Dear "Gay" Sunday School friends,Craig and I send our heartfelt thanks for the offering you gave to us. This week has been very busy for us. Know that your gift is a blessing to us.
We have been very busy with Christmas celebrations here. Last week we were invited to a Thai neighborhood party that was put on by a local Thai church. They put these on as an effort to reach out to their community. They wanted us to do a play or something. As we have learned, the Thai (like most everyone) are long on ideas but short on planning ahead. We had been trying to plan something for a couple of months but never could get it to work out. Of course, one of the ladies called us and said, okay, we have it worked out, can you come tomorrow. And by the way, we want you to do a play or something and a craft. Also, like most Asian gatherings it started out for 15 - 20 people and grew to about 60 people. So, Penelope (remember me from the homeless program last year?) told the Christmas story with our house church as the nativity characters. It wasn't quite the same—it’s harder to stay in character when you have to stop after every line for the interpreter to translate.
Today, we had our office Christmas party. It was just like the Sunday School class party, almost. We ate outside. It was 90 degrees but very comfortable, sunny weather--we wore shorts, of course. We had tons of food—both Western and Thai. The usual Western menu--turkey, ham, rolls and lots of desserts. But, we also had a ton of Thai food—Kaoy Soi (pronounced cow soy), Basil Chicken, Curry Chicken, and Mango Sticky Rice.
Okay, so it wasn't exactly like your party but we did do the dirty Santa game. The hot items that were stolen a lot were a little different from yours--Velveeta cheese, dark chocolate m & m’s, and Celadon pottery. We can only get Velveeta cheese through packages from home here, so that gift did get stolen until it was locked. The other items that you would also find stolen around your circle were here too--Starbucks gift cards, Mexican restaurant gift certificates, and other coffee items.
Attached you will find some pictures. One is our family after the party in front of some lovely palm trees around our office. Our office party had about eighty people attending so we broke the dirty Santa into two smaller groups. One of the pictures is of Craig in the circle where he participated. The two Thai women work in our office—they are Rose and Aoy.
Thank you again for your wonderful gift. It will come in handy, especially for groceries for our three hungry boys.
