Make Straight Our Paths

Our prayer everyday is that God would make straight our paths. It is our hope and belief that God will indeed give us wisdom and understanding in certain situations and will then give us strength to act in the way we think is right(eous). This past week has been our hardest yet. Hard because we have made plans to come home to Australia. While there are a number of factors that have led to this decision, a major reason is timing. We realized that the next six months were crucial for us to begin preparations for a new work here. It looks certain that we will return to the Thai/Burma border (south of where we are now) to begin a new school for Karen early 2008. The school year here starts in May and we think it wise to be back here for that. We have just spent a couple of days travelling around the province of Ratchaburi and think that this is where we will 'plant' a new school. The Baptist church here (we hear) is wanting to have a school nearby for the villages and so it seems we will contact the Baptist Church in this province and begin the process of developing a new school. At this stage we will call the school Mhyrrlar (something like that) it means HOPE in Karen. We are beside ourselves with excitement and are humbled at this path that God seems to be making straight for us. For now though we are looking forward to catching up with family and friends in Australia. While there we will begin saving and speaking with some of you who may be interested in sponsoring Karen children. We can't prepare as we need here, and therefore see it best that we return for the second half of this year. We have spent a lot of time speaking with each other and there is deep sadness over leaving the students, but each understands and feels peaceful about this decision.

So......we fly back to Australia June 8 into Melbourne. We will spend about 10 days there and will head to Brisbane June 18 to see our families including two new cousins! July 11 will see us head to Cairns to live and work there for the rest of the year. Our children will go to school and Colin and I will get work. We hope to fly back to Thailand around March next year via New York and Canada where we hope to speak with friends who are in the Medical field. We need practitioners to partner with us and perhaps organize medical supplies and/or come and volunteer at the school/medical clinic. So....if you are a doctor, mechanic, teacher, bible scholar, photographer, artist, business person, hairdresser, student, a revolutionary follower of Jesus or good at serving people and fancy a stint in the Jungle....then let's have a coffee soon and chat!

SEE YOU SOON~