Dear Friends and Family,

I hear from various folks that the leaves were pretty and that it is now cold. We had a lot of rain lately. The rainy season is over, the Mekong receding to its banks, but we have had rain every other day, recently. I guess you have heard me say it before, but it was a month of mixed blessings and problems. I suppose it was on your side of the ocean, too.

Below is a picture of our team leaders, the Margins, from the Philippines. On this particular day we had a dedication of a new home for our mission secretary, Sarah. Her brother,Samouen, has joined Teen Missions the last two summers. They have a combination of training, evangelism, and work projects. We usually provide the housing for the group. He just learned how to build a wall, so he tried some masonry at his own new home. Note the wall in the background. The Khmai gentleman is an associate astor, my language teacher, and friend, Sithan. He works for the Bible League. I get a lot of literature from him.

Well this reminds me of a story I hadn't thought of telling you. A couple months ago, Yuko and I heard fighting behind our house. There is a new shed there we were afraid ould be for pigs. During the fracas we couldn't understand them, not just because of the alcohol they were drinking, so it was a good possibility they were speaking Vietnamese. I ordered some Gospel literature in Vietnamese from Sithan. They have had a big vine growing in their yard, and one of the slips came over our fence. We had a melon growing on our side of the wall so it gave me a good chance to go meet them yesterday. There are three Vietnamese families behind us. I gave them the melon, literature, and a chance to talk. They took me up on the first two. Maybe some opportunity will open in the future. It may have just been that they couldn't speak Khmai. I don't know. Then again, maybe the experience was so beyond what one would expect in a regular day here that they didn't know how to respond.