Dear Friends:

Well, it has been a few weeks since we arrived back in Thailand . As a family we sent our daughter, Rachel, to the States to be enrolled as a freshman at Eastern University, (the old Eastern Baptist College). We had planned for a special time for Rachel as we would send her back with her mother (Ruth) through Europe. This was to be a special time because Rachel really loves art and history and wanted to visit Rome, Italy and Florence and other places and feast on all the art history.Well, in the end we all decided to go as a family through Europe. Great!! Let's go.

With some planning, off we went on the big airplane to visit some great cities of Europe and then to the US. In our first step, we went to the great city of Rome, Italy. My wallet was stolen on the second day we arrived from a zipped Akha bag, at least I thought it was zipped. Thus began the problems, one after another each step along the way it seemed that if something could go wrong it did. We were often at the end of our rope. This was a real test for our enjoyment of the trip and our personal sanity. With no wallet how does one pay for one's motel bill and numerous other items. This is quite a problem. Well, Ruth had one debit card with her that could work for accessing money, but we had to cancel all credit cards.We had to plan to take out as much cash as possible each day to pay our bills. We had to calculate how much it would be as well as thinking about food for the family. Every place that we traveled to we ran into an obstacle which seemed impossible to get over.

We traveled by train to Florence and arrived late at night and had to walk some distance to our bed and breakfast only to find that we could not get in the place. At midnight, the landlord had left a note for us to call him where he would give us a code to enter the place. I had to find a phone late at night in an unknown place and return some distance to the bed and breakfast to enter the code. We were so tired and thankful to have a bed we all gathered together for prayer before bed and thanked the Lord for safe arrival at this place. Paying our bill in Florence was a problem because the ATM that day would not give us enough money. Eventually, we were able to pay the bill using our debit card, but with just enough cash to return to Rome.

As we returned to Rome safely, barley getting enough money for our return from the ATM we went to the airport for travel to our next destination.---Athens, Greece. We went to check in only to find that the tickets that we had reserved from the Travel agent in Thailand had not been paid for. We could not understand why since we had delivered the cash to the travel agent. Well, in the end we had to pay again lowering our bank account in the US seriously.We traveled to Athens and had a great time viewing the ruins and even taking a trip one day to a nearby island. The Mediterranean Sea is very beautiful. Well, it had come time to get on our plane to London. Only to find that our agent had reserved a plane called "flygospan", which we had never heard of and no one else seemed to know of them either. I took a walking trip to a nearby travel agent to ask if they knew of such as airline in Athens and they said "We have never heard of such an airline". Eventually, we found it and had to get up at three in the morning to make a 5:30 am plane. Well, we thought all was going great until the airline agent informed us that we could not get on the place because our bags were too heavy. We had to pay $300 euros to enter the plane. Lord help us!!Well, we complained and cried and prayed only to find that that by God's mercy the manger allowed us on the plane without paying extra money. We were so very thankful.

We arrived in London and traveled with some expense to our room at the Mission Club for missionaries. A very nice but modest place. We were thankful. Our few days in London were great. I got to connect with an old friend who is a missionary there to the Muslim people for some 14 years. We had a great time and everything went off without a hitch. We had an enlightened time going to Hyde Park, speakers corner and hearing the many folks presenting the Gospel to all kinds of people as well as many other kinds of strange philosophies. We actually had the chance to be among a crowd of Muslims as a speech was being presented and we had an opportunity to talk to many of them about their perceptions of the Bible. A quite interesting interaction. So far so good and Ruth and I were wondering when the next thing would go wrong.Through this trip we had decided when something went wrong we would laugh rather than cry, although we often felt like crying.

Well, off we went on the big airplane to America. As we were gathering our bags in New York, we found there was one bag missing, and it was mine. We had no choice but to file a complaint and register the number and move on to Pittsburgh. I arrived in Pittsburgh safely but with no wallet and no luggage. What a joy. A quick trip to Wal-Mart was in order to get some underwear. Some five days later the airline delivered the bag to our house, but my original bag was gone and all of the pearls that Ruth intended to sell to support Tsunami victims in the South of Thailand.

Well, what was God saying through all of this? Good question! At every turn we received what seemed like an impossible obstacle to overcome only to find that God had helped us to overcome it. By God's grace we arrived at my parent's home near Pittsburgh, Pa.

Before I left for the states I had been teaching in Genesis some of the stories of Abraham and his descendants with the Akha people. God had promised to Abraham that he would bless him and multiply his descendants and through these folk would come a blessing to all the families of the earth. (Genesis 12 )But how could there be descendants when Abrahams' wife Sarah is too old for child bearing. She is barren. Next, when the child is born how could there be descendants if God asks Abraham to take his only child high up on a mountain and sacrifice him.(Isaac) Then Isaac's wife Rebecca is barren, as well as Rachel the wife of Jacob. Each step along the way in the stories of Genesis there are seemingly impossible obstacles to be overcome for the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham. I felt like our trip to Europe was something of what I had been teaching. Now I had been experiencing it also.

When we arrived back in Chiang Rai, Thailand I had to immediately return to the teaching program at the ACT center. (Akha Churches of Thailand) To my delight and surprise there were four new students who were former opium addicts who joined our group.They were bright eyed and faithful every day. God was working in their lives helping them to find the power to overcome this addiction through the grace of God. Finally, it is appropriate to note that we had 29 pastor/leaders graduate from this special program which American Baptists have helped to fund. And in this culture if the Akha can obtain a certificate of graduation they feel honored. After all, for most of them only their children will have a chance for education.

My working partner, Zauva, who is from the Overseas Missionary Fellowship (former China Inland Mission) said, I think that we have turned a corner in helping the Akha understand the core teaching of the Bible through this teaching experience. The story ends at this point, but I now have some personal experience in this matter of trying to overcome impossible obstacles at every point in one's journey toward a goal. I am thankful to be back in Thailand safely.

Chuck Fox