A week of unexpected weather, unforgettable memories, and glimpses of God’s timing in everyday life.

Watch our second Live stream and catch up with everything we are doing on video:

You might have to turn it up a bit. We are working on improving everything with our live streaming and we are hoping that one day we will be able to monetize our YouTube channel. So, if you haven’t followed us on YouTube, Substack, TikTok, FB, or IG please do! Even if you don’t watch anything or don’t care about what we do, we need followers! Please, smush that subscribe button and follow us!

We are actively working to improve our channel and content and would love any help or advice that any of you could give! We want to thank a special man who donated a new camera for us.

When he donated it, it was awesome what happened:

It’s amazing the way God blesses Generosity!

Genesis 12:2-3 - …I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you…

We are looking for ways to improve! If you have any suggestions, advice or encouragement to give please let me know! We are looking to improve our computer, cameras, wi-fi and microphone as well. If anyone would like to help with that please let me know!

And now to what’s happening!

This week has flown by, and it was a little boring and really hot. It has been scorching! Just about every day it has gotten up to about 95 degrees, but feels like 105. It has been really hot being on the peninsula of Thailand, and I just found out yesterday that Hua Hin gets the least amount of rain in all of Thailand. But every time we go anywhere here, it rains!

On Friday, we went on a little trip to Pa La-U Waterfall in Huai Sat Yai, Hua Hin. It was a lot of fun, and we will have a video soon about our trip there. When we went there, of course, it started to rain! The whole way there, there were signs that said, “Watch out for elephants!” We were on the lookout for elephants, and you will have to wait for the video to see if we actually saw one!

We had a lot of fun trying to catch fish there, and you will be shocked to see what happened! I’ll give you a hint, though, you can take the girl out of the jungle, but you can’t take the jungle out of the girl. It was a blast, and we were all tired afterward, but the rain was so hard it caused trees to fall on the road, and we were stuck.

We were so blessed to have Chompoo and Florian with us for the week and even more so when they decided to stay an extra night! They're heading back to Austria next month, and we’re really going to miss them… especially when they move to Ecuador a few months later. Watching little Christina come into her own has been such a joy. She’s full of life and energy, the kind of girl who’ll dance to the sound of a spoon hitting the floor. She brought so much fun and laughter to our time together.

I have been studying Ecclesiastes lately and I’m seeing that the overwhelming message is to enjoy the work that God has given you, it's a gift from Him. We are trying to embrace that. We look at our lives and everything that has come with them, and it has nearly driven a wedge between my wife and me. With studies like this and that, it’s a miracle we've made it through together. With most of the hardest days behind us, we decided we need to discover more joy in everything we're doing. We’re working to make our lives more en-JOY-able, and our kids’ lives too.

Right now, that’s quite easy to do. In a few weeks, we’ll really see, when homeschool starts again. With our kids progressing in all the right ways, hopefully this will start to make things smoother. It always amazes me how just a little love can transform a child’s life! Things should get easier, and learning more natural, which means our lives get lighter!

I have been listening to this podcast:

“Numb it with substances, boys and partying and twerkin and drinking.. and I mean just all kinds of crazy ratchet stuff. That I did for so long.” -Toni Collier

We also held our 3rd annual Easter egg hunt:

The kids love it and it makes Easter such an enjoyable holiday. They got to hang out with friends and eat a ton of candy, it doesn’t get much better than that. When we keep God the center and celebrate His resurrection its such an amazing day! I have found a few things over the years that have changed my mind on Easter, here is one:

Our prayers:

Hannah went back to her family for almost 2 weeks and called early and said she wanted to come home. Pray she is safe! We go and get her tomorrow.
My wife and I are having a 2-day break together and we hope that it will bring us closer together and help us figure out how to uplift each other better. For us to be cheerleaders for each other.
I will be able to complete my work on our IEPs.
We will be able to get money from the Thai government to be able to put our kids in sports and/or music.
Volunteer(s) to come and teach English or music.

Our needs:

Better equipment for homeschool, videos and live streams
Money to put kids in special interest camps (Soccer, music, arts, etc…)
Help and advice on making our online presence more successful.

Answers to prayers:

Chompoo successfully going through Appendicitis surgery. She got her stiches out now.
Time to work and go to the gym
We’re grateful that we didn’t overwhelm ourselves by taking on three more kids, even though I really wanted to. It would have been amazing to welcome a 9 month old boy into our home. My heart was ready, but my wife reminded me that the reality of the work might not feel quite so awesome. Then our landlord told us we weren’t allowed to take in more children. It wasn’t the answer we were hoping for, but it gave us clarity and peace. We believe it was God showing us His will. Before we can continue to grow, we need to have our own house. Not all answers are yes or no. Sometimes, they are simply not right now.

What I’m Watching:

Get outside of your algorithm. This is a very interesting scholarly perspective on the origins of the name Yahweh. Gives you a lot to think about.

On the same track as the above video, is the Bible project and the importance of mountains in the Bible. What would an ancient Israelite see in a mountain?