Chinese New Year

Our neighbour (wife) is Chinese we found out yesterday. They had this table set out yesterday morning on Chinese New Year on their driveway. They were waving incense sticks around the table and around the house and letting off fire crackers (to ward off spirits?). It was a stark reminder of our neighbour's belief in other Gods and spirits.

We also found that the wife just closed down the resturant in town and is moving to Bangkok. We are not sure of the reason but we are guessing it might be due to the hard economic times. This week our neighhour next door who is a police man told our househelp to warn us about people who might want to rob us at the park due to the downturn in the economy.

Our famous son

Our son's teacher mentioned something about a photo of our son but I didn't really understand what she was saying. We only ever understand less than half of what she says as she tends to speak at a normal pace (which is a bit too fast for us) and using formal words. She pointed outside the school to the left and to the right. So when I left the school I kept an eye out for what she might have meant. Then I saw it, a couple of blocks away from the school on one of the bigger roads leading to a bridge.

The banner advertising our son's school

On closer inspection: Our son is on the left

It might have been nice if the school had asked us our permission before plastering our son's face on two huge banners. It is very common in Thailand to use foreign children in advertising for Thai schools. The girl on the right is in our son's class and her father is foreign and her mother's is Thai. At least our son isn't blond haired and blue eyed or he'd really stand out and people might actually recognise him from these banners.

It was Children's Day in Thailand on Saturday so we went to a field near the army base in Lampang and had some fun.

No, Phayu our dog is not dressing up for a starring role in a play. She was recently sterilized and the oversized collar is meant to stop her from undoing her stitches.

This is the pitbull which bit our househelp. Lisa went to the hairdresser in our street who said that this dog had bitten 10 people already (not thet 4 people I advised previously). Still no mask on the dog. We are a bit frustrated because now have to keep the kids inside the gates of the house when they are playing, just incase this beast escapes from his house.

15 minutes turns into over an hour and half

It should have only taken 15 minutes. I had taken 3 digital photos of the family, cropped them so that they were exactly as the Australia Passport office wanted them, and all the shop had to do was print them. I had done most of the work so I thought it would take only 15 minutes. Like so many other times, I was waiting around tapping my foot for over an hour and a half before finally the photos were ready. At least it wasn't as bad as the time I went to put a middle seat belt in the car. I was told an hour. 4 hours later I was still waiting (Fortunately Lisa didn't go into labour that afternoon)! No wonder the Thais are ever so patient.

Lost in Translation

Our neighbour invited us to their New Year's party. This was our first ever invitation by a Thai person to a party. To get invited into a Thai person home is a big deal so I was chuffed. Some very important people were at the party, but couldn't tell you who they were as I didn't understand the explaination in Thai. Our neighour's son-in-law who is a surgeon couldn't translate the Thai word into English. So even things are lost in translation. That's life right now. We only ever get part of the conversation. I still struggle with the Thai months of the year, even after nearly 2 year! Bit of a problem when I'm at the school trying to work out when the school holidays are.

Putting on Weight

Here is our little girl growing up fast. She is already 5.5 kg. She is generally sleeping and eating well and a great delight. The boys love her too.

It has been a tiring couple of months and we are looking forward to a more settled and restful 2009.

We hope you have had a joyful Christmas and that the New Year will be bring much encouragement and joy from God.

Bye, Bye, Puppy

We gave away this puppy last month to our neighours who had asked for one. They already had a mean dog which is kept in its cage most of the time as it has a history of biting people. We were reluctant to give the puppy to our neighbour because of their dog but we did have a puppy left over and didn't really have a good excuse not to give it to them. Yesterday morning, I was surprised to see both the puppy and their other dog together in their driveway (until now they had been kept apart as the other dog had bitten the puppy's ear a couple of weeks ago). The neighour assured me that they would play a bit rough but they were o.k. together. After the neighour left I kept an eye on the dogs. I became concerned when the bigger dog started biting the puppy and it was running away and yelping in pain. It seemed much more than rough play. I rang our neighour but he didn't answer his phone. The puppy hid under a set of stairs and the other dog didn't seem to able to get to him there. I had to go to a team meeting so had to leave the dogs. The neighour rang me back while I was in the team meeting and I told him what was happening with the dogs. I said that the puppy might be o.k if it stayed under the stairs.

When I returned home later that morning, I looked over at the neighour's driveway and saw the puppy lying dead, mauled to death by the other dog. It was an apalling sight.

Last week, our househelp was badly bitten in the thigh by another neighour's pitbull which had escaped from their house. She was trying to protect our dog, Lisa and Aidan who were out on the street. She is still recovering and hasn't been able to return to work.

These incidents have been some of the most upsetting and unnerving since being in Thailand. We asked the owners of the pit bull (which has bitten at least 4 people in the past) to put a muzzle on the dog but they have not so far. It is just beyond belief. How many people need to bitten or how badly does someone need to be hurt before they do the right thing. They don't want to put a muzzle on the dog because they feel pity for the dog!

Theon English Camp

English Camp at Theon with the St Ives Team, 100km South of Lampang.

Cooking Thai Country Style

Experience the Thai way of travel

I have just returned from dropping the St Ives team in Chiang Mai where they will have a couple of days of R & R before return back to Australia. The team were fantastic and worked really hard over the 2 weeks they were with us. We are sad to see them go and will miss them.

Aussie Night

On Saturday night we hosted an Aussie Evening at the Lighthouse run by the short-term team from one of our supporting churches.

It was a great night with lots of fun. The team sang aussie songs (above), gave a testimony, taught bush dancing (below) and lots more.

It is a busy program for the team this week, starting tonight with a program at Yonok University, English camps, Christmas presentations and other outreach activities.

Short-term team on the way

The short-term team from one of our home churches is on their way. At the moment they should be two thirds of their way to Lampang from Bangkok in a private van. It has been a very stressful week as the team were trying to decided whether to come or cancel the trip due to the protesters closing two the two main airports in Bangkok and bombs going off at protest locations. In the midst of the political crisis they made the brave decision to come, even though there was strong pressure not to.

While they were in the air flying to U-Tapao airport (the converted military airbase 190km south of Bangkok), the Constituational Court dissolved the coalition government and forced the prime minister to resign. The protesters then claimed victory and stop all the protests at the airports.

So it seems that the situation has died down a bit, though it is probably not the end of things. The good news is that the airports are now open and it looks like the team will have a much easier time getting out of Thailand when their short-term mission is over in 2 weeks.

Please pray that God will honor and bless this teams decision to come when many people would have taken the safe option of just staying home. Please pray that what they do will further the outreach here in Lampang and bring people to know Jesus this Christmas.