Welcome Rachael to our family. She is three years old and has been living at our friends orphanage since she was three days old. It was intended for her to be adopted by our friend who in the end wasn’t able to. He has given her to us and she has been with us for three weeks now. We aren’t too sure about being able to adopt her either. It is a very complicated process. She will always be our daughter but it may not be able to happen on paper. Everyone is still adjusting but most everything seems positive with the new change in her and our life. Abby is enjoying being a new big sister.
Eli is amazing. He is beginning to walk and will be one year on the ninth of this month.
The house is pretty much finished. I just finished the bathroom last week. We brought the girls up a couple of weeks ago while Lisa Gavin was here and they had a great time staining the outside.
We are looking forward to B-ma and almost all the Blues coming here in the next couple of weeks. We will spend time in the village doing everything from painting, teaching, soap making, cooking, and working in the coffee field. People in the village are excited and wont stop asking for B-ma.
The coffee is looking great and after a couple set backs with the locals most things seem to be doing well. In one area we were forced to take out our banana trees because they believe there is an evil spirit attached to the tree that makes them sick. We refused for awhile and even used the opportunity to speak to them about God. But after they released cows in our field and threatened my brother in laws life. We were forced to remove the banana trees. Since then we have planted a new fast growing, nitrogen fixate, shade tree to replace the banana trees.
Prang is doing well and is busy with the weaving project in the village and even some free lance translation. We are brain storming and researching many new business opportunities for her. We are in the process of buying and selling avocado and coffee. This could some day turn into a business or a company here in Thailand. We will be driving up to Chiang Rai tomorrow to meet with farmers and with local buyers. Prang will also be starting school here next term in December. She will be studying on Saturdays and Sundays to some day become a teacher as well.
The next month is packed with many trips to the village, B-ma and the Blues, soap making, buying and selling avocado’s, taking care of coffee trees, and hopefully at some point having some sort of a vacation. We have yet to have had a vacation since we first got married four years ago.
Please check out our pictures link. I have many recent photos uploaded
Sorry no pictures on this post. Computer, camera, and memory card problems. I’ll post pictures as soon as I get all my hardware problems solved. Seems like a never ending battle.
We had a good month in the village. Two weeks can easily turn into four once the rains start coming. This is the rice planting season. Or the season for any sort of planting. Farmers in the mountains rely fully on the rain for their crops.
For those of you who follow this blog will remember that we had a water project proposed. Well that project has been funded and completed. We ran two Kilometers of water pipe to two different places. This project seems to be a building block for many new relationships. They see us running water pipe and then all of sudden you have many new friends. I’m not concerned about their motives. It’s the relationship that I care about. This water will be used to ensure the survival of our new 3,500 coffee plants. Others in the family and church who will be planting coffee or that will be working with us will also be using the water.
Once the rains started coming we began planting our coffee, avocado and banana trees. We now have over three thousand coffee trees, 100 avocado trees, various different shad tress and a few hundred banana trees. The shade trees, avocado and banana trees will serve as a shad canopy for the coffee. We already began micro loaning seedlings out to other farmers and have sparked the interest of many other local farmers who say they want to plant coffee with us next year. Which is our goal. We want farmers to invest long term investments into their properties. A good veriety of different cash crops that they can get a little something from every season. Now they just battle with the supply and demand of tomatoes and chillies. Most of the time just wasting their time and money in hoping to get rich once the supply drops and the demand increases.
Our house is pretty much done. I still need to finish framing in the kitchen area but have run out of wood. I used the rest of the lumber on the bathroom. Again I will send some pictures once I can.
We also had a lot of time to spend with people in the church and were sharing and teaching. Our main theme seemed to be relationship. To have a relationship with God. Something that isn’t taught here. Many people in the church didn’t seem to understand when we explained that that’s what it means to be a Christian. To have a living relationship with Jesus. He is your father and friend. You can talk with him and he listens. My 15 year old nephew came to me after church one day and said “Thank you.” He has never heard anything like this. He said that is was cool to know that we could be friends with God. It seems that we are mainly just battling with the spirit of religion all the time. Living in this contractual world makes having a grace filled relationship with the living God seem impossible. But we are seeing people accept what we say. Even if it’s just my nephew being able to grasp it. That makes it all worth while.
It may seem like a long post but please read it all.
Empowerment refers to increasing the spiritual, political, social, or economic strength of individuals and communities. It often involves the empowered developing confidence in their own capacities.
I pulled this definition off Wikipedia online. This word has really been grabbing my attention lately. For the longest time I couldn’t figure out why. Now I think I know why. This is what it means to be a missionary. Or better yet a Christian. We need to be empowering other people and other cultures. This mind set has begun to reshape my life and work over here in Thailand. Or better yet. It has given me a sense that what we are doing is in fact for their sake. For the Thai people. Mainly the underprivileged or marginalized people groups. They need to do it on their own. We just need to plant the seed, or the vision and watch them grow and become something bigger and better than what their culture settles for.
The reason I have come to all this is because I have begun to see results in people’s life around me. One case study would be my brother-in-law Koi. (Prangs youngest brother) He has been living with us ever since we have been married. Yeah really. So that is coming on four years in July. He was the reason that I first started the landscaping business. He needed money to live and go to school and I was sick of him just living off of us. I knew it wasn’t helping him and he needed to make his own living. It has been three years since he has been working with me cutting grass. I had always visioned him running the business and it being his. But the lack of work ethic and the laziness has never allowed this to happen. Recently I just felt like God was telling me to give him the business. And so I did. Now I am seeing a change in him that I have never seen in the three years he has been working with me. He wakes up early, gets the truck ready, goes to work on time and at the end of the day makes money and puts it in his pocket. He seems happier, more motivated and just easier to be around. I know money is motivating him. As it does all of us. But what I am also seeing is him being empowered. He is growing. Becoming more and more self capable. All because I gave him responsibility. And he had a willingness to do it. I’m not trying to take all the credit here as I know God is growing him.
The point I am getting at is. Empowering people to make their own decisions, the ability to access information, and increasing one’s positive self-image can take years. But I am being able to see this. This is giving me more motivation with the teenage boys in our house and our work in the mountains. Someday we may actually see people being changed. It just may take for ever.
Again like I always say. This post is long and waiting as they always are. Since I last wrote on this blog so much has happened I can’t even remember everything. First of all just to inform everyone about Abigail. She did fall off a chair and hit the back of her head real hard. After a while she began to throw up and became very sleepy. We happened to by right by the hospital; so we just went in the ER. After a skull X-ray and a brain scan everything turned out ok. She really scared us as she lay in the ER room lethargic and unresponsive. We were afraid we would lose her or some of her. After a couple hours she came through and was acting like her self again. We left the hospital and went to eat at a restaurant. Not soon after we ordered our food a specialist called us and said we need to come back to the hospital because she has a skull fracture. I guess some how they missed it the first time. So we went back and stayed over night in the hospital for close observation to make sure she was ok. She is doing fine now but shouldn’t hit her head for the next few months. That is almost impossible as she is always falling down. I have decided to stay home as much as I possibly can to keep close to her. We also have a new member in our family. His name is Kim and he is a seventeen year old orphan. He isn’t in school and is working for my landscaping business while he studies for his GED. So now we have three teenagers, (Park, Tinglee and Kim) two of Prangs brothers, (Ton and Koi) and Abigail and Eli. Yes and Eli is doing excellent. A very big and chubby boy. The other day we let him suck on an orange and he loved it. We couldn’t take it away with out him screaming for more. We are also taking on a new adventure in the village. Growing coffee. Now we are just in the planning and researching phase. It definitely looks like something that the people in the village could really make a profit out of. We will keep everyone posted.
Not much else to say other than be praying for Abigail’s skull fracture to close up and that she wouldn’t hit her head again.
So here are some pictures that everyone has been waiting for. Click on my “photo album” to view more. Let me know of any problems viewing any photos. Eli and Prang are both doing very well. I am staying home taking care of Abby while Prang heals and focus’s on Eli. My god mother Pattie is here to visit so we are all just hanging out at home being a family. I’ve done a little bit of garden work and planted some Thai veggies along with , oregano, tomatoes, lettuce and kale. Also thanks to our good friend Kevin ElJ we now have a video of our rice mill project. I will be sending DVD’s out soon. E-mail me or leave a comment with your address if you would like to receive your free copy. For now you can view it below.
That’s our new sons name. He was born on September 8th at 1:30 in the morning. He is strong and healthy and weighed in at about 7.5 pounds. Because of his size a caesarean was necessary. Prang just couldn’t manage to get him out by her self. She is doing well and is back home after three days in the hospital. I am adjusting to this new change in my life and I’m not sure if it has completely hit me yet.
I am having driver problems with my computer. So everyone is going to have to wait on the pictures. I’m hoping it’s just my memory card and not my camera. But don’t worry I will get some up soon enough.
These are just a few of the really good photos our friend Kevin LJ took for us when up in the village. Click here to see all of them. We also did some video of rice planing and of the rice mill. We took up about ten gallons of some organic fertilizer that I have been making for them to use on their rice crops. It’s still in the experimental process but I am learning heaps all the time. I’m still keeping busy with Im Jai House and mentoring teenagers. We’ve gotten lots of new landscaping work in the last month and it’s keeping me and the boys busy. We also have a new member in our house.
His name is Tinglee. He is 17 years old who we originally knew from Im Jai House. Though he hasn’t been living there for a few years I have still been mentoring him. He has ben with us for at least a month now and is adjusting well. He grew up with Park who already lives with us. They both go to a dramatic arts school. He is a very talented musician and is studying the violin. He is on my soccer team and also works the landscaping business with me. A very smart, talented and hard working teenager. We are pleased to have him apart of our family.
We’ve been back for more than two weeks now. So this post is by far over due. Especially since I didn’t write one post while I was in the States.
We had an extended trip of two months. Upon arrival at LAX, Immigration granted Prang a six month visa instead of a one month which is what we thought we were going to get. Next time she applies for a visa she will be given a ten year, multiple entry visa. The thing is that may not happen. Prang is very content with being in Thailand and was glad she visited but has no real desire to go back. This is here home. As is it mine now too.
I have been busy since the day I got back. Organizing and running a soccer tournament at Im Jai House, re-newing my visa, building an area for raising chickens, catching up loose ends on the landscaping service, hanging out with teenage boys, laying pavers under our car park, and of course trying my hardest to get 18 guys together to practice soccer before our tournament begins. Everyone wants to play but no one wants to practice.
We are planning a trip to the mountains here soon. We will visit family, hang out with friends in the church, check up on the rice mill, help plant rice and I will hopefully be bringing some natural fertilizer that I am going to be making here next week with a friend. I am trying to perfect how to make it so I can teach people in the village how to do it themselves. For now I am still in the learning process.
So though I don’t have a real concrete, day to day job. I still can’t seem to find enough time in the day to do all the things I want. Writing on this blog is one of them. It’s the one that gets put at the end of the list. I want to try harder and update this thing on a more regular basis. For those of you who care, just keep nagging me by leaving comments about how boring it is to keep seeing the same old thing all the time.
Just as I am about to send this I just got some knew news. Prang and I have been asked to take in the other four teenage orphan boys that I mentor. Where they are staying wont be available to them any more and they may not have any where else to go. So as of now we are just talking and praying about it. Prang and I both have a long history with them and know them all very well. It will just be a lot all at once. We aren’t worried about space or money or anything other than can we take them all on at one time. Be praying for us. I think we may have until the end of the month.
Click here or go to my “photo gallery” link to see some pictures of our time in America.
Most everyone should already know that Prang, Abigail and I will be going to the States. Yes, Prang finally got her visa after three tries. We will be arriving into LAX on Monday, March 23. Which is today. Actually we will be leaving for the Chiang Mai Air Port in an hour. That means I need to get something to eat now. We will be in San Diego from the 23rd through April 1st. Then we will drive to Arizona and visit family for two weeks and then be back in San Diego from April 15th through April 22nd. It will be a short four week trip but thats all the Consulate here in Chiang Mai would give her. Actually we don’t even know what date she will have to leave the States until she passes through Immigration in LAX and they stamp her visa. It will be weird as Abby and me go through the American line and have to wait for Prang on the other side will she goes through Immigration. On the way back to Thailand it will be the same thing for me. Abby gets free passage both wats as she is a dual citizen. It would be nice if Prang and I were too. Anyways I hope we have enough time to visit with everyone and if not than you will just have to fly out to Thailand to visit us. And if there is anyone in San Diego who would like to loan us a car that would be awesome. Then we could be free to go and see everyone and everything we want. See everyone soon.
This past month has been more busy than normal so I haven’t had any real time to be on the computer. I’ve been busy with all the normal things. Running the lawn care business, the rice mill, lots of maintenance at Im Jai House, and even a few side electrical jobs. Plus our vegitable garden at home is growing and is getting bigger all the time.
We’ve had a few guest come and go. First Emmet was here, then Adams parents and his aunt. Then my friend Len from Iowa was here too. He comes almost every year doing different things with orphanages and teaching English. He is now going to be building a hostel in the mountains for kids to live while they go to school. A much needed thing as most of these kids live too far from any school to be able to attend. I’ll be doing what I can to help, including building a reverse osmosis drinking water system. Something of which I am in the process of learning at the moment. I know enough now that I was able to fix Im Jai Houses system. We may make a video and try and do a little fundraising to try and build more systems and place them in different needed places. Like orphanages and hostels for kids.
The rice mill had a great start but it seems to be slowing down at the moment. I’m not sure if that’s because of the time of year or other reasons. It seems that people want their cake and eat it too. We built a rice mill because people wanted to process their rice. But now they are complaining that the bran that is discharged from the machine isn’t enough. They use the bran to feed their pigs. Other machines apparently give more bran than the machine we installed. There is one discharge part on the machine that spits out stuff you can’t use and another part where the bran comes out. My theory is that the other machines which are much smaller and lower quality (which they are used to) don’t separate the bran out from the other discharge as well. Thus you get more bran but with other stuff in it too. We are doing what we can to solve this problem to try and bring more people in. These are just the things that when going into this thing I had no idea about and we are now trying to figure out. The learning curve is high.
The family is good. I know most of you already know but Prang is pregnant again. Yeah! Abigail is doing good and has started to talk up a storm and really enjoys singing. She’s a lot better than her dad who can’t sing at all. Park is doing well and should be getting off of his one years probation here soon. Ton and Koi (Prangs two younger brothers) still live with us and work with me when they are off from school. Ton should be finishing his civil engineering degree here soon too.
