HI!
Just wanted to add to Ryan's post (thanks Ryan for posting!):

The little hat on the baby is a part of the traditional mien costume. When we got there quite a few women were wearing their traditional clothing (black turban on the head, black shirt with red muff around the collar, and pants with hand-embroidered design) and carrying their babies in mien baby-carriers. Embroidering is a means of family identity and income for these ladies and so getting new glasses so they could see to sew was a big deal! We didn't get a picture, but one of the missionaries said that later that day she saw a long line of older mien ladies sitting beside the little road sewing together.

Everything is going well here. I just have the blogger-blaahs.

Today we found out that kissing on the mouth, even a light hello-peck, is an embarassing/gross idea to the Thais. Our language instructor said that the first time she saw a video of an American wedding she covered her eyes when she saw the kiss. Kissing on the face, the nose, or touching noses seems to be the way to kiss when you are here. :) Apparently even married couples don't usually kiss on the mouth in the privacy of their own homes. Kinda different huh?

I think that I am refining my ideas of how to be a missionary. I used to think that it would be easy to just adopt the ways of the people around me but it really isn't practical or possible. First of all, if you are the only Christian doing work in a non-Christian population then you will obviously do things differently then the people around you. Second of all, no matter what, I am a product of the culture I was born into and I can not just come here to Thailand and wipe everything I learned away. No matter what I attempt to do I do not think that the people here could see us as one of them. Farangs (their word for foreigners) stand out in a crowd because of their white skin and taller stature. Even walking down a street the little kids playing in front of their houses stop and point at us. I am so used to being in a multi-cultural society that it is different to be among such a homogenous culture and realize how much I stick out. I guess we will just pray that God will use us as a vessel so that His Word can be introduced to this culture despite the fact that we are not a part of this culture.

Yesterday afternoon (last night for Texans) someone who has belonged to my church/community for a long time died from a long battle with cancer. I am silenced but my heart is whispering prayers for her husband, daughter, and son and for my community as they support them.

Today I left Aiden with Joshua and joined a team of people in traveling to a Mien village. We traveled for about 45 minutes on a normal Thai road and then for about 25 minutes on a twisty-turning-up-and-down road.

I must stop here and share with you about Thai roads. They do drive British-style so you drive on the left side of the road. To a person who grew up in the US the road looks like it has only two lanes, one going one way and the other going the other way. The truth of the matter is that there is actually 4 lanes and occasionally 5 lanes on the road. The motorbikes travel to the far left, the cars going in the same direction are just to the right of that and then there is some crazy passing action that happens when a car and/or motorbike is going too slow. Oh, not to mention the dogs, chickens, walkers, bicyclers, and other such traffic sharing the road with you. Driving is exciting here, thank goodness we are not the ones behind the wheel!

Anyway, I will take you back to that stomach-churning road in my story:

By the end of the trip I was beginning to feel a bit ill and then I found out that the last 4 miles or so had only been paved in the last month! Wow, I would have been even more queasy if there had not been any pavement.

The reason that we were going to the village was because there are about 6 Christians there and they do not have a church. The closest church is 10 kilometers away on a very bad unpaved road and the fact that it is the rainy season has made that church fairly inaccessible to these Christians. We were going to have some worship time with the Christians and encourage them to remain strong.

On the way, we stopped a few times at the Christians' houses to let them know we were there. It had rained all day today so they were home and ready to meet when we got there. We walked across a rickety bamboo bridge to get to the house where we were going to meet. Taking our shoes off at the door, we sat on a plastic mat which covered the cement floor and began to sing worship songs. I do not, of course, speak Thai much less Mien so I sat and enjoyed the sound of my brother's and sister's worship and prayed for them.

One of the Mien workers from the clinic then told a story from the book of Daniel. The Old Testament has not yet been translated for the Mien so this team has been trying to tell them stories from the Old Testament with accompanying pictures so that they can understand how God works.

After that we had prayer time. I found out that the house we were meeting in belongs to a man who had just become a Christian in the last month. Previous to that he had been involved in drug stuff and so some people were wanting to kill him. He had been shot and decided that he wanted to follow Jesus. He asked for prayer since people were still wanting to kill him. There was also a request from a woman whose husband is a Christian but who is unable to quit drinking alcohol.

After praying together, we asked if anyone at the meeting had any minor medical needs since we had brought a big box of meds from the clinic. Ryan became the point person for helping to decide who needed what.

These are some prayer requests for this village other than the ones mentioned above that I wanted to share with you:

1. For the Christians' continued growth
2. For their witness to their neighbors
3. For the Old Testament to be translated into their language
4. For some sort of literacy class to be set up so the Christians can read the Bible on their own even when there is not outsiders to bring worship to them.

Thank you for your prayers!

After a few friendly notices, we changed the comments section on our blog. We appologize for the difficulty and hope that you will find this easier!

Hope you have a great new week!

Oh, I rode a motor bike to town today to get some baby cereal. It was very nice to feel the breeze and do something I had never done before.

So we have been here at the compound (yes, that is what they call it) for two weeks. Things are pretty good and I think we are adjusting pretty well. Some things though, will be a challenge this summer. I think that for me the fact that we have no privacy will be a constant struggle. We live with Aiden in a little room that is probably 10 by 12 feet and an attached bathroom. I am thankful that we have our own bathroom and don't have to use the dorm-style ones. We have big screened-in windows on either side of the room that need to be open all the time since there is no air conditioner. With the windows open and curtains drawn back, we have airflow and everyone can hear and see us. With the windows closed we gain a little more privacy (people can still hear us talk, but it isn't quite as easy) but it sure gets stuffy!

This has become a difficult especially with a baby. The babies here are very well loved and indulged. When someone has a baby they either hire help or their family moves in to help take care of things. The result is that the baby never needs to cry and there is always someone to rock the baby to sleep. That's so cool! The babies don't seem to suffer from this attention and since there is always someone willing to give it there is never the issue of the baby needing to "learn to put himself to sleep."

The difficulty is that I am coming into this situation from a different culture and will be returning to that same culture in less than 3 months. I haven't and won't have hired help or extended family living with me to help me do chores and take care of the baby. I can't spend an hour rocking Aiden to sleep because I will have things to do and I would much rather spend my spare time playing with Aiden than rocking him to sleep. So I do the only thing I have found to work. When he is sleepy, I nurse him, love him, kiss him, and lay him in his crib to go to sleep. Then Aiden screams his head off for about 40 minutes. I hate it, but if I go rub his back he screams harder and if I pick him up he won't let me lay him back down. The next day he doesn't scream but he cries for about 15 minutes or so. The crying periods shorten and finally yesterday and today he goes to sleep with no crying.

The whole time this was happening, however, the Thai women who live here were questioning what I was doing. That hurt and made me feel intensely lonely. Faye, the other missionary wife here tried to explain what I was doing with Aiden to them. She said they were asking why I was torturing Aiden. Once, when I was standing outside our door waiting to make sure Aiden got to sleep okay a lady came out and asked me why I didn't go comfort him. Oh if only I could and if only that worked! (I did have other plans for how I was going to raise my son before he was born. I was NOT going to ever let him cry it out. Oh well, *grin* things change.)

So now Aiden goes to sleep wonderfully. Except this morning he woke up at 3:30 am and wanted to play. Sorry, no can do. So he screamed again. And I lay in bed hating the fact that I have to do this and hating even more the fact that I can feel the disapproval of the people who can hear Aiden, wanting so much to have my own space where I can do what I feel needs to be done and not have to worry about the people around me judging me.

It is not an unbearable situation but it isn't the easiest thing either. I think I feel the need to share this for several reasons:

1. I don't want our blog to give an unrealistically good impression of what is going on. Things ARE good and God has blessed us unbelievably, but things are a little difficult at the same time.

2. I don't want to give the impression that I am adjusting perfectly to all the changes that go with living here. I am a very real person and there will be struggles all summer.

3. I feel disappointed that I am not able to fulfill my pre-baby expectations and I have to let Aiden cry it out. Hearing what the Thai women said just echoed that disappointment even though I know those expectations are not realistic for me. Somehow posting this seems to make things better.

Two days ago a bunch of Laotions came into the clinic. Laos is right next door to Thailand but it is a closed country so missionaries are not able to go there. The Laotions, however, come here for medical treatment. Cool, huh? Josh and Ryan commonly pray with their patients (the Bhuddists are quite happy that someone wants to talk to Jesus about their problems) and sometimes have a chance to start a conversation about God. The language barrier is quite a struggle and it is good that the nurses are Christians and are able to converse freely with the patients after Josh or Ryan start the conversation. Please pray that we can be witnesses despite the communication problem. Yes, we are taking Thai lessons, but so far all we can say is : "Hello," "how are you?" "What is your name?" and "Nice to meet you." That is not really a conversation that can go very far in sharing the Good News with someone. Just pray that God will still use us.

On another note, I think it is very interesting to notice the things that they do NOT have for babies in the stores here:

Highchairs
Playyards
Baby Toys
Baby food (they do have formula)
Cribs (they have bassenets for up to 6 months or so but only the rich people get them)
Baby Moniters


They Do have:
Walkers (we purchased one for 560 Bhat or about $15 USD)
Really nice, thin little shirts that are great for the heat
Mosquito screens that you can put around baby when outside
Disposable diapers
Baby potties that fit Aiden's little bottom


Just an interesting note that provides a glimpse into the culture.

We went to the little local church today and worshiped with the Christians there. We did not understand anything being said, but it was nice to be there with them and take Communion with them. It was sweltering hot when we started (no AC at the church either) but a storm came in as we were eating the pot-luck lunch and this wonderful breeze blew through. I think that is what I need in my life right now, a nice cool breeze that refreshes my spirit. Moving, comming to Thailand, taking care of a teething Aiden, and adjusting to a new culture have all begun to wear on me. I am tired. Understand though, I am not discouraged, just tired, and I can tell that I need some refreshment. I am glad that we will be here about 2 and 1/2 more months. It is nice to have a little bit of stability. When we get back to Dallas, that will be another adjustment but I won't try to tackle things before they take place. I am here, in Thailand and I look forward to what God is going to do.

I am going to be teaching the nurses here some English. They are able to communicate in broken English, but they want to improve. Does anyone know good English-teaching games?

My mom was wondering what a "typical" day for us is like so I thought I would try and share right here:

Josh and I wake up at 6:00am. (Ryan wakes at 5:00am and goes for a morning swim.) Josh takes a quick shower and I may start laundry if I have diapers or clothes that need cleaning. There is a washer and drier from the US on the premisis but there are a few fun quirks about them: Our washer fills up with a very slow trickle (there is no hot water for the washer so everything is washed with cold water) so we grab a hose to fill the washer up faster. In order to dry clothes, the drier needs gas so you have to turn the gas tank on. If you forget to turn the gas tank on then you come back in an hour and your clothes are nicely tumbled but not dry. If it is sunny outside then I hang our things on the line to dry. The sun really gets the stains out of those cloth diapers! Aiden usually wakes at about 6:30 and I do my morning things with him (change diaper, play a little, nurse).

I will digress a little here and tell you about our living quarters:

Josh and I have a small-ish bedroom that opens to the outside with an attached bathroom. There is another building called the "lounge" that has one open room with a couch, chairs, computer desk/computer, small sink, gas stove (remember to turn the gas tank on!), fridge, tables, etc. Our bedroom does not have air conditioning, just a fan, but the lounge has air conditioning which we use if it is hot outside.

So after Aiden is "good-morning-ed" and Josh is dresed and ready for the day, we go to the lounge. Ryan is usually in the lounge at this time too and we do a little devotional time together. We have been reading a little of James and singing a few songs afterward. By then, another family who is also living here have come into the lounge and we all have breakfast together.

Breakfast is usually toast, cold cereal, fruit (they have some wonderful fruit here!), and chocolate-drink. Today, though, we had eggs, instant grits, and toast! Who would have thought we could have a good Southern breakfast right here in Thailand! Then we clean up from breakfast. We make sure to sweep and put all reminants of food away since the ants here are quite ambitious and they find any food that is out.

By then it is around 8:20 or so and Josh and Ryan head over to the clinic which is a 3 minute walk away. Aiden and I put on our swimsuits and go for a morning swim. The pool is quite nice and we really enjoy our time in it. Then Aiden and I rinse off in the shower and I put Aiden down for a nap. During his nap I try and get some Bible reading in, maybe check my e-mail, work a little more on laundry, or do some knitting. If Aiden gets a good sleep he wakes at around 11. If he wakes before that it has been because his gums are hurting and I get to spend alot of time paying intense attention to him. The lady who helps with the cleaning around here (I don't remember her name since the Thai names are different and difficult for me to remember) may come and take Aiden for a little while.

Josh and Ryan get back from the clinic around 12:30 and we have lunch together. There is a cook who cooks lunch and dinner for us on weekdays (yes, we really feel spoiled!). Lots of times the meal is yummy Thai food but she also knows how to make some western food. For instance, yesterday we had fajitas. It was the cook's first time to make tortillias and she did a good job. They were a little chewy because she used more oil than the Mexican ladies do but they were still quite good. Today we had spaghetti! I am hoping to spend some time with her so I can learn to make some of the tasty Thai dishes she makes.

The afternoons are filled with different activities. We may go to a hilltribe village to help with Bible studies, study Thai language, or on Fridays, help out with a kid's club type of thing where they try and teach the kids some English, and tell Bible stories. Before dinner I like to go swimming one more time. This time I go with Josh so I can have someone help me hold Aiden. Yesterday, Ryan went on a bike ride with some of the boys and then he played tennis with the nurses. Josh played basketball after our swim. For dinner we get yet another wonderful dish from the cook. Then Aiden goes down for the night and we stay up a little longer talking, reading, and doing various other leisurly things. We usually take another shower before we go to bed since it is warm and humid here and it is nice to not be too sticky when we go to sleep.

That's our weekday! We havn't been here over a weekend yet so we will let you know how our weekends are perhaps next Monday.

We love you all, thank you for your prayers.

PS if you want to send us a letter or something you can send it to:

(name)
Chiangklang Baptist Clinic
PO Box 1
Chiangklang, Nan 55160
Thailand


Just send it via regular mail (not UPS or FedEx) so we don't have to pay any pick-up fees. I think it takes about 2 weeks if you send it at the regular speed and about 1 week if you pay the extra cost for faster delivery.