Saga of the misbehaving drain

One Thursday, Linda forgot to put the clothes washer drain hose into the toilet causing a massive flood in our downstairs bathroom, with water flowing out into the kitchen area as well. Because the water wouldn’t drain out through the clogged pipes, we were bailing water with a large dust pan and plastic pan. We called the landlord and he came to find us still getting 2-3 inches of water out of the bathroom floor. He brought the magic acid, which worked a miracle the month before by cleaning out the pipe (after a small explosion), but it did nothing this time. He hired some workmen who used a plumbing snake with no success. They ended up breaking up our cement backyard in several places looking to find the drain pipe leading from the bathroom. No success. Finally the owner called the city to come flush the drain pipes. They came and looked, made an appointment to come on Monday and ended by telling us not to let water down our drain pipes. We thought, “It’s only a few days, it’ll be OK.”
The appointed time came and went with no workmen & no city truck. We called to find out the reason for the delay. We were told that they workmen would not come. What!!! Didn’t we schedule an appointment 3 days before? When Linda heard this she started crying not knowing when we’d be able to take showers, wash our hair and wash dishes without having to use buckets and pouring the used water in the toilet. She called the landlord and he said that he had already filled out the right paperwork. He then called the city and found out that the workmen were helping their supervisor build a house, but they would stop and come help “today”. As we sat down for lunch, the workmen did come with their large red water truck to flush the drains (picture is of a similar truck). Hallelujah, success!! It’s been one day and water is still flowing down the bathroom drain pipe and no flooding.

U. S. Team is Magical

A team from Oxford, Mississippi came to Krabi. They did juggling, magic tricks, drew pictures, and did mime. They had fun going into markets, schools, doing street evangelism and performances at 2 churches in Krabi city. During street evangelism and markets, Thais accepted tracts as they saw magic tricks and got balloon animals for their children. A show in the night market of Krabi city was a venue for presenting the Gospel as well as passing out tracts to Thais. Their mime showed that our bad actions can be brought under the control of the Holy Spirit through accepting the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Students as well as teachers were enthralled by the show. Could you do this at a school in America?
Thank You Mississippi Team!

Pa’s Wake-Up Call

Pa was driving her motorcycle early in the morning. Her 19 year son was on the back. As she was thinking about something her husband said, she fell asleep. Her wake-up call was running into a large cement mileage marker. She sustained injuries to her abdomen, bruised her ribs, broke her left arm in several places and separated her shoulder. While Bow, her son, hit his head resulting in 9 stitches in his forehead. Because of her internal bleeding, the local Khao Phanom district hospital sent her to the provincial hospital in Krabi city for surgery. Staying in a hot hospital ward with about 30 other women, she waited on the surgery.
During her hospital stay, our team, and then members of the local Baptist church went and prayed for Pa. After our prayers her bleeding stopped and she didn’t have to have the operation on her abdomen. Two days later her broken arm was set and the doctors waited a few more days to make sure she was OK. Pa believed that God had answered our prayers for her. Pray for her to be patient in her recovery and be faithful in attending the cell group.

Chikungunya – Funny Name for the Effects of a Mosquito Bite

Linda got bitten by a Aedes Mosquito causing a fever, headaches and swollen joints and muscles. While the fever and rash last approximately 8 days, the fever settled into swollen joints and muscles. After 3 weeks of pain and little relief, staying at home and not recovering. Richard took her to the doctor at the hospital on the 23rd. She was given a shot and medicine to help control the swollen joints and muscles. Most of the pain has left and she has returned to work. This Thanksgiving Linda feels very thankful to God for getting better.

Prayer and Praise

1. Pray for members and leaders of Krabi Baptist Church to seek God first in their
daily lives.
2. Pray that members at Krabi Baptist will enthusiastically work with us to
accomplish establishing churches in Khao Phanom and Blai Praya.
3. Pray Linda to be completely cured of related effects of chikungunya.
4. Pray that more adults will join our present Bible studies.
5. Pray for Richard & me to not let other activities draw us away from our quiet
time with God.
6. Pray for us to see God daily at work in our lives and in establishing churches
in Khao Phanom (Cow Pa-nom) and Blai PraYa districts.
7. Pray for adults and children in our cell groups to see God working in their daily
lives.

Radio Program

"The Happy Family" radio program from Voice of Peace began airing in Khao Phanom. The program incorporates current events, and advice for the family coming from the Bible.
The radio station was most pleased with the program. It airs from 8:15 - 8:45 each morning. We are praying that God will use the program to soften the ground and turn many Thais in Khao Phanom to Christ.

Flooded Bathroom

On September 28th we walked into the ground floor bathroom. Water had begun backing up. We thought, “Oh no! This was one of those times during the year that the bathroom backed up.” We poured soda down the drain hoping that would cure the situation. On Wednesday a couple visited from Singapore. To our embarrassment, the man went to use the downstairs bathroom and a noxious smell greeted him as he opened the door. The water had backed up all the way to the door (about 2 inches) ready to overflow into the kitchen. He had to use our upstairs bathroom. While Linda talked to them, Richard bailed out the bathroom, cleaned and dried the floor. However, our visitor had washed his hands after using the bathroom and this caused the floor to flood again! Richard again went in to bail out the bathroom floor, clean and dry it.
Friday we called the landlord because we had used caustic soda to clean the drain and it did not help. We heard that the city had a service to clear drains. We asked our landlord to call the city to get help. About a half hour later the doorbell rang. The landlord came with a large bottle which he said the workers at his school used to clean the school’s drains. As he was pouring the liquid down the drain, there was rumbling in the pipes, a small explosion, and a column of steam spouted about 10 feet into the air. As the steam first came out the landlord jumped back and looked stunned. Then he tried to escape the bathroom as a putrid smell filled the room. We opened the back door and windows and brought a fan to clear the air. It took awhile. Then the landlord insisted on returning to the bathroom to pour more of the acid down the pipes. This time he was ready as he poured the liquid, but the column of steam was only about a foot high. Praise God this miracle acid drain cleaner worked & the drain pipes continue to be clear!