Well, probably needless to say, I made it home last Friday. My trip home was quite boring, although I must admit to sleeping through most of it, so I am just assuming that it was boring. At least it was not exciting enough to keep me awake. After getting almost no sleep for 5 nights, it would have taken something pretty major for me to consider it exciting anyway.

When I got home, I found two little girls who were very happy to see me, and a totally changed look to the training center! Thah Me had gone through one of the banana orchards and really cleaned it up a lot. The weeds were all cleaned out from around the rocks, and the grass was short. It is starting to look really nice! Pearl had gotten into the spirit also, and had weeded one side of the hill in front of the house, and swept the entire yard. Over here, any kind of grass or weeds around a house is very unwelcome since it can house all kinds of terrible critters, so bare is beautiful! Since they got such a good start on things, I have been taking Meme and Hannah out every day to weed another section on the hill. They really like being outside and even Hannah can pull weeds like a veteran now.

Jason’s dengue was not as severe as the first time he had it. There are only 4 strains of dengue fever here in Thailand, and he has now had two of them, which makes him happy since he feels like he only has two more to go and then he will either be dead or out of danger! The bad part is that he had to go to Lao to get his visa renewed on Sunday. That is way too soon after having dengue to be traveling if you ask me. But, Thai officials do not consider disease to be a good excuse for being late for your visa, so off he went.  Unfortunately, when he got to the embassy in Lao, he was informed that he has too many visas, and they would not give him another one. He was really distressed about this, and so he called me asking what he should do. I was shocked! How can we leave now when we are just starting our work? So, I started praying and thinking, and I got the distinct impression that this would turn out to be a blessing. I called Maria, and she remembered that a friend of theirs had just mentioned to her a couple of weeks ago that they could give them a letter for a year visa if they wanted one! So, if Jason can end up with a year visa instead of the 4 month kind, it will cost a lot less, and be a HUGE blessing! God is good all the time!  Now, we just have to pray that we can have a long term visa also before we run into trouble too.

Our new students are, um….well, they are still here! They have a lot of things to overcome, and we have had to make many adjustments, but every time I am thinking that they cannot stay another minute, God gives me a different message. So, here they are, and we are working very hard to train them to Christian habits and ways. It has made our job 10 times harder, but God has increased our endurance about a hundred fold, so we keep going in the strength that he gives us!

One of the big blessings of having more boys around is that now the work program is progressing faster! They already poured the three little concrete slabs for the storage area of the kitchen, and today they are planning to pour one half of the main kitchen. Just a minute ago Travis came running in here to tell me that a banded crate, which is a poisonous snake, wrapped itself around Roy’s finger while he was moving bricks, but they were able to kill it before it bit him! Working for God can be quite exciting sometimes, but he has guards on duty 24/7, so we are doing fine!

Since Meme was failing in school, we pulled her out and are now homeschooling her. Travis went and talked to her teachers about it, and they assured us that she can go right into the 2nd grade next year, and it will be just fine. We are hoping that by then she will be doing better, and will be able to handle a real school. In just the three weeks that we have been teaching her, she has gone from not knowing any numbers or letters in any language, to doing addition, and reading simple words in English, and she is making great progress in Thai and Karen and oral English. (how would you like to have to study 3 languages every day, and learn to read and write in each one???) She was not all that happy about having to drop out of school, but actually she is much happier now.

So, now my days are full of mothering my girls. I hear “Momo, MOMO!!!” every few seconds from one or the other of them. They both need a lot of attention, and they love to have me notice everything that they do or say. Roy had started an oral English class for the boys, and he had them pointing out their noses and ears and jumping, and walking around the table, etc… Hannah watched these proceedings for a while, and then joined the class! She is the fastest one now, and carefully checks to make sure that everyone else is doing it right. Meme also has picked up on English so much that sometimes I forget that she cannot understand everything I say yet! If I start talking to fast, she tells me “I do not understand”, and then I have to slow down and throw in a few Karen words so that she can get it. I am just amazed at how fast they are learning.

Life in Asia is never boring, and we are learning to deal with the problems as they arise, and trust in the Lord every moment of every day.