Happy Easter!

Just finishing our Easter day here in Chaing Rai. Had a nice day but missing family back home and some of our traditional Easter activities!

The week was a crazy one. We started off the week with a hospital trip for routine blood work for me and a Doctor visit for Meg. Super easy...had a Doctor confirm Meg's ear infection, prescribe 3 different medications. In and out of the hospital in an hour and all for about 15 dollars...unbelievable!

Decided to take a bit of a side trip and left Chaing Rai Tuesday to journey towards Pai-about 6 hours west of here, stopped in Chaing Mai for the night and continued on the next day. Pai was interesting....beautiful scenery up the mountains and a different little town...we discovered where all the hippies went...they and their children and grandchildren are all in Pai, Thailand...seriously... We enjoyed our stay in the area. Visited an amazing huge cave one day and went to a Pirahna fishing park the other...random I know but the whole trip and town was pretty random. Took the government bus down the mountain yesterday (you know it is bad when they hand out plastic vomit bags as you get on!) we did well and got our bus onward right away to Chaing Rai and happy to be back!!

Enjoyed Easter services at a Akha village about 1.5 hours away in a beautiful setting well off the beaten path!

Looking forward to a new week. We will be moving on Thursday night back to Bangkok and a middle of the night flight to Istanbul where we will meet Kurt-looking forward to that!!

Enjoy the pics~ Cari

Week End Wrap Up

Sorry it has been so long since we have been able to update-it has been pretty busy here in our little corner of Thailand. I will try to go back and hit some of the highlights of last week.
Kurt and Jessica have made it safely back to the states. Jessica then took off and went to Denver to spend some much needed Grandma and Grandpa time, she was able to be there to help Grandma celebrate her birthday so that was great.
We started our week last week at a village church about an hour away. Beautiful area with a cute church newly built on the hill. We drove in to see an 8-10 foot python (I didn’t get close enough to measure but I am confident I am not exaggerating!) hanging headless over a branch. A boy from the village had killed it the day before by the church… I am so thankful I didn’t have to come face to face with it when it was alive!
This week in Thailand was the Songkran festival, the holiday that everyone celebrates by having a 4-5 day long water fight. If I understand it correctly, what started out as a time that children returned to their home village and received a blessing from their family by a few drops of water on their head has evolved into this crazy thing of days of intense water fighting. Everyone just dumps water on everyone- young, old doesn’t matter….we spent two afternoons in the town participating. The first day I rode in the truck and had a great time watching but had to get out and play the second day. We drove around with a 50 gallon bucket of water and one smaller one filled with ice water and just got to throw water on everyone we saw, of course we were targets as well…favorite targets because we were obviously not locals! The kids loved it! Kinda a dream for kids to be able to throw water on whomever they feel like- especially when it is hot! Everyone is a great sport about it and just walks around soaking wet. We had tons of wet, exhausting fun and I would come back every year just for that!
We just returned last night from an overnight stay in an Akha village where Ghan (our hostess) grew up. We were able to meet her mom and family and get a better idea of how life in the village is lived. It is so interesting to see how people live, and even though we don’t speak the language we were made to feel very welcome and could observe a whole different way of life very up close! I was mostly fascinated with how it is possible to live with everything you need provided for by your own work, ingenuity and from the land and area you live in. The jungle and small farms provide all the food, vegetables, fruit and eggs they need and nothing goes to waste. Hard hot work for sure!! I am such a long way from living that kind of life. I don’t think my weekly trip to Costco that I complain about really qualifies for back breaking hunting and gathering!
Well that about sums up the week. We also had a great time eating pizza, playing games and watching movies with Pete, Mary and Wynn. We enjoyed a hot walk to a nearby waterfall and a great cool swim at the end. We continue to be spoiled by great hospitality by the people around us. We remain healthy and happy and so grateful for this opportunity. Not sure what adventures this week holds but will try to keep the updates coming!
Enjoy the pictures~Cari

The Flip Side of Life

Life is unpredictable, yet I find myself going to bed thinking that tomorrow will be just as I have it planned or at least something close, when in reality I don't know if I will be around for another sunrise. This was all made to clear when my friend Jay Sutherland passed away a couple days ago in his sleep and my uncle just yesterday was flown to Harborview with a stroke that has him in a coma awaiting the unknown.

Maybe I often sleep well because I know where I’m heading when my time is up here, or maybe I just fall into the ‘assumption trap’ that can keep me in a state of mind that says “there’s always tomorrow”. I now pray, once again, that I would look at the lives around me as if they too may not have another tomorrow and that I would somehow be that person that shows them the love Jesus has to offer for all of eternity.
This past week was not only met with sad news from home but also great joy here in Thailand. We have made new friends and have enjoyed building on past friendships as well. We have done the bizarre like riding ostriches and enjoyed the simple things like a Thai foot message. My personal favorite was the day five of us guys from the ministry rented dirt bikes and rode through the surrounding mountains.

We are blessed without a doubt and thankful for the days given us. My prayer would be that we plant and water the lives around us with the goodness of God and stop assuming there is ‘always tomorrow'.

-Kurt

Settling In

We arrived at our new home a couple days ago and feel very happy to settle in and stop moving for a while. We are about 30 minutes outside of the town of Chaing Rai in the very north of Thailand. We are so blessed to be able to stay with friends of ours in their guesthouse. Luka and Ghan are Thai-Akha’s who run the Thai-Akha Ministry Foundation. Also here on the property are Rusty and Lynette Polinder (for those of you wanting to play Dutch bingo-Rusty’s father is Ron who worked at Rehobath for a number of years and who now works for Calvin College ) who through a serious of connections know our family as well and are friends. We have been very warmly welcomed and are enjoying settling in!!
The beautiful property here includes dormitories for Akha children from the nearby villages.(The Akha people are a native hill tribe people group)

Luka and Ghan house about 70 children from first grade to about age 15 and care for them during the school year. They can attend the local schools, get tutoring help, Bible teaching and church on Sundays. There is also a field of tea, fish ponds and rice paddies, all which help support the kids and the ministry. The Ministry Foundation also works with the Akha Christians doing pastor training, conferences, Bible translations and really supporting Akha Christians in a large variety of ways.
School is on summer break right now so the place is quiet and peaceful. The Campbell family mission this month is to deep clean and paint the boys and girls dorms. We got started yesterday and it felt great to do something useful again after our last month of mainly travel. We hope to finish the painting this week while Kurt is still here and Cole and Meg and I will concentrate on cleaning and some other jobs for the rest of the month. Jessica is going to be busy for the next few days sewing 36 new curtains for the windows in both dorms. Kurt and Jessica will head back to Bangkok then home Saturday already-we will miss them!!
A few things we are excited about- Having our own kitchen to cook for ourselves is awesome!! I have a bit of a learning curve in buying groceries at the local market and preparing unfamiliar foods but have found out toast and eggs work in any culture! Jessica is excited and feels vindicated because we all discovered there really are rats the size of small dogs here…she told us and we didn’t believe her, unfortunately I believe her now!! We are all excited to connect with old friends. We had Pete, Mary and Wynn Queesenberry over last night for dinner and being here with Rusty, Lynette and Luka and Ghan is just great!!
Well the rooster’s are crowing so that must mean our 6:30 am start work time is close- gotta go!!
Ohhh by the way, the picture is the view out our front door, really pretty looking over the tea plants and down to the rice fields! More pictures to come when we get better internet connection!

A Belated Cambodian Update

So after we posted pictures on our trip to Cambodia it falls to me to update everyone about our family's Cambodian adventures; if just a little late... Since this will be the only blog I write on this trip I can only hope that it is a least slightly informative.

Our Cambodian experience was, if nothing else, a Campbell family adventure. We spent our mornings climbing through restored ruins trying to decipher the meanings of the wall carvings (aided by summaries in our guidebook). The afternoons we spent recuperating, a.k.a. napping by the poolside and taking advantage of our hotel's rather cheap massages. In between we dodged sweet children trying to sell us souvenirs and those parts of the jungle that had landmine warning signs.

Slight sarcasm aside it was an amazing three days. The temples were fantastic. Some were a bit like stone labyrinths where one could wander and explores several layers of complexes and others were simply one room buildings exquisitely carved and set in picturesque jungle settings.

My favorite temple was Ben Mealea. About an hour away from the other temples this temple displayed the passage of time much more clearly. We were able to climb over piles of rubble to view the inner rooms of the temple which were still remarkably intact. Everywhere we could see trees growing through the walls slowly crumbling the stone that had remained standing. Our guides later took us through the jungle a ways to see the outer wall where they fed us sour leaves and dry berries they had gathered from the bushes. Despite the fact that this temple was out of the way it was an adventure well worth our time.

We spent our last day in Cambodia in Poi Pet visiting the Cambodia Hope Organization (CHO) and the work they were doing in the region. The projects include, but are not limited to, the safe haven, school on the mat, a HIV/AIDS word, a foster home project, and a skills training center. It was a blessing for us to be able to see God working in Cambodia through CHO and it was a great way to end our few days there.

Now we are well on our way in our Thailand adventure and while Dad and I only have a week here in Chiang Rai I hope to make the most of it before I go home!!

Jessica

Always an Adventure

A lot has happened since our last blog. After spending 3 days visiting the amazing Angkor ruins we all headed back to Poi Pet, Cambodia for an afternoon of visiting the good works of C.H.O. (Cambodia Hope Organization). The work they are doing to help better the lives of others, especially children is really something to behold. Dealing with child trafficking and extreme poverty is no easy task, so to see 65 dedicated Christian Cambodians changing their part of the world one life at a time gives us hope in a very dark corner of the world.
Chomno, the founder and director of C.H.O., was our host for the evening and surprised us by taking us to his son’s pre-marriage ceremony, which was an elaborate picture taking affair. Before we knew it we were having our picture taken with the bride and groom, who were decked out in their elaborate outfits while we were dressed in all too casual travel dudes. I would find it hard to believe those pictures will ever end up on their mantle.
The next day we left Cambodia through the hustle of one the busiest border towns we had yet to experience and took our taxi van 4 hours back to Bangkok where Jessica and I stopped by World Concern’s Asia office to say our hello’s before taking another taxi with the family to the train station which turned out to be a fun ride due to the fact our taxi driver performed magic tricks that had us laughing the entire ride.
That night we boarded the night train where we all slept in our little bunk beds and arrived 14 hours later in Chaing Mai. We then checked into our hotel and after sending a few fast emails we were off to our next big adventure up in the mountains to do some zip lining.

Now this zip lining thing is not for the faint of heart and all of us were a little worried that Cari’s six titanium back screws might not take kindly to jumping off 100ft tree platforms as if we were monkeys, but eighteen zip lines later we were all smiling. The only accident of the day was me hitting a sawed off tree limb in the middle of one of the zip lines which took a little skin off the old leg and reminded us all that these kind of adventures do not fall within Disney safety guidelines.
After a great night sleep and a small walk into town we rode out of Chaing Mai in a bus and arrived in Chaing Rai three hours later where we were greeted by our friend Rusty who immediately took us grocery shopping to help us stock up on food. Our day was capped off by dinner and games with our hosts Luka and Ghan.
Here are a few things to mention:
• Two days ago Harley our 11 year old dog was put to sleep, which as you can imagine has been hard on the family, but we have decided to celebrate those years instead of dwell on our loss.
• The weather in Cambodia and our few days in Thailand were actually perfect weather wise and had us all very happy to not be sweating by 9 AM everyday, which is typical for this time of the year. Unfortunately starting yesterday the heat is back on.
• Currently we are staying in our own house next to our host family who runs a ministry for Akha hill tribe children and the local churches. The plan is to spend the rest of our time in Thailand here helping with various work projects.
We are blessed beyond belief and thankful for our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world.
-Kurt