Satan never stops...

We are home now! Here is an excerpt from the email I sent out to my PPT (Personal Prayer Team) last night.

Satan never stops...and neither should we. Thank you for your prayers over the journey to Thailand and back.

Once again God answered prayer and intervened for us this morning.

We are back home now safe and sound, but once again God answered prayer in a dramatic fashion.

Our taxi picked us up at 2:30 AM. It was a special driver the hotel arranged for us to get to the airport. Susan noted the speedometer at 140+ kilometers per hour (about 90 mph) before we both dozed off. Shortly after we were startled awake because our driver had fallen asleep at the wheel. He had woke up just in time to slam on the brakes and swerve from running into a concrete barricade on the freeway. I was slammed hard into the door but other than that there was no damage. We had prayed as we left that God would protect and watch over us as we began our journey home, and once again God answered.

The flight home from Bangkok to Narita, Japan was uneventful. Our trip from Japan to Portland, OR was the worst flight I have ever had. Not because of the service or the turbulence. But when all the lights were off and people were trying to sleep, we had a Chinese woman directly behind us with her two year old and her husband behind her with a three year old. They screamed, and kicked, and fought, and cried, the entire 10 hour flight. It was miserable. In the end we made it into Portland airport an hour or so after our departure time from Bangkok – 20 or so hours of flying time, yet the clock only reflected that it was an hour later. Queer things happen with the time when you cross the international date line. Got home and took a six hour nap.

God has shown me how to depend on Him more (and turn to Him first) for the things in life that matter. From rats chewing on the beams in the ceiling (keeping me awake at night), averted catastrophes on the way to the airport (that would have been a horrible end to this trip), to seeing a Hmong woman pray to receive Christ as her Shaman father-in-law looked on, we serve a God that answers prayer.

Let’s live our lives on purpose – in “His” grip! (back in Salem, OR)

I will go back and add comments to the photos I've posted along with adding more from the R & R time I had with my wife Susan at the end of the trip in the next couple of days. I'm still trying to get re oriented to the new time zone (Thailand is 15 hours ahead of Salem, OR time).

The Great Adventure continues...

In "His" grip!

Dale