Home from the Hills

We made it home from our border run. It was a good trip and we learned many things. The young couple who are doing recon for us are doing a really good job of fact and people finding. Two of our co-workers went with us on this trip, one of them for the first time.

Now we are busy getting ready for our missions conference back in the USA. Our part of the job is to write articles and take the news of what is going on here back to the home front. Sometimes, that can be difficult because many, if not most of the time we are "flying under the radar." Our work takes us to places where neither we, nor our work, is appreciated by the various governments. Totalitarian regimes always think that we are spies working for the CIA or something really spectacular. Boy, if they only understood what nothings we are, they would stop worrying and laugh. However, they don't understand and they never laugh. We always have to be careful and that is something most Americans can't grasp, because they have never been there, done that, and they definitely do not have the T-shirt to prove it. So, our writings are sometimes difficult to decipher to those who don't know us and for those who do not know where we live and work. We are in a place that missionologists call the 10/40 window. Look it up. I don't have time to elaborate here. Those who care can find out and those who don't care can read somebody else's blog. Anyway, I have to get back to work. Just wanted to let you know that we survived another "border run."

Leaving the Border

We leave this morning from the Burmese border headed to the Hmong refugee camp. We have had a wonderful couple of days here and really do hate to have to leave. We love it here and would love to live here, but it is so remote that we couldn't get to the airport or to the hospital, and the past couple of years we have spent a lot of time at the hospital. Getting old is not for wimps. Getting old in a third world country is really not for wimps. Yesterday we drove about 40 minutes and spent half a day at a beautiful waterfall and park. It was very jungley. We expected to see Tarzan, but he never showed. Too bad. We were able to take some good video and photos and had a nice picnic with the folks who are getting the work going here. I will finish this post when we arrive in Bangkok. We won't have internet access at the Hmong camp. Next week we fly to Chiang Mai for a few days. We will meet this couple up there. They need to get away from here for a few days. It is pretty intense up here at times. Never a dull moment in this place.

We Made It

We are now at the border. The trip was good, with not much traffic and our life was not threatened by other crazy drivers on the treacherous mountain road. It was an uneventful trip, which when driving in the mountains is what we all want. It took us about 7 hours to get here and we got here before the rain hit. It is rainy season here and we usually get a downpour every day. The scenery was much more lush than last time. It is beautiful to see the tops of the mountains obscured by the mist. But now, we are very tired from the trip, and we will probably go to bed early. Who knows what tomorrow will hold. As we sit here and try to map out our itinerary, we realize that it is hopeless and that once again we will fly by the seat of our pants. I will let you know tomorrow night what tomorrow holds. In the meantime pray for health and strength for us. We are falling apart at the seams and these trips take longer and longer for us to recover. also, this is the first time I have seen our new facility since we rented it. It looks very nice with furniture and stuff. The downstairs bathroom does not have a sink. I didn't notice that before. It has two water reservoirs; one for pouring water over yourself to bathe, and the other smaller one to "flush" the toilet. Most of the time there is enough water pressure downstairs to actually shower. No hot water. The upstairs bathroom has two reservoirs and also has a sink. I wonder if they just forgot the downstairs sink or what. It's different here, so I don't know if they did it on purpose or just forgot to put one in. The upstairs has 2 nice bedrooms and there are aircons in each bedroom. There is also a nice third room for whatever you need it for. The third floor is one big open room with no ceiling, just a vaulted roof. Birds fly thru there occasionally, but they don't eat much. The windows in the kitchen consist of holes in the wall. They are just small holes, so no large animals will be able to come in. They are however large enough for large lizzards and small birds. Last week while the front doors were opened a herd of goats came to visit, but they didn't stay long. I think we scared them; all the arm waving and squeels and stuff. About 20 water buffalo mosied down the street a few days ago and 5 horses a few days before that. The buffalo had a herder, but the goats and horses were just on their own. Did I say that it's different here. I love it. Keeps you on your toes.

TraVeL sTreSs

We are getting ready to leave in the morning for the border and packing and trying not to forget stuff like our marbles that we have lost. It is very stressful the last few hours before leaving; there is always just one last thing to do and then you always remember that you didn't do something or didn't bring something or whatever. There will be four of us going up this time. We will rendezvous with 2 others at the place where yet 2 more are staying. All in all, there will be 8 of us crossing paths at some point, coming and going. What a hastle! The house only has 2 bedrooms, so 4 of us will have to stay at a hotel, but which 4, that is the question. At least we will have internet access, so we are able to keep up with our correspondence while we are there. After leaving the border, we will swing thru another refugee camp to visit some brethren there and try to encourage them in their very difficult situation. The roads are not very good, but the scenery is beautiful and there will be opportunities for videography and photography which we all love. We are supposed to see a waterfall in the jungle and hopefully swim there. You never know what is lurking in jungle swimming holes. I prefer swimming pools without wildlife. I like to see wildlife but not swim with it. We'll see what happens and I will let you know how it turns out.

The missionary up country was supposed to cook Mexican if we could find flour tortillas. I can usually find them but not enough to go around this time. Figures. Anyway, I found one 10-pack that I will leave for them to eat after we are gone. A little taste of home for them to enjoy by themselves. They are very much looking forward to us coming. I think they are lonely. I know it really does get lonely here. We are on the other side of the world from friends and family and it seems like we are on a different planet most of the time. At least it is not boring.

Gotta go. Gotta pack. Gotta find my stuff. Gotta Gotta Gotta.

Mad Monday

Monday seems to roll around at least once a week. I hate Monday's. It's the day all the financial records have to be updated and I am the one that has to do it. Living in this country is like living in a time warp to Americans. Half the stuff you buy doesn't come with a receipt, which means that you have to remember how much you spent on what items and record it when you get home. Yeah, right, like that's going to happen. So on Monday morning you have all these handwritten receipts that you actually did remember, and money missing out of the cash drawer that you can't remember where it was spent. So what do you do? You have a category in your accounting program that you have named "Miscellaneous," which translates "I can't remember what we bought with that, but God knows, and He isn't saying." At least all the large purchases come with a receipt, so if anything has to be repaired or replaced that is accounted for. Where you get into trouble is stuff like eating off the street. Giving a food vendor the equivalent of about $1 for your lunch meal, then going down to the corner store for your bottle of water, paying in cash for yourself and maybe a few others. Anyway, it adds up and by Monday morning you are in the hole for a few dollars with no receipts. Then there are the receipts that have no English words. You didn't look at it when it was handed to you, you didn't write on it what it was for, and now you sit wondering what it was for. Now is the time you call your translator. "OK, you bought a bottle of water, a rubber gasket, bananas, a phone card, and a giant fried bug to scare the girls in the office." All of this costs about $4. And it is not separated on the receipt as to how much each item was. Just a total for everything. It goes into the "Miscellaneous" folder which in this case translates into "ain't no way I can ever separate this out so it all goes into one big pile." You would think that bookkeeping around here is a little dicey and you would be right. So far, we have had 2 accountants tell us that we are doing fine with our records. Nobody, they say, can account for every penny. That is why there is a "slush fund," or that thing where all the coins go. I think that is what we are calling "petty cash." At any rate today is Monday and I had better get cracking with the bookkeeping. We leave Wednesday for the border. Another currency to deal with and the exchange rate changes each and every day. I should have paid better attention when we studied this in accounting class.

Screen saver Face

Today is Sunday. Attending a local church in a foreign country where you do not speak the lingo can be really tiring. BUT, I found a way quite a few years ago, to go on "screen saver." We were living in the Southern Philippines and were attending a large church in the city of Cagayan de Oro City. It is very hot in southeast Asia and this church did not have air conditioning. Right across the alley from the church was a high brick wall that all the taxi, jeepney and other public transportation drivers used to urinate. In the Philippines, the toilet is called the "comfort room" and public toilets were non-existent at the time, so this wall was known as the "comfort wall." When the breeze was blowing just right the smell was interesting. But I digress. Anyway, like I said, it was very hot and miserable and I was having a very hard time staying awake. So I just figured out a way to sleep with my eyes open. That way the preacher looking my way would never know that I was actually nowhere within a hundred miles. You know about screen saver. It looks like there is something actually going on, but in reality the computer is just resting with its eyes open. Hey, it worked for me at the time and I was able to fire it up again this morning just in the nick of time; after my head had bobbed forward once or twice, but before I fell out of my chair onto the floor. I use it when I am about to slip into a coma.

Sunday nights we have an English service at the church that is translated into the local language and mid week we have English services in our home, so we really are hearing the Word in our own language. I almost always stay awake for the English services. The mid-week service is followed by a "pot luck." Everybody who is in town brings a dish and we have a time of prayers, fellowship, and testimonies in addition to a message. This is a wonderful time of refreshing and letting everybody else know what we have been up to all week. There are 12 of us here at the moment, working in several different areas and we don't always know what is happening with each other until English service time. We have people coming and going much of the time and without this time, it would be hard to keep up with everybody. There are 6 churches represented by our group at the moment. A young man coming soon will make it 7. Another lady coming in October will still keep it at 7 because we already have 2 from her church here with us for another month or so. These folks are "short-term" missionaries who are able to take anywhere from a couple of weeks to a few months and come over and help us here. They are really making a difference and the sacrifice they are making is very much appreciated. Some take their whole vacation and use it up over here. Many of them come with no church financial support, but are here on their own, having scrimped and saved to get enough money to come over and help. They stay till the money runs and then they have to go home and go back to work. Their labor of love is not in vain. The Lord knows their heart and He is making it possible for them to come over and help us. We thank them and we pray that there would be more like them. In the eyes of the world, it is a very thankless job, but in the eyes of God and in the hearts of the people they are helping to reach with the Gospel, it is a job that will one day reap great rewards.

Ghost Town

My day started with a drive to Bangkok to visit Bumrungrad International Hospital. This is without a doubt in my mind the best hospital I have ever seen, been in as a patient or visited. It is more like a fine hotel and the care is incredibly good. The service and especially the prices are better than anywhere I have ever been. Today I had a consultation. I am going to live, Lord willing, and that's the end of the mornings activities.

For the last 4 years, I have looked across the Bangkok horizon and seen a set of sky scrapers that I have always wanted to see up close. During the Asian financial crunch back in the late 90's, many investors lost everything and many gigantic building projects were halted in mid-stride. This part of Bangkok was one of these places. This was a planned community with dozens of large office buildings and about 15 high rise condos that would have been very up scale if they had been finished and sold. Five of the high rises are just the hollow shells and the rest were at least finished and a few condos inside of them were sold, but for the most part, most of the apartments are empty. There are a few dozen occupied in each high-rise and the rest are just sitting there deteriorating. It is near a beautiful, small lake and park. It was one of the weirdest things I have ever seen. A few people live there, but for the most part it is a ghost town within a city. Kinda creepy. That section does seem to be slowly coming back. A few of the bottom floors of the big office buildings contain small businesses and shops, and last year a new huge sports and events center opened up not too far from this place. There was even a big power plant that was built to service this place that is closed down and all the offices abandoned.

Bangkok is a huge and very modern city. It is not some Asian backwater dump. It has everything that you could find in a major city in the US. Big, upscale malls, shopping centers, museums, art galleries and everything else you can think of, including an outdoor drive-thru zoo, and an nice aquarium, many theaters, restaurants, recreation places, etc. I like to visit here.