All is going well and we are getting settled in our house. We attended church at the Chiang Mai SDA church this week. We met several other missionary families there and some more Thai's also. The church is about 20 - 25 minutes away. It is in the heart of downtown Chiang Mai. Lots of foreigners here in this city. it seems this is a much more popular place for "white skinners" to be. Lots of people and lots of traffic but nothing like Bangkok.
We spent the day with the Rawlings family. Steve, Lynette, Elisa (14), and Micah (12). They are from Idaho and have been here since the end of November. They also are here to learn language and waiting for the Lord to lead them to His specific ministry. They are here for at least 6 months, maybe longer as they bought one way tickets here. They live about 10 minutes from us. They came here with no transportation and $1500.00 and said they would stay as long as the Lord provided. They have quite a story and the Lord is taking care of them in fascinating ways.
Our little Toyota Corolla (1980 something) was packed to the max again yesterday. We had 8 people in it including four adults. There were many groans as we went around corners or over bumps. Remember, our Suburban is designed for 8 not this thing. We prayed for the Lord to protect in this awkward situation. If we find a need to purchase a vehicle we will definitely be thinking thoughts like " can this vehicle hold 10 if necessary?" There are always those who need a ride here or there.
Today and probably much of this week we are going to put an all out assault on this house. CLEANING CLEANING and more CLEANING!
Yes, they spruced it up some compared to the pictures we looked at but it needs a deep cleaning in the worst way. Every sink, toilet, urinal, (yes urinal! Each bathroom, (3) has a urinal as well as a western commode.) and shower has either a leak or does not work properly or does not work at all. There is a repair man coming today to fix as much as he can. There are many lights burned out and windows that need a shovel to scrape all the grime off of them. It will be a new house almost when we get done with it. Good thing we brought lots of rubber gloves.
Our neighborhood has many dogs of course but it also has 2 German Shepherds! One is VERY large and is VERY MUCH a watch dog. I think there is a rule that the dogs must be kept inside the property in this subdivision. Very few are out loose. The ones that are loose may be strays. We feel comfortable walking through the neighborhood. Some extremely nice homes here and a couple that I am sure we could stay in with the owners and they would never know we were there.
We will keep you updated as things happen.
