“I said, EXODUS 20: 8-11!” screamed Roy at the kids. His two interpreters looked at him blankly. “EDODUS 20: 8-11” he roared once again. This time both interpreters started shouting at the children tightly packed around them. Each head bent forward to try to catch their words. What in the world was going on? A bible study…while the rain pounded on our thin, tin roof. Buckets dotted the floor, and a pizza pan sat precariously on the piano to catch the steady drips from our holey roof.

Yes, this is a new house…but they had to wait until the rainy season in order to figure out where the drips would be. With no double roof, first we were baked in a tin oven, but now we are drowned out by the incessant roar of the rain, and the dripping roof. And this is a NICE house! Welcome to rainy season.

Believe it or not, having to shout until you are hoarse is a great relief from the heat. At the moment I LOVE the mud and noise! I am just thrilled not to be melting in the extreme heat anymore. I don’t have a thermometer in here yet, but I would guess that it was around 120 degrees in the house every day. So, to say goodbye to hot season is just fine with me!

The start of rainy season is also the beginning of school. But, what a beginning! On the first day, our children got up early, excited to be heading down to school. After a few hours, Travis got curious as to how things were going down there, so he jumped on the motor bike to go see. When he got there, he found classrooms full of students milling around, sitting on the desks, running around the property, looking out the doors and windows…the teachers were wandering all over the place, looking lost. Roy was in the first grade classroom teaching English. What in the world was going on? Why weren’t the teachers teaching? Roy finally had an emergency teachers meeting and found out that there were no books, there were no uniforms, they had not cleaned out their desks or made any lesson plans. Nobody had gone to Mae Sot to get the needed materials yet. “This is normal”, he was told.  Roy announced in no uncertain terms that they had 20 minutes to get their plans together and then they must stand in front of their classrooms and teach something, ANYTHING, but they must teach!

Although there were still no books or other things, the second day went much better. All the teachers are getting the idea that things cannot be normal anymore, the new director means business!

So, although things are rather challenging around here, we are beginning to get things settled. To say that our new job is easy would be absurd, but God is giving us grace to handle each and every emergency.