Happy 2014

Hello all,
Now that the Christmas season is over, I have a bit more time to breathe and therefore a bit more time to write an update for all of you! Life for the past month or so has been even busier than normal, which I'm sure most of you can identify with!
As I mentioned before, I have been doing a lot of English teaching, and that continued right up until Christmas day! Since then though, schools have been on a break for the new year. Since this is a Buddhist country, most people don't celebrate Christmas, but that didn't stop us! Teaching in the schools gave us a neat opportunity to teach students what Christmas is about--God's love for us! The Friday before Christmas, we spent the day teaching classes how to sing the first verse to "Joy to the World." Some of them were pretty good! And the first through third graders at one school colored some pretty nice pictures of Mary and baby Jesus.
Outside of the schools, there were many celebrations to be had! I think I ended up attending five Christmas parties in all. The Timothy House put on two parties--one at our house and the other at the house of a friend in our village. We also went to the parties at two other churches and one at the house of a lady who lives in a village that has never had a Christmas party. Thai Christmas parties are a lot of fun! They all involved a fair amount of food, some singing, games and prizes for the kids, and a short message about God. About 50 people came to the party at the Timothy House, which was pretty crazy! Lots of students from nearby schools, and a few other friends and neighbors. It was a lot of fun to watch the huge group of kids playing musical chairs together--I learned a new strategy: if you are one of the last three and there's only one chair left, you should grab on to the chair and run away with it so you can sit down first!
I was excited to also get to go Christmas caroling with a few people on Christmas night. we only went to a few houses, but it was still a neat experience!
During the kids' break from school, we also got to go to the beach for a couple nights as a whole family! This meant packing up about 30 people into several pickups and a car and driving three hours to the gulf of Thailand. Phimpha knows someone high up at a naval base near Pattaya, so we were able to rent a couple houses right on the water. That was a ton of fun. The water there is a lot warmer and saltier than back in NH, and there weren't real waves for body surfing, but we were able to play a lot of keep away with a volley ball and do a lot of swimming, and some frisbee tossing on the beach! It was a fantastic time to get to just relax with the kids and with Rodney and Phimpha and the other adults who help out and were able to come along.
I will admit it: it can get hard being away from home during Christmas time. But God is good--He sent along some new friends to get to know and talk to. I got to meet a few people my age from Cambodia and from America who have been serving God both in Thailand and in Cambodia. It's been great to get to know them a little bit, hear their stories, and learn more about what is going on in other parts of Thailand and in nearby Cambodia. I am hoping to get the chance to go visit Cambodia at some point when I'm here! :)
That is the basic overview of what is going on here in Thailand these days...we will see what the next weeks bring! I never know what the next day or the next hour will hold! (Though, realistically speaking, I didn't back home either, I just had more plans and expected that they would happen. Here we just don't have the plans!)
If you get the chance, please remember us in prayer! We could always use prayers for provision, for safety, for love for those around us, and for wisdom in dealing with new situations and the various people we meet, and for the strength to keep up with everything that needs to be done.