Oh Ella...

  On our way home from the market tonight our scooter quit in the middle of a busy street. Eleora was the culprit. She has been warned more than once about touching the key but the temptation was too much. We pulled over for a lecture and a spank. When we were on the road again, through her tears Eleora shouted, "I was just trying to save us some gas!"

Hahaha!

She even cracked herself up with the comment.

Thanks to everyone who is praying for us. I am feeling MUCH better today! Please pray for Eleora who has taken over my cough and for Nathanael, that he would be spared from the disease:)

48 hours.

  48 hours ago I woke up from a nap with Ella having a dream that  my head was literally exploding. I had been pretending not to be too sick for over a week and with this newly discovered - my head's been hit by a semi- feeling and the fear that "the crazy tooth" was infected, I decided that I would track down Nathanael so we could make trip 5 to the hospital. I would like to mention that In the nearly 5 years that Nathanael and I have been married I can only think of 2 times we have been to the hospital.  When my sister was having her baby and when we thought Ella had a broken ankle.  

  

  Nathanael who had been running around all day found me just as I had wobbled down the stairs. I told him that if he could find the time I might like to see the Doctor.  I proceeded to have an emotional break down and I am only mentioning that because it significantly helped the balloon head effect I had going on.  After sitting in the hospital waiting room 3 times longer than usual (still only 45 minutes) because I didn't realize the nurse saying, "Mrs. Miller, age 42 years." was referring to me, was able to see the Doctor.

   Eleora was very amused as the Dr. waved his flashlight up my nose and after hearing my symptoms , listening to my chest with his "necklace"- Eleora, and poking around a bit he said very cheerfully,  "Bronchitis and sinus infection." I had already done the research to diagnose myself with Bronchitis and was very relieved that I had a sinus infection and not a dental disaster.

   When we returned to our house Lucas, Sarah, Abby and all of our Thai friends were sitting in the courtyard having a "Good Bye" party for the Trzebiatowskis. The Trzebs had been packing up their stuff and organizing house odds and ends to give away most of the afternoon. 1, because they were leaving and 2, because the landlady had come by the night before to say would come over to discuss rent at 5pm. We were glad she waited until about 8pm to show up because by that time we had eaten and were ready to get kicked out of our house. 

  

  Language barriers can pose a slight problem when arranging a rental agreement. In our minds we had paid to stay in our house until the end of February. 1 month and 4 days from when we moved in. We paid for 2 months knowing we would only be getting about 30 days because our landlady said that was the way it had to be due to our short stay. When we moved in we shared that we would only be in Thailand until the 1st week of March and that we didn't know if we would want to rent for march or not (we thought at that time we might have some people that wanted to carry on the with the lease.) The land lady SEEMED fine when Nathanael repeatedly said " We don't know for sure how long we will stay." Well, let me just say she was NOT fine when she came expecting us to pay rent for March because she was leaving for vacation in the morning. Our Thai friends put up a good fight for us but we ended up moving everyone and everything out in about 45 minutes. That even includes bathroom cleaning by Nathanael who felt like a total jerk about the whole ordeal. Nat    

  Thanks to our Thai friends for your help! And to Luke and Sarah who had been organizing discerningly all afternoon!

  

  Back to Eve's place, where we all stayed in the early Pattaya days. Ella woke up in the morning and said "Daddy, can you take me downstairs for breakfast?". It had all happened so fast she didn't even know where she was. She is an amazing little trooper.

  In the morning we walked our dear friends to the corner of the highway, Abby riding on Ella's lap in the stroller. Ella and I cried. For me it was a mixture of sickness, pregnancy, exhaustion and sadness about our friends leaving. When I asked Eleora what was wrong she said, "I am just sad that I don't have any more English friends here." hahaha

  We stopped in to work on the office after leaving our friends and there we found Bay, Lek and Bam. Their entire apartment had flooded the night before (we have been having some amazing rain storms.) They had been planning on moving out of the now flooded apartment at the end of Feb. but were making calls to borrow a truck so they could move ASAP.  They found one to use for 2 hours so Lek and I took the scooters to their new house to start cleaning and the guys and kids went to get the truck. I discovered while scrubbing with Lek that this new house had been leased by an American couple we've met since working over here.  Before we found our house, the couple had offered us a place to stay for a week while they were out of the country. We talked to the lady who was holding their keys and she said "well, you could stay there but someone has just discovered that their whole home has been invaded by rats." Sarah and I were very thankful that God protected us from being the ones to discover that lovely unfolding story. I was thankful that I didn't know I was scrubbing that same house until half way through the job, haha 

  

  So, cleaning and moving round 2. We stopped to eat lunch at about 2:30 and went to a really fun place that was probably delicious. I don't know if anyone can relate to this but the BEST food seems to appear when you have a stuffed nose. I haven't been able to taste anything for like 2 weeks and it seems to me we have had the greatest eating opportunities of our entire trip during this period. Ya know?! Anyway, we discovered (all information seems like a discovery when there is a language barrier, probably like having a teenager) that it was Lek and Bay's 5 year anniversary!  Very exciting!

  Ella finally got down for her nap at a bout 4. Nathanael did one last moving load with Bay and I tried to tidy a few things back here at the guest house. Off to the hospital at 5:30pm, just in time for the beginning of a down pour. I would like to take a moment to give praise to my newly 3 year old. Freshly ripped away from her familiar Thailand house, left behind by her best English friend, a morning and afternoon of moving friends into their new place, running on 1 hour of nap that I had to shake her awake from, a belly that had only eaten a bowl of cereal for breakfast and then some noodles and squid tentacles for lunch and as we are scooter-ing through the down pour she is singing away. We get to the hospital and she says "Dad, can we go on an ice cream hunt now?". 

   

  The dentist was running late, even in Thailand, so we hung out for a while, trying to keep a very intrigued Ella from watching a bloody Asian drama on TV. The dental assistant came out to get me and Nathanael came in to see how many hours I would be trapped so he could take Ella to get some food. After greetings and a brief description of the party going on in my mouth, I asked the dentist, 

"When should my husband come back for me?", 

"He can stay, I only take 10-15 minutes most."

"Are you able to take the tooth out tonight?"

"Yes, Thai people always have broken teeth, I do this many times everyday."

I laughed and wondered if I should expect numbing in the extraction sight as the dentist invited Ella to come sit beside him to observe the extraction.

Hahahahahaha. Amazing.

  The man was true to his word, I would have been out of there in 5 minutes if I was a little more hardcore but I raised my hand and asked for a minute to have to anesthesia set in before he continued trying to yank the tooth. It was a first molar, it had a lot of years to get comfy in my mouth and didn't want to come out.  Note to all wives: husbands do not ever need to experience you having a tooth extraction. I could hear the worry in Nathanael's breathing even before he started telling Ella (secretly me) a story to keep my mind off of things. I knew he was watching my every move so I made a point not to clench my fists or wiggle my toes:) 

We honestly think I was in the dentist chair for about 11 minutes. 

It was the best dentist trip I have ever had. All for the low price of about $40USD. 

Off to Central mall to feed Nathanael and Ella. Ella then used her "sniffer" to hunt down some ice cream. 

Off to sleep for 5 hours. Well, for Ella because she is the only one unaffected by my coughing. 

  Up before the roosters for our second Visa run to Cambodia. All went well. Eleora said "I really like Cambodia, it's so fun." She may think that the air conditioned van driven by an ex-Indy 500 winner is Cambodia. I'm not sure.

  We were back to Eve's Place by 3pm and I just woke up to an empty room. I guess that means I fell asleep and Ella and Nathanael are off on another adventure.

  Thanks everyone for your prayers!  We know that God knows what's going on around here and are ready to see what these last 2 weeks hold for us. 

  For all of our California readers, can you please keep your ears /eyes open for us. We get back on March 8th and will be looking for a place to rent and a car (please keep our old car in mind, haha) to buy .  THANKS!:)

48

Please pray for us

Jade(5mo.) Sarah(7mo.) Lek(8.5mo.) 

  Please pray for us.  I posted  earlier that Jade and Eleora are feeling sick.  I was thinking about it today and I realized that things are piling up on a group of us that are ministering over here, so we all would really love some extra prayer.

1. Jade needs a tooth extraction and has some form of Bronchitis (We think it's stemming from childhood Asthma and all the exhaust/burning garbage in the air).

2. Eleora and Abby are recovering from Pink eye.

3. Ying (our friend/coworker/translator) is feeling sick and fatigued.

4. Lek (our friend and the worship leaders wife) is 8.5 months pregnant and has bronchitis.

5. Lucas and I are in good health, but are having a real struggle getting things done on the office.

6. Sarah is feeling good and we would like it to stay that way:)

7. We need prayer for our Ubon trip and our Laos visa trip.

We are so grateful for your prayers thank you friends! 

my two Foremen.

hospital fun.

  Today we will be having our 4th trip to the hospital....yes four.  Not all bad stuff though.  Our little baby is doing good from the looks of the ultra sound. Jade is about 19 weeks along. The Thai Dr. pointed at Eleora and said, "maybe like her?" with a tone of vague uncertainty.  So we are planning on buying Green things. The hospital was clean and very professional ( besides using a live dolphin to do the ultrasound) so that was good.  The next day Eleora's green eye goo had not stopped flowing so down we went to the hospital again.  Anyway ( the americans will be impressed by this and the Canadians will be disgusted by this) Both Dr. visits, the ultrasound, pictures, Eleora's eye goo lab test and her eye drops all came to the grand total of around $100.  I am thinking about getting a little rhinoplasty and a face lift while I'm here, just because its so cheap... why not??  But wait our hospital fun has not finished yet, nay it has merely begun.  Later that evening Jade chomped down on a piece of candy (I made her eat it).  Mid chomp she gave me an ominous wide eye stare... 1/2 of her tooth busted off (it was a tooth that had a root canal years ago), to be followed by the other 1/2 that night.  So the next day, back to the Hospital we go ( they have a good dentist in the hospital... a foreign concept to the western mind, but it makes sense right, hospital- dentist?).  Unfortuantly they had no apointments for that day. So that brings us up to today. We are about to leave for Jade's tooth extraction... oh ya and she has bronchitis, so please pray for her.

                            
We are back and we have to wait for for another day when a specialist is at the hospital. The regular dentist had a look and said "Oh, not good, we will wait for specialist, specialist good for baby". Sarah suggested that maybe that means that Jade will get some stickers from the children's dentist. It looks like we are going to wait about a week to get this tooth fixed (don't worry Jade is not in pain... 500 mg of morphine will take care of almost anything, ha). 

Life these days.

  Lately our days have been passing without much time for reflection. It's starting to feel like "normal life" over here... busy and jumbled. Days running into each other and turning into weeks. I always have this longing for simplicity and 'more time'. Thai life is a bit slower, but our days seem very 'North American', maybe someday I will stop blaming my location for my business, maybe in heaven when I am not busy...

Ella, not so sure about the flavor of this flower.

What can I tell you?  How about some bullet points, they are my favourite because I don't need to think up a creative transition for my random thoughts:)

*We had a fun, last minute, combined 3rd Birthday for Abby and Eleora on The 7th.

***Sarah's post about the Birthday.

*We are still working hard on the office. There is an official meeting there tomorrow morning so we might be up pretty late again tonight. The guys have been working really long days, I think the longest was 16 hours. They're hardcore! (You all know that 8 of those hours were spent at the hardware store, ha!) Lucas has some before pics and early renovation pics on his blog. One of us will put some more on when things are wrapping up.

***Luke's 'work' post.


*We have a busy week ahead of us. There are lots of parties planned for Valentine's Day. We are hosting an event at Pi Lek's bar (Sarah's post about that Valentine's at Pi Lek's.)

*We are having a Farang (White person) food party at Jomtian beach. We have been going there on Wednesday's With Maé and Ying to feed/help anyone who shows up. We are in charge of food this week and spaghetti for at least 20 has been requested. It's pretty convenient actually, I always make enough noodles for 20 people:)

A group of regulars at Jomtian Beach.

*We will also be helping an American team who is here for a few days.

Hmmm, what else?

*We knew before arriving in Thailand that we would only be able to stay for a month before having to renew our travel visa. We made plans to go to Cambodia to renew our Thai visa for a month but it turns out you are currently only able to get 2 week visa extensions. Round one it cost us $80 USD /each to renew our paper work so we are a bit bummed about having to go again before leaving Thailand. Please pray that if there is a cheaper way that we would figure that out!

*We have been talking to Randy and Edie Nelson about going to Isaan (Northeast Thailand) since being here. Nathanael led a YWAM team there in 2005 and the Nelson's along with the Thai staff here have been wanting to do some outreach there for  a while now.  We had tentatively decided to go to Isaan at the end  of February to have some kind of worship outreach but we may be going as soon as Friday. There has been a temple dispute going on between Thailand and Cambodia, you can have a look here:

Pictures from Thailand and Cambodia dispute.

The Thai government is asking organizations for help. Ying, Maé, Nathanael, Eleora and I are planning on going to help out at a refugee camp. We would take an overnight train to get there and then stay somewhere nearby the camp. We are thinking of running some children's programs but we won't know for sure until we get there.  We would love some prayer for that. The major problem we have already come across is the fact that our visa will run out on the 24th.  The trip is planned for the 21st to the 26th, normally we would just scoot over the Thai/Cambodia up there but we aren't overly into running through gun fire, ha! (Actually, Nathanael and I like the idea but Eleora isn't a very fast runner)

*We were wondering a few nights ago how God would provide the money to finish the office and to go to Isaan and we woke up yesterday to a donation in our pay pal!  God is so faithful to us! Thank you SO MUCH to all of you who are praying for us and supporting us in this time, we are blessed to have people in our lives who believe in us and who are encouraging us on our adventure of life! We are grateful!

Ella and Nathanael watching the sun go to sleep.

Bay's video.

This is a video that Bay (one of our friends here) made for Youth Church Canada. Nathanael is Bay's translator, Bay would want me to tell you his voice is much deeper than Nathanael's. :)

S.U.V.

Pre-outing prayer time:)

  We recently rented a small Thai SUV.
  It is such a blessing for getting work supplies for the office and for family outings. Driving in Thailand is quite a bit different than driving in North America. The break definitely plays a less important roll over here... its all about the accelerator and the weave. Eleora LOVES "our motorcycle"! She takes riding very seriously and has a hard time taking off her helmet to eat and sleep.

Pretending to be locals.

An action shot.

An underground scooter parking lot.

Pi Lek.

Lek's Bar on Soi (Street) 7.

  Sarah, Ying, Maè (Ying's Mom) and I have been spending Friday afternoons at 'Lek' bar. Lek is a fiery 58 yr. old Thai woman with a huge heart and a very strong English accent. She has been married to her British husband Charlie for 21 years and when she talks to us, I hear Charlie, not the tiny Thai lady sitting in front of me.

   To make a long story very, very short, Lek and Charlie own a bar along one of the beaches in Pattaya. Not many people have been coming for a while now, maybe because their bar is a rock n' roll and beer kind of bar, not a naked Thai women one. (Lek is looking for someone to take the lease over for her bar if any of you are interested).

   My understanding is that Lek started attending "True Friends Church" (the one we are working with), after an encounter with a group of girls from the USA. As the story goes ( this is as true as I could interpret) an American girl named Nicki showed up at Lek's bar one evening to pray for Lek's daughter in law. The girl was with a group from a prophecy school in The US who had been planning a trip to Thailand and before leaving the girl had a dream about a bar in Thailand where someone was sick. Upon arriving in Pattaya they started the treasure hunt for what turned out to be Lek's bar. Nikki introduced herself to Lek and asked if she could share her story - of the dream and wanting to pray for the sick person in her dream- if there was one. Lek's daughter in law was dying of cancer and they excepted prayer. Lek said "Even 'Chalee' (who is a Buddhist) couldn't deny that God must have brought those people to us".  Slowly a relationship began to develop between Lek, Ying and Maè. Ying spent a lot of time with Lek's daughter in law who wasn't open to hearing about Jesus until a day or two before she died when she excepted Christ. The story is bitter sweet. Lek can't speak a word about her daughter-in-law without crying and even from the outside I am left wondering why God didn't choose to heal her. On the up side, Lek has an amazing group of friends from the church and she is sharing her new hope in Christ with her family and the many hopeless people she encounters on a daily basis.

Lek, Myself and Ma`e having a cuddle.

   So, that's a bit about Lek. I love her a lot and I look forward to Friday afternoon with the ladies. Sarah and I are supposed to be doing ministry while we are at Lek's bar on Friday's. Bridges to the Nations was wanting to set up another outreach location and meeting at Lek's was killing two birds with one stone. A free place to hang out for a type of women's 'friendship circle' while supporting Lek's business by buying water and soda.  Sarah and I helping with the new ministry usually ends up more like us going to school. The ladies teach us about Thai culture, how to speak Thai, how to eat Thai food:), etc. It's great!
We have a few 'events' planned at the bar before we go and Ying and Maè are going to continue meeting there with Lek and any women who show up for 'friendshiip circle'.

The ladies chatting.

The 'Friendship' circle.

Kids say the darndest things...

 "Can we just bring it home with us? I will feed it and let it sleep in my bed, somebody needs to take care of it!" - Eleora, about EVERY stray cat and dog we encounter.

"Look at that man Mommy, He is very dark, looks like he just came down the chimney."- Abby, one of her favorite movies is Mary Poppins.

"Hey, can somebody build a fire in here? I'm freezing!"- Eleora, upon entering a friends air conditioned apartment.

"Look at that BIG MOON, it's white, just like me!"- Eleora, the day she realized she is Caucasian.



"Dear God, please send a tiger to eat the person who took my Daddy's wallet."- Eleora, praying one evening after Nathanael LOST his wallet.

"Maybe we should buy something for someone who is English"- Eleora, while souvenir shopping.

"Look Mommy, that man looks like a lady" -Abby, about long haired men.

These little ladies keep us laughing!

Quick update.

  Sorry we haven't been updating. Sick girls are very time consuming! Eleora and Abby are ( hopefully ) on the tail end of "pink choke" and "diareeda" aka: vomiting and diarrhea.  The poor little guys were hit pretty hard, by it and Eleora is still struggleing to get back to normal (Prayer request).
They may have gotten themselves sick off of these tasty treats?

  Lucas and I are working on a building project renovating the 'welcome center' that we are working with here in Pattaya. We have torn up most of the old tile in the center.  The project has started to slow down a bit due to waiting on supplies but we are moving forward.

  We have a random un-scheduled things that we do, but besides that this is what our schedule looks like. On Sunday we go to True Friend Church.  Monday is sometimes a day off and we have been working on the Welcome Center.  Tuesday Welcome Center.  Wednesday we go to a prayer meeting in the morning  at the Tamar Center (A local center that runs a training program for woman exiting prostitution) and then we go to Dong Tan beach to feed , pray for and help out the homeless on the beach. Thursday another Welcome Center day. On Friday Sarah and Jade go down to a local bar and minister to the ladies around that area. There are other things that are always coming up, but that is a general look at our weeks.

  On Febuary 6th the Church is hosting an evangelism/ healing minister. Please pray that God would be Glorified and that many people would come to Jesus through this.

  I know that Jade has a lot to say but with sick girls and patchy internet communicating has been tricky. Stay tuned for one of her updates soon!

dirty little feet.

Eleora sweet dreaming on Dadda's lap.

                                    
   Kids are dirty in general. These days, Eleora is filthy. Especially her chubby little feet. Gross filthy, other people's filth and raw chicken gizzards filthy, not the earthy, forest, kid friendly kind. I think I'm OK with it though. I think... I'll decide for sure when my brain starts to fully function in the proper time zone.


 I recently found myself thinking, "raw sewage doesn't smell so bad, I kind of like it." I'm interpreting that as God's grace. We are so blessed. Everything from 30 plus hours of travel feeling like a flight across the USA, to easily finding plain chicken and rice to feed Eleora and Abby. It's really comforting knowing you are where God wants you even if you don't know why He wants you there.

We made it.

   
   Pattaya is a desperate place. You can't turn a blind eye to poverty, pain or perversion. There is no where to run. As I sit here in the stairwell of our room I can hear a European man conversing with his Thai prize. Ugliness has won some major territory in this town, but not all of it! 


  We met with the Thai Staff of "Bridges to the Nations today".  I have tears in my eyes and goosebumps just thinking about these darling people and their testimonies.  They are full of hope and are doing something about Ugliness that has tried to ruin each of their lives and the lives of their people. I have so much to say about Bay, Zhangy, Ying and Ying's mother (Everyone calls her Thai Mother Teresa so I haven't picked up on her name yet).  I want to share their visions and stories with you all. I will as soon as I get my facts straight and a picture of them:) 

Best buddies. Reunited for the 1st time since the womb.

   Our prayers have been answered and we are empty of ourselves right now. We are feeling pretty useless actually. Really wanting to be helpful servants but waiting patiently- trying to at least- until we can do what will be most useful for our Thai friends. Letting go of how we think things should look, how WE think we should be serving. It's really good for us white control freaks. It's awesome to be in a land where all we have is dependence on God's provision and direction. The kind of awesome that is uncomfortable and piercing. You know you will survive and be more refined when it is all over but in the moment you just want some whole grain toast, a nice mattress and clean little feet.
-Jade

Our jet lagged little chicken resting on her
new buddy who arrived 4 days before us.

Abby sharing her trolley w/ Eleora (who she calls
"Sweet Hawt" in her darling British accent).

Thanks for praying

Some quality airport time.

We made it!
After 36+ hours of travel we finally arrived in Thailand. 13 hours from USA to China, 9 hours in China and another 8 to Bangkok. We are so thankful for all of you that are praying for us because that trip was a cinch.  It had the potential to be one of the most exhausting trips of our lives, but it was actually quite pleasant.
We met up with the Trzebiatowskis and the Nelsons in Bangkok where we had a introduction to 'Bridges to the Nations' and some ministry related info.
We ( the Trebs and the Mullers) got to kick around Bangkok for 2 days.  After one of our meetings we went to "JJ market", "JJ's" is the worlds largest market... overwhelming.
Today we got an early start, as we transitioned to Pattya.  This will be an amazing city one day because there are people of hope here. We went to the church that we will be working with here. There is a lot of life and hope in that church for this city. We are so excited to serve these guys.
  I saw a t-shirt today that paints a good picture of what this city is based in.  It read, "Good boys go to heaven; bad boys go to Pattya."
-Nathanael