Merry Christmas

from

Our House to Yours!

We wish you God's blessing

this Christmas!

May Peace, Joy, Love and Hope

come to you in new ways.

Our Weekend in Vang Vieng

































One of our friends owns a restaurant in Vang Vieng and we visited him there and ate some great food!














We celebrated the third Sunday of Advent outside with a service of readings and sharing.

The View Around Vang Vieng
















The limestone mountains in Vang Vieng are wonderful to see.

Erik and Conrad enjoyed exploring the caves and outside the caves.

















Phyllis' foot (wrapped in a tensor with a partial cast) made it into a few photos too. She's still not putting any weight on it.

Elise is Hononored Guest

Arthur's aunt was an honored guest at a hand over ceremony last week. MCC Laos received a shipment of blankets, school kits, newborn kits and health kits earlier in the year. Most of the shipment is used in MCC health and education projects but part of it was handed over to the Department of Health in Vientiane Province for them to distribute to needy people. It just so happens that Aunt Elise belongs to a group of 8 women who work together to produce 250 quilts to donate to MCC each year. None of the quilts donated came directly from that group but it was great to have her there to explain to the health officials about where the blankets and quilts come from and give them more of an idea about MCC's support base. She gave a speech about their work and everyone at the event was impressed and clapped.

Erik's Quilt is Finally Done!















Erik has done a lot of growing since his baby quilt was made back in 1994. The original maker of the quilt, Aunt Elise, is visiting and so she and Grandma made it bigger so that it will fit Erik for another few years. Grandma, who was the original maker of Conrad's quilt, also fixed up Conrad's quilt so it's good to go for some more years too.

A Christmas Carol

Erik played two parts in a school rendition of Charles Dicken's Christmas Carol.




Here he is pictured as the Pawn Broker in the scene from Christmas Future. He also played the young Scrooge being jilted by his fiance. He looked too handsome to be Scrooge!

Conrad and his group sang Christmas Carols in the chorus as part of the presentation but the lighting was too dim to take any pictures of his handsome face.

Recovering in Bangkok!


Here I am happily relaxing after surgery. What a relief to be finished with that step.


I'm trying not to think of the many other steps
I need to take before I can actually walk again!








The hospital team (doctor and nurse) changing the bandage on my foot.

The doctor was Thai and young and had studied for some time in the US. He's an orthopaedic surgeon who speciallizes in feet and ankles.

Just what I needed!









The view from the Penthouse suite of the Bel Air Princess in downtown Bangkok. You can see I'm keeping my foot up just like the doctor ordered.













Happy to be home again and baking mango coffee cake with Arthur and Aunt Elise.

Phyllis after surgery. Alisa sent a "feedback" flower and part of the feedback was receiving a picture via internet. Phyllis is wearing a plaster splint wrapped in tensor bandage, so that the wound can be cleaned.

Here is the latest news from Phyllis. At about 7 pm she met the doctor to find out what had happened during surgery. He asked to meet her at the nurses' station so that he could show her pictures and x-rays of her foot. He said that she would have a scar about 15 cm from her big toe to the top of the foot.

During surgery he cleaned the first 3 joints (counting from the big toe in) because there was some new growth which shouldn't be there. He did some artificial bone grafting and put in a plate with 3 screws in the first joint and one screw for the second joint and one for the third joint. He had to cut a nerve which was in the way, which means that she won't have any feeling in a certain area.

He had said that she could not put weight on the foot for 6 weeks. Then she could put weight only on the heel for 6 weeks to 3 months.

Phyllis is weak right now, but has no fever, so the doctor is thinking of discharging her December 1.

Phyllis's mom will arrive in Bangkok at noon on Friday to be with Phyllis and escort her home, hopefully on December 7th.