2001 Toyota Soluna

This is the car which we bought last week, a 2001 Toyota Soluna.

Having a car has made our life so much easier here in Lopburi, especially for getting the children to childcare and for a shopping run to Big C or Lotus which are the two big shopping centres (big by Lopburi standards but small compared to the ones in Bangkok). Since we have a car we are planning to visit the church in Thaa Rua which is about 30 minutes drive away this Sunday.

• Praise God that we were able to get a car so quickly
• Please pray for safety as we still have to get used to driving in Thailand
  

Penang Visa Run

We arrived in Penang on Sunday afternoon and checked into the 'ghotel' a newly opened hotel. This was organised and paid for by a kind friend from our church as a birthday present for Lisa. The hotel was right next to a big shopping center which was fantastic.

The main purpose of our short visit was to apply for and collect our long term visas. So Monday morning at 8:30am Rich went to the Thai Embassy and started filling out a visa application form. By 9am when the embassy opened there were already around 30 people there all with the same purpose. I had a bit of scare when the official couldn't find my approval letter from the department in Thailand. I made a quick call to the OMF office in Bangkok and they were able to fax over a copy of the approval letter. I was very relieved when we all received our visas the next day.
In summary, Monday morning, applied for our visas. Tuesday afternoon picked up visas. Wednesday morning flew back to Bangkok. Wednesday afternoon bought a car! (more about that latter!).

• Praise God that we finally received our longterm visas!
  

Sick

Medications our son's been prescribed

Both our children have been pretty sick over the past week, Luca with severe diarrhea and Aidan with a viral infection called roseola with measle like symptons. It is hard battling sickness in young children in Australia but in a foreign country when you don't speak the language - it is harder. We praise God for our supervisors who've taken time out of their busy schedule to take us to the doctor and hospital. We haven't had much time to study Thai this week and our first language check is tomorrow. We are also meant to be packing to leave for Bangkok tomorrow afternoon and then on to Penang to get our proper visas to stay long term. We just pray that Luca's diarrhea will improve. Over 40 nappies, in just over 4 days isn't fun for anyone.

• Please pray that our children will recovery soon and that they will remain healthy.
• Please pray for strength to persevere with our language study as motivation hit a rock bottom with the kids sick
  

Feeling like real missionaries

On the days we have language school we have to take the children to and from childcare. Rich is taking our youngest son strapped to his back and our oldest on the child seat. We thought the days when it got to 40 degrees plus were hard, but rainy days can be an effort as these photos demonstrate. We felt like 'real gungho missionaries' for once.

Tonight I took our eldest son our for dinner at the night market for dinner. The skies were a little grey but we were only going out for 15 minutes so I thought it would be o.k. When we got to the night market it started to bucket down with rain. We had dinner under the cover of a tarpaulin sheet waiting for the rain to stop but it kept on raining. Soon, my feet were covered with 10cm of rain. It was starting to get dark so when the rain eased a little I put my son on the bike seat and started off home in the rain. The road was flooded so it was hard going. I was glad to get home, drenched but safe. I made it sound like it was a great adventure to my son so he enjoyed the experience.

• Please pray for safety as we take our children around town on our bicycles.
• Please pray for wisdom as to whether we should get a car sooner rather than later.