Sang Baen, Chonburi

Sorry it's been so long since we've posted. And when I say "we" - it turns out to be only ME again.... why am I the only one posting!!!

We are now in Chonburi, Thailand. This is our main stop for the trip. To be more accurate, we're in the Sang Baen suburb of Chonburi. This is where Team 2000 has set up their mission base. They currently have running a church (The Life Centre), and 2 orphanages: one for boys, and one just started up for girls. The church, we found out, is wonderfully situated on a really main road in the area! (Great location!) We met another local group out here to visit - Trek... of which some of the members are familiar. (For those of you that go to Bakerview, Nicole Horch is one of these members!)

I (Jacqueline) haven't been able to take part in all the activities here so far, but am looking forward to spending some time with the girls at the orphanage this afternoon/evening. The other day my family looked after the Sanchez and the Owen kids while their parents had a meeting (The missionary families include the Sanchez's, the Owens and the Sinclair-Peters). It was really fun! We spent the time at a swimming pool - the kids swam a bit, had ice cream, and we made some bead bracelets, too. I still think it is EXTREMELY hot here. Apparently, after a while here, your body can get adjusted to the climate, but I think I'd need an extra long time here for that to happen with me. The missionary kids seem to do just fine in the heat, though! Oh yeah! Another kid also there was a new member... an adorable Thai baby boy who has recently come into their care. He's so cute! He spent some time in the water, and then later fell asleep on my dad. It was a great time, overall.

Our time back in Chiang Mai was fun - it was quite sad to have it come to an end. We are very grateful for the help of a wonderful lady there (the manager of the guest house we stayed at), named Dang. She was so great! I had a massively large and infected foot from some nasty insect bite that swelled up when we got to Chiang Mai. (So for those of you at home complaining about pesky little mosquito bites.... hah!) (Oh, I've got pictures, btw, for those who are interested). Anyway, she was so helpful! She got some creams to put on it for me, wrapped it up with bandages, and even took us personally to a skin doctor!! She also arranged lots of our taxi rides in the area, and told us lots of helpful information that we naive tourists had no clue about! We were so much better off with her help! Thank you, Dang! (Her whole first name is something like "Tassannee" which means "red").

Thanks to all of you who are keeping us in your thoughts and prayers - we really appreciate it! We're here in Bang Saen for a few more days, and then it's off to Phuket. We booked some plane tickets to get there, because we REALLY do not like the overnight train rides. Ew ew ew. I'm looking forward to some beach time. The Phuket area is said to be GORGEOUS, so I'm REALLY looking forward to it.

Missing you at home very much!! And Lori, I miss you and the daycare so much! I can't wait to come back to work!!

Jacqueline