Thai food is good! (Family Visit)

(Email from my mom to their friends at home)

Hi Everybody,

We are having an amazing time. I will try to give you some highlights.
First - we are all healthy - PTL!!!!!

Thai food is really GOOD! Yesterday we took the kids and one of the mks to a THAI cooking class while E was in training. It was so much fun. We even had fire in our woks! Mark might be a natural chef - he was so smooth with that knife! Our teachers were Thai, but spoke English - basically - it was somewhat of an "open air" kitchen in a rural area - a little scary to begin with, but the chefs were SO friendly, helpful and talented. It was really well run and managed. We cooked for 4 hours! The food we made was awesome - and we have the recipes - finding the ingredients at home might be a challenge, but worth looking for!

We took the kids cross county buggy riding - like an ATV vehicle, but much safer. I drove Natalie, and Dave and Mark took turns driving. It was unbelievable. We went up a mountain, met farmers harvesting grass, cows sharing our "path" and saw amazing views and heard amazing QUIET. It was so much fun - a little scary too, but mostly fun!

Last night while the kids hung out playing cards with the other kids, we and some "questers" went to dinner - ugh! more food! we ate light, and mainly went for the fellowship - it was WONDERFUL talking with these guys about their projects and experiences and hearing about HOW MUCH THEY WISH THEIR FAMILIES WOULD VISIT THEM. One guy is from MD and we enjoyed talking about crabs and Eastern shore stuff. This guy almost died just a few days ago when he and a few of the other guys climbed Mt. Everest on their vacation (he got altitude sickness). We laughed a lot together and were honored to be in the presence of these faithful servants and hear of the joy in their work, as well as the pains of missing family too. Please pray for them as they are in dangerous places.

This morning for the last day of training the whole group met together and told all the stories they have worked on the past couple weeks. Elizabeth told two of them - David and Bathsheeba and Paul and Silas. It was an amazing time in the Word. As they shared so naturally, the truths were overwhelming - the power of the Word. What struck me most was that these "stories" were far from the sweet sunday school stories that i think of. In reality, people's lives were greatly disrupted by the Lord - like sandpaper - going against the grain. It was a precious time that none of us will soon forget.

Dave and I have learned - by trial and error - how to get around on the motorbike, so while Elizabeth has been in training, we have been able to get out and about (and lost and found)- Dave has made some friends in the market - which means he must be pretty memorable, because the market is huge and crowded. He talks to EVERYONE. He doesn't seem to realize that he is a foreigner. And the people just love him - and hope to make a sale!

So, I have decided that Elizabeth gets her adventuresome side from her father. He is enjoying all of this very much.

We went into a McDonalds - a little different here - they greet you at the door, open the door for you, charge 25 cents for an ice cream cone dipped in chocolate, and when I tried to clean up our trash, they came and took it from me!

Thanks so much for your pr support - this is the easy part of our trip- we leave here on tues for the hills of India.

Love, Jane Anne