Ian and Colleen have just needed to move house for the third time after the landlord gave them two weeks’ notice following his selling of the house. Rental properties are extremely rare and finding one, with no rental agents or signs, is extremely difficult. So, when they went looking in a neighbourhood they had previously seen and liked, and found one that looked unlived in, and enquired around the neighbours, and signed up in 24 hours they saw it as an answer to prayer.

They say the same of a trip to Chiang Mai when their visas were due to expire and they couldn’t get an interview time and then discovered their passports were missing. When they went back to see if  someone had handed them in, thinking they may have dropped them at Immigration and someone in the sea of foreigners milling around in the small area had picked them up, they were surprised that the officer that they couldn’t see previously had found their passports and she was available. She was all smiles, processed their paperwork and said they could return to Isaan.

Gaynor Lincoln, from Rotorua Baptist, has visited for a week and helped establish a sewing unit that will make bags for the tourist market in New Zealand. She had established this in Khon Kaen in the leprosy colonies but it had to close, so they were asked if they would like to take the project on and oversee it in the centre with people from the community in Kalasin. Gaynor, pictured below, has generously provided three sewing machines and an overlocker and Ian and Colleen are looking forward to partnering with her in this project. The three trainees are doing excellent work.

The next thing they want to do is re-establish traditional weaving with a slight variation so they can market other products in Bangkok. The women weave in the village and the fabric would be used to make products in the sewing projects. This again will provide much needed income for village women.