Picture Update!

Some of the Adventures we have been on, hiking, Night Safari, trying to go to the Sunday Night market and getting SOAKED, seeing the rice fields...these are just a few of the things we have done so far!

The Night Safari is an animal park that is about a 5 minute drive from our house.  They have a safari bus that takes you around to all the different animals.  On the bus you can feed the giraffes, pet zebra, and pet all different kinds of deer.  They also have a walking trail with more animals to look at as well as fun things like Elephant rides, and feeding and playing with baby tigers!

We have been to a variety of different markets out here and we enjoy them all!!  Isaac loves going to them because we get all kinds of fun foods!  He enjoys just about any type of meat on a stick and LOVES the grilled corn here!  Last week we went to the Sunday night market, it was the Queens Birthday and they had a big celebration for her.  We have no idea what was going on because is was all in Thai, but on our way to the main stage everything in the market stopped and everyone was still as the Thai National Anthem came over the loud speakers, as soon as it was finished everyone went back about their business.  We finally made it to the stage, confused, some of the only white people there and it started to rain....we found this a great time to start heading back to our car!!  As we got back into the market area the rain came harder and then everyone stopped what they were doing and lit a candle and began singing, we can only imagine that they were singing (in some way) Happy Birthday.  As soon as the song ended everyone blew out their candles and fireworks started, and then the rain came...and when I say the rain came I mean it POURED on us!!  We were all soaked when we got to the car!!

Visit to a Wat

This past Saturday, as a cultural experience, we visited a Buddhist temple.  We went with one of our language coaches, a Thai believer and some of our friends that arrived around the same time we did.  
Thai people are predominantly Buddhist and Animists with small pockets of Muslims scattered throughout the country.  Most of the people hold to the cultural belief that, "to be Thai is to be Buddhist," keeping their religion as a main aspect of their identity.
Most villages have their own Wat, or Buddhist temple, which serves as a central location for village events.  One of the most concentrated number or temples can be found in the city of Chiang Mai with over 300 Buddhist temples.  
When Thai people become Christians, many face persecution because their families feel that they have angered the spirits by converting to Christianity.  Believers are often under pressure from their families to revert back to Buddhism.
As we were walking around the Wat there was such a sense of hopelessness.  People were sitting by monks trying to earn merit for their sins and do "the right thing" to earn favor with Buddha and/or the spirits.  To see people that are so lost, and caught in the trap of culture and tradition is enough to break your heart.  
We want to share with them the message of hope but the language barrier adds to the difficulty of sharing.  In the US we spoke the language and had the ability to share with our words.  Even when we lived in Kenya, most people spoke English. Here we don't speak the language, we don't have religion in common and we are mere visitors in their homeland.  For now we look for opportunities to share with locals that speak english.  Recently Nate was at 7-11 paying a bill and ran into a guy that spoke english and even spent a few years in Texas. When Nate/Nathan/Nathanael introduced himself the man said that was a biblical name. That was the last thing we expected him to say. Nate spent the next couple of hours sharing with him and hopes to continue to build that relationship.  
Please join us in prayer for the people of Chiang Mai, that the Light of Jesus would be able to penetrate the darkness of Buddhism.

Below are some of the pictures that we took on our trip to the Wat.

Life During Week 4

We passed the 4 week mark last Friday and we celebrated by trying to watch a movie very unsuccessfully! We clearly didn't have a great internet signal, but we DID have yummy popcorn! :)  Here are some of our recent pictures and adventures!!  Keep an eye out later this week for a post about our visit to a Buddhist Temple.

We are official!  We now have Thai Drivers license's!  I (Steph) have yet to experience driving here, but soon I will have my chance!  The scooters....ALL parked outside of a grocery mall...yah there really are that many crazy scooter drivers out here!!!  It's NUTS!!  Also a couple of pictures of a meal we enjoyed with friends!

Isaac LOVES to play...he's latest, "Daddy will you play with me?" He loves to have us make a "car slide" aka ramp for his cars, as well as tunnels out of Legos for his train to go through.  We haven't been able to make it to the pool much we have been SUPER busy since we got here!

Friday night was our epic fail of a movie night...but we sure enjoyed the popcorn!!  Saturday night we took Isaac to golf again!  HE LOVES IT!!  He is somewhat of a novelty...the blonde haired, blue eyed, farang (white kid), hitting balls at the driving range!  One of our most enjoyed (and cheapest) family activities (it only coast a $1 per bucket of balls)!   

The boys outside playing soccer...or soccer ball as Isaac calls it!

New Adventures

Wow, tomorrow will mark 3 weeks of us being in Thailand!  How long and short these weeks have been!  So many new experiences and lots of exploring and learning.  Here are some pictures of our adventures in the last week!

Our new Saturday morning tradition.  Watching Isaac hit buckets of balls at the driving range, while we drink an Iced Latte! 

Our Visit to the Saturday Night Market...food, music, crafts...all sorts of stuff!

We visited a fruits and veggie market yesterday...these things were also there!  It took us a while to recover from all of the new smells we experienced!

Our "catch" from the market yesterday.  We got lots of garlic, cilantro, corn, carrots, tomatoes, chiles, onions, avocado, banana's, and limes.  I have already roasted the Chiles and Tomatoes and they will be a part of my Green Chile tomorrow!!

We painted the downstairs of our new home this past week...here is Nate hard at work in the kitchen, a before and after picture of color...and in the top Left we have the fabulous spider that was HUGE...Nate killed it!!!! And the bottom right is a kitty that has frequented our front porch.

Our First Week!

Two weeks ago we were preparing for our last few days at home, and now here we are living in Chiang Mai (CM) Thailand.  Our travel went really well, better than expected!!  Isaac did great, all of our flights were on time and ALL of our luggage made it!  

We had a house waiting for us, and boy was it nice to be able to unpack and unwind from our days of travel.  We didn’t have much time to enjoy our new home before we headed to a conference for the week.  It was in the the city where we got to see and do some of the “touristy” things.  We got to enjoy the night market, new restaurants, and enjoy local transportation.  

After our conference Isaac caught a cold and we are hopefully on the mend!  Please continue to pray for healing for our little boy and specifically that this cold does NOT turn into an ear infection.  

We are excited to keep you updated on our life here in CM.  Thank you for all of your prayers and support, we so appreciate you all!!

Here are some of the photos of our flights and our first week here!

The "War" Room

The luggage cart at DIA

Isaac on our first flight to LA

The Plane we got on in LA

Isaac brushing up on some airplane safety :)

Isaac sleeping on our way to Seoul

Watching a movie

CM Night Market
(this is the tame picture....this is only the shops on the streets)

McDonalds delivers here :)

Enjoying some chicken nuggets

Taking a Tuk Tuk back to the hotel in the rain!

We got to see fireworks on the 4th!!

Fun with friends!

Miguels....pretty good Mexican food!!

The Moat in the city

Isaac's School

  

Let me start by saying that Isaac has never been in school before!  The only school type experience he had had was the church nursery or MOPS nursery.  So when we dropped him off at a strange place with strange teachers and kids he didn’t know, he was not the least bit impressed!  He cried and cried for the first week when we dropped him off, maybe even two weeks!  Slowly but surely he began to not mind school so much, in fact, he LOVED it!  He now runs in every morning and we have to beg for a hug and kiss :)  

He has learned so much in school!  They have a new theme every week!  One week was colors, one was transportation, animals, countries, and a few more but I can’t remember them all :)  They also learned a new Bible story every week, they learned about Noah, Jonah, Jesus feeding the 5,000, Moses, and this week is Zacchaeus.

He has learned so many new songs and enjoyed songs he already knew!  Two of his favorites are Zacchaeus (you know....Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he...), and 5 Little Monkeys. 

He has made so many friends and loves his teachers!!   

We have had so much fun watching him grow and learn over the last two months, it’s amazing the amount of information that his little brain can hold onto :)  he seems to remember everything!!!

Here are a few of the pictures that they have taken in school along with one of Isaac ready to head out to school!

Washington D.C. Visit

On Saturday we were able to visit Washington D.C. for the day.  Here are a few pictures from our visit.

Isaac's First Metro Ride

White House

Isaac sleeping on the job too :-0

World War II Memorial

Washington Memorial from WWII Memorial

Isaac at Vietnam Memorial

In Front of Lincoln Memorial

Inside Lincoln Memorial