April brings warmer weather but lots of rain too!

Where does the time go?    We stay very busy and the weeks go by too quickly.   We have not had anything particularly interesting to post.   We are busy with computer work until early afternoon each day.  

All of our girls in the various safe houses are going to school and doing fine.    The girls are taking final exams and when school is out for the summer break, some of them will relocate to other safe houses because of school changes as they advance in their grades.    Schools in most countries are open again after having several lockdowns due to Covid-19 and Omicron.   Quite a few of the girls are being baptized but they are receiving a lot of biblical teaching and this is the result of their hearts being pricked to become followers of Christ.   

We have had friends visit for a few days and it was a delightful break from our routine.   It was good to share special food and conversation.    I cook simple but healthy meals for Ron and me but when I have company, I still love to entertain and do the best I can.

Monday night when guests arrived, I had already prepared spring rolls and hot and sour soup.   I decorated the breakfast table in "Chinese" colors, dishes, and place mats.   While they enjoyed these appetizers, I completed the cooking.   Chinese cooking has to be done at the last minute.  

When the food was ready, we moved to the dining room to enjoy roasted salmon and asparagus, chicken stir fry with mushrooms, snow peas, red peppers with yellow saffron rice.   We had ginger hot tea or iced tea.  Our dessert was pound cake with strawberries and blueberries, topped with whipped cream.     We had enough leftovers for lunch on Tuesday.   Our friends left on Wednesday and we miss them a lot.

Spring has brought a lot of rain and some very cool days, but when the weather is warm and nice, we work in the yard in the afternoons to get some exercise.  

This is Ronald and Gigi's house where we live in Woodstock, GA (north of Atlanta).  

We are doing the best we can to keep it until they decide to sell it.   During the winter, we close off about 3/4 of the house as it is too large for us and we don't want to heat all of it.    It is a beautiful house but a big yard and house.  It is a very safe and quiet location.  Neighbors are wonderful and looked out for me really well while Ron was away in Thailand.    

A week ago, Ron pulled a muscle in his back.  He had some very painful days until it finally healed.  We are careful not to do work too heavy or difficult but sometimes we can have this happen without doing very much.  I have actually pulled a muscle in my back by just reaching for something in the closet or on the floor.   Anyway, Ron is much better now and I am trying to protect him from doing too much.

We will begin traveling soon to report to churches in TN and KY.    We are driving the car now as the large RV has been turned over to a man on a lease/purchase agreement.     We still have the RV that was donated to SAS and we may take it south for the winter months unless Ron has to return to Thailand this fall.

We are waiting for Philip, Wendy and Deborah Zhang to come to work with SAS from China.   Their VISA has been approved but they can't leave Shanghai to fly to the U.S. as Shanghai is shut down due to a surge in COVID.    We hope to bring them here to our house first for a few weeks for Ron to train Philip in the SAS work as he will begin to take a leadership role to relieve Ron of the heavy load.   I hope Wendy will be interested in learning my job so she can take a portion of my work.   They may reside in Houston, TX but they will need to find a place to live and get Deborah enrolled in school by August.   They may be pushed for time by the time they can leave China. 

We hope Philip will get to go with Ron to some of the churches so he can be introduced to the way Ron gives the presentations about the SAS work. 

We will visit churches in TX, the Lord willing, in October.

It is a busy schedule for old folks but maybe the fast pace and the demand of the work is what is keeping us alive and active.  We are very thankful for our many blessings and that includes YOU...my friends, family and supporters who take time to read my blog and check up on us.   

May God bless you with good health and a wonderful spring/summer season.   

Mini-Vacation Trip to Florida

Last Tuesday, our nurse friend, Ellen Mao, flew to Atlanta from her home in San Jose, CA.   She drove us to Clearwater, Florida on Thursday and we returned home on Monday.     We spent three days with our daughter, Leigh Ann in her condo.    She had good meals for us and we had fun seeing the beautiful area that she is now enjoying.   It was great to see her condo and know how happy she is living there.  We saw our granddaughter, Tatum, two nights.    We all had dinner on Sunday night together with Tatum and her friend.     

On Saturday, we went to the St. Petersburg Pier and enjoyed a beautiful afternoon.  We went to Leigh Ann's congregation on Sunday.   

Ellen and Leigh Ann roomed together at one medical mission we conducted in China.  They also went to China to one of the orphanages some years ago so they have been friends for about 15 years.  

Ellen went to nursing school at Harding and upon graduation and obtaining her nursing license, her first job was at Baptist Hospital in Nashville.   Ron had just started the work in China and she came by to help with the secretarial work each afternoon before going to Baptist for her night shift.   She also had a stretch of work in Atlanta when we live in Sharpsburg, GA (Maybe 2006-2008) or around that time.   We got to see her during that time.

Three years ago, Ellen went to Nepal, Laos and Thailand with another nurse friend and they visited all of our safe houses, teaching the girls about hygiene and health.    

Ellen's parents escaped China into Viet Nam before immigrating to the U.S.    They have lived in the Los Angeles area and raised 11 or 12 children there.   Ellen is their youngest.

Ellen has always supported some of the kids and girls we care for and has a passion for helping others.  She has blessed our lives in so many ways with the latest blessing being our trip to Florida to visit Leigh Ann and Tatum.     She teases us that we are her "white" parents.     We consider her as a daughter too because she has been so good to us.

Spring is here and we are happy that winter is over.     

Pray for our brothers and sister in Ukraine.    We are so sad about this war.    

Ron is home!

Ron left home October 30, 2021 and arrived home February 11, 2022.    It seems even longer than that to both of us.  He got in at 11:00 p.m. last night.  It was so late, he took an Uber taxi home rather than stay in a hotel.   He arrived home about 12:30 p.m. and went to bed right away.    

He slept until about 6:30 a.m.   I prepared a blueberry breakfast casserole yesterday so I went to bake it.  We had bacon and banana slices with the casserole (which has lots of eggs) and it was very delicious.   I have not had a good breakfast like this since he left.    

He has been unpacking and putting things away.   I have started a load of laundry as coming home always means there's a suitcase full of dirty clothes.

I have prepared enough food for the weekend so we will have some time to relax and he can rest all he needs to.   It will take a few days to get adjusted to the time change and the climate.

I cut camellia blooms and daffodils this morning and prepared a beautiful bouquet for the bathroom to remind us that spring is nearly here.

The past week has been warm and nice (nights down in the 30's but days in the 60's.    We have another weekend cold front arriving Sunday afternoon and cold air lingering through Tuesday.   Then we have rain toward the end of this coming week.

Our friend, Ellen Mao, from San Jose, California will arrive for a visit on February 22nd.   More later about our plans for her visit.

We are so thankful Ron was able to make the trip to Thailand and accomplish all he set out to do.  He was disappointed he could not go to Nepal, Laos or the Philippines on this trip.   He is about exhausted and really needed to come back home.    He will feel rested again soon.

Thanks to everyone who kept Ron and me in your prayers during this time.

Have a happy Valentine's Day everyone.    We love you all.

Ron's journey home has begun

Ron left the safe house in Mukdahan, Thailand at 4:30 p.m.  (4:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, their time).  He will travel in an airport shuttle van for 3 hours to reach the closest small airport.   The flight from there will take him to Bangkok.    Hopefully, he made a flight today and will arrive at a hotel before too late tonight.  He needs a few nights of rest so this will give him some time to be prepared for the many hours he will be in flight before reaching the U.S.    

The internet service at the safe house was not connected consistently to work on the international flights.  From the hotel in Bangkok, he will work on the reservations and be on the next available flight.  I don't know how soon that will be because I have no idea of the number of passengers that are traveling during these perilous times.    He will probably have to have a COVID test within 72 hours before boarding an international flight.    

He is flying Japan Air (which he says is a wonderful airline) and will most likely fly from Bangkok to Narita, Japan and then to Los Angles with a connecting flight to Dallas and then to Atlanta.   He may be overnight in Dallas one night.   

I will post again when I know his travel exact arrangements and when he will arrive home.   

Thank you for praying for his safety and health as he comes in contact with many people as he travels.  

Coming Home and other good news!

Ron completed the renovations that needed to be done at the safe house in Mukdahan, Thailand.  He treated the girls and house parents to pizza and ice cream on Friday night.   He was hoping to get a VISA approval to go to Laos to visit workers there but it does not seem likely that it will work out.  Laos has just opened their borders and VISAs are not easily obtained at this time.

Schools all over Nepal are closed due to an increase in COVID so Ron cannot go there on this trip.   He would love to see our family in the Philippines but a trip there is not possible now.   Ron is actually exhausted from the work from the past three months so he really needs to get back to the U.S. and rest.

Ron will start working on the flight changes to return home ASAP.    Hopefully, he can go back to Bangkok, rest a few days and be on his way home by next week.    When I have specific dates of his flight, I will post again.

Ron is ordering spring-like weather to be here when he arrives home.   While I expect warmer days, it will still seem cold to Ron after being in a tropical climate since the first of November.   I told him he can stay in bed until noon every day and I will provide room service.   The afternoon sun comes in the bedroom window and it will feel warm to him. 

They had a wonderful day of worship in the newly renovated tent at Casa Esperanza of Angels in the Philippines on Sunday.   Their post on Facebook of the services was a wonderful video of the three older boys (now Christians) serving the Lord's Supper to everyone.   There was a large crowd with all of the children and staff and the singing was beautiful (in English).   

I got the first email from Ranjit (our worker in Nepal) this morning since he got sick with Covid many months ago.    He has been seriously ill in Nepal and India hospitals.   He said he is feeling much better and starting to work again.   He hopes to begin visiting the safe houses soon.    We have been blessed to have Sagar (director of the Himalayan Bible School) assume Ranjit's work while he's been sick.   Sagar has done an excellent job and we are very grateful for his loving efforts to help.   We are very thankful that Ranjit is on the way to recovery and good health again.

We have been working with Immigration (Homeland Security) for about a year to bring Philip (Zhang Shoujiang),  his wife and daughter to the U.S. to work with SAS.   We met them about two years ago right after Philip graduated from the Memphis School of Preaching.   This past week, after much correspondence with Immigration, he has finally been approved to come March 1, 2022.   They plan to move to Houston, TX where they have either family or friends.    Once he arrives and gets settled, Ron will begin to train Philip in all aspects of our work.    We need him on-board to begin taking some of the load off of Ron's shoulders.   

I will be posting more about Philip and his family in future posts.  

We are so thankful for the many good events happening and providing us a way to have a good and successful New Year!

Prayers are appreciated for the girls in our care,  the children in the Philippines, the staff with both mission works, for Ron and me, Christians everywhere, and our nation as we anticipate war in Ukraine soon!   We could spend a lot of time in prayer for so many concerns, but I know God knows our every need and HE is faithful to be with us in all circumstances.

Have a great week, everyone!  

Progress

Ron arrived at the safe house in Mukdahan, Thailand last Friday and began assessing the work he needed to do at this safe house.   He found things the contractor did not finish after we left there two years ago.  He also found things that needed to be done, i.e. a water pump that needed to be replaced and other things.   It was too hot for him to sleep in the guest room so he got them to install an air conditioner so the room can be used for other workers when they visit there in the future.  He ordered materials and got workers to do the actual work and he is busy every day overseeing it.  He expects to be there another week but he said he could actually work there for a couple of months before it would be like he would want it to be.   I constantly remind him that their standards are not necessarily our standards.   For example, they have  moved their kitchen outside under a shed.  While it would be difficult for us, the heat of an inside kitchen makes it ideal for them to cook outside.  This is a common system in Thailand.  It is not as sanitary as it would be inside.    Many Asians have lived their entire lives without fridges so they see no need to refrigerate leftover food soon after a meal is finished.  They contend with flies which we cannot tolerate.  They have washed dishes in river water or just cold tap water and they see no need for hot water and soap.   It is hard to provide changes for people who have done it a different way all of their lives.    Ron wants every safe house to be up to our standards but it is not always possible or practical.

Ron is still waiting to see if he can get a VISA and go to visit workers in Laos for a week before he comes back to the U.S.    He wants to go, but he is also eager to come home since he left at the end of October.   I think he is getting weary at this point in his trip; three months of "camping" after being spoiled by me at home. 

In the Philippines, they are busy restoring what typhoon Odette destroyed.   The canvas is going up on the frame to restore the tent they use for worship and school classrooms.    

It is a very large (and heavy) piece so you can see why they could not remove it before the typhoon hit.

They have replaced the gates to the property and restored the concrete block wall that fell.  The property is secure again for the children to be safe.  

The children had a good Christmas right after the storm.   They helped clean up the flooded houses and enjoyed their presents (which had been purchased beforehand) even though they had no power.  They played games and had a wonderful time.   

Each month, they have a birthday party for the children having birthdays that month.  These children have not had such a joyful occasion on their birthday before so they are shown how special they are and how happy everyone is for their lives.

Leaving Chiang Mai

Ron is finishing up his work in Chiang Mai.    The training of the house parents has been completed to the best of his ability using a cellphone to translate.   They have much to learn but it will be an on-the-job learning experience.   

Ron will be leaving on Friday to go to Mukdahan to visit the safe house we built there two years ago.    

When he leaves there in early February, he will try to go to Vientiane, Laos to visit  our workers there.   It is too hard for him to attempt trips to Nepal and the Philippines.   He hopes to return home by the end of February.  

I will post more as I have details of his travels to the other locations.

Have a good week, everyone and may God bless you.