Missive 9

It’s been another long time since I have put finger to key and the eager readership can wait no longer. I had a wonderful time back “home” for a month in April-May where we were fortunate to have the use of an upstairs granny-flat belonging to Janet, a friend of Michelle’s. Her generosity had enabled Colleen to have a place to stay for her time in Adelaide.

My first delight was meeting our new grand-daughter Gemma in the flesh. (Actually I really should say the first delight was being reunited with Colleen after our biggest time apart in 40 years!). It was also good to spend some time with the other grandchildren and to see how much they have grown and matured even over the last few months.

And of course the crowning moment was the wedding. What a great day it was for Michelle and Yevan. The bride was stunningly beautiful – an opinion shared more widely than just the proud father!

So now we are back in Thailand for the second year of our commitment to Mercy International. The welcome, particularly for Colleen, was rapturous. Her girls were over the moon to see her back. And even after only a month I was so pleased to see our Whun whose happy face I missed more than I thought. Colleen is delighted to be back in our house and has already been busy changing it from a bachelor’s pad into a home. There are now curtains on all the windows so if I want to get all the waves and greetings from the kids as they go to school while I’m eating breakfast I have to get the curtains tied back.

I’ve re-started my morning run (or more correctly my every other morning run) and I’m usually out by 6.30am. My track takes me around the school (a handful of kids are there at this hour) and around our farm which is really picturesque and lovely at this time of the day. It’s usually 28 degrees at this time with high humidity so throw in a few daunting hills and by the time I get back I am losing some serious sweat. If I sit or stand in one place for too long I literally stand in a puddle!

We are stalled on our building programme at the moment for lack of finance so we are eating in the half-finished dining room built by the South Aussie builders. We are able to make maximum use of any breeze passing through but we can’t wait to put up a ceiling to keep the temperature down a bit, screens to keep the flies and birds out, and a few more walls to keep the rain from blowing in. The other day we watched a spoggy at the servery selecting his lunch from the various pots. It was interesting and perhaps predictable that he showed absolutely no interest in the chilli!

Today I had my first experience of taking some kids to a doctor in a local village. The surgery was an open shop front with a few plastic chairs in the waiting room which had a concrete floor covered with what they call lino but is so thin it is more like contact. The doctor is a lady who is very pleasant and seems quite competent. It was a slow day so she was having a snooze on the table but after a minute of getting her hair tied back was ready for business. We had a little boy who had stitches in his chin which had given way so she dealt with that first. The other kids and I were able to wander in and out to watch proceedings. I think there was a door on the consulting room but it wasn’t used. There was a fridge, an old desk, a few shelves and a typical doctor’s bed. Why (Whun’s sister) has a possible broken toe so she was given a few tablets, and Cheewah got some too, but as she’s a teenage girl I didn’t press with enquiries about what for. Although it was a bit rough and ready and not like our sanitised and clinical surgeries it was good to see the sort of care that our kids get when they need it.

We were blessed by a visit from our friends Steve and Jenny Chapman last week and we took the opportunity to get up to Chiang Mai. They arrived in Lomsak by bus from Bangkok and it was with great excitement that we saw them come in. It was then with great dismay that we saw the bus not stop but continue on to the next town! We were in mobile contact so we used a shop assistant who had enough English to understand what the problem was and arranged for them to get on a tuk-tuk (motorbike taxi) and travel back. A highlight for them at Ban Meata was meeting their sponsored boy, Gunhar, who although initially shy warmed up to them and they became very close. By the time they left there were tears on both sides. One of the special things that we love about Mercy International is the close relationships that are built between the kids and visitors and especially their sponsors.

We drove up to Chiang Mai and on the way dropped in to the delightful Indra pottery in Lampang. Jenny’s eyes lit up at this place. She has been accused of being a shopaholic and although she denies it, the evidence is sometimes to the contrary! We booked in to our hotel in Chiang Mai and went out to the famous night markets where Jenny did not take long to engage in her first haggling experience. The Mong women, dressed in their national costume are an institution at the night markets and are always selling the same things – wooden croaking frogs and jewellery. Jenny needed some frogs so the delighted seller suggested a laughably high price. The proper response is then a laughably low price, but Jenny countered with something too close to the first offer so the deal was closed half way between. The seller couldn’t believe her luck and I think has now retired to a condo in Phuket. Another Mong lady saw all this happen, couldn’t believe her eyes, and followed us for ages offering more frogs at much more reasonable starting prices to this obviously very wealthy woman. Jenny was a quick learner though and she was soon haggling with the best of them.

We visited a mountaintop palace and temple and spent some time on the crafts strip where there are gemstone manufacturers, silk and cotton weavers, woodcarvers and bamboo umbrella makers. Most want to rush you past the craft side of things and into the more lavish showrooms to entice you with rather highly priced products. The exception was the umbrella making which was a genuine cottage craft, done under bamboo shelters and included making the paper and handpainting the finished product.

We spent a day back at Lampang where the Royal Elephant Conservation Centre is. Colleen had her first ride on an elephant – only 10 minutes but long enough to be lurched around she reckoned. It was only a 10 minute ride but they still had the obligatory framed photo ready for sale by the time we disembarked. The elephant “show” is always fascinating and for the second time now Colleen bought the painting done by one of the elephants during the show. There paintings are very good but they haven’t taught them to sign their own work yet! We were also fortunate to be able to see a recent addition – a 5 day old baby elephant whose big brother painted our picture.

Jenny and Steve flew back to Bangkok to stay with her brother and we drove back to Ban Meata the next day. Jenny’s brother works in the kitchen supplies business and has generously agreed to source the equipment we need to fit out our kitchen. We are delighted and looking forward to a state of the art kitchen thanks to the support of lots of suppliers both Thai and international.

We have had some wonderful times in our worship services recently. We haven’t been in the practice of having Holy Communion so a couple of weeks ago I preached on the topic and we shared communion afterwards. It’s also been a while since we baptised those who have become Christians so next week we will go up to the fish pond on the farm and baptise 50 people – kids, carers and teachers. They are very excited about it and we are looking forward to a great day. As I write we have just enjoyed a worship service where Rob Dunk preached on the Holy Spirit and afterwards he prayed for a few people. One of our carers who didn’t go out for prayer was deeply moved and Rob, Colleen and Kerry (another volunteer) went and prayed for her and she was filled with the Spirit and spoke in tongues. God is good to us and it’s a privilege to be here.

Keep praying for us and the work here. We still have many needs and Pawinee is currently deciding whether we are able to take another 2 children – a 2 year old and a 3 year old who have been abandoned by their parents and left with their grandmother who is a priestess in a nearby temple. Tragic circumstances – exciting opportunities!

Until next time
God bless
Ron