Will the last one to leave please turn off the lights?

So, we've decided that having a blog, a newsletter, and a facebook page isn't really necessary.  Besides, I don't really like blogging anyway, and the idea that I am or was a 'blogger' at any point really isn't attractive to me. 

We'll be posting all our updates on facebook, especially in our group "Hold the Rope for Trey and Kiki" or in our monthly newsletter.  Find us there or email me for ways to learn about what we're doing. 

Everything's bigger in..

Texas Thailand.

Goliath

I believe that Matt Nicholson won the contest, we decided to name him "Goliath".

Thrive

I'm not much of a blogger anyway, but this summer my blogging has slowed to a crawl.  Part of the reason for this is that we have a team of six interns from the US, and I rarely want to get online when I have free time...so, I'm being a slacker when it comes to updating the blog. 

On the topic of interns, though, this has been a great team.  Four girls, two guys (praise Jesus that I have some guys here for awhile!) are here to serve us this summer as we try to build relationships with Thais in the Ramkhamhaeng 2 community.  Please pray for us and for the interns as we finish the summer...pray that we can capitalize on their very hard work here.

A few shots from Ayutthaya

This past Tuesday, I took our interns to see the old capital of Thailand, Ayutthaya.  I don't know all of the history, but  I do know that it was colonized twice by the Burmese.  Tuesdays are days off for most of our team, and this was a really pleasant excursion and a great way to get some Thai history and culture.  Here are a few shots from the trip:

Kiki's dream job

If this job comes open, Kiki might actually resign from MTW to follow her dreams.

English Worship

No, we didn't worship English, we just worshiped in English.  This was water for our souls...after 6 months of worshiping in Thai, it was nice to get together and sing hymns and hear the Word in our heart language.  We plan to do this once a month.

 We had a visitor, Nick Glass, on the banjo, Tim Mills on the pennywhistle and hand-drums, and I led on guitar.

 There were about 25 people at worship with us...interns, short-termers, and missionaries.

Rev. Andrew Bronson preached from Genesis 12 about the mission of God to bless the nations through the line of Abraham.

This was such a sweet and needed time for us...we hope to take turns preaching (between Rev. Dave Veldhorst, Rev. Andrew Bronson, Johnny McClean, Tim Mills, and Rev. Me...hehe...) we hope that we can have a monthly time of worship together in English to help feed our own souls as we minister in Bangkok.

Well, bite my shoe.

Last week we went on a little outing with some friends, and one of the friends had just bought new shoes before the trip.  As I looked back to say something to her, I saw her doing this. 

Apparently, there is a saying in Thai, "Bite your shoes before they have a chance to bite you."  And apparently, Thai people live by this maxim.

Dinner out...

A couple of weeks ago, we got to spend a few nights outside of Bangkok, which was a very welcome change for us.  One of the highlights was spending time with Pastor Chatchai (the man in the blue shirt directly across from me).  He is planting a church in Ratchaburi province, basically starting from scratch...which is kind of what you do in Thailand when you plant a church.  Pray for him as he does the very tough work of evangelism and discipleship in a place with very little Christianity.

The meal was awesome, by the way.

We just jogged home in the rain after exercising a the local university.  Trey ran and I walked while studying flash cards of Thai words with irregular spelling.  I thought I might get a chance to be a good speller in another language, but my hopes have been completely dashed.  I am going to be worse in Thai.
Before the rain started, we picked up some of these purple fruit at the market on the way home.  They are (currently) my favorite.  Mangosteen in English--Mangkut in Thai.  If you ever get a chance to taste some fresh ones--take it! I have only ever seen canned mangosteen in the US.
PS.  Praise God for the rain.  We have had several weeks of highs in the 100's.