John & Angela

O God of love, to Thee we bow,
And pray for these before Thee now,

That, closely knit in holy vow,

They may be in Thee one.

When days are filled with pure delight,

When paths are plain and skies are bright,

Walking by faith and not by sight,

May they be in Thee one.

When stormy winds fulfill Thy will,

And all their good seems turned to ill,

Then, trusting in Thee completely, still

May they be in Thee one.

Whate’er in life shall be their share

Of quickening joy or burdening care,

In power to do and grace to bear,
May they be in Thee one.

Thai + Singaporean = ♥ x2

It all went too fast

Finale night. We made the team dance, giving the kidos a roaring time of laughter. It was super super funny, very enthusiatic dancers. Also had a slide show presentation of all the photos taken, the kids loved seeing their faces on the big screen! The kids sang, we cried. We sang, the kids cried. I'm feeling emotional these days, I guess you know why...

Thank you God, for everything.

For being my everything :)

cheers+sunshine+smiles

hello, hello. As promised here's a little recap of the past week. Why does time always fly by so quickly when you're having fun? The sun has really had its way with us. 'Chao-ta', smelly and sticky we still played hard. I think this was on Wednesday, where we had a game fair. It is satisfying to see that the kids had so much fun. I liked how simple and creative the games were. All these memories will always bring a smile to my face, warm up my soul, and remind me of what's good.

really really happy

This is better than receiving a designer shirt, for it's worth is priceless. Made in Mae Sai, designed by the NTU team. Only 130 copies in the world, SOLD OUT! No backorders.

"Jesus said,"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Matthew 19:14

-low batt.

I was close to falling asleep while eating dinner tonight. Phew... I haven't really had time to breath. Even as I sleep tonight, I’ve still a lot to think/dream about:

flowers.
dresses.

color schemes.
candles.
ribbons.

love.

Because this weekend, I’ve got a : perfect wedding atmosphere to create. Oh and if you were thinking, the team is still here. They leave the morning of the wedding. Tomorrow, we have an exciting finale night for Baan-nana! More about what happened this week in the next post, I'm just too dead. Need to recharge!

Your grace is enough for me...

Swimming pool

Only managed to take these few shots before I couldn't resist diving in! Been ages since I last swam. It's so fun to be with children, because it means you get to relive all the thrills of being a kid. Well, I didn't even get to do these things when I was one. Week 2 with the team is starting up tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to it because we'll be staying at Baan-nana and this would probably be my last time doing so! :/ sigh...

BNN news: Games Day

So we prayed too hard for a sunny weather and now we've all got a sunburn! In everything gives thanks! haha. We had different station games, it was an awesome time of pure fun.

Covered with dirt

Woah talk about being tired man, everywhere is aching like mad. The past week has been of teaching English at school in the morning and after heading over to Baan-nana for clean up and painting work! We cleared out swarms of mosquitoes, a mice, lizard eggs and heaps of dirt from the dormitories. Looks and smells, nice and clean now!

Sometimes, "giving" of self can be exhausting but hey, God is faithful even when I am not. The desert song came to mind "I know I'm filled to be emptied again. The seed I've received I will sow."

Been enjoying every minute with these great bunch of people! Very dedicated to whatever task they have on hand. What a blessing! Tomorrow, we are bringing all 100+ kids out to a park for games day! Pray for protection and a great sunny weather.

Ohh, sleep tonight will be sweet.

happy friends

A meal over at 'Jehovah-Shamah', the name given to our home. It's just the end of day 2 but they've already experienced 2 blackouts (had a romantic candlelight dinner), walked through muddy mass and of course made many enthusiastic friends at Baan-nana. Oh man, I've only a couple of hours to sleep! So with a thankful heart and tired body, I shall end here. In the meantime, would you keep us in prayer! May the Lord give us strength and may HIS name be glorified through the upcoming projects.

BNN news: Meeting place

We are really happy for this transformation! Thanks to the kind donations from different people. All the wood work was done by our older boys, aren't they great carpenters?

This is the work of our Lord! My heart rejoices as I see God unfold His plans for Baan-nana. "Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain." Psalm 127: 1

Tomorrow, we have a team of 12 NTU students under The Nagivators who would be up here for 2 weeks. Making mud houses, painting bathrooms, organising a funfair... Praise God for the work that is ahead!

itchyyyyyy.

I have a terrible skin rash on my left hand and left side of neck. It's all red and grossly bumpy. When I scratch, it spreads like a wild fire. 'Itchy' doesn't do justice to what I feel now. I'm trying to psycho myself, that I'm in a cool icy tub relief from this torture.

I guess you're wondering what caused it right? NO, it wasn't because of eating too much lychees! I don't have allergies... I think. Anywayyy it was a black hairy caterpillar which caused it! I was out for a walk and don't ask me how it got onto me but when I found it, I was already scratching like a monkey. Have to wear gloves to sleep tonight.

Please be gone!

Right in my yard

I had to pop in real quick to show you what harvest we just ripped! 15kg of lychee. It's so sweet. All that hardwork with big black ants crawling all over me was a good way to de-stress! I can't wait for the jam and juice we are going to make. mmm.mm.mm! Have a super fabulous warm happy day!

Note to self

35 hours: home again, safe again...

As we were passing through Udon Thani on our way home, Dad had another wild idea of his to explore some ancient structures! He's always random, yet awesome. Geography lesson on glacial erosion! It was so cool to see red paintings on the stones by people of the prehistorical age who were illiterate. Can you spot the elephant?

Poor lulu was stung by a wasp but she was calm about it, first aid taught her well. So after this educational stop, we are back on the road again! I'm not going into detail about this journey but I shall just say that my heart was in my mouth half the time. No, really. It was scary. Those oncoming monster trucks need to learn to keep to their lane. Dad said he'll never do this again! He better promise.

2am, home sweet home. "Now, that was crazy" exclaimed Dad. Roadtrip =Drove 35 hours, covered about 2000km. Incredible memories! Wait... I didn't tell you about the policeman who wanted coffee money from us! ahh, you can just fit that into the story yourself!

Indulgence (Day 3)

Food, food and more food! They were yummy. What a treat. Vientiane offers travellers a mix of Lao customs and lots of evidence of French colonisation. We spent a lovely afternoon chilling out. I love places where I can just sit and relax. It's such a great feeling. That aside, we went back to the embassy and got a 2 month visa! Praise the Lord!

Amazing Race (Day 2)

So here we go again...in order to be at the Thai embassy by noon before the gate closes on us, we're on the road at 6am! We had another 2 hrs drive, before we parked our truck for the night, took a tuk-tuk to the border, got on a bus to cross the Thai-Laos friendship bridge and lastly booked a taxi straight to the embassy! Woah, try saying that in one breath. Throughout that ordeal, it was 40 degrees with very nasty people trying to cut in line and we were made to pack like sardines. I am sure you can guess how exhausted we were by now...but thats not it!

We were greeted by a sea of 'farangs' (foreigners) at the embassy. We got our ticket number and we had 700 people before us! Groans. Their queue system, or more like no system at all, was just terrible. Obviously there were grumpy people all around! Chaotic zoo! Best place to catch swine flu. Thankfully no fights broke out. (Though I secretly thought it would be exciting to see one hehe.)

Finally after 4 hours of waiting and pushing and sitting and standing we got to hand in our application. We survived. Out of those gates into freedom! Too much fun in a day.