Thanksgiving Feast - Early or Late?

Today we had a Thanksgiving feast at church after the morning service. It was two weeks late for Canadian Thanksgiving and about a month early for Thanksgiving in the United States. But then being grateful shouldn't have a season or a special occasion should it?

There were a number of people missing from church on Thanksgiving weekend, so the feast was postponed until today. We especially enjoyed it since we just returned from our trip. It was a good time to reconnect with people from church. One of the things I am thankful for is our church and the people there. We are blessed to be a part of the Believers Fellowship church here in Sioux Lookout.

It was a beautiful day today. There was hardly a cloud in the sky. We went for a walk this afternoon. The leaves are pretty much gone from the trees, but there is no snow yet.

The food and fellowship at the Thanksgiving feast were both good.

The desert table was a great place to visit!

Minneapolis

We completed our journey as far as Minneapolis. We arrived here on schedule at 10:20 this morning. We checked into our motel. We will be here for the IGo board meeting on Thursday and Friday.

Our main task for today and tomorrow is to figure out when it is day and night. We left our house in Chiang Mai at 9:30 AM on Monday. It was light until we left Bangkok. When we arrived in Taipei it was dark. We left Taipei in the dark Monday evening at 11:00 PM. While we were flying to San Francisco it got light and then just as we were landing in San Francisco it was getting dark again. It was about 7:30 PM still Monday. We left San Francisco in the dark at midnight. We arrived in Dallas at 5:25 AM on Tuesday. It soon got light. Now we are in Minneapolis. It is a little hard to tell what time of day it really is now. I'm sure we will get adjusted in a few days.

We appreciate those of you who were praying for us as we traveled. Everything went on schedule and all our lugguage arrived. When we arrived in San Francisco the American Airlines person said that China Airlines had changed our flight, canceled the American Airlines portion and did not re-instate it. She worked on it for 30 minutes or so and got it all fixed up for us.

I am looking forward to the other IGo board members arriving here Thursday morning. We have a full agenda and usually we also have a great time of fellowship.

Last Week in Thailand

We are nearing the end of our time in Thailand for this trip. I finished teaching on Thursday. I gave the final exam to my students on Friday. I finished all my grading and turned everything in to the office late Friday evening.

Today we went with Collier and Nettie Berkshire to the village of Pang Klang. IGo has Craig and Rachel Miller serving there as church planters. We had a nice visit with them. Watching them cook lunch over an open fire and seeing their lifestyle brought back a lot of memories of our time in Haiti.

Pang Klang is a Lisu tribal village way up in the jungle mountains of Northern Thailand. There are about 100 families living in the village. The people raise food crops on the land that they farm.

We are getting ready to head back to North America. We leave Chiang Mai at 11:20 AM on Monday, which would be 11:20 PM Sunday in Sioux Lookout. Our scheduled route will take us through Bangkok, Taipei, San Fransico, Dallas, and then to Minneapolis. We arrive in Minneapolis at 10:25 AM on Tuesday. We will be staying in Minneapolis until Friday so I can attend the IGo board meeting on Thursday and Friday.

Last week we went with the Rick Rhodes and Rich Swartz families to the night safari. Here is a picture of the boys in the three families holding a white tiger cub. They said on a sign that there are only 300 white tigers in the world. Dallas said there are now only 299 white tigers in the world that he has not held!


Here are the girls from the same three families holding the white tiger cub.


This is a picture of the IGo students in the morning chapel service.


Here is one side of the classroom as the students are writing the final exam. There were 30 students in the class.


Here we are at Craig and Rachel's house eating lunch. The group consists of Edith, to her left Darren Sommers who is serving with IGo and GTO at the Compassion Home. Craig Miller, Rachel Miller, Nettie Berkshire and Collier Berkshire. In the Lisu villages they sit on the floor with the food on a low table in the middle of the group.

The Second Week at IGo

I am finished with the second week of my teaching at the Institute for Global Opportunities. There are one more week of classes to go. I am enjoying the discussion and interaction with the students. This third week will have more grading and the final exam, so that will make it a little more challenging for me.

We had a good week as a family too. Elaine and Dallas are enjoying attending the school here and have friends among the students there. Friday they did a field trip to the zoo and a waterfall.

Last Saturday Dallas and I went to the zoo. We were hoping to see the baby panda, but we could only watch it on a video link. Friday evening we went with several other families to the Night Safari. It was interesting. Elaine and Dallas got their picture taken holding a tiger cub. I'll try to post the pictures when I get them.

Yesterday we went to the Golden Triangle area of Thailand. We crossed the border into Myanmar and spent a few hours there. We couldn't find a restaurant, so we hired a motorcycle taxi and he took us to a restaurant. The name of the restaurant was "Mother World". We had a good meal there, but since no one spoke English it took some imagination and lots of hand motions to get a meal ordered.

After lunch at Mother World we were able to get our passports stamped and reenter Thailand with permission to stay until October 24. Our flight is scheduled to leave on the 19th. On the way home we stopped a some hot springs. We soaked our feet in the hot water. Dallas bought some eggs and hardboiled them in one of the springs.

This morning we attended the morning service at IGo. We had lunch here and are enjoying a quiet Sunday afternoon.

Here is a picture of the mother panda eating her lunch.

Thursday I went with a few other men to visit a village that is requesting that a family come and teach them from the Bible. There are 170 families in the village and no Christians. These are some of the village leaders that were talking with us. The man in the light blue shirt is a Lisu Pastor who would be willing to help with an outreach in the village.

This is the sign at the border between Thailand and Myanmar.

This is the Mother World Restaurant. Our taxi driver is at the table in the foreground.

This is the hot spring. This geyser is the highest geyser in Thailand.

It Is Headed For Cuba!

The container we have been packing with surplus medical equipment and supplies is now on its way to Cuba! The men finished packing the container, and had it loaded onto a flatbed trailer to be taken to the CN Rail yard in Winnipeg. In Winnipeg it will be put on the train and sent to the port where it will be loaded onto a ship.

We have put a lot of time into getting everything packed into the trailer. At the last minute we were still short of equipment to fill the container. Since we heard that they do not have toilet paper in the hospitals in Cuba, we added 30 cases of toilet paper to the load. That filled the container right up to the back door.

With us being in Thailand, I was not there to participate in the celebration of seeing the container head down the road beginning its journey to Cuba. Still, I am pretty excited that it is on its way. Now, we will have to decide if we will do another one next year.

Here are a few pictures of the loading.

You can see a few cases of toilet paper. the garbage bags are filled with used clothing and are used for packing material.


Here it is going onto the flatbed trailer.


This is the truck with the container heading out the driveway.

Teaching at IGo

I am now a teacher. Isn't that amazing? I realize each day that I am not trained as a teacher. I can share thoughts and concepts, but I have not been trained to do grading, assignments and testing. These are acquired skills that those of you who have teacher training have acquired. I am basically a story teller. I share from my life experiences the things that God has taught me and allowed me to experience. I trust that the students will pick up a vision of what God may want to do in their lives.

My class is from 2:00 to 3:00 PM each afternoon. I realize that most of your in North America are fast asleep while I am teaching. We are exactly 12 hours ahead of Central Time in North America. So, it is 2:00 AM in Sioux Lookout when I step to the front of the classroom in Chiang Mai. I am blessed to have the afternoon class. Some of the teachers refer to the afternoon class as the "graveyard class". With me not being a morning person, both the students and I can be grateful that I get to teach in the afternoon.

We are enjoying our time in Thailand. We live in a house in the same village as the Institute for Global Opportunities. We have a motorbike that we use for transportation from our house to the Institute. The children have bicycles that they use to go to and from the staff children's school.

Here are a few pictures of our life here.

This is the house we are living in here in Chiang Mai.



This is the living room in the house.


This is a view of the dining room. The kitchen is off to the left of the dining room.


Here Edith and I are ready to head off from the house in the morning.