April 27, 1998   Midnight Monday evening, day 89 just started.

Dear Family,

Today's Vientiane report is great as long as you and I aren't the ones riding the tuk-tuks with a bad back, sweating through one of the hottest days of the year, rocking along the absolutely worst roads in the universe while being covered with thick layers of dust that Vientiane traffic manages to produce every day it doesn't rain.  What grandfather and grandmother in their right minds would leave airconditioning in El Paso, grandkids in America, family in Texas, and a dog named Precious to fight red tape monsters in Vientiane, Lao PDR? What drives Christians to give up 1st world comforts for 3rd world discomforts, physical family for spiritual family, American freedom for Communist threats, real constitutional rights for government propaganda decrees?  Yesterday our news was about a Lao Christian grandmother that was victorious through sixty days of jail. Today's news is the messages an American Christian grandmother wrote to her family.  Don't tell Mary Alice Allison I'm sharing this with you or she might quit sharing them with us.

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Dear Family,
I tried to write down the questions in your letter as the printer is not working again.  This time we had the switch on!  It has been a trial, but we are thankful for it when it works.  Ken tried to send a fax today, and it didn't work.  It is turned on and we can use the phone on it.  Maybe I haven't pushed the magic button! 

The government official said it would be best if Thomas Kweekul didn't come right now.  We just have to be patient.    We know that God is working and His time schedule is not ours, so we are just learning to wait as He has asked us to.  Isaiah 40:28-31 has come to mean a lot to us.  We know it is harder for you since you cannot be here, but just know that everything is being done that can be at this time.  We look forward to a good resolution of this problem.  Our plans are to leave Bangkok May 27 so we will probably leave here May 25.  That gives us over 4 more weeks and a lot can be accomplished in that time.  We are here to go through any door that is opened for us. 

We got up early this morning (as usual) and left the house after Dolavey came to clean.  You just wouldn't believe the dust.  Makes West Texas sand storms seem mild.  We walked and rode in the back of a tuk tuk for the next 5 hours.  We got a lot of errands done.  Some we had done before, but had to do again.  We got our application for an extension of our visas done before the printer stopped, so we were grateful for that. We are just good here until May 5, so am sure they will get right on it!!  They said we would have the vehicles this week. Not sure what day, but that will make things so much easier.  It hurts your daddy's back to ride in the tuk tuks as the roads are terrible.  I have sweated off 10 lbs. but think I have eaten 12 lbs.

We feel confident that God is at work and we are waiting on him.  Sunday, Tommy and I were reminded of the words, "Where two or three are gathered together" as there were only two of us.  We enjoyed two hours of reflection and singing. Tommy said I needed to work on my recipe for Sunday bread.  What I thought was flour must have been corn starch.  It was bad! 

The Lao people are very kind and gentle as we well remember the Thai people are.  Being able to speak Thai has been a great blessing for us.  It would be very difficult without it.  It's still hot, and it's still dirty, but we are thrilled to be here. You are a great part of our work.  We don't feel alone at all.  Keep up the good work there, and we will continue on here. 

Our love,

Mother and Daddy  Tommy and Mary Alice
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The one special blessing we have is that we talk to the Allisons daily. Listening to them, you would think they were on vacation in paradise. Didn't we mention recently that joy and rejoicing are not based on externals, but internals?  Lord, please raise up more servants that chose devotion to you regardless of the dirt and dust.

Ken & Jean Fox
Udorn, Thailand