Camp in the Jungle

At the end of August, I traveled about five hours into the jungles with the Bible school to help host a camp for children at a school in a rather large village. We were told it was the first time they had allowed a Christian group to come. Normally, they would have a Buddhist monk come in to teach the children. There were over 200 children from ages 6 to 15.
Our students spent three weeks preparing songs, dramas, and lessons for the children. It was so fun to practice and work with them. I taught English for two hours. And with the help of the students, I taught a Bible lesson to each of the four age groups. On Sunday, I shared the gospel with all the children and teachers, and we had over 50 receive Jesus for the first time. One girl told us later that she grew up in a Christian family and so she thought she was a Christian. After our camp she knew that she wasn’t, so she accepted Jesus. It was great to see the children have so much fun and learn so much. Equally thrilling for me was to see what that the students at the Bible school are becoming such wonderful leaders and ministers.

Zoe Guards

After Zoe received some new children in Spring 2010, we all agreed it was time to implement a few security measures. One of the first of those was to establish a guard system.
Gavin and I had to take some time off from teaching in June while our work visas were being processed. After our work permits were complete, we were eager to get back to work. We pulled up to Zoe on a Monday morning and didn’t see the same guard working the day shift. Instead, there was Queue (at left in the photo – that’s one of our new buildings in the background). He was very polite. But, he would not open the gate.
I told him some of the people we knew so he might believe that we were missionaries and we were scheduled to teach that morning. He really didn’t seem convinced. And still, he would not open the gate. Finally, I showed him my class notebook with the Zoe logo on the front. That did it. He was convinced, and he let us pass.
We have visited many guarded communities in Thailand. We get waved in just by rolling down the window and showing our white faces. We are glad that our Zoe guards take their jobs more seriously than that.

Morning Traffic

Last April, Gavin and I moved to a beautiful house in a resort area. We picked the neighborhood based on its proximity to the new Zoe building, and the surprisingly low rent. It’s a 13-minute drive, depending on traffic. So far, we’ve encountered two problems with choosing to live in this lovely spot.
One morning on the way to work, we discovered a mud slide by accident – literally. After skidding on some slick mud, our truck knocked over two cement posts. We still have several dents on the hood of our truck as evidence of Gavin trying to shave one minute off an already short commute.
Most of the missionaries at Zoe are city slickers to some degree. We have representatives from southern California, Hawaii, Seattle, Minneapolis, and Detroit – to name a few. We have all experience headaches from gridlock and road rage. Our new facility is in a very remote area. It’s a beautiful location where the closest village is about 2 miles away. This photo shows what we mean when we speak of morning traffic.