One may never know just how much you appreciate a person until you have to say goodbye; over the past couple of weeks we have had to do a lot of that.  It has not been easy to say goodbye to all of the friends that we made while living in Chiangmai, yet we are thankful for the many ways that God turned goodbyes into opportunities to share.  For example we were able to give out over 40 copies the book Steps to Christ in Thai to friends, neighbors and teachers.

Handing out books at Effective Thai, one of the language schools we attended

Two months ago a friendly, SDA young man named Gingmai started working at our language school.  We were saddened by the fact that he was unable to attend church on Saturdays since he had to work.  A church friend of ours, who knows Gingmai, told us that he felt regret for not asking to have Saturdays off when he began working; but that he was planning to request to have the day off once he passed his three month probationary time.

As the time for our departure drew nearer Kyle felt burdened to help Gingmai in some way but didn’t know how.  We decided to pray about it and see what God would do.  During this same time Kyle also had a burden and had been praying for the opportunity to share about the Sabbath with the two other Christian teachers at the school.  We were pleasantly surprised that during the last class period with both of our teachers, they both asked us why we went to church on Saturday.  It just so happened that we had made plans to go out to eat with them after our last class, which afforded us the opportunity to discuss the topic in greater detail.  We felt amazed at how God had given us this opportunity which we feel will help Gingmai in an indirect way.  During our time at the school we were able to build close friendships with both of these teachers (one of which is the owner of the school), and we pray that if Gingmai decides to ask for his Saturdays off they will consider honoring his request after having learned about the Sabbath from us.  Please keep this situation in your prayers.

Handing out books at Effective Thai, one of the language schools we attended

There is a family that runs a home laundry business who Kyle met shortly after we moved to Chiangmai.  The husband, Tding always enjoyed talking and laughing with Kyle when he came to visit.  When he found out that we were leaving we could tell that he was saddened.  He told us that he felt like he hadn’t had enough time spend with us, and that we needed to make sure we came to see them if we ever came back to visit Chiangmai again.  On our last visit with this precious family Tding spent several minutes “blessing us” (giving compliments, and expressing his appreciation for our friendship), we felt touched by his gesture.  As we left his house we realized that he had been impacted by our Christian character; we pray that the Holy Spirit would water the seeds that have been sown.  We also left him with a condensed version of The Great Controversy in Thai.

Our final visit to our monk friend Sanga happened in early July just before he returned to work in the local temple in his home village.  Since there is no electricity where he lives we have been unable to keep in contact with him and have wondered how he has been doing.  Before we parted he made it a point to let him know if we ever come back to Chiangmai to let him know so that he could arrange to come to and spend time with us.  We were surprised when earlier this week he called us “out of the blue” to see how things were going.  We hope and pray that this relationship will be able to be continued even at a distance.

Handing out books at Effective Thai, one of the language schools we attended

Since arriving in Khon Kaen our most pressing task has been trying to find a house to rent.  We were told that one of the best ways to find a house is to simply drive around and look since many people do not advertise through the internet.  After driving around for a couple of hours on our first day and not seeing many good options we began to feel slightly discouraged so we decided to pull over and pray.  We spent about 40 minutes talking and praying together and by the end of this time we both commented that there was something that we really liked about the neighborhood that we were in.  Feeling more hopeful, Kyle said, “Let’s go find a house in this neighborhood,” so off we went.

Down one of the side streets there was an empty looking house with an overgrown front lawn.  We decided to ask a neighbor about the house and discovered that it was vacant. He then called the owner for us, and within 15 minutes the son of the owner, a professor at the local university, and his mom arrived to show us the house.  We both loved it, but thought that it was probably way outside of our budget.

Handing out books at Effective Thai, one of the language schools we attended

Immediately after telling us what they were asking per month (which wasn’t nearly as expensive as we had thought), thy informed us, without us even asking, that they would be willing to negotiate the price and told us to take time to think before making a final decision.  We left feeling as though this was the very house that God had chosen for us; however we thought that it would be wise to spend some more time praying and looking at other options in the city.  As we spent time praying and looking, we kept coming back to that house, feeling like that was where we were supposed to live.  A couple of days ago Kyle called the son and told him what our budget was, and he, after consulting with his mother, agreed to let us rent the house for that amount!  We feel so blessed that God has provided us with such a nice house to live in and look forward to moving in September 1!

We have only been in Khon Kaen for one week, but we can already see God’s guiding hand.  Please continue to pray for us as we transition into our new roles and responsibilities here.  We are specifically praying that God will bring us into contact with people whose hearts are receptive to His Spirit.  As always, let us know if there is any way we can pray for you, may the Lord bless you all!

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