long live the king

did you know Thailand has the longest reigning living monarch? the country just pulled out all the stops to celebrate the 60th anniversary of his reign...
he's a huge part of life here -- a picture of him has a prominent place in every business and home... at the beginning of movies, the audience stands to pay homage to him... & every once in a while in the supermarket, a special song plays and everyone just stops to think good thoughts of him... it's even punishable by law to say anything bad about him... this doesn't seem to be a problem though, since from everything we've heard, he's a really great guy...
here's a link if you are interested in learning more about His Majesty King Bhumibol:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/60yrsthrone/

back from blog darkness

since i last wrote, we've finished 5 awesome projects for work, & caryn went to ireland with a friend (she had a free plane ticket -- yes, our family seems to have more than their fair share of free tickets to ireland)...

mike gives his hellos... he's out climbing a wall (literally), as now that we are back in the office, our jobs are lacking in physical & artistic challenges (other than keeping our eyes open in front of the computer as we work on admin & fill orders)... we are looking for every opportunity to chop wood & do some serious fingerpainting, as our birkman personality assessments would have us do (i'll let you figure out who's doing what).

more pics & updates later, but just wanted to let you know we're home safely & slowly catching up on paperwork, emails, and life....

thanks for all your comments, by the way! i've responded to a few of them, so if you're really interested, you can hunt through the comments :)....

oh -- any creative ideas for celebrating the 4th of july in asia?

out of the loop

thanks for all of your fun comments... we treasure each one... sorry we've not had time to respond or update the blog lately! any special requests for content? i know i need to get some pics op of our local markets!

we were out of town for work most of last month... we returned on tuesday with just enough time to do laundry & pack for our our next recording trip...

we leave early tomorrow morning & would appreciate your prayers!

We just returned from our last recording trip to a neighboring country a few days ago… thanks SOOO much for your prayers!

*We have very few technical problems – the least I have experienced on ANY trip.

*We were able to record, mix, & edit the Film, Audio/Radio product, & Old Testament introduction/close on the field – that means we got to hand the finished products to this people group to take back to their village BEFORE we left the country last month. This is usually at least a 3-9 month process – when the recordings are normally sent back to the Studio in Orlando to edit & mix, then returned to the field for approval.

*We finished ahead of schedule & were able to enjoy the scenery & a few days of relaxation.

We leave early tomorrow morning for Chiang Rai (a city in Thailand just north of Chiang Mai) to record a children's product in the Akha language. Please pray:

*As we travel with our supervisor, Doug, & his daughter, Rachel, to Chiang Rai (Mike will be driving us in our truck).

*For a good quality recording that will communicate the Message clearly to the Akha people in Thailand and the neighboring countries where they live.

*That we would be an encouragement to the ministry we are working with & the children they care for at Akha Outreach (go to http://akhachildren.com/homepage.htm for more information on their ministry).

*That Rachel would enjoy her time with us – she is 12 and has a heart for working with orphans.

More later… thanks again for all of your prayers and encouragement…