuff for them to make bracelets and crosses. This meant a great deal to them as they were very poor and had never had this sort of opportunity. The organisation would like to set up an industry for them, not only for supporting themselves better, but to give them purpose in their days and something to do.

We prayed for many of them to be healed. Most of them had knee, chest or stomach problems. Their diet is limited to what they grow and they asked us several times to pray that God would bless their crops so they had more food.Ron and Belles organisation had finaced food for the whole conference for the whole week and it was lovely just to see their pleasure as we all eat together the various strange but surprisingly tasty dishes they had lovingly put together for us.

On one session it had come out that English people like to eat fish fried in batter and chips made of fried potatioe .Would you believe it ,that lunch time they managed to produce a perfectly fried fish with batter fresh from the river complete with the best chips weve had since the last time we were down at Freds fish in littlehampton.(Im not talking about french fries my American friends ,no ,proper chips made with potatoe!)I wish I had a photo for here to prove it ,sorry.

This is another floating vegetable dinner..yum yum….

It was also very encouraging that many of the village women, who had already become Christians because of the church in the village, told everyone else stories of how God now looks after them and provides for them and how their lives are so blessed since becoming Christians. This is very humbling when you realise how poor in human terms they still are. We must never forget how rich and blessed we are. We are hoping that there will be further opportunities in the future. This was just one of many military bases in Cambodia.

The last night we were taken on a city tour in this…

God provided completely for us in this trip. The finances were given from people in America, the team worked together so well, God gave us the teaching materials we needed and the help when we found it was more than we had planned for. Thank you to everyone who was praying for us

The Wongs are here this weekend and it is also Mollie and Jessica Olivers birthday this week .

Bye for now

Lots of love Esther …..PS there are more photos on the gallery and if you want a more blow by blow account of our trip see the Oliver Blog.

Hi again,

Like with buses, none come and then several at once.

I have created a set of pages (see the list at the side; look to the right) which detail stories of people that we know and what they are involved in, just to encourage you. Have a browse and enjoy. I will update these as I get more.
Andrew

Hi, Andrew here at last.

For reasons that I shall explain in a minute I am at liberty to enjoy travelling down avenues of pleasure usually barred to me, like sitting for hours at the computer without feeling guilty, sitting drinking beer without washing up first and not talking to anyone all evening, not to mention going to bed whenever I like. Have I been raptured as part of an advance party I hear you ask…not exactly. Esther is away all week in another country to the south-east of here; Cambodia. She left on Monday and returns Friday.

She and some other ladies (I am not used to calling her a lady but there..I have done it now..) have gone to work with wives of military servicemen about 90 mins north of Phnom Penh. You can read about Cadence here and here, but in short they take the gospel to the police, government and military in various countries including Cambodia. There has been a wonderful response from the men but their wives have been slower to soften their hearts, having never had any specific opportunity to hear for themselves about our wonderful God and what he has done for them. Esther, Brownwen (Matt Coe’s wife), Jenny , Sandra (Paul Bradley’s wife) and Belle (Ron’s wife) have travelled, with Ron, who, with Paul works for Cadence, to the base for a week of sharing the gospel, giving testimonies, doing crafts and drama. Some of the ladies are working with the children and some of them with the women.
I am sure that there will be more to report on their return and I look forward to the stories they will bring back.

Please pray that they will know the anointing of God as they share about Jesus, and that, in spite of the language barrier, they will shine out his love to these ladies who have endured and suffered so much in this broken nation. What a wonderful thing to dream of a generation that follows that are free of the chains of the past and can know the freedom of Christ in their lives. Should we dare to dream these things? Of Course! What a mighty God we serve!

Andrew

Hello everyone and Happy Christmas to all of you!

We want to share with all of you some of what God is doing here over this season for you to be part of it with us.

Jacob has a fantastic teacher this year who is very creative but more importantly has really encouraged the class in reaching out to the community this Christmas. She has taken a group of 8 volunteers (Jacob being one of them) and put together a dramatised version of the Christmas story, right round to Easter.

They have been around several small Thai churches and it has been a privilege to share in their Christmas celebrations. One church was just 17 people mainly youth and young people, run by Korean missionaries. It was in a cosy school hut where some of the teachers actually slept there in beds at the back of the hall. The leaders gave out gifts to every one who participated. The gifts were Tupperware boxes (empty) but the joy with which even children received them was quite amazing. Jacob’s group did an excellent job and were a great blessing to them.

Later this week they performed the drama and dance a couple of times at a Thai Buddhist school. It was the first time they had heard the real story of Christmas and about Jesus. This was such a wonderful opportunity and they wanted to hear it again so they did it twice! We gave out gospels and sweets afterwards.

Please pray that the seeds sown will not be snatched away but will produce a harvest in those children’s lives. This drama group are going to go away for a weekend at the beginning of January to tell the Christmas story at some remote villages north of here (you can only get to them in a 4-wheel drive vehicle).

The group of children doing this are all from different countries: USA, UK, Cambodia, Korea, Thailand, and France. All their parents are doing missionary work around SE Asia. It is so great to have people from all round the world working together to bring the gospel to this continent.

At this time of year many people become Christians in Thailand and in many locations around the country government officials are asking for Christians to put on Christmas events.

There is a 35-day prayer focus all round the country amongst the Christian community running up to Christmas. If you would like to be part of this click here ( or use the link on the right.)

Jenny and Adrian have been busy working with Ban San Faan children’s home putting on Hosanna Rock. See their blog for more details but we are just so grateful to God for opening up the opportunity for them to perform the show at the big shopping Mall on the 23th and 24rd of December to 2000 children. The door is wide open here, like I said before, and many people are interested in Christianity this time of the year so please pray for this event too.

We had 4 of the orphans stay at our house this weekend, as they are moving, and needed to be out the way. We had a lovely time with them. They are such wonderful children and our children loved having them round. They wanted sandwiches for tea as this is a rare thing for them. There were some strange combinations, pancake with tuna and jam, peanut butter and Marmite (yuk) and even a bread-free sandwich made of two slices of ham with strawberry jam in the middle.

We took one of them to the dentist and 2 of them to the opticians and got them glasses to their delight!

We are planning to take some Christmas gifts and food up to the orphanage on the border just before Christmas with the Olivers and then we will spend Christmas with the Wongs in Bangkok.

We want to take this opportunity to just thank you all so much at Arun for praying for us, keeping in touch with us, encouraging us, supporting us and loving us. We always still miss you, but especially this time of year. You are our wonderful family and friends.

We hope you all have a fantastic Christmas (and that the Christmas special is just as “special” as it normally is) and that the community will be drawn in and drawn to God by your love and passion and everything you do and are to the people of Littlehampton.

Loads of love from us Andrew, Esther, Jacob, Luke, Mollie and Isaac

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?

Hello again from us.
I know that it is a long time since we blogged. We are alive and well and enjoyed seeing you so much over the summer. We are now having our first relaxing day after returning.

It is good to be back at school. God has provided a biology teacher and all bases are covered, just. With the school growing each year it is getting harder to find staff to fill the spaces. I have a busier teaching load this year so need to be more organsied than ever. Esther is back teaching art to middle school and has been back to the orphanage this week to teach art there.

The wet season is upon us and the school was closed Thursday due to flooding, which you can see here.

Yesterday was a wild frenzy of activity. We were awoken at 6.00am to usher in Luke’s birthday as soon as possible. I took him to the army base in Mae Rim where the ‘Pack Squadron’ have several hundred horses. For a mere 100 baht he sat horse and circumnavigated the arena on an army horse, seen here.

There was also a pack of about 50 mules not far off. What they use them for is hard to imagine. I have never seen so many asses in one place! (Sorry for any disturbing images caused to my American friends).

After lunch we all went to do paintballing on the north side of town. This was the first time for any of the children and although some were a little nervous they had a great time. We were there with all the Olivers, Callum and Dylan Coe, Andrew and Matthew Bird, and ‘Joshy Bear’ Crannage. They are hard to recognise on the photos due to the headgear. For bigger ones (in a new window) click here.

I never lasted long, being shot by Thomas in one game and Jacob in another. In one game all the rest of Mollie’s team were killed and, with Thomas and Jacob approaching rapidly she came out with her gun raised above her head. Surrender was the best option we all agreed….
On the way back we ran out of Diesel, but fortunately were had enough momentum to roll across the forecourt of the petrol station and stop next to a pump. Lovely jubbley!

It is strange being back without the Hyttedalen family down the road. One of our prayers over the summer was that God would provide a Friend for Mollie when Veronica was gone and he has done exactly that. There is a girl her age, called Leila, living just across the road. Thank you God.

It is very good to have Olivers living a few doors away. After all the frantic activity of the last few months they are relaxing into things here a bit before getting stuck into the orphanage project up north. They are looking for a car at the moment. Just to reassure you, we have tried to keep Adrian busy but he has still managed to get out and speak to a few Americans. So far he has not disgraced us all yet with an imprudent gaffe but there is still time. I will keep you posted. We will try not to be sent home early…..

I will let you go now as I have duties to attend to, as always….hmm.

With love,
Andrew, Esther, Jacob, Luke, Mollie and Isaac XXXXXX

Hi again,
World cup fever has not assumed total command here but is progressing. Given the time difference the first match of the day is on TV here at 8.00pm, an ideal time to find someone with a TV and sneak round there to enjoy some communion in front of the gogglebox. Not so. We have learnt the hard way.

With eager anticipation we waited for the programming to switch from coverage of the royal family to the footie but it just kept on going. Every day there is a short Hello-Magazine-style review of the celebs movements of the day but this was an extended version, showing them getting in and out of cars, waiting for things to happen, standing talking to honoured huests, shaking hands etc. All those things that must be pretty dull to actually be doing but make even less interesting TV.

The extended coverage is due to the celebrations of the King’s 60th year since coronation. It is thought provoking to note how reverential the Thai people are to their King. Having spoken with several of them about this it seems that although the feelings are pretty universal, they are more to do with the King himself than the office he holds. He earns the respect of his people because he is fair, approachable, in touch, tolerant and not self-serving. He has created an environment of safety and progress. From our point of view the welcome he extends to other faiths is what enabled us to be here. This is not the case in any of the other countries surrounding Thailand and so it provides a stable platform to extend God’s blessing to those around.

Needless to say the King is getting on a bit and his health is a topic of discussion, partly because his successor has not proved himself to be cut from the same cloth. Indeed there is every possibility that when the King dies, things will change significantly here for the worst with reduced freedom to worship and all that comes with it. Of course, persecution can bring wonderful results as seen in the church in China but would not seem to be something that is to be welcomed. So on reflection then, although watching the football would have been a more fun option, giving thanks for the King is perhaps a more important thing to be doing. Long live the King!

Andrew

Sawat dee Krup again.

I want to say a few words about our Easter break. If you want a lot of words then visit www.ajoliver.org for Adrian’s blow by blow account of our time. I also took no photos as Adrian took thousands so see his gallery at www.ajoliver.org/gallery2/v/2006/Spring/Thailand/, currently empty which is rather surprising as Adrian has been home 4 hours already. What is he doing?

It was a real pleasure to spend some quality time with Adrian and Jenny again, and of course our children really enjoyed having Tom, David and Jessica around. We had a great week here in Chiangmai before heading south to KhaoLak. I cannot remember much about what we did other than spending a night at the Reservoir at MaeNgat near MaeTang which was great fun. I am coming to realise that I am not blessed with rapid recall of events. If you were to ask me “did you have a good weekend?” my features would contort with the effort of trying to remember what I actually did with the last 48 hours. It is not that my life is boring, but just that I have not catalogued the events that have occurred. When I am greeted by someone in the street it takes me just that half a second too long to remember their name so all they get is “Oh Hi there ..ermm”. When I am invited to tell a joke the only one that I can remember is about a chicken and a road, even though I must have heard hundreds over the years… I could go on but will spare you any more details. If you share this malady then I would love to hear from you – perhaps there is a self-help group out there in cyberspace, if anybody can remember the URL.

On the other hand I can remember that we had a GREAT time with our friends and are sorry to see them go and are truly grateful for them enriching our lives.

I also know that the time we had in KhaoLak was a spiritually exciting time. Each area in Thailand seems to have a different spirit about it that is tangible. Here in Chiangmai there is an exciting sense of being at a hub of what God is doing in Northern Thailand and the surrounding nations. Pattaya had an oppressive spirit of hedonism, lost ness and abandonment and the missionaries there need our prayers to stand upright in the task that God has called them to do and hold up Jesus as a light in the darkness.

KhaoLak on the other hand, in the province of Pang-nga, 520km south of Bangkok, has a real spirit of brokenness and openness after their tsunami devastation just over a year ago. The children at the summer camp were a delight to be with. They were soft-hearted and friendly, affectionate and playful and seemed to really appreciate the things that were organised for them. I went round with a group of about 9 children aged 8-10 roughly, and we had fun. My Thai is limited but they were kind and helped me practice how to get it right. Esther worked with Jenny, Bronwen and Kirsty doing craft which was one of the favourite sessions each day from what I heard. They did a great job.

Our children were also on team and they enjoyed the extra responsibility of helping out and befriending the Thai children. Jacob got given flowers by some of the girls there! It was also very good to have out new English friends the Coes with us there, where Matt led the games beautifully and his boys Callum and Dylan  helped out. 

We are hoping to return next year if possible.

It was very good to be able to be there for Josiah’s baptism in the sea at KhaoLak on the last night there. Wonderful sunset, thunder etc. We were pleased to be able to represent the Arun family there, with the Olivers too, in witnessing this significant moment for Josiah and share Jeremy and Kirsty’s pleasure in this. See http://j3k.co.uk for their blog and photos.

Among many other things, when the camp was finished and while near Pattaya, we were able to take part in a church meeting in a converted chicken house with Niti, a friend we met through Thomas. We, the Mays, with the Olivers and the Hyttedalens doubled their number as we worshipped in Thai and English (concurrently). This is a small house church about 6 months old which is growing and it was good to share communion with them and then a meal afterwards. I know that we were blessed by the opportunity and hope that they were too! We are excited by all that God is doing here in this wonderful country and privileged to be able to witness it and be part of it.

Well, we are back at school now, with only about 8 weeks until we are back in the UK for the summer!

Bye again, with love, 

Andrew and Esther, Jacob, Luke, Mollie and Isaac XXXXXX

Hello again dear readers. When I say dear I mean it. All 3 of you are treasured friends and beloved family. Sometimes I feel that I am writing for the therapy it provides.

I have just been distracted trying to give TLC to a gecko that got into the washing powder and, although wriggling and running, is probably not very well from the experience. Being a compassionate softy I have lovingly washed it under the shower and left it there. I do not know whether they like water or not but it will certainly die without. It puts me in mind of the last animal I bathed (no…not Isaac…) which was one of the cats we had about 13 years ago. It trod in a beer slugtrap I had put outside our door. The grass had grown over it so it was hidden. Many slugs had perished in it and their decomposing bodies, along with the not-so-fresh John Smith bitter, were creating a stink. It was well stirred by the unfortunate disturbance and the cat ran through our house madly trying to escape its own foot, which it failed to do of course. The house ponged horribly afterwards and we had to clean the carpets. I had to catch the cat and get it in the bath. After a ferocious struggle it realised that it was a mercy mission and allowed the Johnson’s baby bath to wash away the stench. Pathetic it looked…

Anyway, back to the present. We have had a busy weekend with birthday celebrations for Jacob and Isaac. On Friday after school we drove up to the reservoir at Mae Ngat. There were 11 of us. Jacob, Luke and 6 friends, Janet (Paige’s mum), Esther and me. Isaac and Mollie stayed with friends.

We arrived about 5 in the afternoon and were taken by boat 15 mins up the valley to a floating houseboat. We have visited this one several times last year also. We played silly games in the evening which was great fun. Usually we come home but this time we stayed over in the little cabins they have there. Most of the boys slept in sleeping bags on the wooden decking outside with just the slapping of the water and mosquitoes for company. In the morning we ordered pancakes for breakfast and then lazed and swam about until 11.00 when we returned home. It was a great little party. We are planning to take the Olivers there overnight the week after next.

Today was Isaac’s birthday…8 years old. He got some great little presents including some electronic games which have gone down very well, British sweets, and books. We spend the afternoon at the pool. Isaac got an inflatable lilo thing from the Coe family which was gladly received. See picture below. We played one of his games this evening called ‘the Annoying thing’ where you have to list things while a very irritating, repetitive canned voice tries to distract you. Harder than it sounds. As parents this is a skill that develops over the years of course so we had an advantage.

More nice photos on the gallery.

Well, love to you all and looking forward to seeing you in the summer!

Andrew, and Esther of course. XXX

Before I retire for the night I want to say a few words to mark this busy weekend. We were delighted to host Rich Hubbard, Arun’s ‘Director of Missions’ for a few days from Thursday to Sunday, today. We have enjoyed his company immensely. It was great to share something of what we do here with him. He has seen the school, getting a flavour of how the school blesses so many families out here, and home of course, and we went up on a whirlwind tour of the MaiSai border area. We crossed over to encourage friends at the orphanage on the other side and then it was back to Thailand to see Pastor Joseph at the large orphanage in the mountains. We were accompanied by Thomas, our Norwegian friend and neighbour here. I will spare the details other than to say that it was good to see the children and we were very encouraged to hear about some intensive final proof-reading by tribal leaders in an effort to get the entire Wah bible available by Feb 2008. This will be the first Wah translation of the entire bible ever. The first Wah believer was baptised 100 years ago come Feb 28th 2008. Pastor Joseph is overseeing the team that hope to have this done by Nov this year in preparation for printing to begin to serve 1.8 million Wah speakers. This is a very significant project.

After Church today we took Rich to the wonderful Empress Hotel, with the Hyttedalen family also, and feasted well before an afternoon in the pool back at the school.

Rich was a huge encouragement and we are so grateful for the time he took to visit us here.

This evening we took Jacob out to the Jewish ‘Jerusalem Falafel’ restaurant to celebrate his 13th birthday - a teenager in our midst! We were accompanied by our good friends Mehrban and Carol and their Son, Daniel, who is also 13 this week. It was good to honour this milestone together.

And now at last I am heading for bed. We will no doubt be up early tomorrow for Jacob’s birthday so need to be bright and cheerful…pretty unlikely at 6.30am but I must try…

With much love,

Andrew and Esther XXX

Hello again.
We have just said goodbye at the airport to the Wongs, whi have been with us for the last week here in Chiang Mai. We have had a great time together and were sorry to see them go but glad that they are only 800km away and not 8000.

Yesterday we were at the elementary trackmeet for the six international schools in Chiangmai. The children had trained hard and were certainly stretched. Even Isaac ran the 800m, and was inches behind 1st place. He got gold in the 400m however, winning by a good 10m. All children did very well and we were very proud of them! Here are some photos to give you a bit if a
flavour…(Jacob runs in the Senior trackmeet).
Isaac takes Gold

and luke takes the baton to win the 4×100m relay with the GIS team:

Mollie fights hard after 1 lap of the 800m. She came in a good 3rd. Nice run.

These photos are located here on the gallery.

Well hi there folks.
It is 5.02 on Saturday morning here and I am sitting at my desk at school. We are nearing the end of a 7th grade ‘lock-in’. This is not a punitive measure but is in fact designed for pleasure. Basically we stay up all night here at school supervising 40 12/13 year olds doing crazy things, playing games and watching films. Some sleep but most do not. We ordered Pizza at 10.00 and then went for a midnight swim in the pool for an hour. This was followed by 3 games of ‘sneak’ around the school. This involved the students sneaking around the school trying to find a hidden doll on the third floor, in the dark, while we patrolled as wardens with torches to try to catch them. They could go anywhere in the school or grounds other than most classrooms which were locked. I spotted one boy from outside the front of the school as he had climbed out of a window onto a flat roof and then up an access ladder onto a higher roof to evade detection. Needless to say we added some rule about not climbing out of windows as we started the third game at 3.00 this morning…His identity has been withheld for security reasons….my job security.
I have managed to get away for a breather as I have a 7th grade test to write. Not quite what I want to be doing at this hour of the night but no point in going to sleep now. I am following the old SAS guideline that anything less than 4 hours is better not had at all.
Well, words are failing me, as are other parts of my body and mind, so I will stop typing while still reasonably comprehensible. Besides which, there is a particular piece of cold pizza which has just come to mind as an attractive idea. Its funny what the body wants when it senses that the end of sanity is close…

Bye for now,
Andrew

Dear friends,

We returned yesterday from a cold but wonderful trip up north to the border to visit the children in Joseph’s orphanage near the Burmese border. I say cold, but what I mean is about 6 deg C at night and 22 in the daytime but our blood is thinner these days and, without going into the science of it (which I confess I do not understand anyway) we were, to put it bluntly, freezin’.

Well bejumpered, where available, we drove over the mountain to the orphanage to arrive for lunch, for which they sacrifice much as we are always served meat, which they have little of. Over lunch we chatted with Joseph and he was telling us of some Christian guests from over the border who had planned to join him several days ago but got stopped by the police at a checkpoint in the village. They had no papers for either Burma or Thailand and were arrested and would be sentenced to the usual extremely harsh punishment of 400,000 Baht each (£5,600) or 10 years imprisonment. In conversation they mentioned Joseph’s name to the police who not only let them go without a fine but unaccompanied, with the resriction that they could stay one night at Joseph’s house and cross back into Burma at the border crossing the following day! The police had never met Joseph but his name is known and respected among the tribal groups there. Real evidence of God blessing those who are faithful to him!

see here for bigger pics.

On a more sobering note we were talking about some new toddlers that Joseph had taken on and asked him about babies. He is from time to time offered babies who are for sale, usually from tribal groups in Burma. The top price is about 3000 Baht (About £40) and he has been offered them for 800 Baht before now, about £12! This is the price of a human life? You can buy a dead pig for 5000 Baht….. Please pray for these children and for those who are spreading the message of life here, that the spirit of God will brood in this place and give birth to a new way of thinking here and a new value for life itself. Joseph always has to turn these babies down as he does not have the money to buy them with and nobody to help him look after them if he did buy them as he cannot afford workers here. I am forced to stop typing for a moment as the appalling nature of these circumstances trouble me again. The fate of these babies if he does not buy them is not good to think about as they become another statistic in the Asian child trade/industry.

It was however a joy to see the 180 fortunate ones who he looks after with his wife and several others who come and go. They have had a double redemption in some ways as they have been saved from a physical death and are being trained in eternal things by Joseph and his wife. What will God achiev with them as they reach adulthood one can but wonder. Perhaps we will have the privilege of seeing one day.

We were sung to and some of the girls danced which was beautiful to watch. Our own children then handed out blankets to the children. They are more like duvets as you can see and a vast improvement on the thin covers they have at present. The blankets were jointly paid for by ArunCC and The Open Hands Foundation in Norway, via Thomas. In addition, we bought food to give them enough to last through new year with meat and vegetables on most days, hopefully.

I hope that the photographs help you share something of the joy there is in the giving and receiving of these things. Your support is making a real difference here and is appreciated more than I can express.

Happy Christmas, we miss you all,

With much love,
Andrew and Esther, J, L, M & I XXXXXX

Dear all,
We have neglected to give any news over the last few months for which we are sorry. We don’t feel like we have done very much to tell you about.
We had the grannies (Loraine and Ouma) staying with us back in November for about 4 weeks. It was great to see them..it seems so long ago now.

We finished school yesterday which is an immense relief. We all worked hard helping Jacob to learn to locate all 58 countries in Africa on a map and name their capitals! (you try it).
You can see that we are starting to relax here and the Christmas stockings went up about half an hour ago. Esther and Mollie finished making them this evening. They are certainly spacious and rather daunting to fill. We will have to stuff newspaper in the bottom I think, or use sawdust for a kind of lucky dip kind of effect.

Anyway, we have enjoyed a lovely glass of port, many thanks to Loraine as it was a Christmas present that I just could not wait for (see - I told you I was glad that she came).

It is 10.30 and we are waiting for Jacob to come back from a friend’s house (Paige) where he is watching a movie/film. This is really the start of a new era now we are waiting up for him to come in and he is not even officially a teenager. Hmm.

Well, we will try to report again much sooner with photos, but will sign off now.

With much love,

Andrew and Esther XX

Hi again,
After a very wet start today we eventually got onto the racetrack. Luke had two friends, Ben and Henry, with him so there were 6 cars zooming round. These ones were limited to 60kph but felt very fast anyway! We had great fun and much sliding on the corners!

I have also included a photo of Mollie sifting Weevils out of the flour, and a closeup of the beasties and their larvae. Yum! We don’t bother with the brown flour. Whose going to know eh?

see here for bigger pics.

Please pray for Jacob as he has been getting a lot of homework this semester so far and needs to pace himself differently to get it done in less time.

We have had our share of flooding here in Chiangmai along with central Europe and New Orleans. Our house was not affected but we were unable to get to church as we could see people ahead who were stuck in their cars and up to their waists in water. We turned round and revved hard as I could hear that the exhaust pipe was underwater.
A team of us from School split into various directions the following weekend to help out where needed. Our group helped clear mud from the pool at the Juniper Tree resort for missionaries. The water had been about a metre above the top of the pool. We have photos of it looking much nicer when we were there with our friends in the summer (see below).

In addition luke had his 11th Birthday today. We are off go-Karting tomorrow as a treat - great! I will post photos to make you envious after the event…

Bye for now,
Andrew

We have had an aquatic mammal of a time over the last few weeks in the company of our dear friends the Jupps (Tim and Becca with Rosie, Harry, Millie and Poppy), the Smiths (Martin and Anna with Ellie, Noah, Indi, Levi and Ruby) and the Dunscombes (Chris and Liz with Daniel and Sam). The Jupps and Smiths arrived on Wed 20th July and straight from the airport we took them to one of our favourite spots, the Riverside Restaurant, and ate on a boat that took us down the Ping river in the dark to see the lights of Chiangmai.

It was surreal to be there with so many of our friends here in Chiangmai, so far from Rustington! I don’t know if they had ever had so many small children eating on the boat. We had the whole thing to ourselves. The other boat that we were initially moored against had plenty of couples who looked like they were on a romantic evening out. I think that they were relieved when were, and our noisy cargo, were untied and pushed off into the river. Lovely grub as usual.

Thursday 21st we went to the lake about 20K North of our house, (N 18.86876 E 98.94226 for those geeks who like that sort of thing). Very Thai, pedal boats and things, sticky rice, BBQ chicken, and beautiful fresh pineapple from the lady who came around with the basket. In the evening we went to PumPui, a great Italian place in the old city owned by a genuine Italian man called Giorgio (known as Mr PumPui to us) who walks like he has just put his back out lifting a piano but cooks great pasta. Thanks Mr PumPui……we love you.

Friday; a cultural start with a trip to Tesco, Thai style. Plenty of bargains and every checkout has a cashier so nothing like England. We took the Jupps up to the food hall above and they sneaked a pre-lunch bargain bowl of noodle soup of something similar. We spent the afternoon in the pool at the Juniper Tree, the missionary resort in town. We had great fun playing a kind of family water polo thing involving much cheating by adults and children alike.

Anna volunteered the be the net but we rejected the offer on the grounds that she was not quite big enough. An evening meal at the TabTim restaurant brought out the fishlover in us all. The best breaded fish in town for a bargain 75 Baht (quid) a go. A real favourite…..

Saturday we felt that we had earned a breakfast after all our hard work and we treated ourselves to a few hours at Pie Sabai. Run by an English lady called Audrey who used to live in Norfolk Gardens Littlehampton (small world eh?) and the only place to get a ‘British Breakfast’. This was another culinary triumph with all concerned. Many thanks Audrey. Keep it up. We then headed for the temple up Doi Suthep. An interesting experience and there were various differing opinions about how God views it including a comparison with the Mall where we go to visit the idol of materialism. Hmmmmm. Thanks Martin. Does my head in.

We picked up the Dunscombes from the airport after that and then back to the mall to get the others who were gorging on fruit shakes. We made it home in fine Thai style with 17 travelling in our car….. It is not called the Mighty X for nothing! After an afternoon in the pool we ambled to the Bell restaurant for evening meal and our new Thai cultural shirts had their debut.

Sunday; Church. Thanks for singing and playing Martin and Tim. It was a proud and special moment for us to have you share in our fellowship here and will be long remembered. We followed with ….more food… at the Empress Hotel Buffet. Adrian had warned that the holiday was really about eating…very true but nobody complained. We stopped off at the Tailors where Martin ordered a suit to be made. This is a real bargain and almost worth the trip by itself. It would have been simple if Martin did not have creative ideas about the cuffs… Down to the pool and then Sunday Tea at the Mays, accompanied by a Hymns CD. We try to recreate the ‘Songs of Praise’ ambience every week. Don’t you wish you were here too??!!

Monday. Elephant show and elephant riding at Mae Sa. One of the true highlights of the holiday. This was great. I even have some delicately filmed footage of baby Ruby being fed on the back of one of these beasts. Very impressive. Lunch found us again at a buffet. This time at the Butterfly and Orchid farm. We struck gold here as they had real chips!! We were just relaxing when some crazy plan was hatched to go to the zoo….which we did enroute home. This day really felt like one of those times when you are squeezing the last bits out of a tube of toothpaste. There is always more to be had. After that the girls diverted off to the Mall for girl stuff while we guys fed the children. We made the Rotee man’s day by ordering 17 from him when he came by on his bike. We ended with a boys evening out at the Empress Hotel after Martin tried on his suit again.

Tuesday was great fun at the Hotsprings at San Kampaeng (N 18.81443 E 99.22937). We were greeted by the eggy smell of sulphurous ejecta but soon got used to it. We dangled our feet in the hot river to kill our veruccas and bathed in the mineral pool to pamper our bodies.

Martin, Tim, Dan and I went for a massage where our limbs were abused to the delight of the masseurs who laughed throughout while we grunted and groaned. The girls followed suit and then in a frenzy of pampering, all the children got treated to a foot massage.
We then boiled eggs in the geyser and ate them with soysauce. Yuk.
In the evening we went to a cultural Kantoke Dinner. We sat on the floor and the pork curry was outstanding. Dancing followed and then bed, after a final suit trying on thing. Those cuffs nearly beat the poor tailor…..

Wednesday we waved a sad farewell at the airport (Martin’s suit finally arrived). We loved having our dear friends here. It was a privilege to be able to share something of our lives here with them. I must note that we do not always eat in this fashion otherwise we will not be able to fit on the plane to fly home in a years time. Thanks for coming. You brightened our lives!

Other pictures can be found by clicking here.

More to follow about our time with the Dunscombes who stayed another 10 days.