Can you believe that I actually got so excited about my news that I FORGOT to write about it? So, here it goes.

Our search for where to go began with google earth. We zoomed all over this country looking for the perfect spot for us. We settled on this area, and then we came to see it. That is when the Thai school invited us to come and teach for them, and even gave us a house to live in while we looked for property to build our own school.

After getting here and getting settled, Roy, Jason and Travis went hunting for the perfect place to call home. After just two trips, Jason announced that he had found that perfect place. He had spent several hours exploring the area and felt that we could never ask for a more perfect spot. None of the rest of us had seen it until we went on our camping trip last week, and camped there. We all fell in love with it right away, but we still had to get permission from all the authorities to move here and build.

Many trips were taken to the different officials, but last Monday, Jason and Roy went on another trip to see if they could find out the final word on if we could move here or not. So, they took off on the motor bike while I had school with the girls and then started on lunch preparations. I was sitting in the kitchen stirring the curry when I heard Jason and Roy come back. They walked into the kitchen with sober looks on their faces. My heart fell…oh no…now we have to look some more. Jason said that the head man was not at home, so he had gone to the other head man of the second village and talked to him, and he wished that he had not done it because now we had a big assignment. I could not imagine what the headman would want us to do for him, so I waited to hear what that assignment would be. Jason then mournfully told me that we were going to have to move. Move???? You mean to the new property? “YES” Jason responded, and both he and Roy broke out into big happy grins.

We flew into the job of packing up the essentials, and within a couple of hours, Jason with three little girls in tow were headed down the river with the strangest looking boat you can imagine. It was made of a table and all our empty water jugs to hold it up, along with all their camping gear. Roy, Destiny and I then headed to town to buy a few essentials before making the plunge into the wilderness. (That was when I forgot to tell you all about it even though I had good internet)

This last week has been absolutely wonderful. We made a campsite on the side of the hill by the little creek that would rival a king’s palace….maybe. (We like it anyway) Jason started building a very temporary house because the rains could start within a few weeks. We have been making trails, clearing up the brush, and a hundred other things that need to be done. Then, Jason decided that we needed to buy our own boat, so he took off and went shopping. I figured that it would take a while to get one made, so I did not think much of it.

That day, Roy took up a new hobby, followed by a new occupation. He started out by being a pyromaniac, and ended up turning into a firefighter! The jungle floor is covered by deep leaves this time of year…a perfect place for creepy crawly things to hide. So, we are clearing it all away from where we need to work. Smart, huh? I was doing it the old fashioned way by using a bamboo broom that Jason had made for me, laboriously sweeping up all the debris and dumping it in piles. Since there are a lot of acres of ground here to clean up, at least a hundred, my progress was a bit slow. So, Roy thought that if he just burned the leaves like all the village people are doing right now it would be faster.

Sure enough…it was faster! Somehow, with only one person to watch the fire, it got away from Roy, and turned into an out of control blaze that roared up the side of the mountain! It sounded like a battle was going on since bamboo explodes when it gets burned. Roy said that it was a battle, and he was NOT winning. The good news is that people around here do such things on purpose, so no harm was done, although it did cause at least one mostly sleepless night.

Yesterday, we were sitting here in our camp when we heard a boat on the river. I sent the girls down to check to see who it was, since no boats come down this far unless they are coming to see us. They yelled back up the mountain that it was Jason and that he had a new boat!

I never would have believed that God could have something better in mind for us than our comfortable place at Sunshine Orchard, but this is so much better for us that it boggles my mind. My children are pleasantly occupied all day long with good work and fun things to do. (They love to swing on the jungle vines.)

We have several villages to minister to, along with a Thai school. There are no evil influences around, which helps Hannah’s situation considerably, and we have the most beautiful place you can imagine to build a school that will honor God. When we surrender our lives to Jesus, he gives us more than we could ever ask or think.