The Big Bang, And a Great Weekend

We certainly had a high weekend! Jon Wood brought our new JFA student missionaries with him to our place. Not only did we get to meet new friends, but we got to see the "big boss" again! We would have stayed up all night and talked, but our poor visitors were dealing with jet lag, and would fall asleep in the middle of our lively conversations. I didn't think that I was THAT boring! But, they are used to speaking English as much as they want to, while I was trying to make up for lost time!The most exciting thing about their visit for me, other than talking,  had to be that my family had sent me a suitcase, packed with love and lots of goodies! There is just NOTHING like American food when you are used to eating rice every day, for every meal! I can't wait to try big frank curry on rice!!! I could go on and on about my suitcase, but I want to tell you about my new SM.Elani is 20, from Tennessee, and a very enthusiastic missionary with lots of questions! She is already asking questions that I had never thought about asking. So, we go and get the answers together from our trusty interpreter. We have already introduced her to public bathing and doing laundry the old fashioned hard way. She did say that doing laundry in Asia is much more social than just throwing your dirty clothes in a machine since we all go out together and talk while we work. This morning was her first official Karen language class. She is doing very well so far.She will be a great asset to the work over here. I wish that there were 20 more kids like her!Robert is the other new missionary with JFA. He will be starting an internet cafe with the intent of doing friendship evangelism where you cannot  do any other kind of  evangelism. He is a really nice and also very enthusiastic young man, and we were really happy to have him join this army of missionaries! (we feel kind of like Johnathan and his armor bearer at the moment, there are not many of us over here)But, so as not to keep you in suspense, I should also tell you about the "big bang". Jason came down last week in order to pick up the things that Ben needed to have sent in to him. He is famous for his marathon motor bike rides! He drives for 17 hours straight to get down here. He had a really good trip home until he went to pull into the driveway, and there his motor bike stalled,(it is old and needs some repairs)  and he was hit in the side by another motor bike going 60 kilometers per hour! It was raining really hard and the visibility was terrible. Jason and the other man both survived, and Jason walked away with only a very sore shoulder, ribs and hip. The other man only had a lacerated knee, which Gayle was able to sew up for him. The only problem is that technically, the accident was Jason's fault, so now he has to buy the other guy a new motor bike, pay for his medical bills, and his lost time at work! He does not have that kind of money, so we are praying really hard about it. But, we are also praising the Lord that it wasn't any worse than it was, and that Jason was pulling into the clinic when it happened! God is good, all the time!