Blessings Abound!!

The Brittan family has spent the past week moving to OUR NEW HOUSE!!! Yes, the Lord has blessed us with a wonderful house. It is the perfect size and location (and price, too). We have 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms inside the house. There is also a great bathroom outside the house! It is a full bathroom located outside, but it is not an outhouse. It is just as nice as the inside bathrooms. Harry really likes the nice size kitchen. Many people can help in the kitchen without stepping on each other. Yea!! We can also park our truck in the nice driveway. Here it is not always possible to park a vehicle at a house. Most people drive motorcycles.

We have many neighbors here that have already come over to meet us. They are so excited to have someone live here again. The house was empty for at least 6 months. Our neighbors are from many different countries Burma, Thailand, America, and China. It has been fun to meet so many people already. I am sure we will have many stories to share in the near future about the different people here in our neighborhood.

Several different families helped us get moved into our house. The move was a lot of work for all cleaning, packing, moving, watching kids, and cleaning the old house. The families that helped us were Chinese, Burmese, and Shan. It was great to have so many different people working together. What a blessing!! Also, the owner of the house (who now lives in China for a few years) sent his nephew to get a few pieces of furniture that we are not going to use. It is great that we do not have to store it.

We have made a few repairs on the house, but nothing major. We installed a few more electrical plugs, fixed some plumbing fixtures that were not working correctly, and installed the washing machine for our clothes. The yard is easily cared for since it is so much smaller than our other house. It will be more fun to care for the potted plants that are already here.

The kids really like it here also. Hattie and Emma are sharing a room, and they are also sharing a bed this time. Harry and Nellie are rooming together, and they are also sharing a bed now. They slept on their new bed for the first time last night. They slept very well, and I anticipate it will be a great bonding time for them. It is so great to see the family work together. The kids really like playing outside in the yard too. They can ride bikes in the driveway or run around in the yard. I really like the swing that it is here. It is like a porch swing with two benches that face each other with a table in the middle. I really like it! We also have a great “garage” area that we can park bicycles, motorcycles, and other stuff that doesn’t need to be in the house.

What a blessing!! Thank you for praying for a house. The Lord has blessed us with a great house! We know that so many have waited for an answer to this prayer. We have too. We knew that He would do more than we could every expect for us, and He has! Thank you again for lifting us up!

We have been working with our partners from the Phillipines, and the project training site is being established, We are setting up agricultural models, a small chicken project, and a fish project. During the next two months we will be completing construction on our training hall and other facilities to make training possible. Our hope and prayer has been that we will be able to effectively minister to people’s needs and also to share with them about the Gospel while we are working alongside them at our project site. Praise the Lord with us, because during construction of our chicken project one of our Burmese workers has been able to consistently hear about the Truth of God’s word, and he has come to know the Lord. Even before the training begins, His Kingdom is growing. We now pray for his entire family. We are encouraged, because now he not only comes to work each day, but he has been bringing his family with him to church on Sundays as well. We are excited, is what you and we have been praying for, and we continue to pray that this will be the beginning of a bountiful harvest.

We will be without Internet for a little while longer, but we hope to have it installed soon. We will find a way to update the blog at least weekly while we are waiting for our own connection. Our neighbor behind us owns an Internet café in town. How nice!! Please continue to send us emails, but please know that we are not checking email daily.

Also, I have not forgotten about posting some stories about our trip. I will get to it as soon as I can. Please know that we are praying for you and your family, and we can not wait to hear from you.

Please pray the following items for us this week:

- Praise the Lord for this wonderful house! It is perfect! Also, praise the Lord for all the help that we have had this week. People to pack, clean, move, watch children, etc.
- Praise the Lord for our new Brother in the Lord, and pray for his growth, and for his family to know Him as well.
- Pray that we will get all the boxes unpacked and arranged in this house. It is always fun to sort and locate stuff in a new house.
- Pray for the children as they have started back to their Thai school this week also. The principal and teachers agreed that we should move Hattie into grade 3 to help her not be so bored. So far she is liking the subject matter, but it is hard in the Thai language. Emma is doing great in Kindergarten, and we hope that she continues to grow her knowledge of the Thai language. Harry is doing much better at school. Please pray that he will enjoy his time at school learning Thai and playing with friends.
- Pray that my shoulder will heal. I hurt it about 6 weeks ago. I think I just hurt the muscle, but it doesn’t get time to heal due to me carrying Nellie so often. Pray that I will have time to rest it so it will heal.
- Pray for our homeschool this week. This will be our first week going to Thai school and having homeschool at home. Please pray that I will be prepared each day for their classes, and pray that the children will be able to handle the schedule. The children will come home early from Thai school on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 2 pm in order to complete their homeschool program. I am praying that this will be sufficient time for both of them to complete their work.
- Pray for Asian Rural Life Development Foundation (ARLDF). This is our foundation that we are starting here in this area. Pray for wisdom in developing national partners here in the area, and pray for our first training session that will take place in January. There is a lot of work being done at the project site right now to prepare for the training sessions. The garden is being established, chicken and fish house is being built, and facilities are being built for the classroom. Pray for the work that happens daily at the project site