Learning Thai

This morning we hosted a team meeting at our house and had a good time of sharing, Bible study and prayer. It was encouraging to hear more about how God is working in our lives and and we were refreshed by the fellowship and spiritual input.

After the meeting we went over to our landlords' house. They had invited us a couple of weeks ago, which is unusual - their invitations tend to be more spontaneous. They hadn't mentioned anything, but we wondered if there was some special occasion. It turns out that their youngest son had just graduated from some kind of college program and today was the celebratory lunch. Like usual, our landlady had prepared an incredible amount of food - probably 10 different dishes. We had two kinds of rice, papaya salad, several kinds of meat, fish soup, noodles, squid, and two kinds of spicy salad. (Then after we were back home this evening they sent over two bags of rice and shrimp.) Claire and Eliza enjoy being at their place and they really seem to enjoy having them there.

As we learn more Thai we're able to have slightly more meaningful conversations with them which is encouraging. On Tuesday Seri (the husband) will be having some kind of laser surgery on his eye which was damaged years ago. He's worried about that, so we'd appreciate you joining with us in prayer for him.

At one point during the afternoon the son who had graduated got dressed up in his graduation outfit and then a round of picture-taking commenced. Claire and Eliza were enlisted as props for many of these pictures. I think that they are starting to get used to it - they've been the subjects of many a camera-phone photo session at the grocery store or on the sidewalk.

Since we had our camera along we joined in...

Here's Candice and the food-laden table. (Carmen - I hope that you've taken note of the last two entries which contain pictures of Candice :) )

This is Dtu (the graduate) and his girlfriend.

Our landlords, Khun Ulai and Khun Seri. As the hostess she didn't sit down the entire time we were there. He ate with us and made sure that we were eating enough; urging us to "eat slowly" so we could fit more in. He speaks a little English (but always refers to Ulai as "my husband" - something that makes us unsure of any other relationship terms he uses).

-Tom