Are you missing a tyre?

The door bell rang this morning at 8am which I thought was a bit odd but it could have been my wife's parents. However, when I opened the door it wasn't anyone I recognised. She asked me whether the blue Honda parked outside our house was mine and when I confirmed that it was, she advised me that my car was missing a tyre and she thought it was in her front yard. When I went outside and looked at my car I couldn't believe it. Overnight someone had taken our tyre off and dumped it about 100 metres down the road. Don't know who or why someone would do this. There was another car which had it's wheel taken off too. Perhaps it was a prank by some unruly youths in the street, or the option is that they stole the tyre to fit on their own car but then found that it didn't fit so dumped it in the neighbour's front yard. It was fortunate that my wife's parents didn't live too far and my father-in-law could go to an auto shop to get 4 new bolts so that I could put the tyre back on. It was annoying but at least I didn't have to buy a new tyre and we were still about to get to church on time.

Bangkok Bombings

Bomb Site at Klong Toey Markets

CSI investigators combing another bomb site

On New Years Eve 8 bombs went off in Bangkok in various locations, killing 3 people and injuring 40 people including 9 foreigners. No one has claimed responsibility for these bombings though speculation shifts between disgruntled politicians who lost power in the recent coup and Muslim insurgents. Many mission agencies have based their regional offices in Thailand because it was considered one of the safer countries in the volatile South East Asian region. This perception may no longer hold.

• Please pray for peace in Thailand
• Please pray for our safety, the safety of other Christian workers and for the Thai people who may be at the wrong place at the wrong time
  

Garden Update

Here's some recent photos from my garden. It's getting a bit overgrown and needs a bit of work, but I've been busy doing other things.
I think this is a watermelon. Won't be sure until it grows a bit bigger and it is ready to cut and eat.
I've been able to pick one or two strawberries a week so far, but as each week passes more and more strawberries are appearing. Yummy! I'll be a bit sad to say goodbye to the garden.

Immunisations: Very expensive and Painful

Luca and I had our first series of vaccinations yesterday. Luca has to have 11 injections all up! I went first and had my Japanese Encephalitis and Rabies vaccinations to show Luca that it was all o.k. Seeing me have my vaccinations he even said "My Turn" and got a little upset when the doctor didn't get his needle ready quickly enough. After his first injection though, he wasn't so keen and the next three shots were much more traumatic, especially the last one where he was able to get his hand from under my grip and he pulled the needle out! Therefore, the doctor had to do the last one again. Poor kid. Poor mum and dad too. Vaccinations are not cheap. Japanese Encephalitis is $300 and so is Rabies. For Luca and I, it has cost over $1400 for our vaccinations so far.

• Please pray that the remaining vaccinations will be given without too much trauma.
• Please pray for the health of our children. Luca had a bad viral illness this week which meant one trip to the emergency department at 4am on Wednesday morning.
  

Wiggles Concert

We took our son to the Wiggles concert today for a treat. Unfortunately, he didn't seem to enjoy the concert that much and I had to take him out 10 minutes before the end. We don't know if it was because of the loud music or because he was feeling unwell. When he went to the Colin Buchannan concert last year he cried there also and didn't enjoy it. Hmmmm.
This is the back of Jeff, one of the wiggles as he went past near us!

Call for more workers

A group of our friends gathered in our backyard as we shared and encouraged each other as all of us will be serving God overseas in the next two months, in places such as the Middle East, Indonesia, China, Ecuador, India, Spain and us in Thailand. It has not be an easy road for many of us as Satan tries to keep us from going. But we reminded ourselves of the needs and God's vision for the lost and so we were encouraged to press on.

The head of OMF in Thailand wrote in his latest update,

"Thailand is more open now than at any other time in recent history! Thai people are turning to Jesus as they are becoming disillusioned with Buddhism and their political leaders. We need more workers to take advantage of the opportunities that exist now, especially in the Buddhist heartlands of Central, South and North-East Thailand where there are whole districts without a single church."

He requested prayer for new workers as there are presently no new candidates (long term) on the horizon after 2007.

• Please pray for more workers in these needy areas
  

Our 28th and last meeting?

We presented at our 28th meeting last night, which was a biblestudy group at Cornerstone North. We don't have any other scheduled meetings to present at so it could have been our last (maybe apart from our commissioning service)!

• Praise God for the opportunities we've had to share at churches, biblestudies and other groups. Pray that they may have been encouraged by what we shared and motivated to serve God here and overseas.
  

First Boxes Sent to Thailand!

On Friday morning, my dad left for Bangkok on business and he was only taking a small bag with him so he offered to take two boxes over for us. So the first of our things are now in Thailand waiting for us. What are in the boxes?
One of things we have in our boxes are four bicycle helmets which we bought this week. Our main form of transport during language study will be bicycles which we will have to buy in the first few days after we arrive. However, it can be difficult to get bicycle helmets as most cyclists don't where helmets.

• Please pray for us as we start the process of packing up our house and the difficult decisions as to what to sell, throw away, give away or store.
• Please pray for our safety as we travel in Thailand
  

Moooo

"Mooooo" ... our son shouts out with his hands on his head, half way during our morning song in 'Jesus time', even though the song has nothing to do with animals.

What is this plant? Prize for correct answer!

Anyone have any idea what this plant is? It just starting growing when I buried some vegetable and fruit scraps in the garden to make compost. I'm hoping it will produce some nice fruit which I like. Please post your suggestions in the comments section. The first one with the right answer will receive this prize (see below).
This book, written by an Australian family working in Thailand will give you a glimpse of what our life might be like in the years to come.