Deaf, Dumb, and Sleepy-eyed

I thought I had better give you all an update on what has been going on this side of the world. So here goes!

Jetlag:
Yes, we are all experiencing the affects of being in a time zone fourteen hours ahead of what our bodies are used too. You might not think us very tired until you see us involuntarily nodding off during the middle of evening worship or while riding in the car. Even now many of us – including I – struggle to keep our eyes open as we ride in the the vehicle on our way home from a short trip (more details on that later).

Surroundings:
There is no one word that I could use to describe the surroundings that we are in right now. We have been enjoying wonderful food like bananas, dragon fruit, pineapple, other fruits with harder names, rice with a variety of delicious toppings, and durian – which is absolutely wonderful when frozen (that is my opinion on the matter, but I think most of the family agrees). :) Regarding the weather, our first few days were warm/hot, humid, and sunny, while the last couple of days have been rather rainy and a bit cooler. We were wondering if it was ever going to rain like it is supposed to in the rainy season. We got what we asked for, and there is more on its way. Being surrounded by people that speak a language that we don’t understand and that don’t understand the language that we speak is an experience that has changed my perspective on things a bit. Suddenly I can’t just talk with people without having someone to translate what is being said. It is yet another way that God is showing me how utterly impossible it is to the work that He has laid out before us without relying on Him for everything. Our living conditions for the last week have been very nice – almost too nice – since we have been staying with Mike and Marilee Kier near Bangkok. I’ll have to fill you in on what things are like at Sunshine Orchard after we get there.

What We’ve Been up to:
It’s hard to believe, but true, that we spent our first couple of days doing little more than shopping. It takes a while to get the things that you need when you may have to look in several places before finding what you want and there are lots of other people and vehicles between each of those destinations. After much looking and help from the Lord, we did find the things that we needed and have been able to put some of them to use already. On Friday, we even got to visit an open market where things are much more interesting than the western style stores. Be looking for pictures from that.

On Sabbath we attended the the local church in Ayutthaya where we enjoyed fellowship with local Adventists including some American workers from the school in Ekka Mi. Lunch included several toppings with rice and some fruit. We also enjoyed participating in a birthday celebration for a local pastor’s two sons. After a nice walk at one of the parks in town, we came home for singing and worship. We were falling asleep before we found our beds.

Sunday morning found us, with Marilee as our driver, on the road on our way to visit Pimpa and Rodney who operate a children’s home on the eastern boarder of Thailand. Pimpa has been very instrumental in taking care of legal issues for Sunshine Orchard. It was a very humbling experience to see the circumstances that they are working under to provide a home for eighteen children who do not have a safe place to live. The next morning we visited a local farm to pick up some dragon fruit, then loaded into the vehicle for the return trip to the Kiers’ to make preparations for our trip to Sunshine Orchard on Wednesday.

News:
The rest of our luggage was delivered to us on Friday. PTL!

In Christ,
Hannah