Many people will be familiar with the prolonged and serious flooding that Thailand has suffered over the last few months. With limited options for dealing with the massive backlog of water, officials have been torn between flooding outlying regions and allowing Bangkok to be inundated by the torrents. The various strategies have seen significant parts of the capital underwater, and hundreds of thousands of lives affected.

What may not be so apparent is the effect the flooding has had in the outlying regions. Ian and Colleen are north east of the worst of the flooding, and saw no real effect of the water on the ground where they are. However, their province will still be drastically affected.

"The major problem is a good deal of people [from the region] go down to Bangkok to work in the factories there and send money home," Ian says. "Some of them are coming home because for six weeks they can't work. Four huge industrial parks around Bangkok have been closed through the flooding."

As manufacturing is affected, the supply of goods to the provinces is also being interrupted. Ian and Colleen note, "The supermarket shelves are getting more and more empty. Most of the manufacturing is done in Bangkok. We will be affected somewhat by shortages of processed goods." Those on limited incomes and small business owners will feel this most seriously.

Please pray for this region. Even though the floods may not make headlines any longer, their effects will be long felt. "Even when the flood waters go down it's going to take time to clean up things, to replace damaged machinery... I don't think it's going to happen any time soon."