Update on our work...cold weather coming for Christmas Day!

Today will be our last day to have a warm afternoon.   It is supposed to reach 60 degrees so I will finish my leaf raking in the front yard and Ron will complete some painting on the RV.   He needs warm weather to paint and this may be our last warm day until spring.    Snow may fall in the North Georgia mountains but not here in Woodstock.   It will just be very cold through the weekend.

Leigh Ann and Tatum sent us a honey baked ham and we are surely enjoying it.   I made Ron a favorite apple cake.   It fell apart when turning it out but it is still very delicious with a little whipped cream or ice cream.   I will prepare some vegetables and salad to complete our meal treats this week.    

I posted my picture on FaceBook showing my hair naturally gray now.   With over 100 approvals, I will leave it alone and not go back to hair color.   I don't feel any older but surely looking it!     

Our granddaughter moved into a new condo on Tuesday and had her 28th birthday yesterday.  She and Leigh Ann love Florida.   They have had a couple of cool weeks but its still warmer than any day we have seen since September.    They are very blessed with steady jobs and new homes they love so we are happy for them.

Things are going well in the Philippine work.   

Three of the older children have become Christians now.  We are very proud of the example these young people will set for the other children.    A younger girl asked Gigi:  "Ma'am, are you a Christian?"   When Gigi said yes, she said, "I want to be just like you when I grow up."    We set an example for young people, whether good or bad. 

A few nights ago, a tropical storm passed right over the city of Tanjay.    Ronald woke up at 3 a.m. and realized that there was flooding going on so he woke Gigi and she began getting anything off the floor of the laundry house where they are living.  Ronald said he ran out barefooted to the houses to be sure the children were O.K.   Then he proceeded to move the two vehicles to the highest point of the property.  They ended up with 6-8" of water inside where they live but lost very little.  Gigi worked tirelessly getting everything moved to tables and countertops.   What they lost can easily be replaced.   None of the other buildings were flooded since they are at higher elevation.   It was a long 12-hour clean up but they feel very blessed because it could have been much worse.

They had a big holiday party which included a lot of food and games on the 22nd. They selected three gifts for each child of equal value so every child will feel they have been treated fairly.   In the Philippines, it is traditional to open one gift at midnight so the children will get to do this and then go back to bed.   When they awake, they will have two more gifts to open. They will all have a big meal together that day.  One night, they will take the children in the van around the city and look at the Christmas lights/decorations.  They have never had a holiday like this, so I know it will be a very special holiday for these children.   Ronald and Gigi will be sure this is all done in a secular way without any religious significance about Christmas being Christ's birthday.    The children will continue to learn the truth of HIS Word.

Last week, a young Filipino couple celebrated their 5th anniversary by coming to the orphanage and presenting the children with t-shirts, balloons, toys and lunch.   There is more and more awareness and help coming from the Filipino community as they build good-will among the residents of this city.  

In the second house they built for SAS, they just added a 3rd girl who is 14.  She wanders around the neighbor- hood without supervision so she is at high risk for something bad happening to her.   We will eventually have 22-24 teenage girls in that house who are at high risk for trafficking.    I have sponsors for the three girls already.   Ronald and Gigi have located good house parents for these girls but they will continue to oversee this SAS work on their campus.  

Ronald and Gigi are very devoted to this work and are doing a wonderful job.   Check out their activities on Facebook at Casa Esperanza of Angels.     

Workers in  Nepal have completed their visits to each safe house, distributing blankets, warm mattress pads and winter clothing (jackets) to all of the girls. The major portion of this expense was donated through Carole Booker's effort to secure a gift donation from Westbury Church of Christ in Houston, TX.  The girls were very happy to receive warm bedding and new winter clothing.    

Workers in Laos have distributed rice and supplies to plant gardens to the Christian villages along the Mekong River.   

We have been supplying rice and some other supplies to Christian families in Nepal and Laos for months due to the COVID-19 pandemic which prevented people from working and earning enough to provide for their own food.    

With 2020 coming quickly to an end, we are waiting to get the vaccination so we have less chance of getting COVID-19.   When it is available for seniors, I will go first in case I have side effects.   With 6,600 new cases in Georgia just yesterday, we feel the need to stay inside away from crowds and not take a risk.

We wish all of our family, friends and supporters of our mission work, a very Merry Christmas holiday and a blessed New Year!

With much love and appreciation from Ron and Pat Brown.

As the old year comes to a close...we count our blessings.

Christmas holidays are fast approaching.    In spite of 2020 being a difficult year, where did the time go?  Maybe it is speeding away because of our old age but each week surely seems to rush by.   We have been in good health other than Ron's usual allergies that bother him.    We are not going out except for groceries.   We went to the store at 5:30 a.m. this morning and only saw a few customers and some Kroger workers stocking shelves or filling on-line orders.  

We had four beautiful warm afternoons last week so we got a lot more outside work done.   I had the front yard raked and then a couple of days later, it was covered with leaves again.    It is much too cold this week to get outside so I will watch for another warm day ahead to clean it up again.   Most trees are bare so the falling leaves will soon come to an end.   Each time I raked I thought about how falling leaves are like dirty dishes.   Before you can clean up one batch, another is ready to be done.   We surely love these trees in the summer when it keeps the house so cool.   

Today, Tatum, our granddaughter in Florida, is closing on her first home, a condo.   She has been in Florida for the past year just renting a small house.   Her job seems secure and she loves living in the Tampa/Clearwater area so she wants to invest in a home now.   We are very proud of her for saving her money and being such a responsible person.    Leigh Ann is using the rest of her 2020 vacation days to help Tatum move so they will not be coming here for the holidays.

With concerns about the COVID-19 virus and how our nation will go forward under President Biden, we just pray for the best as we move into a new year.    With God on our side, with our souls safe in His care, whatever happens in the future, will be O.K.    We will continue to try to take care of ourselves and keep praying for and thanking Him for our blessings.   They are numerous and we are a very blessed people.

A few months ago, Angelo was baptized.   He is the oldest boy at Casa Esperanza of Angels in Tanjay, Negros Oriental, Philippines   

Two young souls were added to His kingdom this past Sunday.    Arlene Grace and Arvin were baptized into Christ after a one-on-one study with one of the house fathers.  We are very proud of these young people who are learning the Bible and making the decision to become Christians. 

With these new Christians and the house parents, the number of Christians is now 10.  

Wishing everyone a safe, healthy and happy Christmas holiday.   Best wishes for a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Troublesome times are here...

December arrived in North Georgia with a blast of cold weather from Canada.   We have had most nights below freezing this week.    Ron wishes he was in Thailand.    He has dry eyes now (my dry eyes started in the summer of 1990) and as temperature affects the humidity, it causes more pain in dry eyes.  Ron does not want heat because the humidity lowers the warmer it is inside the house.   He is working in a cold room but then suffering with cold feet and cold hands with no heat but a humidifier putting out moisture. When it is warm enough to be comfortable, his eyes are scratchy and blurry.   I have fought this battle so I know the feeling but I prefer warmth and dry eyes.    Over the years, my eyes have become less painful so nerve damage must have occurred to give me some relief.

We enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving dinner and left overs for a couple of days.   It is sad not to get to spent holidays with family members but we have not had that pleasure very often since we went into the mission work.    Usually, wherever we are on Thanksgiving, I have invited someone to share the meal with us.   But, not this year.   With the virus raging in Georgia, we stayed home alone and still felt very thankful.

Many of the schools have reopened in Nepal and girls are returning to school.    Some are limited to a few days a week and some have access to internet and are taking high school classes on-line.   We got reports this week from Nepal of the great poverty among Christians in some villages.   Our girls all come from such backgrounds but living in the safe houses, they have food and clothing and no worry about their opportunity to finish their education.   I had reports on two girls that went back to their homes and this is very disturbing to us.   One wanted to help her mother so I know some of the girls are concerned about their families back home but the other one just did not want to study any more.  Maybe being shut down and unable to go to school for a long time, caused this girl to just give up her chances for an education.    An important lesson we need to teach our children is NEVER GIVE UP!

Ron has been busy raising funds to feed the poor Christians and loads of 30 kg bags of rice have been distributed to many families.    If you want to help with this relief work or see the pictures of these poor people and how they live, write to Ron at ronbrown20@gmail.com.  After seeing these pictures, I refuse to complain about anything.   I do not know how they even survive the living conditions in the Himalayan mountains with no proper shelter, clothing, blankets or food.   

We are learning of more people we know who have survived or passed away with the COVID-19 virus.  Apparently, it will be bad in the U.S for many months to come.   We were eagerly hoping the vaccination would help end the pandemic but I read yesterday that it's effectiveness is about 3 months.  Before everyone can be vaccinated, and the pandemic eradicated, it may still be around to affect those who got the vaccination more than three months earlier.   Am I incorrect in this thinking?     It also takes up to a month to be effective once you get the first shot.    In any event, we are staying close to home and taking every precaution when we go buy groceries or run necessary errands.

Please continue to pray for our workers, our girls and our son's work in the Philippines.    We have been blessed to be able to continue our work at the same level.    Ron talked with an elder in one congregation and he said all the mission works they support are on hold.  Missionaries cannot do their work in the foreign countries due to the virus, and those who came home cannot get VISAs to go back to the mission field.

Troublesome times are definitely here, but God is in control and things will eventually change.    I am reading The Narrated Bible in Chronological Order with commentaries by F. LaGard Smith.   When reading about the wanderings in the wilderness for 40 years, I cannot help but realize that God allows things to happen to the people He loves.   I am grateful that I did not live during those days.   We are so blessed to be living under Christ's New Testament era.  Life is surely easier for us now than in those days.   

God bless you all!

Tomorrow is Turkey Day!

How many of you know where you were or what you were doing on this Thanksgiving Day 30 years ago?  Today, I went to the basement to look through a box of cookbooks, hoping to find a specific one I used many years ago.    

I found a small pink notebook and inside I had written about my La Petite Boulangerie (My small bakery).   We were living on an island in the Caribbean, a French territory called Saint Barthelemy (St. Bart), about 15 miles from St. Martin (a Dutch and French island).     My little notebook recorded on 11/25/1990 that I began baking and selling my goods on that day.  

Ron was trying to start a new congregation but to meet people, he rented a small plane and several days a week, he flew to other islands to pick up fruits and vegetables to bring back to St. Bart to sell to restaurants and to the public.  He rented a small building not far from our rental house, added some refrigerators, placed tables around the room and displayed the many things be brought back from other islands in the Caribbean.   He opened it to the public from 12:00 to 3:00 P.M. several days a week.   At 4:00 he loaded up our van and took orders to restaurants all over the island.    He brought back conch and other specific items as requested by the restaurant owners.   It was a little income for us but mostly it was a way to get to know the people on the island in hopes of teaching some of them the gospel.  It was a Catholic island and French people, many speaking a creole French, so it was difficult for Americans to be accepted by the locals.  Our small business helped a lot in that way but we did not convert anyone in the 2-l/2 years we lived there.   We mostly had tourists attending our services.

My little bakery began to give me something to do and items to sell at Ron's little market each day.   I started baking right after breakfast each morning (7:30 a.m. and baked until noon).  I covered flat boxes with contact paper and filled it with small loaf-size cellophane wrapped loaves of bread and cakes, zip-lock bags of cookies, fried pies and muffins. I labeled what each was and the price on small sticker-type labels.  Everything was sold each day.    I began to get requests for special cakes and I baked those extra items and put the person's name on the item so it would not be sold to anyone else. 

I got special orders for pizzas, which was surprising because there were some really good pizza restaurants on the island.  People came by the house to pick them up as they were just out of the oven so they would be fresh and hot.  It was usually a family heading to the beach and wanted a pizza for lunch.   A couple of guys (homosexuals) from New York had a rental house close to us and they came by the house often to pick up sacks of muffins that I baked special at their requests.   They owned a Hermes shop in New York (so they told me) and if  you know of that designer of scarves and accessories, you know what an expensive shop they owned.  They were really friendly and nice.   It was a safe island with no crime and I was never afraid there.  

I continued my small bakery until we began to pack to leave the island to go to Montreal, Quebec, Canada.   My last entry in the book is dated June 4, 1991.   Converting the income from the French franc to U.S. dollars, I recorded:

November - December $939.00

January $999.00

February  $1,166.00

March  $807.00

April  $100.00

May $472.00

 Also, 50 pizzas baked in 6 months (50 x $10).    

Total amount sold, excluding pizzas was $4,513 (we considered l/2 profit after buying the ingredients).

The remarkable thing about this small business endeavor is that I was coming down with an autoimmune disease unknown to me and most others, including doctors.  It is called Sjogren's Syndrome.   My first symptom was dry eyes.   I have no moisture/tears to this day.  My eyes were hurting so badly that the baking was my way to keep my mind off my pain for at least l/2 of each day.   It is a very long story to explain the progress of the disease and what I went through for several more years.   It is the reason we left St. Barts and went to Canada.    I needed testing, medications and doctors to relieve my pain.   Ron had an opportunity to work with a church that needed us badly so we made the decision to move.   We lived in Montreal for the next seven years (1991 - 1998) and worked with people speaking five different languages in this one congregation. We moved to Nashville, TN and began the

mission work in China in 1998.   

I just thought I would reminisce about what was happening with me 30 years ago tomorrow.  God has blessed our years and work and we have many things to be thankful for on this special day to reflect on past and present blessings.

Wishing all a happy Thanksgiving.   Thank you again for following our work.  God bless you!

Wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving holiday!

This is an important time of the year for most of us.   While it may be because of the good food we enjoy, it means much more than just enjoying a good meal.   For many, it will be a sad time because families cannot be together.   It may be sad because a family member's place is left empty because they have passed away.  It may be even harder for some people this year with COVID-19 interrupting all of our lives.    My hope is that all of my followers, friends, family and supporters of our mission work are well and thankful for our many blessings.  Hard times just mean that we hunker down, keep our faith and continue to move forward until things get better.    

Thankfulness should be in the hearts of everyone.   God blesses us even when we are not deserving or appreciative.    We often overlook the many good things in our lives when things do not go our way.  Even winter brings on the blues and we grumble.   I was thinking this morning as it is very cold in North Georgia, how thankful I am that I did not live during the pioneer days when life was one disaster after another.   If you are old enough to remember "The Little House on the Prairie" you know what I mean.  Many of our mothers and grandmothers lived through very hard times compared to what we go through these days.

Solomon in his wisdom, reminds us that to everything there is a season and a time for us to rejoice and a time to be sad.    

When I think of those who have lost jobs, worried about how they will live and support their families, our worries are minor.   Just focus on your blessings, as I try to do, and be thankful.   God is with us and who can be against us?   

In the Philippines, our son and daughter-in-law's orphanage is caring for children who would be wandering the streets looking for food.   Our girls in the safe houses in Thailand, Nepal and Laos would be living in shacks during the cold winter and have nothing more than a bowl of rice each day.   Some are so poor they go into the forest to look for food just as the animals have to do to survive.   What hope do these people have?   Where is their joy and thankfulness?

Reflecting on these things, I just want to wish everyone a very HAPPY THANKSGIVING and encourage you to be THANKFUL.

Thank you to all who help with our mission work to provide a better life for others and give them a hope of Heaven.

God bless you all.

November - what can I say that is good about it so far?

Forgive me for rambling in this post because there have been so many things happening lately.   Some good and some things not so good.   

We had the remnants of a tropical storm hit early one morning with 55 mph winds for four hours.    When it was light enough to see outside, it looked like a war zone with tree limbs down everywhere.   No trees fell and all limbs were small enough to remove easily but I have spent two weeks just picking up limbs.  We lost power for a short time and were blessed much more than the people of Louisiana who were without power for up to a week in some areas.   Our yard again looks like the pictures I posted in the last blog segment after many hours of hard work.       

The election was a disturbing mess and continues to be unsettled.   Georgia will go through a recount but they were still counting ballots today.   President Trump was right to predict the mail-in ballots would create a huge problem.    There were many irregularities and yet I doubt it is enough to change the outcome.    We did lose sleep two night as we anxiously listened for the results.    There is nothing more we can do but pray for our leaders and our nation.    

I sprained my foot on Saturday afternoon.     I worked hard in the yard most of the day and came in to rest in my easy chair.   After checking emails and reading the news, I got up to go take a shower.   I managed to put my computer on the small table in my office before I had a very hard fall.   My right foot had gone to sleep but I did not feel it.    It gave way and I fell, hitting my head on my office chair and making a big noise.   Ron was in his office and heard it so he rushed in to help me up.   I could not get up because my foot was sprained.   We got my tennis shoe off and put an ice pack on it.   I managed to pull up enough to get to a bed and with ibuprofen and the ice pack, I got some relief in about an hour.  Now, two days later, my foot is swollen and black across the top and on both sides of the ankle.   I can walk without much pain but it will take a while to heel.

The saying I saw on Facebook comes to mind...."Is that promise my mother made to slap me to the next year still open?"    2020 has been a year none of us will forget.    Often, when Ron asks when something happened, I have to remember how old our kids were or where we were living at the time to figure it out.  I don't think we will forgot anything that we have experienced in 2020 and yet there are blessings galore.   We must remember to count them when things are not going exactly as we wish.     

Ron is trying to get an appointment to have his painful shoulder checked but with the pandemic, a simple doctor appointment is not simple.    I need two more dental appointments and with things happening, it is hard to know when to schedule them and I really rather not go out with the pandemic raging again anyway.

We lost a friend in Texas to cancer last week and today Leigh Ann (our daughter) lost a friend of 35 years to brain cancer.    A couple of weeks ago, a friend in Alabama lost her husband with a stroke.  Life is precious and even when we have the many ups and downs, we still should be thankful for each day of life.   Don't forget to tell those you love how much you love them each day.    

On a cheerful note, my niece in Oxford, Mississippi became a grandmother this week and they are so delighted to welcome Lewis into the world.    

Ronald (our son who has the orphanage in the Philippines) wrote that they have a new boy 10 years old.  When I want to feel sorry for myself, I remember children that have gone through so much more than I will ever experience.   This little boy's mother died of cancer.   There is no mention of a father.  He was living with his grandmother but going around to neighbors begging for food.   They are very poor and have nothing.   Can we put ourselves into the plight of this grandmother or that little boy?    How blessed we are and how ungrateful we are to complain about things.    

Some  years ago while we were working in China, I remember thinking of those mothers that abandoned their babies. It was different from uncaring mothers aborting their unborn babies.    These mothers were so desperate they would leave their babies in the cover of night, wrapped tightly in old clothes and lay them near a place where someone would find them,   How many of these women cried their entire lives for the children they were not allowed to keep?   What pain they must have had.    How happy could you be wondering if your child lived and was cared for? 

Our work in Asia continues without any problems.   None of our girls or workers are sick.    Many have suffered in Laos from recent flooding.  Ron will report by newsletter when he gets a report from our workers and how they have been able to help Christians who lost homes and needed food.   Today, I read where a typhoon is hitting Viet Nam and Cambodia with severe flooding.   It is a constant problem for poor people from Nicaragua last week to these people this week in Asia to suffer losses.   When we realize that 80% of the world's population lives in poverty and are continually enduring storms and earthquakes, we should thank God every day for our many blessings in America.   

Keep your focus on life and what is really important and don't let trivial things get you down and ruin your day.   My daughter, Leigh Ann, has posted on the Facebook page something like this:  "Live each day as if was your last."    Cherish each day you wake up and each night when you can lie down in a comfortable bed, safe and without hunger.

I am sorry I got carried away with my focus on us not being appreciative enough.   But it is a lesson we all need to think about.    

With love to all of my friends and family...and to those who care about us and our work that I do not even know very well...May God bless you. 

No news is good news as October comes to a close

 It is difficult to find anything interesting to post when we stay home all the time and our days are rather routine.   After 10 years of travel in the RV, relocating every two or three weeks, I am enjoying staying in one place in a house but it may get really boring before the winter is over.    

Ron continues to work on the RV repairs and touch up painting on pretty days after he answers his emails.  We need to get the RVs sold and he is diligent in working toward that end.   The American Dream that was donated to us a year ago has been in a shop for repairs that Rou could not do.   It is now ready for us to pick up but Ron has not found a dealer to sell the RVs so we will bring it back to our driveway on Friday.   He should complete the work on the Tiffin RV we own in another week and then we will clean them up and find someone to sell them for us.

The work has been really hard for Ron because he has one bad shoulder and continuous back pain from having a problem in 2004 that resulted in a disk being destroyed by e-coli in his upper back.   He will be relieved to be free of the RV maintenance when we can get these RV's sold.

On nice days, I am working a few hours in the yard to get some physical exercise.    I rake leaves in the driveway and walkway and pick up sticks all over the front and back yard.   The trees are wonderful in the summer, providing shade and keeping the house very cool,

but in the fall we have the dead limbs falling along with "raining" leaves.   The neighbors next door are helping me with the front yard leaves since they have a mower that picks up the leaves very quickly.   We will leave the backyard "natural" but we are burning the dead limbs that fall.   

We are anxious for the election to be over but we don't expect things to settle down and be peaceful.  There are rumors that Georgia is the #1 state to have riots and trouble if President Trump wins the election.    These groups that are no different from terrorists, state that they will target the rural and suburb areas since these are where people live who vote Republican and start a civil war.    The city of Atlanta has had riots during the summer months due to racial violence with shootings and the police.    We will avoid the city until we know things are calm.    We have no need to go into Atlanta except to go through the city to get to my dentist for a couple more appointments.

Our work is going well except the border between Laos and Thailand is still closed.    We can't add more girls to the house in Mukdahan, Thailand until our worker in Laos can go there to search for vulnerable girls in need of a home and education.     Three of our girls in Nepal have been reported to have the virus.   The son of the local minister came in to teach a Bible class and reported ill a few days later and then three of the girls got sick.  We are waiting for a report about them and any other girls who may have contracted the virus.     Schools are still closed in Nepal.   The girls can go to their schools three days a week to pick up assignments and do their work from the safe house.    Most of our safe houses have a garden nearby so the girls get out of the house to work in the garden but stay close by home.   

We are happy to send reports about our work to anyone and we welcome your emails.    Ron's email is ronbrown20@gmail.com and mine is patbrown10@gmail.com.    Thanks to everyone for being interested in our work and providing us with so much encouragement to continue the work.   God has blessed us with wonderful sponsors and continued good health.     God bless you all.

Our trip to Thailand has been cancelled

With mixed emotions, I must report that the trip to Thailand has been cancelled.    Ron has spent hours working on the reservations and trying to get a VISA to get into Thailand.   American Airlines changed the reservations several times but he finally thought he had the trip worked out to Hong Kong.   The problem was to get into Thailand from there.   Some airlines were flying from Hong Kong to Thailand but VISAs are required.   We got our pictures made for the VISA applications.  Ron tried many times to submit the applications to the Thai Embassy on-line but each time the computer said the website was not operating.    He read all the things we would face, such as a 14-day quarantine in one of their designated hotels.    All of the hotels were expensive and it would be at our expense.   I do not know for certain, but I imagine the meals will be preset and there would not be "room service selecting from a menu."   There might not be internet service connection either.   Being stuck in a motel room in Bangkok for 14 days under these circumstances would be difficult for both of us and delay the work.    

We have a small window of time due to our age to make another difficult trip to Asia.   Ron will be diligent to make a Plan B and determine our next steps in regard to the building of the next safe house.  No doubt, God will open doors for us and things will work out according to His will. 

The upsurge of the virus numbers in the U.S. will keep us close to home throughout the winter months.  My autoimmune disease (Sjogren's Syndrome) and our ages (82 and 83) put us at high risk for recovery from the COVID-19 virus.   Our health is important, not just to each of us, but for the SAS work to continue without difficulty.    We will continue to work from home to maintain the work and oversee the workers to increase the number of girls we care for in each country.    The virus seems to be must less in Asia at this time so our workers can maintain the care of the girls without difficulty.

We ask for your prayers for us and for our work in Asia.     We pray for our workers and for the girls in our care.    We also pray for our supporters and sponsors because YOU are the backbone of our mission work.    We are the people who go and get the work going and maintain it, but YOU are the reason we can do the work.    Without the support from loving, generous Christians, no mission work can be successful.    

THANK YOU for being on our team for the Lord's work.    Be safe during the months ahead.  Maintain your focus on service to our Lord and the work of carrying His message to the lost.  Continue to support our work as you are able.  

God bless you with love from Ron and Pat Brown!

Fall has come to Georgia

We are having some very chilly nights in northern Georgia.    The days warm up to the low 70's but nights are in the 50's and 60's.   The burn ban is not on so Ron is breaking up fallen limbs and burning them in the burn barrel Leigh Ann purchased for this purpose.    We hope to get the yard cleaned up and in good condition before our trip to Thailand.  Our leaves are not turning yet.  When we get the yard in better shape, I will post some pictures.   

The confirmation for our departure is now November 5, leaving Atlanta early for Los Angeles.   The flight through Dallas on November 1 was cancelled for lack of passengers going to Hong Kong.   International travel is not back to capacity and many airlines have cut back flights.    American could not make a connection from Hong Kong to Thailand but Ron has found several other airlines that do fly there from Hong Kong on a regular basis.   He will continue to work on reservations and hope something will work out before the first week of November.    We will end up in Lampang, Thailand but may have to go to Bangkok first.  I will post more about our plans as the trip gets closer.

We made a fast trip to Tennessee and Kentucky last week.    While it was good to get out and travel a little, we rushed a long trip in a short time and put many miles on the car in a short time.    We got home late the second night with only one night in a hotel in Franklin, KY.     We kept our distance and tried to only visit those we knew were safe, hoping to continue to escape the virus.   

Enjoy the change of seasons and the fall weather wherever you are.   God bless everyone!

All set - Go!

The title is a little misleading.   We are getting ready to go to Thailand on November 1, 2020.  But, we have a lot to do in the short time left.   

Ron is busy getting the maintenance done on our Tiffin RV to try to get it to a lot for sale before we leave.  RV service places are totally busy and its hard to get any help to do the repairs.   He has a man coming here on Saturday to try to find the electrical problems not working.   He has a man here today washing it and getting part of it ready to paint.   He will have to get someone to help him with the canvas awning that needs some work.   

I have a dental appointment in two weeks to get some small cavities filled.   I had a tooth pulled about a month ago that had an infection under a crown for a very long time.  I thought I just had some gum problems but it was actually a bad abscess under the tooth.

We will try to clean up the back yard before we leave.  There are many limbs fallen from the trees but there is a burn ban on now.   In October, we can break up the limbs and burn them in a burn barrel.  We want to get the yard in a good shape before we leave because it will have to be left until we return in the spring.   We will try to get the young neighbor next door to rake leaves in the front yard but the back yard is just natural and we will just let them accumulate there.   

We will fly from Atlanta on November 1st.   Originally, Ron planned to leave on Nov. 11th but he changed the reservations so we can leave before election day.  We will vote by absentee ballot as soon as it arrives in the mail.   We plan to leave early just in case there are uprisings or riots due to the election.   We don't know what will happen if President Trump is reelected and we believe he will be.   The Democrats and organized movements such as BLM and Antifa may try to destroy our cities.  Highways, airports and such like could be shut down to prevent us from even getting to the airport.    

We will have a short flight to Dallas and then from Dallas to Hong Kong.   We will have one night in the hotel at the airport and the next day fly to either Chiang Mei or Lampang.   I'm not sure if flights are available to Lampang but that is where we will end up and stay for almost four months.    Chiang Mei, in northern Thailand, is a tourist area where many expats go to retire.   There are beautiful communities there where rent is very reasonable for extremely nice houses.   Lampang is about l hour's drive from Chiang Mei.   I saw a couple of YOU TUBE videos about this place but it is small and I don't think there's much to see or do there.   They have beautiful temples in Thailand but they are not of much interest to us.   I do enjoy the food so I hope restaurants are open and the markets will be good.

I hope we will be in the hotel in Hong Kong on election night so we can watch the outcome on TV.

The virus was very light in Thailand and we are safe there but may have to quarantine 14 days upon arrival in a hotel.    Thailand will start issuing 90 day VISAs in order to get tourist back so we will apply for the VISA so we will not have to leave the country every 30 days, as before.   This 90-day VISA allows us to renew it again twice (1 month each time) which will allow us all the time we need.  Ron hopes to complete the house construction early in March so we can return to the U.S. 

Due to the Coronavirus restrictions, we may not be able to visit any other country on this trip.   There is still a shutdown in Nepal to some degree and the border between Laos and Thailand is still closed.

Cooler weather came to North Georgia this past week.    We had 50 degrees this morning.   We are not far from the North Georgia Appalachian Mountains.  This is probably a temporary cool spell and there will be warmer days in October.

We will miss Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays again.   I loved these celebrations every year with family and friends but since we went into the mission work, it has not been the priority of our lives.  As our children went their separate way, it was not the same if we had to spend the holidays at home alone.  We remember Tatum's birthday on December 22nd (our granddaughter) each year as she was the best Christmas present we ever received.   

September is a bittersweet month but mostly sweet.    Both Leigh Ann and Ronald had birthdays in September.   They are both such a blessing to our family.  Their births are vividly remembered each year and each day of their lives is a blessing to us.    I honestly do not know what I would do without them.  I thank God for giving us these precious offspring.

Ronald and Gigi are celebrating a 9th wedding anniversary tomorrow and through the weekend for a short getaway to a resort in the Philippines where they got a 50% off rate.   We could not ask for a sweeter daughter-in-law.   Gigi is precious to Ronald and to us.  I told them this week that I think God gave each of them to the other as a special gift from Him.  The chance of their meeting just had to be made in heaven.  

My mother died in September and after 37 years, I can vividly picture that time with her and her funeral as if it was yesterday.   We never forget our mothers.   I am always thankful for the life she gave me, the love and protection she extended to me and the teaching she gave me.   The loving care of a Christian mother is priceless.   There was never a time, not even for a minute, that I did not know that she loved me and thought I was one of the best things that ever happened in her life.    My Dad died when I was 3-l/2 and she always told me God sent me to keep her from being so lonely in life.    I miss her and cherish my heritage.

Keep us in your prayers as we continue our daily work with Save Asian Souls and Philippine Mission and prepare for the long trip to Asia again.    I will post another segment as things progress and I have more information to share.  God bless you all with good health and many continued blessings.

God is good and life is enjoyable!

Ron and I are doing well and isolating ourselves as much as possible due to an upsurge in the coronavirus in Georgia the past few months.   Since moving into Ronald and Gigi's house in Woodstock, GA, we have been very busy getting straightened out, doing minor repairs to the house, working in the yard and keeping up with our computer work for Save Asian Souls.

Our daughter, Leigh Ann, came up to visit from Florida over a long weekend toward the middle of August.   She went through some things she left here when she moved to Clearwater, FL last October.   We got to keep and use some of her things, she took a carload back with her and stored other things in the basement to get later.   We have a very nice, livable place to enjoy with a wonderful bird sanctuary in the backyard.    A snake appeared in a brush pile last week and we think it got our favorite little chip monk.   The birds and chip monks put on a show for us right outside our breakfast room window as they fight for positions on the bird feeders and bird bath.   They really enjoy the free food and water.  I will research to see if I can leave a suet ball for them to enjoy this winter when we are gone.    

We have enjoyed a rather nice summer and have not used any air conditioning.    This past week, we have slept under a light blanket at night.    We are enjoying 80's during the day and 60's or low 70's at night.   Fall is in the air but no leaves are falling yet.   

Ron has made reservations to return to Thailand on November 11th.   If we are able to get back into Thailand as the virus is still an unknown at this time, we will return to Mukdahan for a short time for Ron to get someone to complete the construction work left undone on the house we built there this past year.   

The house is more complete now and they have nice gardens producing vegetables on the sides of the house.   The girls are learning to garden and grow much of their own food.  

From there, we will then go to Northern Thailand where Ron will build a smaller house on church property.  It will house about 24 girls.   We anticipate taking a side trip to Laos to meet with our workers and renew our VISA to get back into Thailand for the last month.    We hope to return to the U.S. the second week of March, 2021, God willing.

We do not think we will have sufficient time to go to Nepal or the Philippines this year.   The house our son (Ronald Brown) has constructed for us on the campus of Casa Esperanza of Angels in Tanjay, Negros Oriental, Philippines is almost ready for occupancy.   They are finishing up the final touches and building the bunk beds for the girls.    

A Christian couple working part-time at Casa to relieve the house parents, have agreed to be over the SAS house of girls.   He is on the left in the white shirt and his wife is in black in the center of the back row.   Our son, Ronald, is on the right.

The new house parents have two teenage daughters.   One is a Christian and both girls will be great examples for the girls we support.   

Casa took two older girls in about two months ago when a Catholic girls' home closed.   These girls (top right on the back row) will move over to the SAS house and be our first two supported girls. 

In the Philippines, they also have a large garden underway and the older children learn all the aspects of gardening.    They are being taught many practical things that will help them when they are adults and must take care of themselves.  They are all receiving schooling and attend classes every day at the orphanage during the coronavirus shutdown of schools.    

Surplus vegetables (more than the children and workers of Casa can consume) will be given to the community that surrounds the orphanage.   

As soon as the virus ends and the church can open up to community services again, it will be helpful to have established a good relationship with everyone due to the good food program.   Christians are generous to help others and it is a valuable lesson to teach others and our children growing up in our care.

Ron's eye check up was good!

Yesterday, Ron completed his check ups by having an eye evaluation at Emory Eye Clinic.   The eye that has been so painful and red for some months is not the result of the mole Ethan Wright discovered in his evaluation last summer.    The doctor said the size of the mole has not changed and appears to him to have been there for a long time.   He said to have it checked again next year. 

The son of a preacher we know had a brain tumor recently.   The first thing they checked was his eyes since they felt the malignancy had a primary source.   His eyes were not the cause of the melanoma but having a mole in the eye could result in such a situation.   We are relieved to get a good report and know this is not a risk with Ron's mole!

Ron has dry eyes and during the time we were in the Philippines, he did his work in an air conditioned room due to the excessive heat.  Apparently, his eyes got too dry and this was the basic problem.   I used the small sitting room to do my work in the Philippines and it did get hot in the afternoons, but my dry eyes were not subjected to the air conditioning all day.

We have not used air conditioning since we arrived in Woodstock, GA.     Ron got windows to open and we let the breeze flow through with the help of fans, part of the time.   The house has many trees and until noon each day, the house is nice and cool.   

We continue to get a few more things done and more settled into our life in a house again.    Without constant travel, we are getting more rest and trying to catch up with our computer work that got a little behind while we were busy moving in.

Ron has not yet sold the RVs but he is checking to see where it would be best to put them on the market.    I am concerned we will wait until this season is too far gone to sell this them year.   Like all vehicles, they depreciate more in value each year.

Our work is going as well as expected during this pandemic.  Our girls are all well.  Borders are still closed and some places still endure shutdowns of businesses and schools.   Our girls who are now in their own tailoring shops have not had much business to bring them income so we have had to help them with food and the purchase of fabric. 

Ron has sent newsletters out about the many families we have helped in Nepal and Laos with food.  We continue to provide food to some areas bordering India and Nepal and now some Christians in Thailand are requesting help.    Until people can return to work and make a steady income, this may continue to be a problem.

With the virus still causing as many as 50 deaths a day in Georgia, we are staying in as much as possible.   When having to do things, we wear masks and keep our distance, using hand sanitizers.  Ron had to take care of problems with tires on the car and we dealt with the restrictions at Emory yesterday in regard to his check up.

Whenever there are news or changes in our lives, I will post again.     We are doing fine and pray that all of our Christian family everywhere is safe and healthy. 

In Christian love, we remain as servants doing Christ's work on earth.   Pray for us as we pray for you.

Move completed!

Our furniture arrived from being in storage in Albany, GA on July 9th.    It was a tough day unloaded a U-Haul truck with two strong guys helping us.    We got it all in the house and set up a bed to sleep and went to bed.   This is our son and daughter-in-law's house located at 406 Justin Court, Woodstock, GA 30188.    Our daughter, Leigh Ann and granddaughter, Tatum, lived here until last fall when they moved to Florida.  The house has been vacant since they left so the yard was really a mess.    The young man next door cuts the grass but limbs were everywhere and things in general made the house look deserted.

We made the decision while we were in the Philippines that we would share this house as our base home with Ronald and Gigi as we both continue our mission work.   Due to our quarantine in the Philippines, we could not get here sooner or get the furniture moved here until now. 

Ron and I both knew this was probably our last chance to have the ability to handle a move ourselves without having to hire everything done.   We were almost forced to do it now because of the virus and our inability to travel to visit at various congregations.   Everything changed and we adjusted our plans accordingly.    I promised Ron that I would do everything I could to relieve him of the work.  He has helped or done the impossible for me to do but I have done my share of unloading box after box and getting the house in order. 

Here are a few pictures to show how lovely the house is now. The dining room furniture was loaned (or given) to Leigh Ann when she moved into this house.   She has no room for it in her condo.   She still has things stored around in this room that she will take with her when she comes to visit.

Leigh Ann left the glass table in the breakfast room and the backyard with the birds feeding is what we enjoy at each mealtime.

The next pictures are of the large living room.    The cubes to sit on in front of the fireplace and the gold chair were left by Leigh Ann,   

The glass table belongs to Ronald.   This house now belongs to the entire Brown Family!

 I mixed in my furniture whether it really matches or not to complete the room.   As my decorator friend says, "some of it is early basement" style.    

I used gifts and pictures that have been given to us by family, friends and acquaintances, both at home and abroad.  My oriental corner and gifts from our friends cover the tables and include pictures on the walls.   The fun of decorating is remembering where everything came from and when we received it.   

Ronald and Gigi have their room in the master bedroom and it will always be ready for them when they return home.    I will have to take a picture of it and post it in the next segment.   

Here is my office set up in one of the bedrooms.    

I have a corner for reading and a bed for resting.    

Ron has a large table in the other bedroom and his office is set up with a cabinet for storage of offices supplies and a closet for his clothing with shelving on each side which provides a lot of space.   He does not have it neat enough for a picture but I will post one soon. We share whichever bed we feel like and sleep separately when we are tired and need to have uninterrupted sleep.   Our patterns of sleep are not good and as we get older, it seems to get worse.

There is another room upstairs that will be used for a guest room but I have not completed that room yet.   It is a big house with four bedrooms and 3 full baths but Ron and I will use less than l/2 of it, closing off unused rooms in the winter months and using radiator type electric heaters in our rooms.  

Ron still hopes to go back to Thailand for this winter but the virus situation and our health will determine what we are able to do by winter.   In the meantime, we have a very lovely place to live.  We feel very blessed and thankful for all that God provides for us. 

Here are some outside pictures to complete this blog.

Update from Woodstock, GA

We left Texas early on June 18th and drove to Mobile, AL   We can park at Regency church of Christ in the back parking lot where they have RV hookups.   We rested another day there before driving to Raintree Village Children's home in Valdosta, GA where they also have RV hookups.    On Monday, June 22 and again on June 23, we drove to Jacksonville, FL early each morning, arriving back at the RV late each evening.   Ron had appointments to check his heart, knees and a neurologist specialist.    Everything checked out well and we were pleased there were no complications and no surgeries needed.   He did not get to see the eye doctor because the specialist to see about the retina problem was booked until the middle of July.   They recommended he try to see someone at Emory while we are in Atlanta.    I hope he can see someone soon but his eye is doing somewhat better with a higher humidity and lower temperature.     Ron was 83 yesterday.

We drove to Woodstock, GA on June 25th.    Our RV is parked in our son's house driveway.  Some time this past year, we discussed with him about both of us making this our base home.   Our daughter, Leigh Ann and granddaughter, Tatum, moved to Florida in October and left this house vacant.  Ron thought Ronald should rent it but he had very bad renters twice before and he does not want to sell the house.   Ron and I have debated for the past 2-3 years where we should try to settle when we could no longer drive the RV and travel full-time.    We considered several cities but never settled on any place we really want to live.    Ron is not ready to totally give up the traveling but due to the virus, we are forced to do less the rest of this year.   Many churches are not meeting and we cannot visit and give reports on the work.

We spent two days unloading the RV into the house.    We go back to the RV to sleep at night until we can get our stored furniture brought here from Albany, GA.     We set up temporary offices in the house and are working to catch up our work.   We will move the furniture in soon and live here until we can travel again.   

Ron plans to sell or trade the larger RV for a very small RV that will be easier for short trips.   We will no longer live in an RV but take short trips in a much smaller RV if we can make a trade soon.  Ron feels the long drives and maintenance he has always done before is just too difficult for him now.

Because of our age and the high risk of getting the virus and not surviving it, we have been forced to stay in as much as possible.   We have to do banking and grocery shopping but those places are near and not in the middle of crowds.   We had groceries delivered when we arrived in TX and the Kroger store near us will deliver here if we decide to do that.   

We have a lot of computer work to catch up so we are very busy.   I hope to catch up before the furniture arrives from Albany.   Then, I will be busy for a few weeks getting things in place. 

We only have one phone at this time so if you really need to reach us by phone, Ron's number is 678-877-6300.   We are easily reached by email at ronbrown20@gmail.com or patbrown10@gmail.com.
The mailing address is 406 Justin Court, Woodstock, GA 30188. 



   

On the Road Again!

We have rested a week since we returned from the Philippines.    We will leave Alvin, TX (just south of Houston) tomorrow morning and drive about l/2 of the way to Jacksonville, FL.     We will stay in an RV park in Jacksonville while Ron has medical check ups at the Mayo Clinic next week. 

Leigh Ann, our daughter who lives in Clearwater, FL now, is planning to drive up to Jacksonville on Sunday afternoon and spend a few days with us,    We have not seen her in over a year and really miss her.    We look forward to having a little time with her even though it really is "camping" for her in a crowded RV.

I will post later as we get results of Ron's check up reports.

Thanks again for your interest in us and our work in Asia.

Arrived in Houston on June 10

We safely arrive back at our RV parked south of Houston, TX on Wednesday evening, June 10.   We left the house in Tanjay, Philippines at 4:45 a.m. to arrive at the charter service in Dumaguete at 5:30.  They wanted to leave at 6 a.m.  We encouraged Ronald and Gigi to go on back because they later had another trip to Dumaguete to do banking and purchase supplies.  

Ron booked a charter flight to Manila because we were never sure when the airport would open and allow commercial flights to leave the island.   We went through a lot of government requirements to prepare paperwork to leave the island.  If we waited longer, the dates on our quarantine, including a quick check up by the doctor at the health department would expire and we'd have to go through the process again.

We had boarding tickets issued on-line to leave on Monday, June 8.   When we got up and checked email, the flight had been cancelled and a notice posted on Facebook by Ronald said the airport would continue to be shut down due to 19 new cases of the virus reported the week before.

The flight did not leave at 6 a.m. due to something not checking out on the small plane.   They had to bring another flight in from Cebu (the next closest island) and it arrived at 9:15 and we left shortly after that.  It is what we would call a "puddle jumper."    It had only two seats behind the pilot and co-pilot.  It was very old.   The pilot was very young.   In fact, he probably is still a student pilot because he had to take our picture when we landed (which is required for his proof of flying someone).   He did not know which hangar to go into and said it was his first trip to Manila.   The plane was slow at about 135 miles per hour.   He didn't have radar and he did not have automatic pilot.  In fact,  Ron (who has about 6,000 flying hours) said the plane didn't even have minimum instrumentation.   One radio went out while we were in the air.   He dodged cloud build ups so it was not very bouncy.   I can assure you, most women would not have gotten in that aircraft and if I had not flown so much with Ron in a single-engine, I would not have flown in it either.   This time, I really had little choice.

We got to Manila airport about 1 p.m.   We were not allowed into the terminal because of the Coronavirus.   They let you in only 3 hours before your flight.   There was one waiting room for passengers waiting for their flights but when we arrived, it was not full even though they blocked off every other seat.   We got seats but had to wait until 8:30 p.m.   The room keep filling up and by the time we were moved inside the terminal, there were approximately 500 people waiting outside in the heat.   If we had not gotten there when we did, we would have had hours to wait without a seat.  Someone came in every hour or so with trays of sandwiches, muffins and drinks to sell but nothing was open even in the airport.    Once we were in line to go into the terminal, things went smoothly.

We left Manila about 12 p.m. to fly to Seoul, South Korea.  Their time was one hour ahead of Philippine's time so the flight was 4 hours.  The flight was full and no seats were blocked off.    We arrived about 5 a.m. and after being processed at the airport, we went to the hotel inside the airport, still in a secure area.    We got a room until 12 and got four good hours of sleep and a shower.    I could not believe how good I felt.    We checked into our flight to Los Angeles and got some chicken in the mall for breakfast.   Almost everything was open in this airport and it is a super nice airport.  They proudly say it is a virus-free airport but with so many passengers coming and going, I don't know how they can be so sure.  

Ron asked for a wheelchair because his back was hurting and he didn't think he could manage the long walk in the airports.    Actually, the one to our flight there was not very long but when we arrived in Los Angeles, there was a lot of walking.  They  had a wheelchair waiting for him when we landed in L.A.  I had to walk at a fast pace, pushing the cart with our bags but I made it O.K.    That flight was 10 hours.   We had an empty seat between us but its not enough room to lie down so we got very little rest.

We had a couple of hours to wait in Los Angeles for the flight to Houston.    We got the last two seats on the direct flight (which saved us landing in Las Vegas) but I had a child behind me that kicked and banged on the back of my seat the entire way.   That flight was 5 hours.  

One of the elders from the Westside church of Christ in Alvin, TX met us at the baggage area and brought us to the RV.   We arrived here about 7 p.m. last night.    We got to bed by 9:30 and slept until about 5:00 a.m.  

We have done a lot today but feel really lousy today.   I feel like I've been sick for a week.  That's the way jetlag affects the body.    It will take a few days (making sure we only sleep at night) to reset our bodies to the time zone.    It is a gruesome few days.

We will rest here for at least a week before we begin to travel back east.   I will continue to post as our summer unfolds back in the U.S.A.

Thank you for your prayers and concerns for us.   We really appreciate it.

The laugh is on me!

Remember the lines of an old song "leaving on a night train...?"   Well, we are not leaving on a night train and may not be leaving at all.  Our next projected date is coming up soon.  We have boarding passes already from Cebu Pacific airlines to leave Dumaguete, Philippines on Monday morning, June 8th.   But, that doesn't mean we won't get a cancellation notice on Sunday.    Ron had to check that we are here on business (which we are to see the safe house being built on the Casa Esperanza of Angels' orphanage property).   No pleasure passengers can fly just yet.    We have to have a health certificate within 24 hours of flight so Gigi is checking with a cousin's wife who is a nurse about getting this paper for us.

Ronald sent a message last night that (after weeks of no cases here) there are 17 new cases of the virus on Negros Oriental.  He suspects they are fishermen returning home but one is an 11-year old girl.   The patients are supposedly "contained" but with this scare, the airlines may be shut down, as well as the entire island.    We are hoping this is not the case and we can leave on Monday.

Since we arrived, I have been fascinated with a sound I hear every night at 5:30.    As we are preparing dinner, this "creature" starts making a sound that I describe as Uh Oh but sometimes the Uh gets stuck and it is Uh Uh Uh with a deep throated growling.    It is coming from a nearby tree or top of the storage room shed at the back porch.  You can set your clock by the first time you hear it.  It will be 5:30 p.m.  I thought it was a large bird that was coming in to roost and I checked the internet and listened to birds of the Philippines on YouTube and came up with nothing. I asked Ronald and Gigi and they had no idea what it was but last week they delivered our groceries about 5:00 p.m.   While we were in the dining room, my friend checked in with the Uh Oh. Ronald and Gigi started laughing.

My elusive friend is the Gecko Tuko (Americans spell it Tokay).
I've never seen one and after seeing the pictures and listening to it on YouTube, I can verify that this is my friend but I am happy for him to stay hidden under the edge of the roof of the storage shed.  They are fascinating creatures but I don't want him for a pet.  Geckos can be small as we have on the walls in the house but this kind can grow quite large.   He is so loud, I think our friend is large because he makes his presence known with much growling and crooking.    The internet says the sound is To-Kay To-Kay and that's where they get their name.   Doesn't sound quite like that to me.   According to what I've read, they hang on to trees or things and sleep during the day.  They can be heard throughout the night hours.  We have heard him as early as 5 a.m. but not after that during the daytime.   They have no eye lids so they lick their eyes with their long tongues to keep them moist.    Their eyes are 350 times more sensitive to light than ours.   They can drop off their tail if they feel threatened and it will continue to wiggle around to distract an enemy.   The tails stores fat but he can grow it back if it falls off.   They can live a long time.   As you can see, I'm getting a little bored of staying in when I am fascinated about reading about geckos.  

I have work to do to help secure sponsors for the new children arriving at Casa Esperanza of Angels.  I am waiting to get information about two little girls who are in danger where they are living and may arrive this morning to live at the orphanage.   They are 4 and 6 years of age so the change may be difficult for these little girls.   All the rest of their children have adjusted quickly and are very happy.

I will post again when I have news or more time.   Maybe my next post will be that we have arrived safely in the U.S.   But, don't count on it.  In the meantime, I'll look forward to 5:30 p.m. to go talk to my gecko friend.

God bless you all.