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Ouellette Newsletter January 2008 |
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Since it is still January, we wanted to start by saying Happy New Year
- or, "Sawat dee bee my" from all 6 of us Ouellettes in Phuket, Thailand!
And since this is our first update since before Christmas, we need to tell you that we had a great Christmas season here in Phuket. We believe that pictures are worth a 1000 words, so we will attach a few pictures to summarize our Christmas activities. Thank you for your prayers for us during this special season. We had many opportunities to speak and sing of the birth of Jesus to many Thais.
Update on the kids: Thanks to our wonderful teachers, Jason and Traci Johnston, our kids are doing great! They are working hard and growing in their reading, writing, and yes, even arithmetic too! They always look forward to our weekend "explores" as we continue to learn about our surroundings in this amazing country of Thailand. Last weekend we explored PhangNga Bay. Wow, we enjoyed the boat ride and the incredible scenery.
Update on Greg and Becky: I (Becky) took a quick trip to Lopburi last week for another language check. It was fun to visit our "old hometown". It is also fun to be moving ahead with language studies.
This week I get to meet a new teacher and get started on another new topic of study. Greg is delving into the language of Thai "Christianese", which includes lots of specialized vocabulary. The learning curve is still pretty significant, but we continue to be encouraged with every step forward we are able to make.
Update on Ella: Did we tell you about Ella? She is a stray puppy that adopted us last October. She is now almost full-grown, (which is still pretty small) and has become a full-fledged family member! ...Greg got a little concerned when a pregnant stray cat decided to adopt us too.
So now we 'have' a dog and 4 cats. Oh my.
New News: For the last 2 Saturday afternoons, our team has gathered at Rob and Judy's place to lead an English club for kids in their neighborhood. With not much advertising, other than a little sign on their front gate, we've had about 40 kids come out each time! We share the responsibilities of teaching English, planning games and crafts, praying for the kids and their families and planning it all around some kind of theme to tie it all together. It is fun for us to come together as a team and see our various gifts at work. We need each other!
We are so happy to have Greg's parents visiting us this month! We have enjoyed showing them some of our favorite spots on the island, letting them taste some of our favorite foods, and just having time to hang out with Grandma and Grandpa O. What a wonderful blessing for us all!
Thank you for taking the time to read our family news!
Kauh Prah-Jaow Oo-ai pawn khaa
(God bless you!)
Greg and Becky, Caleb, Emma, Luke, and Silas
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