Unexpected trip on Songkran

In my last blog article, I mentioned that I would be including pics from Songkran. Well, I never had the opportunity to take any. On the first day of Songkran, the original Thai New Year, Pamela started getting really, really sick from some kind of food poisoning. Very bad cramping caused Pamela to begin very painful contractions of her uterus, even though she is still less than 5 months pregnant. Everyone says DO NOT TRAVEL on Songkran because of the drunk drivers and water fights everywhere you go. After conversing with a Dr. in the States, we decided to make the 8 hour trip to Bangkok. We visited Pamela's Dr. who did exams and did an ultrasound showing that everything was ok with the baby. She also put Pamela on some medicine to stop the cramping/contractions and other medicine for taking care of whatever it was that got into her system. We praise God that the baby still seems to be healthy, and that a week or so has passed by, and Pamela's doing great. We didn't miss out on all the Songkran fun though. While Pamela was getting an Ultrasound, Hudson was running around the hospital squirting a water gun at all the nurses.

Pray for the big water fight: Songkran

Starting tomorrow, the country of Thailand will be celebrating the traditional new year, which is called Songkran. Old traditions of pouring water on people's hands in order to bless them has changed over the years into one big water fight. This means that if you are driving by on a motorcycle or car down any road in Thailand, you will be covered with water and baby powder by the end of your trip (its not even officially started yet, and I've already gotten soaked with water and powdered up). In addition, with the holiday season comes lots of drinking whiskey as well. In fact, in the village I live in and in another village that I went to visit today, I'm not sure if I saw any men who were not drunk. The combination of a big water fight and massive drunkenness usually lead to many deaths. Pray for safety for the Thai people, and for opportunities for us to share with people during this holiday time.

Keep a look out on the blog for pics of what goes down in Sisaket, Thailand during Songkran

Swimming in Sisaket

Here are some pictures that we took recently at a pool in Sisaket. The first picture shows Pamela's little pregnant belly, and the last couple are of Hudson having fun.

Bathing Thai Style in the dark with a Scorpion

This isn't a story about me, but rather about Pamela. Usually, funny things happen to me, but this time it was Pamela. The past few days have been pretty exciting at our house. Our power meter can not handle the electricity for our house, so our power has been going in and out for the past 3 days. Basically, whenever we use water, the lights go out. When we taught English last night, the lights went out. When we do anything, the lights go out. Air condition at night in 90+ degree whether--doesn't work either. Therefore, we can't take a normal shower in the morning (using our electric water heater thing). That means, we filled up a tub with water from outside our house (that seemed to work), we take a bowl with a handle on it, and take our baths Thai style (a little chilly too). So this morning, Pamela proceeds to take a Thai bath. I was not home b/c I was out running errands, but our house helper was cleaning in the kitchen. After getting all soapy, she sees a good-size scorpion climbing into the shower. As Pamela tried to rinse off, avoiding the Scorpion, the power from the house goes out. Its pitch black in the bathroom, Pamela's still soapy, a scorpion is on the prowl, and Pamela can't open the door because there is a Thai person in the kitchen. She made it out with no stings, but it still makes for an interesting story.

Easter in Thailand 2008

These are some pics from Easter here in Thailand of Hudson dying Easter eggs and going on his Easter egg hunt

"No Hudson, thats not an Easter egg, its a ball"

"Thats it, a real Easter egg"

Dying Easter Eggs

Dying Easter Eggs with Neighbors

"ONE WAY" English Camp

These are some pictures from our English Camp in Surin that we put on for Kui and Khmer students in Thailand during their school break. We worked along with our good missionary friends David and Debbie Cobb. This was not merely an English Camp, but was a neat opportunity to share the Gospel with a group of young people who have very little knowledge of what it means to be a Christian. At this camp, we teamed up with a local Church fellowship. We (the white people) shared about English, whereas the Thai people from the church shared from Scripture. In addition, at night, we had all of the young people participate in acting out various stories from God's Word. These stories gave a brief summary of what the Bible is about. They learned about God's creating the world, man's sinfulness, the necessity of sacrifice in the Old Testament, and Jesus as the ultimate sacrifice in the New Testament. The students who were able to come to our village have been singing the Thai and English songs ever since the camp finished up. Please join us in praying that God will work in a big a way in our village, drawing these young people and their families to Himself.

Pamela performs a skit along with some young people from our village about Jesus feeding 5000 people with only 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish

These two young men act out the skit about Jesus healing the paralytic man. The boy on the right was the sick man who Jesus healed. It was touching to see the joy that he showed in the skit after God healed Him. Outside of the skit, this young Khmer man seemed to express some interest in understanding more about a relationship with God

Lindsay, a volunteer working along with the Cobb family, poses for a picture with some of the students at the camp

Pamela poses with a few girls from Cambodia who came to the camp. They look about 8 years old, but in reality are all over 11 or 12 years old

This is our group from Baan Buay (Buay Village in Sisaket Thailand). If you'd like to pray individually for them, there names are: Moss (far left), Mark (pink and black stripes), Aim (girl in the back-middle w/ Hudson), Nun (girl in the front middle, Sky (boy in the back right), and Bang (girl in the front right)

This is a group photo of everyone at the "One Way" Camp