After two long days and nights of travel, we arrived in Bangkok and slept 9 hours last night. We feel rested. We have a short trip to Udon, Thailand today. Our final destination is Udon so when we are settled into a rented room, I will post more details. The main thing about this post is to let everyone know we are well and almost to Udon with the hardest part of the trip behind us.
Have a great day. Thankful to God for our blessings
We are finishing up everything we need to do today to be ready for our flight tomorrow night. Ron put timers on two lamps to come and go off at different times. The house is almost clean, and things are in order to leave. Sunday morning after we get showers, Ron will turn off the water and drain the water heater and pipes so we will not need to leave heat on to prevent pipes from freezing during the winter months. Preparing a house to leave for six months is almost as bad as moving. Well, maybe not! I counted that we have moved 19 times in our 64 years of marriage. That doesn't include moving in and out of several different RV's during the 12 years we lived in and traveled in an RV I hoped moving into this house in Woodstock would be our last move, but the last chapter of our lives has not closed yet.
Ron says he has made more than 60 trips to Asia since the first trip to China in 1998. I have made more than a dozen trips. This may be our last one, so we'll try to enjoy the experience and take in all of the fun things like trying to read labels and shopping in the supermarket. We will soak up the sun since the weather will be warm the entire time we are there. The monsoon season of rain usually comes in May or June and if all goes well, we will be back in North Georgia before then.
The minister in Bangkok said the house that has been purchased for the next girl's home needs a good bit of work. Ron will spend the next several months with contractors and workers to renovate the rooms to make this house accommodations a good place to live for as many girls as the house will hold. We do not know the extent of the work or how long it will take to accomplish the remodeling until we get there. Ron will have to deal with the language barrier as he tries to communicate with workers. He uses his cell phone translator, and it works pretty well.
The people who sold the house and property also own a resort nearby. We will rent a room there while Ron is working on the house. They are going to reduce the cost of the room for us down to $11 per night. We have no idea what the resort is like; whether pretty nice or down to less than 1 on the scale of desirability. We don't need a pool, exercise room or other amenities but we do need a good bed and enough furniture for me to do my computer work. If we have to buy a desk and office chair, it will eventually go to the safe house. We will need a small fridge and microwave and then we can make it just fine.
Once the house is completed, we will furnish the house and move to a room there. Ron will interview and hire house parents and begin to train them. Our time with them will take at least a month to go over everything. Ron may go with them to interview potential girls to come to live at the safe house.
As the work unfolds, I will post pictures and progress so anyone who reads my blog can keep up with our life and work in Udon, Thailand.
After we arrive and can connect to an internet server, I will post that we have safely arrived.
Again, thanks to everyone for your love and concern for us. May God be with us all.
We have 6 days until we leave for Thailand. Each day this week, I have things planned to accomplish. If plans go well, I will be ready early and can relax and rest some.
Bags are 99% packed. I washed clothes after the trip to TX and spread out the things I planned to take to Asia. Yesterday, I decided which items of clothing would mix and match and wash and dry easily. I have one bag with clothes and shoes with some miscellaneous items weighing 35#. I will have a small carry-on with medications, toiletries and miscellaneous items. I will probably check the carry-on bag, if possible. I don't like having to deal with luggage through busy airports. I will carry a large handbag that will hold my small laptop computer, a book to read on the plane and some pj's for the one night we will stay in the Qatar airport hotel. Ron is also packed except for last minute items, such as his computer and toiletries.
We both like to pack early so we have some days to think of things we should include It is better to do that now than after we leave. I'm sure there will be some things I would like to have but we learned many years ago, it is better to pack wisely and light rather than deal with heavy bags and take things we will never use. There are many malls in Thailand and most things are available there without a problem.
We have beautiful weather today, but rain is coming tomorrow night. We washed the car and cleaned out the garage today. We had no time to do that upon our return trip from Texas two weeks ago.
The yard service got our yard clean this weekend, but many leaves have fallen again. My good neighbors will oversee the yard work and they assure us that we have nothing to worry about. They will watch the house for us. She will drive us to the MARTA subway station Sunday afternoon, and we will arrive at the airport ahead of time. Ron is still trying to upgrade our seats, but we are told the flight is full.
When we reach our destination in Udon, Thailand and have internet service, I will post a segment to say we have arrived. I hope my blog will describe a good trip with pleasant experiences for each of the three flights. I read about so many incidents on planes these days with unruly passengers, I hope we will have all good passengers and a smooth flight.
Thank you all for checking in to keep up with us. I am grateful for all of our family and friends that keep on encouraging us as we make these long and hard trips.
God bless you all. With love, Pat
After a quick two-week trip to Texas, we arrived home in Woodstock, GA yesterday. From just south of Dallas to Corpus Christi, TX, Ron reported to some of the congregations that support our work. As we had opportunity, we met with individual supporters in each location also. We could not see everyone on this fast-paced trip, but we were very happy to see many people we had not seen in three or more years. Due to Covid-19, we could not make visits in previous years. We were happy to see many wonderful supporters and friends on this good trip.
We drove several thousand miles. I have not completed our mileage log. I don't have an exact total of miles driven, but it was a lot. We are thankful we had no incident that delayed us. We did not even see an accident while traveling. Ron did the majority of the driving and did an excellent job. I relieved him for an hour, here and there, to let him rest a while. I can't drive after dark, and I am too stressed to drive through large cities, but in between cities, I provided Ron with some rest. Due to our 12 years of living in and Ron driving an RV, I have not had a great amount of driving experience in a long time.
In Texas, the speed limit is usually 75 mph even on side roads that are almost like county roads. But they are straight, and you can see for miles. They have wide shoulders on the roads and if you see a fast-moving truck behind you, it is common to pull over onto the shoulder and let the vehicle pass. Everything may be bigger in Texas, but everything is also faster. If you see a pick-up truck coming, you can be sure they will be traveling about 10 miles over the speed limit, no matter what the limit is. Even on the interstates, the speed us usually 75 and speeders are weaving in and out of traffic at speeds exceeding 80 mph. With such heavy traffic and so many speeders, we feel very blessed to have made this trip safely. We have State Farm Insurance and a monitor on the windshield so we can get a discount for safe driving so we maintained the speed limit (or below) and stayed in the right lane as much as we could to avoid irritating fast-moving drivers.
With this trip, we completed our reporting on the SAS work for 2022. We have about 10 days to catch up from the trip, complete some of the computer work we could not do on the trip, wash clothing, repack for the five-month trip to Asia and prepare the house to leave.
Thank you to all of our supporters and friends who follow our work and support the cause to provide a safe home, an education and spiritual teaching to vulnerable girls who live in poverty and have no hope for a good future.
I will continue posting to my blog and hope to provide pictures of our trip to Thailand and visits to our safe houses in other countries if we have opportunity to visit them.
May God bless each of you! Thank you for your prayers for us, our family, the workers and girls we care for in Asia.
After the stress of last week, this week seems very calm and easy. We drove to the Mayo Clinic on Monday last week since there was the threat of Hurricane Ian on the horizon. This hospital must be the most cooperative of any hospital in the world. Ron's appointments were actually on Thursday, the day the hurricane was predicted to arrive in Jacksonville. They moved his appointments up to get the testing done on Tuesday and Wednesday. We finished at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday and there was already wind and rain coming into Jacksonville. Ron was not able to see a doctor to go over the reports but, hopefully, he can have a conference call to go over the results of the reports. We drove back to Woodstock on Wednesday.
For several days, Hurricane Ian was predicted to go into Tampa Bay. We were very nervous as Tatum lives in Tampa and Leigh Ann in Clearwater. On Tuesday, Leigh Ann was ordered to evacuate so she went to Tatum's condo as it is not in a flood zone and no evacuations were recommended in that area. The storm turned and came into land about 100 miles south of them at Ft. Myers. There was no damage to our girls' condos, and they escaped the worst of this horrible storm.
Ron's sister, in a retirement community in Fort Myers. made it through the storm also. They were without power a couple of days afterwards, but she is doing fine. Her daughter, further south, only had minor damage to their home. We all feel very blessed for their safety but have deep sympathy for the loss of lives and destruction of property in the path of this strong storm.
We returned to Woodstock for one day's work and left on Friday morning for Texas. We drove to Vicksburg, MS the first day and on to Waxahachie, TX on Saturday.
We spent the weekend in the home of Billy and Tammy Moran. Billy is an elder at the Brown Street church of Christ. They are wonderful hosts, providing us with good accommodations and a wonderful visit. After Ron's sermon on Sunday, we had lunch with Billy and Tammy, David (another elder) and Carol Fittz and Mitch (a deacon) and his wife and son. Ron reported to the Northside church of Christ on Sunday night. Tammy prepared a wonderful "breakfast food" supper for us Sunday night and we played a game before retiring for the night.
We left Monday for Temple, TX. We have a dinner appointment tonight, a lunch appointment tomorrow and a report to another congregation tomorrow night. We will drive south and be in the Corpus Christi area this weekend. We hope to see a few other supporters that attend congregations that we will not get to report to on this trip. We will return to Woodstock next week. It will take another two days to drive from south Texas back to Woodstock, GA.
The trip is still scheduled for us to leave on October 30 for Thailand. Ron has us booked on a 15-l/2- hour flight from Atlanta to Qatar leaving Sunday night about 8:30 p.m. on 10/30. We have a room booked in the Qatar airport hotel and then we will take a flight to Bangkok the next day. I was happy to see that Qatar Airlines is rated #1 with Singapore Airlines #2. Ron flew to Thailand last year on Japan Airlines and he was very pleased with that airline.
We are working in the hotel rooms during the day as we travel. We are getting enough rest, so we are doing well.
Again, thanks for reading my blogs and keeping up with us.
We are thankful and very blessed to have the ability to continue this work a while longer as the Lord is willing.
We are continuing to catch up with our computer work and things that need to be done at the house in preparation for our upcoming trips. I have been putting more hours into my computer work. As September ends the 3rd quarter of the year, more reports come from workers in Asia to finish the reporting about the girls for their sponsors.
We had to close one safe house in Laos We had problems with the house parents for some time and it became apparent they were not teaching the girls properly and they refused to give reports for the girls or allow our worker from Vientiane to visit to talk with the girls. At the end of the school term, we discontinued our support to this safe house. They own the house so we could not fire them and move in other house parents. I had to reassign the sponsors to girls who needed a sponsor in other safe houses.
Wendy and Philip, the couple that arrived from Shanghai, China in June, continue to learn and help with the SAS work. They have been taking driving lessons and will get their licenses in October. Wendy will assume the load of work from Nepal when we leave for Thailand, so she is learning to review and edit reports. Philip is working closely under Ron's supervision to develop his workload. Their daughter, Deborah, is doing well in her schooling at Columbia Christian Academy in Columbia, TN.
What a beautiful week we have enjoyed with cool nights and warm days. Leaves are beginning to fall so I have spent one hour a day raking leaves in the front yard. It is wonderful to be outside and feel the warm sun and get a little exercise. The nights will continue in the 60's in North Georgia, but the daytime temperature will return to the low 90's next week. Fall is here but I guess the return of the football season proves that.
Our schedule is still the same as in my last blog for our trip to the Mayo Clinic and to Texas. We are closely watching the tropical weather coming from Africa in hopes no hurricanes will develop at the time we need to be in Jacksonville, FL and travel along I-10 toward Texas.
Our son and daughter both have September birthdays. We regret that we cannot be with either of them on their special days. Ronald and Gigi also have an anniversary on the 23rd. Although we are able to keep in touch regularly by email and chatlines, we miss them a lot and wish we could see them more often. Our granddaughter, Tatum, is also doing well and we miss her a lot. We are grateful for their well-being and good lives.
Thank you, my dear friends, for following our lives and work in Asia. I hope to have some interesting posts and pictures from Thailand in November through March. Don't forget to pray for our safety and health. THANKS!!!
September has started off with cooler weather, some rain and a lot of work for us to handle. We are doing well and keeping busy.
We are at home until September 28th. We will travel to Jacksonville, FL so Ron can have a physical at the Mayo Clinic on September 29h. When he finishes the testing and appointments, we will head toward Texas. We will drive as far as we can until we stop for the night and pick up the driving again the next morning.
Ron is scheduled to speak on Sunday morning, October 2nd at the Brown Street church of Christ in Waxahachie, TX, just south of Dallas. On Sunday night, October 2nd, he will report to the Northside church of Christ in Waxahachie.
That next week, we hope to have lunch with an elder of the Groesbeck church of Christ and then travel on to Temple, TX. We hope to give a report in Temple and meet with a few supporters. Then we will travel on to South Texas.
On Sunday, October 9th, Ron will give a report at the Portland church of Christ and on Sunday night, report to the Woodsboro church of Christ. We hope to have time to visit with some other supporters and return to Woodstock, GA by the middle of that week.
When we get back to Georgia, we will have a little over two weeks to prepare for our travels to Thailand. We are both going this year but leaving the house for five months is not easy. My good neighbors will look after things and check on the house to be sure everything is O.K. They will pay the lawn service for us as we had to hire someone to remove leaves in the front yard for three months. They are not sure how many weeks their service will be needed from October to the middle of December.
I will leave the house clean. It will get dusty but at least we will come home to an orderly house. Ron does not plan to come back to the U.S. until March or April.
I think our flight will take us to Dallas, Narita, Japan and to Bangkok. This journey will be more than 24 hours. We will probably stay in Bangkok one night and travel the next day to our intended destination.
Our next safe house will be in Udon, Thail, Thailand, not far from the Laos border. A house has been found that we can purchase and remodel to use for another safe house for girls. Ron will not know the extent of the work to be done until we arrive there. He wants to oversee the work and make the decisions on what needs to be done. If the house is suitable for us to furnish part of it and live there while renovations are underway, that would be the easiest and cheapest solution to our accommodations. If not, we will be in a hotel or rented room somewhere close by the site.
We have friends in Fort Smith, AR who have gone to visit the church family in Udon for more than 20 years. I don't know how many Christians are there. Our friends really love these people and enjoy going there. I understand that a couple has already agreed to be the house parents for this safe house. Ron will interview them and train the house parents that are selected on what we expect of them to care for the girls and prepare reports.
At some point in time, when this work is accomplished, we will visit the safe house in Chiang Mai that Ron established last year. The son of my former boss in Atlanta, and his family, are living in Chiang Mai for a year. They have two of their own biological children and two adopted children from China. They hoped to spend a year in China for the children to experience life there but due to Covid and the restrictions to get into China, they went to Chiang Mai. We look forward to seeing them when we visit our safe house there.
We will go into Laos to spend some time with our workers there. I'm not sure if we will get to Mukdahan, Thailand or to Nepal on this trip.
On our way home, we will stop over in the Philippines to visit the orphanage and see Ronald and Gigi. We hope we won't be in lock down there as we were in 2020 due to Covid.
Ronald and Gigi hope to get home in the spring for a short visit but that may not be possible for two reasons. They are losing the house parents in the girls' house at the end of their contract in December. Whoever they hire to replace them will be new employees and need training. They do not have adequate support to leave the orphanage for a long time. Due to the island being isolated for two years because of Covid, Gigi's green card needs to be activated again. They are not sure which immigration office would be the most understanding so they may try to go through Guam or Hawaii to get her active status again. It will depend on the immigration agent they get whether they approve it, fine them or turn them away. Any of this is possible.
The hardest part of the international trip for me is to leave home and get ready to go. There is so much to take care of before we leave. Although I am usually excited to go, I am always exhausted when I leave on the flight. It is not easy to have a place to do my computer work from there and I can't take everything I need. Then at the end of the trip, we are ready to leave and come home but we face the return flight that brings jet lag. I feel like I have the flu for about a week when we get home. It is not easy to overcome. As we are now in our 80's, I think it gets harder and harder with each trip.
I pray for and ask for your prayers for our safety and health for this long journey. While they have good medical facilities in Bangkok, we will be far away from those hospitals and doctors. One of the reasons I need to go this year is to be sure Ron stays in good health and be with him. I don't want him having a bad fall or illness there alone. Yes, we have workers and Christians to help but in case of illness, I really need to be with him. I am not concerned about myself because I trust Ron to take good care of me.
I will post to this blog often while on this journey. I want everyone to know that we are doing well and not worry about us. I cannot write everyone as I would like to so I can refer everyone to the blog to keep up with us. Please do not think I am too busy to receive your emails if you want to write to me. My email addresses are patbrown10@gmail.com and patbrown1022@yahoo.com. I do not use the Yahoo account often but check it periodically.
I hope to have time to post a few more times to this blog before we leave on October 26th. Thank you for following our "adventures" as we do our best to continue to do the Lord's work while we are able.
If you saw our passport pictures, you would not think we are able to even go to the grocery store! 😊
