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!