So many things to write about. So little time available. We had a great time and some day I’ll update the final week.

We just arrived back in the states and we thank God for a great trip and we thank Jessica and Brandon for being such good hosts.

As I sit by a cascade of waterfalls on Friday afternoon I will catch up on our activities from Thursday.

As our day at Thoo Mwee Khee school wasn’t going to start until after lunch Kevin and I decided to walk again to school and the girls would be picked up by Brandon at lunchtime.

Kevin and I wanted to get some more hardware for another tire swing. We thought we saw a shop that sold some u-bolts we could use. As we walked we found a hardware shop of sorts and they did have what we were looking for. We were able to put together another tire swing just off the soccer field.

The kids put this to use right away.

Today we were attending Jessica’s class with the first and second year students. The kids assignment was to interview each one of us (me, Jenny, Kevin and Sherry). They would have 10 minutes to interview each of us and then to continue their assignment they have to write a summary report on each person. Their questions ranged from our names, age, number of children, etc. to the funny ones asking if Teacher Jessica was ever naughty as a child, how many boyfriends did Jessica have in her life to even asking how we would feel if Jessica (or Brandon) married a Karen person. We had lots of fun doing this. We went through 2 different periods of this.

Afterwards we left and came to this same waterfalls I am sitting at now to look around. It is just beautiful here. I decided to walk here today as it’s only a mile or two from our hotel.

Today we had to get up early to go and listen, along with the whole BLA student body, about different teams that went back to villages in Karen state for an internship or student teaching. They send the second year students on this internship. There were 23 different pairs or teams that went back to Burma, into villages to help in any way they could with teaching, sports camps or cleanup in the villages. What a great experience this gave the students. We only got about halfway through the teams when we ran out of time and left for lunch. The others will have to go at a later date. Friday’s are Karen dress day so I took a picture of Jessica and Brandon showing off their Karen clothes.

Today is Brandon’s birthday so we are headed back to the school later this afternoon for supper. The Karen tradition is for the birthday person to feed others on their day so Kevin and Sherry are having the cooking team put together a meal for the 400 or so people on campus and in the dorms. Reminds me of when the Liberian team fed the churches in our Liberian version of the potluck we did. It should be interesting.

Tomorrow we have to leave around 8:00 a.m. as Brandon and Jessica are taking 12 or so students to Chiang Mai for some competitions. Jessica and Brandon are always running. I’m glad they’re young enough to handle it. Kevin, Sherry, Jenny and I will follow in another vehicle and drive the 6-8 hours to Chiang Mai. After dropping the students off we will look around Chiang Mai and spend the night up there. We will travel back on Sunday after church somewhere and stay another night away, possibly in Mae Sott. We’ll see where we end up.

Not sure when I’ll update next. Until then…

How quickly time goes when you’re busy. I have 2 days of activities to write about.

On Wednesday, the 23rd, Kevin, Sherry and I traveled with Pastor Peacefully to Burma to purchase a chainsaw for the Karen people. When Peacefully visited the states he liked Kevin’s lumber cutter attachment for the chainsaw so much because they can not only clear trees, but they can produce lumber for building from the trees with this. Anyway, Kevin and Sherry wanted to help them get this so we rode along to Burma to pick out the chainsaw to go with the lumber attachment. They don’t sell larger chainsaws in Thailand because there has been too much tree harvesting without good forest management. This saw will be used in Karen State which is in Burma. We had no idea on brand of saw available or what it would be like.

We drove to Mae Sott where they have the normal border crossing at the bridge into Burma. We had to pay 500 baht to get a one day visa at the border. This is just under $17 US. When we got to the bridge we weren’t sure (we didn’t ask exactly what we were doing as we were just tagging along) how things would work. After walking and going to the border control we were allowed to walk across the bridge to Burma. Jenny had decided not to go since we had done a lot of walking on previous days. She was happy she didn’t go when she heard how much we had to walk again. We had to leave our passport with border control in Burma on arrival. Once we paid our fee, gave them our passport and met back with Peacefully he says to me, ‘We have a little problem.’ Turns our he forgot to have the Thai border control stamp his passport so he could enter (different process for him since he’s a Burmese and Thai citizen). He informs us that he has to walk back across the bridge, leaving Kevin, Sherry and me in Burma by ourselves and with our passports in the hands of the border control. It sounds worse than it is since we now see how things work, but we initially teased Peacefully that he was planning on dumping us off in Burma and leaving us there.

We wandered down the street past all the money changers and Kevin even converted some Thai money into Burmese money. I think it was 60 baht ($2 US) and he got just over 2800 Burmese dollars in return. I don’t know what they call it. We didn’t have to wait long and Peacefully came back from across the bridge and we went to meet a guy about the chainsaw. Here is the streets of Burma at the border.

When we got to the ‘hardware’ store we found out the chainsaw for sale is a Stihl and one of the biggest they make. We were surprised and happy because we are so familiar with that brand.

They started the saw up and Peacefully made the deal and his friend on the Burma side would take the chainsaw with him.

We then retrieved our passports, walked back across the bridge and headed back to Thoo Mwee Khee school.

Since it was Wednesday we headed to church at the school where the students handle the Wednesday service and they do it in English. It was really neat to see that. A young man preached in English and they had a Karen interpreter repeat in Karen. Next week we will all be responsible for this service. I’m looking forward to that also.

As always here, every day tired us out and we sleep well.

I’ll catch up on yesterday’s adventure later.

This post covers yesterday with getting into part of today.

Yesterday, the 22nd, we were picked up to go to Thoo Mwee Key school in the morning. We had plans to visit Brandon’s speaking class again. We were able to sit in on 3-4 of his classes as they continued with the theme of who do you admire the most in your life.

As we sat and listened to their stories of their mother’s or father’s or grand parents we found ourselves fascinated by their experiences in such a relatively short life. Here were these young boys and girls, around 18-20 years of age, having experiences that sound both painful emotionally and difficult due to poverty in many cases, knowing that in my life I was very blessed to avoid such difficult times. Some stories made us laugh and some definitely tugged at our heart as they shared their story of fleeing from the soldiers or how their Mom and/or Dad sacrificed to send them to school. They were telling us all of this in English, their 2nd or 3rd language. To me that was impressive on what they already achieved.

After sitting in on those classes we visited for awhile and Kevin showed Pastor Peacefully all of the tools he brought over for their use. Peacefully was extremely grateful for these as they are cordless tools that will be put to good use over here.

We, of course, played with the kids and babies around. Jenny even held a (flea infested) puppy for awhile. (She did put him down once she realized the fleas were all over him).

While we were visiting I received a call from Pastor Emmanuel Jonah of Liberia. He wanted to talk with me before he headed home. I was able to video chat with him and show him around Thoo Mwee Key school. What a treat to show our Liberian friend around a school in Thailand that reminds me of Liberia in many ways. He enjoyed seeing how their school is laid out. He is now headed back to Liberia himself and I know he is excited to see his family again.

After visiting we headed out for supper where Jenny and I tried a traditional Thai meal (can’t remember the name) and we both put a little too much chili’s on it. We both experienced the spice of Thai life last night. It was very good though. Kevin and Sherry chose the milder route for supper with fried rice and chicken. After we ate we headed back to our hotel and we all called it an early night. Even though we just sat in the classes the heat seemed to make us a little more tired. I know back home they aren’t having our heat struggles.

Well, I was going to get into today’s adventure, but I’ll post this and try and finish today’s after our day ends.

Today we got a later start from our hotel and we decided to walk the 2.9 miles to Thoo Mwee Khee school. Our path took us through Phop Phra as we wound our way through the side roads and along the main road. There were so many sights and shops to see as we walked. Many stores selling sundries and food items all along the way. Our stop was a familiar name to most Americans: 7-Eleven (they are all over Thailand). We cooled down with a drink and sat and rested awhile. This was just over halfway.

Once we got to the school we were able to find Jessica in the middle of teaching one of her classes.

We then went to one of Brandon’s classes where he was teaching the post 10 students better ways of teaching. They included us in there practical study. We really enjoyed this. After that we went to a speaking class to listen to students give a 2-3 minute speech on ‘Who do you admire the most in your life?’ Many of the students included a mother or teacher as that person. Our presence served as a little more intimidating as they didn’t only have their classmates, but a few more strangers. Brandon was happy we could give them that experience. We will go to school for more of this tomorrow.

After an evening meal that Sherry made at Pastor Peacefully’s home (Kevin and I put together a tire swing which we will put up later this week) we headed over to the community hall for a concert of sorts with a visiting Korean team and some of the Karen students. That was quite an experience as well. Now we are home after a long day with a pickup call for 9:15 tomorrow morning to head back to school.

We are so pleased to hear of CBC’s special offering to raise some money for a new swing set. The younger children only have this right now.

With the help of their generous gift we plan to purchase more functional and much larger playground equipment for the use by the younger primary students who live in the dormitories.

Until tomorrow…

Not much time to write this morning. We had a busy day, touring the rest of the school in the morning, having a greater appreciation for what Brandon and Jessica do here and how they live. What we take for granted is special things for them. A shower that doesn’t consist of a bucket of water with a dipper and a semi warm shower available in our hotel.

We traveled, yes we got back in the vehicle, to Mae Sott to go to a ‘lumber yard’ to find some wood to build a swing set for the school. After stops at 3 lumber yards we gave up on finding lumber. We resorted to pictures of 2×4’s to ask for them. Even Brandon, who speaks Thai some had trouble communicating what lumber we were looking for. We did find one yard that has one bundle of crooked lumber, not suitable for what we were looking for.

We may design a steel frame and find a local shop to build it, but that will be another day to look into things.

We ended our day by going out for pizza in Mae Sott which was very good. The contrast in lifestyles over here is so interesting. We can go out for pizza, but many will sleep, like Jessica and Brandon, on a mat on a floor that you can see through the floor boards to the dirt below.

Today we are heading to church to experience worshiping the same God in a different language.

I’ll write more later. Our chariot awaits.

After a long 2 days of travel we are waking up refreshed from a good night sleep. We are staying at a hotel that is like individual bungalows. We have air, WiFi, tv (all Thai) and more importantly western toilets. It really is beautiful.

Today we will travel to Mae Sott to look into lumber and supplies for a playground set for the younger kids at Thoo Mwee Key school. We’ll see how the day progresses. We are loving the experience already. More later.

So here I am updating my Liberia blog with my trip with Jenny and Kevin & Sherry to visit Jessica and Brandon at Thoo Mwee Khee school. We are so blest to be able to visit, not only 2 missionaries from our church, CBC of Wallace, but our children that God called to serve in Thailand.

Our travels have been uneventful so far as we sit in our vehicle with Brandon driving the 8 hours back to Phop Phra where we will be staying. We are enjoying the early morning and the sights on our drive.

We are looking forward to what experiences God has for us in Thailand.

I will share more as our time moves on. Please follow along.

Almost home.

As I sit in Chicago waiting for my last flight to leave in less than an hour I reflect on how much I enjoyed my trip to Liberia. Yes, there are always times when you travel that things don’t go exactly ‘right’, at least how we want things to go. One of those things happened as I arrived in Chicago. While in Brussels I swapped out the SIM card in my phone from the Liberian carrier to my original SIM card. At least I thought it was my original card. Upon arriving in Chicago I could not get cell coverage and after investigating I found out that the SIM card I have is from someone with a Colorado phone number. Apparently when having my card swapped while in Liberia they gave me the wrong card back. I’ll have to straighten this out next week and get a replacement card. You never can tell when something will come up.

I sincerely miss all of the friends that I have in Liberia and I look forward to seeing how God is able to use the teaching and the resources I was able to leave for them.

Right now I am looking forward to seeing Jenny and falling asleep in my own bed.

I am reminded of what Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz said, ‘There’s no place like home’.

Thanks to all for your prayers and please continue to pray for Liberia Pastor’s Emmanuel, Titus and Moses as they live out the Gospel on the ground there in the beautiful country of Liberia.

Travel time.

Well the last day arrived. Looking back, it’s been a long time, but it feels as if I just arrived. Much like any time away.

Today the only thing on my agenda was to speak at the inauguration of officers at Cyrus’s high school. Of course I just learned about this yesterday so in the morning I needed to prepare for what I would say. I did this and Daniel and I headed out to the Maggie Lamkins Institute. We walked to the junction to get a motorbike taxi. It cost $40 LD to ride us the 1-2 miles to the school. That is around 31 cents USD for both of us. I was told I should be there by 11:00 because the posted time was 10:00 so Cyrus already accounted for ‘Liberia time’. We really didn’t want to be late so we arrived around 10:15. After standing around for 45 minutes or so they told us to head over to the church next door where the service would be held. We did this and we were seated in an area that appeared to be for the choir at the church. It was there the real waiting began. I have learned to be flexible in Liberia, but today I found myself complaining and I really shouldn’t have. The program finally started around 12:45 or so. Their speakers weren’t working so it was rather amusing the switching out of speakers and around 5-8 Liberians working on the sound board. I laugh cause I know from experience when technology doesn’t work it is rather frustrating.

Once it did start between the muffled sounds of a bad sound system, the Liberian accent and my hearing being bad it was an effort in futility to understand anything. Luckily Daniel was there to tell me when I would speak and what was going on. Due to the long delay I already decided to cut my sermon/speech short. I have to say this was the least connected to an audience that I felt in my whole time here. I pray that I encouraged the new officers to lead well.

I thought we would leave after I spoke, but I found out I was to swear the officers in. I was frantically searching the Internet for ‘oath of office’ which I found with the USA presidential oath. A few change of words and I was all set. After I administered the oath Daniel and I left. It was well after 2:00 p.m. at this time. The only reason I cared was that on my last day I selfishly wanted to spend the time with people I knew and not with a crowd that I hadn’t met before and couldn’t understand what was going on. Daniel had to head somewhere else so I got a motorbike taxi back to Emmanuel’s. I had planned on heading to Red Light in the early afternoon, but I wouldn’t have time to do that anymore. That is ok as I know that it’s a crazy marketplace and I’ve seen it before.

I spent the remainder of the afternoon visiting with so many friends and after packing, showering and eating I was ready to head out to the airport. We left around 5:40 and arrived just before 7:00 p.m. Check in went smooth and I am waiting now for my flight to leave in 1-1/2 hours from now at 9:30 local time or 3:30 back home. I am scheduled to arrive in Brussels at 5:05 a.m. local or 10:00 p.m. Friday back home. I leave from there at 11:05 local and 4:05 a.m. back home with arrival in Chicago scheduled for 1:30 p.m. and finally to arrive in Green Bay at 6:23 p.m. that is if all connections and times are met.

Thanks for your prayers as I travel.

Here are some of the friends I said goodbye to.

Cyrus MatthiasWinston Christie, Chris and Maria

Blessing

Goat