Dengue Fever

Dengue Fever, an illness that comes from a mosquito bite has been really bad this year in Chiang Mai. The husband of one of our church's members already spent one week in the hospital and had to get a blood transfusion as a result. Now Tim, our church secretary and one of our most faithful church members and Dee, her husband both have Dengue Fever. Dengue Fever is similar to malaria (I guess) and is supposed to be excruciatingling painful, even fatal. Please pray for these two.

Natural Born Killer

This morning, I was sitting at my desk, chatting on MSN with my mom when all of a sudden, I heard a sound like fhluhp! fhuluhp! I swiveled in my swivelly chair and saw Leah, our inherited cat, carrying a dying pigeon in her mouth a few feet behind my chair. No, my office isn't in a barn, the cat brought the outside world inside. The cat ran past my chair and put the bird underneath the Buddhist shrine in Tawm's parent's house. Thankfully the cat didn't play with the dying bird, but she was pure business and finished the bird off quickly. I didn't want to watch the cat's playtime or have to finish the bird off myself. As I kid I wanted to be a zoologist and am still fascinated with animals (from afar moreso than upclose). It was amazing that Leah could kill that bird because the pigeon was almost the same size as the cat. After the bird was dead and feathers scattered everywhere, I grabbed a broom and dustpan and took the bird outside so that Leah could tear it apart without making a mess near the Buddhist shrine or in my office.

As I was dispersing of the bird outside, I thought to myself, what next. What other kinds of animals am I going to have to deal with in our house. The list is growing...
We have dogs, a cat, have had spiders, cockroaches, ants, termites, frogs, salamanders, a crab, a rat, and now a bird. Maybe I do live in a barn and was just mistaken!

Trafficking Organs (kids may not want to read)

Please pray for Lemuu and the village that he is working in. This is the same village that we went to in December and the same village that I "helped" with a wedding ceremony. Tim, our secretary, talked to him last week and he said that the people in his village are really scared right now because some villagers went missing. Later, the bodies were found with all their organs removed. To my knowledge, 3 people have died this way. All the people that have gone missing were outing walking by themselves along the road.
Tawm said that this happens pretty regularly as there is a great demand for organs in China. Since Thailand is near China, traffickers often come here to get organs so they can sell them in China, even though the trafficking of organs is illegal. Tawm also said, the Karen hilltribe is know for walking through the jungle and along roads alone making them easy targets. Although this isn't an abnormal thing in Thailand, it is hitting close to home as it has been happening in a village that we have been trying to start a church.
Please pray for the village's protection and that Lemuu would have open doors to preach the gospel during this time.

As a note = we have no intentions of going to that village anytime soon. No need to worry!

Study Partner

Most of Saturdays here in Thailand are spent going over and over my Sunday sermon. I also spend time preparing my Sunday school lesson too. Many Saturdays I spend time outside preparing for Sundays, that is if it isn't too hot. Often times I am joined by my friend. He comes sits and listens to me prepare. I haven't come up with a name for him yet, if you got any suggestions let me know.
Sorry the picture is a little blurry. By the time I got back with my camera, the lizard had moved and when I approached him to get a better picture, he ran away. The picture still shows that he or she is kinda cute.

Smokin' Hot

Cool season is definitely over here, the temperatures are rising daily as we aproach April, the hottest month of the year. Although it may be hard to tell from the picture, we are having gloomy weather. It looks like it is going to rain or it feels like the fog is going to vanish anytime but the gloominess stays because it is from smoke, not clouds or fog. Chiang Mai has been covered with smoke from fires that have been burning out of control in other provinces. There is more smoke here in the city than on top of the mountain where people are burning their crops. We usually have a few smoky days this time of year as farmers burn off their old crops to plant new ones, but never like this year. Even the Thai people are complaining that this year is so bad. I can't wait to see the sun again...