Waiting in Chiang Mai

We have been in Chiang Mai now for nearly a week. We are waiting for our third baby to arrive. It was o.k for the first couple of days but now we are praying that the baby comes soon. Being couped up in a 2 bedroom apartment doesn't compare much with being at home. Lisa is nearly 38wks, but both our other two children came before 38wks. We hope this child is not going to full term or beyond! Lisa will try to get to the walking market here in Chiang Mai. I'll be at the apartment with the kids. I hope that she doesn't go into labour there!

Puppy Love

Our youngest son has taken a real liking to the 7 puppies. Sometimes he is a bit rough with them (with the loud yelping bearing witness to this.)

The puppies have now opened their eyes and are quite cute.

Pastors Sports Day

The North region of Thailand had their Pastors Sports day in Lampang. Pastors from Phayao, Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai and other regions came to participate. For the last few months I'd been training with the 'Pastors of Lampang' soccer team getting ready for the big day. When the day game it was a tense affair and it was a knock out competition. If you lost you were out of the tournament. We were against Chiang Mai pastors first. We were down initially but came to level 2-2 by the end of the first half. In the second half we cruised pastedChiang Mai eventually winning 5-2. We fortunately had a bye in the second round and went straight into the final. The opposition scored within about 10 seconds which left us shell shocked. I scored to level at 1 all. We were down 1-2 going into the last minutes of the game when we leveled 2 all. This led to a penalty shoot out. I was up first for the Pastors of Lampang. I meant for the ball to go right of the goal keeper but it went straight at him. Fortunately, the shot squeezed through his legs and into the goal. We ended up winning 2-0 in the penalty shoot out.

Here are some of the more unusual sports

Beginning of Student Ministry

After a month of no students turning up on Friday nights for our student evening, we had 8 Chinese students on exchange at the local university. They come to practice their conversational English.

And then there was 7, No 8, 9? Back to 7

This morning we were very annoyed with our neighbour's dogs as they were barking loudly and it was before 6am. After I got up I normally check on Phayu and I couldn't find her in the usual places. Then I discovered her with 6 puppies, having given birth in the garden! I had been training her for the past 2 weeks to give birth in the box I had setup in the outside room. Within the next hour she gave birth to 2 more puppies. The last one (9th) didn't make it as it had stopped growing sometime in the pregnancy.
Unfortunately, blacky #1 didn't make it. Phayu lay on top of him while I was taking the children to school and our househelp answered the yelps of blacky too late. Phayu then started to eat Blacky before I took him away. I waited until the children came home and we buried him in our garden.

Blacky #2 with the rest of the gang.

Cleaner enviroment of the box I'd prepared (and my old mambo shirt). I don't really know how I'm meant to be taking care of these puppies. Phayu seems to be eating the poos of the puppies so the box is being kept clean? Do I put newspaper in the box and change it each day?

It seems that giving away the puppies will not be a problem. Already had plenty of people wanting a puppy. Hopefully I can help Phayu keep most of them alive until abour 6-8 weeks when they can be weaned and given away.

South African Team

We have a South African Short-term team here in Lampang for 1 week from our team leader's church. They have been running a program at a local Christian school where only a small minority of students are Christians. I helped translate for the team which was stretching at times to say the least.

Dog Bite and getting ready for puppies

I was walking home from dropping off the car for a service when the neighbour's dog ran out of their house and bit me on the leg. It was not a big dog so the bite was only very minor. However, it did break the skin and draw blood. So when I saw my neighhour I told her what happened and she said that the dog has been vaccinated (she didn't say specifically against what but I assume it included rabies). I have already had the pre-exposure shots for Rabies. If we weren't sure about the rabies status of the dog I would need to go to the hospital and have another 2 post exposure shots. But based on what my neighbour's told me I don't think I need it. Only the second time in my life I've been bitten by a dog. The first time was 27 years ago when I was in kindergarden and I still remember it.

A vet student from a short-term team which will be coming to visit us later this year has given me advice about how to prepare for the impending puppies. So I've made this make shift home for Phayu. Unfortunately, she won't stay in it. She likes the home she's dug in our front garden. I also need to find some tablets for intestinal worms just incase she has been infected with these (apparently these can spread to humans). What's the thai word for "worms" I wonder?

We're having Octuplets!

We had our fears, but they were realised today when the vet confirmed that Phayu (our golden retriever) is pregnant! In the last week I noticed how she had been getting much bigger around her waist . When she wasn't feeling well over the last two days, it was time to go to the vet and ask the question. Either she was pregnant or she had a large abscess in her abdomen. Off for an ultrasound and there was confirmation we dreaded. We were only in Chiang Mai for 2 nights and that's all it took. We didn't even know at the time that she was in heat, let alone that there was a mangy street dog who could jump the front wall of our yard. I want to get my hands on that dog (or at least close enough to hit him with a pebble). At least if he had been better looking we might have an increased chance of giving the puppies away. The vet advised that on average golden retrievers have 8-9 puppies!!! This is definately not what we bargained for. We didn't have a chance to get her sprayed (desexed) as she was already in heat when we received her. Who could have imagined this ever happening to us. I've never owned a dog in my life. And it is so painfully ironic that we are contributing to the overpopulated dog population of Thailand, something we've deplored. We are praying that Phayu's genes would overwhelm the other mangy dog's - cute puppies PLEASE! Our yard is only big enough for half a dog, let alone 9 or 10!

Jenny's Birthday

Jenny, who's come to help us in the last trimester of Lisa's pregnancy had her birthday this week and we took her to our favorite restaurant - Pizza and quite a nice T-Bone steak (very hard to find in Thailand, espeically outside of Bangkok and Chiang Mai).

Official opening of The Lighthouse

On Saturday 30th August, the vice-governor of Lampang officially opened "The Lighthouse" our outreach and ministry centre. We didn't know how many people would turn up. Our team leader had booked the catering company for 70 people, though immediately afterwards he was seriously questioning whether he should have catered for this many. Since it isn't the custom to RSVP in Thailand we didn't know whether we would have 10 people or 100. Praise God about 60-70 people came. A pastor from Chiang Mai gave a short message and our team was introduced followed by a song item by one of the local Christian who is teaching some of team Thai.

Lisa speaking to one of our neighbours and her sister