Go Socceroos

Australia vs Thailand in the Asian Cup

Watching the game with Edmund from Singapore

One highlight of being in Thailand was going to the Asian Cup match between Australia and Thailand on Monday. It was quite a trip. In summary:-
12:10pm left hone in Lopburi.
1:50pm Arrived in North Bangkok where I parked the car.
2:00pm Taxi to a nearby shopping centre
2:15pm Minivan to the the Stadium.
3:20pm Picked up tickets at stadium.
3:30pm Went to a shopping centre to pass time. Watched a movie.
6:45pm - Motocycle taxi to Stadium.
7:35pm - Game begins
9:20pm Left game 7 minutes to full time after Australia scored their third go to miss traffic. 9:30pmTaxi back to car.
12:30am Finanlly arrived home.
Unfortunately, when I returned to my car after the game I discovered this parking ticket on my windscreen. I didn't even see the sign, though I'm only just learning to read Thai so I wouldn't have understood it anyway. Now have to return to Bangkok to go to the police station to pay the fine within 7 days. Good thing, we were due to go to Bankgok this Friday on our way to Chiang Mai.

This is Lopburi

I spy with my little eye, something beginning with...H - . Pictures from Google Earth. Click on the picture to see a bigger view. On the other side of the big road is a big army base where Rich goes to play badminton. Why don't you go on Google Earth and visit us by satellite.

Toilet Training

What is it with our kids and putting things on their heads you might ask. Just in case you are wondering what is on his head, it's a nappy (or diaper if you are from North America). We have been trying to toilet train our son on and off for what must be going on to a 1 year now. There is no end in sight yet. Our youngest son though is showing a great interest in his brother's potty (and everything else that is his brother's) so will this spur him on? We hope so.

I started learning how to read and write Thai this week! Very exciting. It's like trying to decipher hieroglyphics.

Temporary Friendships

This is our son with our neighbor's daughter (also with missionary parents). He has loved playing with her for the last 3 months. They would chase each other up and down the drive way and play so well together. He would hold her hand while taking her to our house to play. Sadly she is going to North Thailand with her parents. Many of the missionaries with young children are leaving in the next months so most of Luca's friends will be leaving.

• Please pray for friends for our children
  

OMF Thailand Conference

We had a great time at our OMF Thailand Conference last week. The theme was on JOY from the Psalms and with 9 workshops on church planting. We had a chance to speak to missionaries working in South and North Thailand where our OMF leaders want to consider working after we finish our initial language and culture studies in Lopburi. See if you can find us in the photo (click on the photo to enlarge).

Day in the life of our baby

"You want me to put this on my head?"

"O.k"

My Teacher

This is my teacher and the classroom where I have been spending 5 days a week for the last 2 months having my lessons. I'm up to model 3 out of 9 modules to be completed within our first year. It's great having one of one lessons as I can go at my own pace and ask questions without fearing what other people might think. We have several teachers at the language centre and my teacher is one of them. We were talking about weddings and funeral's today and I found out the Buddhist funeral takes about 3-5days. One language blunder was when my teacher asked me what I would do to help people become Christians and I said that I would go home (I thought she asked me what would I do if many people in Thailand were Christians! If there were many Christians in Thailand I wouldn't need to be here).

• Praise God that my teacher and I get along well and that she has been helping me progress in learning Thai
• Please pray my teacher may get a greater understanding of Jesus through her work at the language centre interacting with Christian students.

Long live the King

On Monday's in Thailand, you will see a flood of people wearing yellow shirts just like this one. Monday is yellow shirt day in honour of Thailand's King (the longest living serving Monarch in the world). Other days have other colours - Tuesday for example is pink shirt day, but the yellow shirt is the Thai's favourite as the King has almost God like status in Thailand. A fellow student read the Thai writing on my shirt this week and he said it was commemorating the King's 80th birthday with the hope - long live the King. Our hope is that one day many Thai will know the King of not just Thailand but of the whole world and everything in it.

Uncle's Visit

We had a short visit from Lisa's brother this week and it was great to have him around and for the boys to be able to see him again. They last saw each other just after our second son was born nearly a year ago. If you see the dark marks on the bath tub the children are in, I think that's mold. I went to the supermarket to try to find a cleaning product to remove the mold. Unfortunately I can't read Thai yet. So I made the best guess I could and bought a bottle of cleaning liquid which I hoped would do the job. I splashed the product on the bath and left it for 10 minutes to work. When I went back I was overwhelmed by the fumes in the toilet. From the smell, and the fact that my hands started to sting I looked at the bottle again and saw the chemical symbol for Hydrochloric acid as the major ingredient! It still didn't get rid of the mold though...

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