Wonderful time with visitors from Houston, TX

I don't know where to start to write about last week's adventures.   On Monday, Ron and I flew to Bangkok and took another flight to Chiang Mai, Thailand.   Kasem and his wife met us at the airport, and we spent the rest of the day with them.   

Chad and Carlyn Jackson and their children from Alpharetta, Georgia are living in Chiang Mai for a year.   They came to the safe house to have dinner with us.   We have seen Chad a few times in the past years, but it was probably in 2009 when they traveled with us in China.  The Jackson Foundation built two of our orphanages in China.   It was great to be with them again.   

We had a good night's sleep at the safe house.   I made it up to the top bunk to sleep.   We were tired so we slept all night even with about a thousand frogs crocking in a nearby rice paddy.   We had a good breakfast, and the girls went to school.   Ron had a 10:30 appointment at the U.S. Embassy to request a temporary passport.   Ron used all of the pages in his passport and the new one he requested did not come before we left the states in late October.    They said it would be ready at 2:00 so we went to the airport to meet our visitors from Houston, TX.   Their flight from Bangkok was an hour late.   

After we met them, we drove to the Central Mall and had a good lunch at Sizzler's Steakhouse.   We went back to the U.S. Embassy to get Ron's passport and then to the safe house.   Our Houston visitors had time to tour the house, but we had to go back to the airport for our flight to Udon Thani.   One girl was home sick, but the others were in school, so they did not get to see them.     

Tuesday night, when we arrived at the Udon Thani airport, TG met us to take us to a restaurant.  With five guests and bags, she got an Uber driver to follow us to the hotel for them to check in and then transport us to the restaurant.   After a very delicious dinner, the visitors went to the hotel.  Ron and I returned to the Udon Thani safe house where we are living now.   

On Wednesday morning, TG came with the van driver to bring our guests to the Udon Thani safe house at 10 a.m.   They toured the house and then Ron showed them a power point presentation about our work.    We went to Central Mall and had lunch at the good restaurant that Ron and I like so much.   After lunch, TG had the van driver take us to some gardens with fields and fields of flowers grown for fresh flower markets.   

Thursday morning, the van picked Ron and me up first and then the guests for the trip to the Laos border.    It was about an hour's drive.    

It would take a whole segment to write about our experience crossing the border at immigration.  I'll just skip the details.  I think the process took close to an hour.  The Laos immigration workers seemed flustered to have to process seven Americans and I was handed a paper that belonged to one of our guests.    They failed to stamp when one of our guests arrived, so she had trouble at immigration the next day as they left for Bangkok.   

Phet, our housemother at one of the safe houses met us and secured a taxi to follow up with some of our group and their luggage.    We went to Ket's house first.    This is Phet's parents' home, and they keep about six girls in their home.  Girls were in school, but we got to see where they live.    

We drove to Hong's house and were blessed to see about half of his girls.  The others were taking exams at school.    Our visitors had a chance to ask Hong and the girls a lot of questions and it was a very good visit.    Hong and his wife, Amphone, care for 18 girls in their small home.    

Phet and Ket drove us all to JoMa's Restaurant, my favorite place to eat in Vientiane, Laos.  They have burgers, sandwiches and salads along with a lot of delicious desserts.    It is smaller but similar to Panera Bread.  Our housefather, Hong, was manager over two of these restaurants in Vientiane and one in Luang Prabang, Laos when we recruited him for our work. 

When we arrived at Phet's house, all of her girls were home and eagerly awaiting our arrival.   It was a great time for them and the visitors as they sat around the table and talked.   The girls enjoyed answering their questions and there were big smiles on everyone's faces.   

After an hour or so, we went to check our guests into the Lao Orchid Hotel.   We walked to a restaurant that had western and Laos food and it was very good.    

We parted company with our guests after dinner.  They were going to the night market before going to bed for their morning trip back to Bangkok the next morning.   Ron and I went home with Phet and spent our two nights in her guest room.   She provided everything we needed, and the bed was such a welcome sight to very tired old people.   Each morning, we had a wonderful table spread with yoghurt, bread, cake, fruit, cheese, and hot drinks.     

We stayed to spend time with Ket, Phet and Hong on Friday.    Ron changed some of their responsibilities for the future management of the work.  Ron had meetings with each to discuss what they need, how we and help them more and what he wants them to do in the future.   We met with Phet and Hong until noon.   We had time to see more of Hong's girls who were home from school that day.  These are the girls we've seen on previous visits so all of us were happy for the reunion.  

Phet's mother prepared a delicious lunch for us on Friday.   We had chicken soup and stir-fried rice with vegetables.   We toured the farm with Ket and he discussed how he wanted to raise pigs and fish.

Hong and his family came to Phet's on Friday night to take us to have dinner with his family.   Their very smart son, Nathan is 7, their daughter is 3 and they have an adopted daughter about 15.   We went to the Pizza Company.  This is about my favorite restaurant because they have the best pizza I've ever eaten.  The children really enjoyed it.  They were well-behaved.   It was good to spend a little more time with Hong and Amphone.   We bought a large ice cream cake that they packed securely at the next-door ice cream restaurant named Swenson's.   They took the ice cream cake to their girls at home.   We told Phet we would include funds in her next transfer for her to buy an ice cream cake for her girls and tell them it is a gift from us.    

Saturday morning, Ket and Phet drove us all the way back to the safe house in Udon Thani.   He crossed the border frequently, so he knew how to process the passports without it taking too long.

After touring our next house in Udon Thani, they returned home to Vientiane, Laos.   Ron and I unpacked, prepared a little lunch and began to check our emails after being away most of the week.

It was a great week for us.   We enjoyed our visitors very much and it was good to get to know them. We needed time with our workers.  

Phet's girls at our arrival at their house: 

Goodbyes are very hard for us as we realize this may be our last trip to see the girls and our workers.  The girls realize this too due to our age and limited abilities.    It was almost a fight with the girls to get to help hold our arms as we climbed the stairs to our room on the 3rd floor.    On the first floor, there is the large dining room where they spend much of their time around the long table, having Bible classes, studying and eating.   The kitchen is small and outside but Ron is going to renovate it to put a roof over it before the monsoon season arrives and provide them with painted walls, a fridge and washing machine (none of which they have now).   The second floor is occupied by Phet, her sister and her family (maybe one little boy) and two rooms for girls.  Phet's sister teaches the beauty course and helps with the cooking and marketing.   When Phet is away, she is always there to stay with the girls.   Phet also has another place where she teaches sewing to some of the girls.

The third floor has two rooms for girls, the guest room and two baths.  There are two baths on each floor.    This house is owned by Phet's father.   At the entrance (you may can see it on the above picture where the girls are waiting for us) there is their small beauty shop where girls are learning to do hair and makeup.   (Kham, the girl that was blind, is taking this course so she can go back to her village and have a shop).  You will see Kham's picture below in a yellow shirt.

It was wonderful hugging and spending time with these sweet girls.  They love us for providing them with a home where they can go to school and learn the Bible.   All of our workers are very dedicated Christians, and they spend as much time as they can to teach the girls.   They meet in different homes on Sundays and do some Bible classes by zoom because Laos is a Communist country.  They must be cautious.

This is a group of very happy girls and it bring joy to our hearts to know they are safe and doing so well.

Kham is the girl that Ron found blind about 5 years ago while touring the villages in Luang Prabang, Laos.  She was brought to a hospital in Bangkok and her eyesight was restored.    Dr. Tom Pryor, a physician who has helped with our work in the medical field paid for her surgery and she is forever grateful to all of us for her sight.

Unfortunately, one of the ladies did not have her passport when she arrived in Bangkok.   She filed a police report that it was stolen but they would only let her report that it was lost.   I guess she didn't have anything else missing.    This was the same lady who had trouble because the Laos Immigration did not stamp the date she went into Laos.    The men returned home to Houston, but the two ladies are still in Bangkok.   

With it being a weekend and Monday a holiday for Martin Luther King Day, they cannot get to the U.S. Embassy until Tuesday morning to get an authorization needed for the airlines to allow her to return home.    We are hoping that process goes smoothly tomorrow morning and the booking for their return flight will go well.    I hope this incident does not ruin their memories of this trip to visit us and our safe houses.

God continues to bless our work tremendously.   Ron and I are also very blessed to be able to make this trip and to do all the work we must do for this ministry.   We appreciate your prayers on our behalf.   

I will have many additional pictures in a few days from everyone's cameras.   If you read this now, check back in a few days and scroll through the pictures.  I wanted to write about the trip early in case some of you are checking to see if I've posted again.   

If anyone has any questions, please write to me at patbrown10@ gmail.com.

May God bless you for having an interest in our work and for the encouragement you provide to Ron and me.