I recently received a letter from one of my supporting churches stating that they had received a letter from me saying that I was going to be married in the near future and that the church wanted more information.  This came as quite a shock as I have no knowledge of this being true - I have no boyfriend and I have definitely not been proposed to - I’m sure I would remember that event if it had actually happened!  I called the pastor and he told me that they had received a postcard and picture from a Miss Jones who is one of their supported missionaries.  Come to find out, it was a different Miss Jones, but the signature was not easily read and the picture looked enough like me that they thought it was me.

During the summer break (March - May) we went to two different villages for a 1-day Vacation Bible School.  The first day we went to the village of some of our church members.  Pu Yay Dee is one of our older church members and is the headman of his village.  He invited us out and we had a great time with about 20 children - about half of them don’t come to church.  We had a Bible story (the Prodigal  Son) and a craft and then games.  Courtney and her kids made a pinata pig and the children enjoyed that - most of the Thai kids had never seen a pinata before.  The second day we went to another village where Ya goes each week to teach English.  We had a smaller group with about 10 kids, but they enjoyed it as well.  We had the same program both days.

For our family camp this year, we went to a scout camp about 3 hours from Surin.  The camp was really nice and there was a water park right across the road where we were able to go play in the free hours.  Everyone seemed to have a really good time.  One of the national pastors from another part of Thailand came to preach for our sessions.  After the final evening service, we had a testimony time and I gave my first testimony in Thai!  It was rather short, but everybody was excited that I tried.  Praise the Lord.  The next day before going home, we went to a national park about 45 minutes from the camp and hiked to a stream about a kilometer from where we parked.  It was very pretty.

This year for Resurrection Sunday, we had several special activities.  On Saturday night, we had a special meal and then most of the church members slept at the church overnight.  On Sunday morning, we all went to a local park for a sunrise service.  We sang several songs, and had a prayer time followed by communion.  We then went back to the church for breakfast and our services.

After the morning service we celebrated Songkran.  This is a festival that included receiving blessing/forgiveness from your parents/grandparents.    The parents/grandparents/aunts & uncles sat in chairs and the young people went to each of the people who were sitting and knelt in front of them.  The older person would give a blessing and the young person would pour a little bit of scented water on the hands of the older person.  Songkran also includes a wide-spread water fight throughout the entire country and lasts for about a week.  We had a lot of fun on Monday when we used a church member’s truck.  We all piled in the back and drove around the town throwing water on people who were lining the streets and going by in other trucks.  The people on the streets were also throwing water back.

Living with two cats is never boring!  Here is a little glimpse into the lives of Rajah & Jasmine.  Like I’ve said before, Rajah is my head of homeland security (maybe self-appointed!)

For the last several months, we have been going to different church members’ homes for Wednesday night prayer meetings.  We have a meal together and then spend time in prayer.  It has been a blessing to get to know our church members better through these meetings. The last three pictures were at my house - there were so many people that several had to sit out on the porch!

I came home after being gone for several days and was cleaning my house.  As I was sweeping my floor, I found some blood, but didn’t think too much about it.  I figured that my cat had killed a bug.  I cleaned it up and continued sweeping.  As I got to my table, I saw what I thought was a twig of some kind under one of the table legs.  I tried to get it out with my broom, but it wouldn’t come loose, so I reached down and pulled it out.  As I was looking at it, I realized that I was holding a headless, dead snake!  Rajah, my cat, had apparently killed it.  I don’t know whether he ate the head or not, but I never found it.  Needless to say, I was not excited about holding a snake (even though it was dead)!  I was very happy that I was not in the house during the battle and that there have been no more snakes in my house (that I know of).  After I got the snake into my dust pan, Rajah rediscovered it and wanted to play some more!  We have an understanding with each other that he will be head of my homeland security when it comes to insects and snakes!  Yet another instance of being very happy that I have my cat.

Oh, the joys of learning a new language and culture!!
Recently, my Internet was down, so I had to go to the telephone company to request a repairman to come to my home to fix the problem. I was trying to communicate in Thai as much as possible. (One lady spoke some English, which was a help!) In the course of the conversation, I stated that I needed to have a repairman come to my house, and she said that yes, I did need a repairman. I left the telephone company office congratulating myself that I had handled the majority of the conversation in Thai! On the way home however, I was reviewing the conversation in my mind and realized that instead of asking for a repairman, I had used the word for elephant. Thankfully, the lady understood that I wanted a repairman, not an elephant to come to my home! The words are spelled and pronounced the same, but with a different tone!

We had a Christmas party at church for all our church family.  We had a wonderful time - the young people put on a play of the Christmas story and presented several special numbers.  I have a neighbor from Sweden named Leo, who also came to the Christmas party and then to church the next Sunday.  Pray that the Lord will continue to work in his heart.

We also had a Christmas party for our English class.  Matt told the Christmas story and we had a white elephant gift exchange.  I think our students had a good time.  Please pray that will continue to have contact with them.

Our teens and young adults have been meeting once a week for fellowship and Bible study.  We had a Christmas party with them as well and created gift baskets for people in the community that we have had contact with.   I’ve included pictures of me with several of the young ladies.

In October, we took several of our young people to camp for a week.  We had a wonderful time of fellowship with other Christians from around Thailand.  Our teens took part in games, music competitions, Bible memory, and preaching sessions.  The teens made many good decisions for Christ and one of our young men accepted Christ as his Savior.