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.
  

Our House

Our lounge and dining area (view 1)

Our lounge and dining area (view 2)

Our kitchen

Luca's room

Our bedroom with Aidan's cot

Our house is in the lower middle class area of town. There are 4 houses in our compound with another missionary family in one of the houses. We have aircon in our bedrooms which takes the edge off the heat during the day when it gets really hot (over 40 degrees celcius on some days!) and keeps us cool at night. We have a real battle with the ants. Leave any traces of food around and there will be an army of ants within the hour all over it. They've even been getting into my laptop. I've had to store it in a suitcase to avoid the ants finding it! We rent the house reasonably cheaply compared with Australian rent. Just over AU$100 per month. We have been having problems with the owner's dog, Cola who has been getting aggressive towards Lisa. Our supervisors have given Lisa two bamboo sticks to show the dog who's boss. Our house help (Lina) lives with the owner of the houses in our compound in the house next to us. Her English is quite good so it is great for asking questions with our limited Thai.

• Please for safety from the dog and also from the very steep steps in the house which lead to the bedrooms
• Praise God for our house help Lina who has helped us a lot in our early stages in Thailand
  

Country Thai Church

This is a small country church of about 12 adults and half a dozen children about 30 minutes drive from where we live which we visited on Sunday. They were so friendly to us even though we couldn't speak much Thai. They have no pastor at the moment and most of the people are new converts. We visited with our supervisor who was preaching. They asked us to come back to their church again and start going there. We are praying about at the moment as without a car it would be at least a 40 minute train journey each way not including the time to get to the train station and to the church.

Pouring water over the hands of the elderly in the church as a kind of blessing ceremony.

Thai dancing after the service. Rich joined in at a later stage when prompted (sorry no good photos of that).

• Please pray about whether this is the church which we should commit to and serve over the next year while we are at Lopburi studying Thai.
  

Songkran Fun

Getting wet is what Songkran is about. Even the local fire brigade are happy to help out in getting people soaked.

Had to go out and get dinner for the family and even though I avoided the main Songkran Street I ran into a gang ready to plaster me with yogurt and drench me with water.

If you are on a motorbike or bicycle you stand no chance of escaping. There are numerous road blocks to stop you and splatter yogurt or water over you.

We were stuck on this road for 15minutes just to get 100m. The streets are lined with these utes full of people with buckets of iced water and yogurt to throw.

Our son getting into the fun

For 3 whole days there was partying on the streets particular on a road near our house. Thai people definitely know how to let their hair down and have fun.

First Day at Language School

Where are the pots to smash!

We had our first day at our Language Learning Centre (not a school!). We had two one hour lessons with our language helper which consisted of pronunciation drills. We have another two days of pronunciation drills next week. We don’t have any classes until Wednesday as we have entered the most well known Thai holiday of Songkran. This is a water festival and you have to be careful when you go out on the streets as you might have a bucket of water thrown over you. We learnt about Songkran and it’s Buddhist significance as a cleansing ceremony in a special group session at language school as you can see from the photos.

• Please pray for our language study. We were exhausted after our first two lessons of 50 minutes. We are concentrating on pronunciation of Thai vowels, consonants and tones for the first 3 days.

Cultural Experience #1

Having problems with clogged toilet's because of excessive toilet paper use. Here's your answer! The blue hose on the left wall is used for cleaning yourself up instead of using toilet paper. In orientation, one of the topics was the use of this hose and the benefits of it. Toilets are easily clogged in Lopburi as every house is on a septic system. After initial hesitation and lots of questions, we are happy converts to this new way of cleaning.

Thai Feast

Day 4 in Thailand. We went to the open market to buy dinner. Food is so cheap in here. Needless to say I’m going to gain weight here. Even the lady at the bank who was opening my bank account said of my passport photo that I looked fat.

Already there are so many things I would love to post, but I don’t have the time (and I’m only on dial up internet at the moment!)

Our Turn

Yesterday was our turn to share our testimony. We didn't have much time to prepare it as Lisa and the children have been sick. We are looking forward to the time when we are all at full strength.
OC (Orientation Course) is drawing to a close. It has been fantastic getting to meet the OMF directors and to be further trained for ministry in Thailand. However, because we have been sick most weeks we are ready to get going to Thailand and having a house to ourselves.

• Please pray for a full recovery for Lisa and the boys, especially as we travel to Thailand next week and begin language study
• Please continue to pray for the processing of our religious visa.