Hello friends! How is your summer going? In Thailand, we are starting to move into the rainy season. So it's both hot and wet! But at least when it rains, the air does cool down a little.

I had an interesting experience the other day. I went to use the "facilities" in a local shopping center. When I walked into the stall, I discovered dirty footprints planted on the toilet seat. I stood pondering this phenomenon for a moment, when it finally occurred to me that outside Bangkok, they don't have western toilets. They only have "squatters". So some rural Thai woman had just climbed right up onto the toilet seat and use the method she knew best! Hmm...made me wonder how many other toilets I had used that had been stepped on with shoes that weren't quite dirty enough to leave visible marks. (...FYI: I still hate using the squat toilets, so I guess I am resisting that adaptation just as much as they resist adapting to the sitting-style ones!) We humans do tend to fall back on familiar cultural patterns of life. But this incident has made me wonder if perhaps their method is actually more sanitary than ours - no dirty toilet seats to worry about!

Other things I have done to maintain a connection with something familiar include reading novels, watercolor painting, cross-stitch and baking chocolate chip cookies for the teachers at school. But slowly, the patterns of my life here are becoming more familiar as Thailand is starting to feel like home. I have found some Thai foods I can buy from street vendors and enjoy eating. I am beginning to catch on to the delightful Thai sense of humor, and can sometimes even understand enough to laugh along with them. I appreciate the tenderness of Thai women as they often grasp hold of my hands and pull me close while they are talking to me. And how can one beat buying a great big bunch of orange and fuscia orchids at the market for just over a dollar!?

Yesterday I got home from a 5-day conference up north with my colleagues in the Thailand Baptist Missionary Fellowship. This is the Thai mission organization to which I belong and to whom I am directly responsible while in the field. It was such fun to connect with Baptist missionaries from the US, Canada, England, Australia, Sweden, Nagaland, and the Philippines. Many Thai tribal leaders were also there. We worshipped together, played together, had business meetings and discussed ministry issues particular to the Asian context. I am thankful for the opportunity to get to know such loving, gifted, dedicated missionaries who have a passion for Christ, and are leading ministries with far-reaching implications for the kingdom of God in Thailand.

The New Life Center in Chiang Mai/Chiang Rai is starting to become more a part of my life now, and your prayers in this area would be appreciated. Over the last few months, I have been talking with IM missionary, Karen Smith, who is the director of the New Life Center. She left this week to begin her U.S. Assignment, and will be gone for about 8 months. Karen has been training the tribal leadership at the New Life Center to take on more responsibilities than they have had in the past. And she is confident that they will be able to function fairly self-sufficiently while she is gone. So Karen has encouraged me to finish my Thai language studies in Bangkok, and not feel pressured to abort my studies in order to get up to Chiang Mai right away. In fact, she feels that this will be a good testing time for the New Life Center staff to release some of their dependence on missionary leadership, and gain confidence and empowerment as they run the program on their own.

So at this point, my role in Karen's absence will be as an advisor and an encourager to those leaders. I will keep in contact with the New Life Center staff by phone. And I will plan to visit every 6 weeks or so to see how things are going, and consult with the New Life Center leaders. I may also do some teaching about art and color and assist them in the development of their handicraft projects. The chaplain of the New Life Center has invited me to preach at their graduation ceremony in September, so I will look forward to being with them at that time. Then, in December, I plan to help the group of New Life Center women who will be coming to Bangkok to sell their handicraft products during the Christmas sales here. After the Christmas sales, I expect to move up to Chiang Mai and continue to serve as an on-site consultant to the New Life Center until Karen Smith returns. Your prayers would be particularly helpful for the New Life Center staff as they courageously take ownership for the many tasks involved in running this important ministry. Pray that God will give them wisdom and discernment in their decision-making, endurance and diligence in taking care of their responsibilities, and love and grace as they care for the many girls who live there. Also pray for humility and unity amongst the leadership, so that they will be able to address any conflicts that should arise, and continue to work well together. Finally please pray for me as I continue my language studies, and serve as a long-distance consultant for the New Life Center. My helpfulness as a consultant is greatly dependent on success in my language studies. But my ability to stay in language school is dependent on the New Life Center staff being able to run the ministry on their own. So these things are all mutually inter-dependent. In the end, I am confident that God can work everything out in spite of my limitations! I trust in His guidance. And I see daily evidence of God's wonderful love for Thailand and it's people.

Thank you so much for your prayers, your encouragement and your financial support.

Your Sister in Christ,

Kit Ripley