Hey, What's going on here?

It's been a while since our last post and I wanted to add a couple notes about the MANY, MANY things that have been going on here in Surin recently. During the last 6 weeks, we have had two wonderful missions teams here from the U.S. One was from Lansdale, PA and one was from Hays, Kansas. The first team came with 25 people and stayed with us here for about a week before quickly heading back to PA. The other team that just left this week from Kansas was with us for a couple weeks. Both teams were wonderful and their schedules were PACKED with teaching, handing out literature, basketball tournaments, and having special days at local schools. We loved every minute of it and we especially loved the fellowship with both teams.

Most recently, we had the group here from Kansas lead by Bryan and Sommer Lowery. Both Bryan and Sommer have believed for many years that the Lord was leading them to Thailand as missionaries and this trip has apparently confirmed the idea in their minds. Bryan will be returning to finish his college degree in the U.S. and they hope to be able to return here in a few years. This is very exciting to us and encouraging as Drew and Leah Kilcup will be finishing their time here in September and heading back to the States after teaching here in the local university for over a year.
Speaking of Drew and Leah: Both of them are recovering well after a serious motorcycle wreck that required surgery to clean out and stitch up Leah's knee. Drew made it through with some nasty scrapes and a broken thumb but both are healing quickly it seems.

During the recent missions trip with the Kansas team, I became pretty sick for about 6-7 days and required a trip to the hospital for some shots and medication when my symptoms took a turn for the worse. On the bright side, I was able to drop 11 pounds during those 6 days!

As you think about us here, continue to pray for our ministry here in Surin. Lord willing, we will have a buyer for our building within a couple weeks and we will move to purchase an existing building that we all feel certain will be a wonderful replacement for our existing location. Also pray for our ministry here as Jim and Kathi Hayes will be heading back to the States in late October for a 7-9 month furlough leaving us with a great deal of responsibility and work here.

Thanks for "Keeping Up with the Joneses".
For those interested in knowing, 6 weeks after completing my diet competition with Jason Stover, I am at the exact weight of 237 and he is at 239. Not bad for a couple of formerly overweight Baptist missionaries.