The Crawford Chronicles #19
“The Adventure Begins!”
Prayer Requests
1) Safe Arrival - We have arrived in Chiang Mai, Thailand! Thank you for your prayers. The boys travelled very well and after a short delay all 8 of our bags made it as well.
2) House Setup - Pray that we will be able to find and afford all the things we need to turn our house into a home. We are thankfully that we have found a suitable place and that it is so close to the school.
3) Pre-School for Austin - Please pray for Austin as he will be starting Pre-School in January. Pray that he would enjoy his new school.
4) Nanny for Duncan - We will have a nanny spend the day with us this week, Pray that she would be a good fit for our family and that she would get along well with Duncan.
5) Church family - We visited a Thai church this week and enjoyed it. We plan to visit a few churches before we decide which one we will attended each Sunday. Pray that we would find a good church family to be a part of.
6) Health - The boys have both come down with colds. Pray for speedy recoveries and that Mom and Dad will not become sick.
7) New Jobs - Both Kathleen and I will be starting our new jobs next month. Pray that we would both enjoy our new jobs and serve the school well.
8) New Car - Praise the Lord we found a car that fits our budget!
I (Kathleen) wanted to share a bit more details for those who were interested in a newsletter. If you are looking for a quick recap, we have posted an update video as well as a video with some pictures from our trip and our first week and a half here in Thailand.
Our trip to Chiang Mai started on December 6th. I am very proud that I was able to pack everything in our allotted 8 bags. It the first time we didn’t need to pay for extra bags! Despite my minimal packing, the ticket agent seemed surprised by how many bags we had. “How long are you staying?!”, she said judgementally. It was a good question though as we actually don’t really know the answer! All in all the trip went well. Each destination held its own uniqueness. Our flight from Fredericton to Toronto was delayed and while we were waiting, a lady fainted in the departure lounge. Thankfully, she was fine and was able to board her flight. My thinking is she fainted when she saw the invoice for the price of her ticket (that was Graham’s joke). In Toronto we switched from flying Air Canada to Eva Air and had to recheck-in to get our boarding passes to fly to Taipei, Taiwan. The agent at Eva Air was very helpful and thankfully we didn’t have to recheck our bags. Our flight to Taiwan was also delayed (more on that later), but when we got on-board we realized we had tickets in premium economy. This meant bigger seats with more keg room for our 16 hour flight. Yay!
Our layover time in Taiwan was eaten up by the delay in Toronto. This meant we had to run to the gate to catch our next flight to Bangkok, Thailand or risk having to wait for the next flight. Graham was pushing the stroller with both boys and I was trying to run with our carry-ons. As luck would have it, I ended up falling. It wasn’t a nice fall either. It looked like I had fallen into a yard sale selling nothing but luggage. (another Graham joke) There was a guy driving one of those electric golf cart style cars nearby and he pulled up beside me when I fell. He explained that we could have asked for a lift and been driven to the gate. Information that would have been helpful before we ran 99% of the way to our gate. While we were on our flight from Taipei to Bangkok, there was a medical emergency and they asked over the PA system whether there was a doctor or nurse on-board. I offered to help but the situation had already been taken care of. We switched airlines again in Bangkok (from Eva Air to Bangkok Airways) so we needed to recheck-in to get our boarding passes for our last flight. Flying into Chiang Mai was beautiful. We had a perfect view of the nearby mountain range. Our bags were delayed due to our short layover. The agent in Chiang Mai notified us as soon as we arrived and had arranged for them to be brought on the next flight. The bags were even delivered for free to our home later that night!
The house we are renting is in a new development right across the street from Grace International School (GIS). The development is called “Graceland”. I guess Elvis faked his death and moved to Chiang Mai (another Graham joke). The house is a three bedroom townhouse which is enough space for our family. There has been a few issues with the house but the development office has been very good at getting those issues fixed. We were able to find his house through a “Business As Mission” (BAM) allied Expat Homes. They along with SIM (our mission organization) blessed us by having all the basics setup in henhouse when we arrived, once we have the house completely setup we will do a video to show you all our living space. There are many families with children in our neighbourhood so they come by often to play. It is a huge blessing to have that for our boys.
We were able to attend a Thai church with some fellow SIM missionaries on our first Sunday. The church meets in the same building where Austin will attend Pre-School. Austin did very well attending Sunday School by himself and is excited to be starting Pre-School in January. He is such a social butterfly and looks forward to spending time with kids his own age.
We interviewed a lady to be Duncan’s nanny. She is well educated and seems very capable of doing a good job. Duncan was asleep when she stopped by so we asked if she would stop come back again this week to spend a day with us. We ask for prayer that things would work out well with her. It would be a huge blessing to have a great nanny for Duncan.
Unfortunately, both boys have been sick with colds since we’ve arrived. Hopefully they will be feeling better soon and that Graham and I would stay healthy.
We visited GIS and started to meet some of our colleagues. We have felt very warmly welcomed. We also started orientation with SIM. We are so glad to be part of such a great mission organization. They have helped us out so much in getting around and settled in. We start work at GIS on January 3rd.
We were able to check out some used car dealerships. Unfortunately, the cars were more expensive than we had hoped. However, the personnel coordinator for SIM is friends with the dealer we bought from and she told him to give us a good deal. Praise the Lord, the price he gave us was exactly what we hoped we would spend!
Well, that’s about all the news we have for now. Thank you to all of you who faithfully pray for us and support us financially. We could not be here without you. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Blessings,
Graham, Kathleen, Austin and Duncan Crawford
Online donations can be made at https://donations.sim.ca/workers/Crawford
The opinions expressed are our own opinions. They are not necessarily the opinions or views of SIM (Serving in Mission).
