Our first month in Chiang Mai

Dear friends — greetings from the rainy season! The songthaew drivers know us now, the boys have learned to order noodles by themselves, and we have survived our first month of Thai language school with most of our dignity intact.

Language school humbles everyone

Thai has five tones, and getting one wrong turns 'near' into 'far' and 'beautiful' into 'unlucky'. Daniel accidentally told our teacher her dog was delicious. She has forgiven us, mostly. Four hours of class a day is slow, holy work — every word we get right is one more word we can love a neighbor with.

The church on Soi 7

Pastor Somchai's congregation meets above a motorbike repair shop: thirty plastic chairs, one guitar with five strings, and more warmth than we have felt in buildings a hundred times grander. They have been praying for a daughter church for nine years. We get to be a small part of the answer, and we don't take that lightly.

How you can pray

Pray for our tones — truly. Pray for the boys' school friendships. And pray for the family who owns the repair shop downstairs, who asked Grace last week why the people upstairs sing.

With love from the rainy side of the world — Daniel, Grace, Micah & Ezra