Learning Thai

Well folks it's the hot season...99 degrees today. Sigh. The good news is the girls have a little pool to lay in and we're having air conditioning installed in one room tomorrow, so at least we'll have a place to escape to soon. Afternoon naps have gotten pretty unbearable upstairs. We've found that the best place to sit and lay in the house is downstairs right against the tile - anything else gets you all sweaty. Anyone have any advice for heat rash? Poor Eliza is covered with it despite the pool and covering her in powder a few times a day.

We are feeling an increased need for prayer right now and would really appreciate it if you would pray with us about a few things....

1) Visas! Our visas are good through August and then we will need to find another way to stay in Thailand. We had a meeting on Saturday about working with a new tutoring center run by a church. Tom has a meeting on Wednesday about possibly teaching English in a local school and getting a work permit/visa through them. We can tell that God's hand is in this process already as we are making some neat contacts and meeting some people ministering right in our own area.

2) We have an Anabaptist workers (in southeast asia) retreat at the end of the month and hope to make some good contacts there and network and learn from long term workers.

3) Language learning is that ongoing request that will probably never go away - it's been a struggle and I'm sure it will continue to be a struggle. Pray we don't give up and accept making surface conversation but that we can continue learning to deepen our relationships.

4) We are thinking and planning and praying for various groups and teams who are coming - the prayer team from LCF in July, 5 new Latin American team members in August and a REACH team in November. Pray for creativity and ideas for us and connections through which we and they can do ministry.

5) At church on Saturday night the theme was "Flip the Script" about how God can turn our "script" for our lives upside down at any moment (ie: Moses at the burning bush) and how he is in charge of our lives and our plans come second to what he wants to do with us. I feel like God has already turned my life upside down! It's hard to look to the future and say God, do whatever you want with me because I know what he's capable of doing! Everyone who knows me knows that planning is importnat to me and I hold on pretty tightly to my plans. Sometimes it is very painful to be here and I feel very lonely, very tired of being foreign and different and not understood. BUT I also am beginning to really love Thailand too and I know that' s from Him. Pray that we can be open and accepting of HIS plans....scary as that is.
-Candice

We went bowling this weekend with the team to say good-bye to Ben as he has finished up his internship and is headed back to the States. The girls had fun cheering on all the bowlers and we took them upstairs for rides afterward. Eliza was half terrified and half excited by this horse ride. She held on pretty tightly to Claire.

The girls at the skytrain station - our stop is On Nut. Aunt Nita, Happy St. Patricks Day and thanks for the shirts!