Repacking

50 lbs?! We weighed our largest suitcase after a trial packing on Saturday and it weighed 61 lbs. Korean Air, our carrier to Thailand, allows only 50 per suitcase. I used the scale to weigh things as I took them out of the case, hoping to get past 11 lbs at least. Since I had to fill the space again, the amount I took out had to be more than the 11 lbs. After a couple of repackings and reweighings, it became clear that the books were going to have to go in the carry on sized checked bag and clothes and other light things were going to have to go in the big suitcase. More things would be staying as well. Now I know my clarinet will be staying. I did get a recorder in, though. Do I want to take my Amplified Bible (heavy) or a book on how to make kites and a couple of children's books? The Bible won. I think I will need that more.

Things continue to turn up around the house that I once thought we would take. Gary told me some things could go in his medium sized suitcase. As he packs the case, though, he is starting to qualify that promise. It is back to priorities again, both in making the time to pack and in choosing what goes. I am thankful for the prayer support we have as we make these choices. With that, I am more certain that what we end up with will be what we need. Of course, He has promised to go with us (Matthew 28:20) and with Him we do have all we need.

:J

Two Presentations

We did two presentations this week! One was at Three Rivers Christian school and the other at East Kelso Baptist Church. It meant most of time I was home this week I was working on Power Point or our script. We are thankful that they both were well received.

Thursday afternoon, the children at Three Rivers listened and watched well.

They gave a big “Awww” at the picture of the baby panda in the Chiangmai zoo. They counted well with me in Thai, and, when we asked for questions near the end, most of their hands went up. They asked good questions too. We told them they could help in our sowing the work efforts by communicating and sharing events between their school and the schools in Chiangmai. The students and teachers showed some enthusiasm for doing this. I hope we can keep some interest up for that during our four months of language training.

Sunday morning we visited the church our daughter, Amanda, has had so much involvement with, East Kelso Baptist Church. Ken and Karen and their family go there also. We really appreciate their focus on prayer. After our presentation, their prayer coordinator came to me to finish writing down all the prayer requests we gave in our talk. She also wanted to make sure we had her email address so we can send our prayer letters to her for resending to the congregation. We thank God for putting this connection together for us so we might have this prayer support behind us.