How to view our pictures

If you click the title of the post you will be directed to a web photo album of our pictures around the time that posting was put on our blog. So far that exists on our previous 2 postings. Enjoy!
-Kurt

Footloose

After a better than could have ever been expected 2 week stay with the Quesenberry family in northern Thailand the Campbell World Tour headed into Laos, and for the first time we really were on our own.
Our destination was the small city of Luang Prabang, and to get there involved a 2 day boat ride down the mighty Mekong River. Watching the jungle mountains, amazing rock formations croping out of the river, and passing villagers on the shore going about their daily life made this over crowded, bare bone boat one of the greatest trips of our lives. We really felt like we were in the middle of nowhere, as if we had stepped back into time. How anyone could doubt the existance of a god suprises me, because the beauty we took in was nothing less than spectacular.
Well if you were wondering we did make to Luang Prabang and have already enjoyed 3 fun filled days of long walks, cafes and the night market. For the record Cole would say that the night market was to much walking and he has had it with the whole walking and looking thing.
Today was our best family day in Laos as we took a Jumbo, which is a taxi where you sit in a small truck bed and do a top speed of about 35 mph, and headed to a national park that had the most incrediable swimming holes and jungle like waterfalls we have ever seen. Cole suprised us all by running to a rope swing and being the first to swing off a rock into the cool water below.
Tomorrow morning we take a 8+ hour bus ride to Vientiane the capital of Laos. There we will spend 3 nights with Francis Davey, the country manager for World Concern, and his family.
God's hand has been on us and we give Him thanks for answering the prayers of so many on our behalf. We now could use prayers as a family to just be one in the Spirit as everyone is starting to get on each others nerves a little and feeling a little out of sorts.
With Hope,
Kurt

Playing Tourist

Ok, today was all about being a tourist and I have to say our family had a blast. I mean how often do you get to ride an elephant, take a 'long boat' up a river and pose with a 12ft. python. Everyone was wide eyed and smiling ear to ear.

The Quesenberry's were great sports today and have been that way ever since we invaded their lives almost 2 weeks ago. We have seen and experienced so much that we will be eternally grateful for their frienship.

-By Kurt

A Different Kind of Valentines Day

It was a different kind of Valentines Day for me. I found myself in Northern Thailand in a remote Lahu hill-tribe village. The purpose of this two day trip was for Pete and his co-workers at the Mekong Minority Foundation to teach various village leaders/pastors how to properly vaccinate their water buffalo and cattle. The people and setting will make it an experience I will not soon forget.

-By Kurt

Surreal

With just over 1 week into this journey our family seems to be in a little bit of a fog. Everthing seems surreal. We have not stopped moving since we left Seattle and there has been so many new sights, sounds and smells that it almost overloads our minds.

After 2 nights in Bangkok our family took the overnight train to Chiang Mai where we spent 24 hours enjoying the flavor of this ancient city of trade. Pete Quesenberry picked us up the next morning to take us to his house 3 hours away in Chiang Rai. On the way to Chiang Rai we went up a narrow dirt road for about an hour to see a Karen village that Pete has worked with, a beautiful drive and a beautful village, really a fun side trip- we even got a chance to see some rice being planted along the way.

Our time in Chiang Rai has been busy, Pete and Mary being very gracious hosts to our family of five. We went to the Golden Triangle and the Brumese (Myanmar) border. Kurt accompanied Pete on a agricultual training in the village and got to see village life up close. The Campbell family helped a group that was building a church close by for a group of Akha villagers. It was great work for us, no skill needed- we just moved buckets of dirt in a line for half a day. It was fun for the kids as there were a lot of young people from the village helping that they could interact with. Kurt got his first taste of driving in Thailand, on the left side of the road and with a thousand crazy scooters!

We are all enjoying and getting our fill of rice with all sorts of stuff over top of it....most I am not sure exactly what it is but it is all really tasty! We have found the Thai people we meet so friendly and seem to be very amused by us! It is very different being in a place where we have no understanding of the language-thankfully for us enough is written in English and Pete and Mary know their way around and the language.

The kids have been doing great and seem to be taking everything in stride- we are thankful for continued health and safety! We are looking forward to see what God has in store for us this week.

We are here!

Wow- we are here! After 15 hours of plane travel you really feel like you are far away from home. Although when we landed in Hong Kong we could have been back in Seattle to look out the window-cold and rainy!
Sorry to all of you wondering if we arrived safely- we did and have been so busy since our arrival in Bangkok there has been little time for updating the blog.
We had a safe, uneventful albeit long and somewhat tedious plane journey. We were blessed to be brought to the airport in Seattle by friends and picked up half a world away in Bangkok by friends.
First impressions of Bangkok are: Crowded, cosmopolitian, clean, busy, somewhat frentic and very hot and steamy! It also brings new meaning to the the phrase "bad traffic"!
Everyone is healthy and happy and surprisingly well rested as we have had no problem with jet lag and sleeping well.
We leave tonight on the overnight train to Chiang Mai and are looking forward to our train adventure.
More later....thanks for your prayers!