Visitors from Afar

During our school break our teacher friends from Isaan came to visit us. This was our first time to host a Thai family in our home. We've had various Bible school students come and stay, but this was our first time to be tour guides and hosts.
They wanted to go to the zoo. Since seeing some of the cool exhibits costs extra money, we just walked around and visited the free animals. I'm glad the penguins are still free--they're some of my favorites!

We found these pandas that were drinking Ovaltine. We had fun taking some different pictures with them.

I think this was the smallest baby elephant that we've ever seen. It was a cutey!
We also went to the elephant show. The boys were too scared to go get their picture taken with the elephants. Although I wasn't looking forward to getting that close to the elephants this time, but I was trying to encourage the kids to do it. It was for the kids!
One of the highlights for Mr. Niyom was a trip to the Karen village. There were so many things going on that he really enjoys. He loves working with wood and enjoyed inspecting the new kitchen the men were building for the church/community center. He also enjoyed looking at the rice fields, flowers, and getting new ideas to take back to Isaan with him.

They also went to church with us on Sunday. Kaimook's family was very instrumental in inviting them and encouraging them to go with us. Mr. Niyom had never been in a church service before, but Ms. Rerai had been to a couple of Catholic services. I think they were really nervous about going because they thought they were going to have to respond and take communion. They were pleasantly surprised about the tone of the services and the friendliness of everyone. Ms. Rerai told me that she had done some type of correspondence Bible class when she was still in school, and she had gone to a Catholic church in Isaan. She has not been back to a church of any kind since she moved to her current village.

Pawn has talked to her about Jesus, and Ms. Rerai said she believed in Him, but we don't know that she has put her trust in Him. We're continuing to pray for and work with her. Please join us in these prayers. She has promised that no matter what school she moves to, she wants to continue working with us. God has us working together for a very good reason!