New Year's Eve Day Trip

We loaded up the kids in the family truckster and took out for a nice drive. We went north on Hwy 107 to Chiang Dao. Now, this is not the same as Qingdao, China. It was an absolutely beautiful drive through the mountains. We passed by an elephant preservation camp and saw around 15 elephants standing by the road. There were two calfs and one looked like he may have been born in the last week or two. Later on in the drive, we passed a sign (in Thai) that said something like: "Caution: Elephant crossing" and had a picture of an elephant. That isn't something you normally see just every day. We also saw lots of "evidence" that elephants had been walking down the road. Big evidence.

We don't have much else planned for to celebrate New Years. We wil just stay at home and listen to the neighbors shooting off fireworks.

Anyway, you all have a safe and happy New Year!

Boomer Sooner

Read all about it here. Wow! Talk about a season that I had given up on! Turns out, Oregon shouldn't have been complaining about having to play a "non-ranked" team in a bowl game.

Oklahoma 17- Oregon 14.

Boomer Sooner!

God is Good

All the time.....

Proverbs 3:5-6 says, "Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, do lean not unto your own understanding. In all of your ways acknowledge the Lord, and He will make your paths straight."

Sounds easy, huh?

Well, yesterday, I didn't do that. I trusted in my own efforts (made a conscious decision to do so) and today, I paid for it. Turns out, I worked all day long yesterday on a project. And I mean worked hard on it! Well, since I had decided that it was a "no brainer" and I didn't need God's help, I totally messed it up. Wasted the entire day yesterday, which affected two other entities in the work that they have to do to clean it all up.

But, God is good; all the time. All the time, God is good.

It wasn't as bad as it could have been and the one for whom it meant the most work turned out to be a gracious woman of God who has forgiven and already fixed the problem that it present to her. I contacted the other entitiy and they hadn't completed the task on their end and was able to stop her staff from entering any more data, which would have ended up being double work for them.

Thank you God for looking out for me. You are such an awesome God!

Happy Boxing Day

Happy Boxing Day, whatever the heck that is.

Do they know?

Today, the world is "playing" Christmas. Many, many people are "playing" Christians, too. Do they know? Do they really know that we celebrate the birth of the Savior? Do they understand that this Savior was born to die? Will they ever understand that in His resurrection, death has been overcome and we can have life eternal?

Are you "playing" Christian today? Quit playing and start living. The best Gift has already been given. Just accept it. Take the Gift into your heart and truly live.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

It is Christmas Eve in Thailand. (and probably where you are, too).  The last minute shopping is done.  The presents are wrapped and under the tree.  There is a chicken in the crock pot and a pan of dressing in the oven.  We are getting ready for a nice Christmas Eve dinner, then we have decided to go ahead and open the presents tonight.  This is a change from our family tradition, but with Christmas on Sunday, we want to be ready for church tomorrow, so, we get the goodies tonight!

 

Merry Christmas to you and yours.  In the words of a friend of mine, “may you have a Christ-centered, non-politically correct Christmas!”

Merry Christmas!

In a few hours, I will be done at the office until next Tuesday and really don't know if I will post or not from home over the holiday. However, I wanted to take this moment and wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!

The Reason for the Season

Here in Thailand, people are beginning to put up Christmas trees, holiday music is played in the stores and folks are starting to celebrate Christmas. However, if you ask any of them what is the reason for the season, they will say things like "to show love" "to give gifts" "to have a party". They do not know that the reason for the celebration is the birth of the King of Kings. Jesus was born 2005 (more or less) years ago. It is for THIS REASON that we celebrate; not to simply give gifts. We give gifts because of the gift that God gave us in Jesus. We also follow the tradition of the wise men who brought gifts to the baby Jesus, so many years ago. And, of course, that gift now gives us the free gift of eternal life and forgiveness for sins, if we ask Jesus to save us and believe in Him.

This Christmas, instead of just tearing into the presents and stuffing yourself silly, how about a true reflection on the real meaning of Christmas. If you have a Bible, turn to Luke chapter 2 and read the story. If you don't have a Bible, go to this web site and read the section online.

Have yourself a very Merry, blessed, Christmas and may the real joy and peace that comes only from the Creator God reign in your life in the new year.

My drive to work this morning

Living in Thailand is always an exciting adventure. There are so many wonders to see. Sometimes, however, it just makes you wonder, hmmmm.

This is a short list of things I saw this morning on my drive to work:

• a foreign man out jogging in shorts and muscle shirt;
• a Thai guard bundled up in winter hat, coat, and gloves; huddled over a fire trying to get warm;
• two stray(?) dogs sitting directly across the road from each other, seemingly guarding the road like two statues in front of a bank;
• a large dump truck completely full of people (all bundled with warm clothes) on the way to a work site;
• a newly painted bridge, even though they painted over the bare re-bar exposed from vehicle damage;
• motor cyclist driving down the wrong side of the road;
• a car driving down the wrong side of the road;
• a man leading two very large white Asian cows down the road;
• a woman taking her kids to school; (big deal you say? well, there were four of them on the little motor cycle!)
• a tree of beautiful orange flowers;
• a woman walking down the street in her pajamas; (no, she wasn't an insane person!)
• a 300 year old woman peddling her way on a bike; (well, she looked that old!)
• a bunch of chickens will little chicks spilling out into the roadway;

and more, just on the way to work this morning.

Ain't Thailand great?!?

Thailand Confirms Talks on Jets-for-Chickens

Jets-for-Chickens

Oh my goodness! And I thought the international barter system was dying!

54 degrees

It was so nice and cool here right now. Yesterday, it only got up to 77 degrees. It was 54 this morning when I got up.

There was a news report of a death attibuted to the cold(!) weather!

I didn't realize it was THAT cold. It wasn't quite "crisp", but I thought it is very, very nice.

58 degrees

It was 58 degrees this morning here in Chiang Mai. Now that's what I'm talking about!

Pleeaaasssseeeeeeee

Can we open "just one"?????

Christmas House Pic

Lights Pic

The "Christmas House"

"The Christmas House"

My kids met some new little friends in our neighborhood. I asked the little girl if she has seen our Christmas lights and she replied, "Oh yes! My family calls it "the Christmas house"! That just absolutely made my day yesterday!

The Christmas House. Wow.