No ordinary taxi firm...

Finding home in strange places...

Everything you need to know about England...

A visit to a Karen village is always full of surprises.  Last weekend, I went to Bor Tho Dai Church, a very remote place about two hours drive from Chiang Mai, with some of the TKBC Youth leaders.  Six local churches were gathered together for joint worship and prayer, and it was great to meet so many new people.

While we were having breakfast, however, a poster on the church wall caught my eye - it was all about England!  As part of an educational campaign sponsored by a major international NGO, hundreds of these colourful posters have been distributed to churches in rural areas all across Thailand.

So young Karen children are discovering, for example, that England's national animal is a cartoon fox.  And that the Pearly Kings and Queens on the poster are modelling English national dress.  And, apparently, that Wales and Scotland don't exist!

To spare their embarrassment, I won't reveal the name of the NGO responsible!  They did at least get some things right - and they made me feel a bit homesick for some proper fish and chips and a Sunday Roast!

Breakfast - fish, but no chips!

Sports Day on 29th September

Please pray for the TKBC Youth Sports Day - next Saturday, 29th September.  From 2am-10:30am UK time!  We're hoping that lots of Karen youth in Chiang Mai will come and join in -especially those who aren't yet connected with a church in the city.

A recycling challenge...

When we returned from the UK last month, we were surprised to find a large building site here at the Karen Bible School.  The old wooden dormitory building, where the female bible school students stayed, had disappeared, and foundations were being dug for a new, concrete building.

This was a dormitory building... now a building site

 The following day, however, we realised that there was not one, but two construction projects under way at the bible school.  At the far end of the bible school site, a large wooden structure was being built.

New wooden building under construction

The bible school students at work on the building explained to us that they were building a new 'guesthouse', to accomodate visitors to the school.  They estimated the building could sleep about 30 people. 

And then they told me that, with the exception of the concrete foundation blocks, all the wood they were using had been stripped out of the old dormitory building.  Could this be the world's first fully recycled guesthouse?  Just don't enquire too closely about the health and safety regulations adhered to during construction!