Sweet Treat

There's a tradition in Thailand of bringing a gift to one's neighbors when returning from a trip. We've enjoyed this little custom for a couple of reasons. (1) You get to catch up with your neighbors and hear about their latest adventure and (2) You get all sorts of goodies. One of our neighbors just returned from a business trip to Shanghai and brought these for us. A little taste of the U.S.A. (from China)

Music to My Ears

There's a small Christian church near my language school and I ducked in for a few minutes on my way to class a week before Christmas. I slipped off my shoes at the door, took a seat and listened to a few Thai musicians as they practiced for an upcoming worship service. This instrument is called a Ranaat Eek. It resembles a xylophone or marimba and sounds beautiful at the hands of a skilled musician. My favorite part of the experience was realizing what he was playing... "Come Thou Long Expected Jesus."

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Bangkok! We've been enjoying beautiful weather here for the last week. The high today was in the upper 80's, and the break from the heat has been such a relief and has made the holiday time seem more special. How incredible to have all the windows open and no air conditioning on!

We've had some ups and downs emotionally as the holiday season has progressed, but we had a wonderful Christmas day today and are thankful for the many gifts God has given us. Although we missed our families at home very much, we enjoyed a morning as a family and the afternoon and evening with our team, who is much like family. It is a privilege to celebrate Christmas here, and we rejoice today in the birth of our Savior!

Long Live the King

On Tuesday, the King of Thailand turned 79 years old. As he is such a beloved king, his birthday is always a big event (and it's the Thai Father's Day), but it was even more so this year because it is the 60th anniversary of his reign. So Thailand really celebrated! Tim had the day off of school, so in the afternoon, we donned our yellow (the king's color) and headed over to Suan Luang, the nearby park that was built in the king's honor. In this picture, you can see the large picture of the king in the background, along with the Thai flags (red, white and blue) and the king's flags (yellow). These flags and pictures of both the king and queen are everywhere.


We're always a minority here, but on this day we REALLY felt our minority status. We saw maybe two other farang (foreigners) there at the park, and there were a gazillion people there. It is a huge park, and it was packed. People walked by us and we could hear them saying "farang". But the funniest thing was the way they reacted to Emmy. As people walked by her, they stroked her hair, rubbed her face, called her "dtukada" (doll), and she had quite a few pictures taken with various strangers! It was like walking around with a rock star!

Asa is about to lose it in this picture.

The traffic in Bangkok is always an issue, but this day it was hard to get near the park. Our taxi driver actually stopped a few blocks away and asked us to get out and walk. Which afforded us the fun opportunity of making our way through the crowds on the sidewalk as we passed vendors selling everything from noodles to octopus tentacles!


There are always gorgeous flowers in this park, but they were absolutely everywhere on this special day. There are a number of ponds, and they had these long-tailed boats filled with flowers...and those are poinsettias in the middle!


This is the structure that houses artifacts and pictures from the king's life (schoolbooks, army uniform, some of the many instruments he plays, other hobby items, etc.). It's circular, and you walk around the outside to view all of the artifacts.

And 99% of the people were wearing yellow. Long live the king!