"The Suckers Tickle Your Throat on the Way Down"

This is Pineapple Squid Curry, which our son was served for supper last Sunday night. He's craving homecooking a bit (No!).

This week he was delighted to find a grocery store with a few Western things like butter, cheese, and onion bagels. This morning he found a pan in the apartment, figured out how to work the gas stove, burnt the butter three times, and frambled* some eggs. He put a couple of slices of cheese on top, buttered the bagel with his chopsticks and had a comfort food fest.

Grandfather likes "fresh" air**, so keeps all the windows open and the air conditioner off. Near as we can tell, the weather in their city is just exactly like it is in Raleigh - every day. I know, weird, but the temperature in the two cities always seems to be within two degrees. Go figure. Anyway, it's just as hot there as it is here! Our son is delighted to have a window air conditioner in his own room that he turns down to 68 degrees and lies in blissful comfort.

*Frambled is our families terminology for the cooking technique a lazy boy who wants scrambled eggs. but not two dirty cooking dishes uses: Crack the eggs into the hot skillet and stir like mad :-)

**Fresh is used here only to denote outside air. The air in this part of Asia could not be described as fresh in any way, shape, or form. The pollution there is enough to make even a conservative like me appreciate the EPA.

Prayer Alert

Our son has come down with what we call "the epizootic" - meaning some unidentified stomach illness - probably short and nasty. He's started some meds and taken the day off, but we'd appreciate it if you'd pray for him.

He wanted me to tell you that being sick in Asia is no bed of ease - he's felt floors more forgiving than his bed. Seriously, you wouldn't believe how firm a firm bed is in Asia. I told him it would be very good for his back - if he survived the first couple of weeks :-)

Just wanting to hear his voice

We haven't talked to our son for more than a sentence or two on his uncle's cell phone, but we found out yesterday that his uncle has given him a cell phone of his own. Wonderful! Can we afford to call it?

We've used Skype for some time. If you download Skype (10 minutes for the whole process for us), you can use the mike and speakers on your computer to talk to anyone else who has Skype in the world -- Free! You can also buy "SkypeCredit" which will allow you to call landlines or mobile lines at extremely reasonable rates: $29.95 for unlimited calling in the U.S. or Canada for a year. Calling Asian land or mobile lines is 2.1-2.4 cents a minute! That is amazing to someone as old as I am! I remember how excited we were when we got our long distance service here in the U.S. for 15 cents a minute!

I also gave our "customer no service" cellular company, Alltel, a call and they actually came through with something at least possible: For $3.99 a month, we could call Asian cells for 20 cents a minute. It sure isn't Skype, but we'll be able to call wherever we are.

Why do I call Alltel our "customer no service" company? That's a story for another day! I'm just about to head out to the Tea Room with a dear friend. Oh, I hope the children don't mess up the house (Hal is here, but very distracted with business)!

Update: I forgot to mention that Skype is secure - that's a great plus when you are phoning into countries who don't value privacy.

Safely Met!

Our son has been safely met by my brother in Asia!

Must tell you all that I felt an urgent need to pray for him this morning after his plane landed, probably while he was clearing customs - sometimes a challenge in that country. After some time, I felt a release and didn't need to pray anymore. Just a few moments later, the phone rang and my brother was calling, "I've got your son." Amen. Thank you, Lord!

Wanted: Praying Friends

Our seventeen-year-old son will be leaving this Sunday to spend three months in an Asian country, working with our brother. This will be a *very* challenging time for him -- he speaks a little of the difficult language, but he will be living with our sister-in-law's father, who speaks no English at all. He will be making his way around the largest city in the world by himself and working very long hours with our very demanding brother. There are no known believers in the situation, limited if any fellowship with the expatriate church, and not even Christian websites, because they are blocked there.

In other words, he will be simply living faithfully among them. What an opportunity to impact the world!

This Wednesday is our day to fast and pray for him, as well as the many trials we've been going through in our lives in the past weeks in work, ministry, health, home repair, and more. We are feeling very weary and need to seek the Lord's face. We would appreciate any of you who feel led pray for him and us. Thanks for all your friendship!

In Christ,
Hal and Melanie