This is our first newsletter of the year and we are well into February already. We had plans to write it before, but you will find the reason in this newsletter.

Many things have happened and it has been busy for the past two to three months.
We will include some highlights in this Newsletter such as: The visit of my parents, a big Christmas party where several people received the biggest gift of all, farewell to a volunteer, etc.

More Than 150 People Came to the Christmas Party and
Several Received the Greatest Gift

It's been over a month since Christmas now, but I still want to write some news from our Christmas party last year, which is the biggest event of the year.

December is a busy month in our ministry, and we especially had four busy days before Christmas. It was in connection with preparations and of course the big Christmas party on the 21st.

On the 21st we had programs from ten o'clock in the morning to almost ten in the evening.

We got up at six in the morning and we weren't home until twelve at night.

It was a successful Christmas party where we had around 70 children (plus some adults) during the day (twice as many as last year), and there were over 150 that came in the evening. Most of the Shan that came had heard little or nothing about the Christmas message.

I counted over ten people that came forward when we asked who wanted to receive the greatest gift.
Pray with us in follow-up work, as this is often our biggest challenge.

We have followed up some of them, and our co-worker Tip and his wife go weekly, teach and train them. We do it too, but it has been a little busy for us after Christmas (the reason I will mention later)

In addition, we have Sunday morning meetings where some also come.

Our Weekend School and Volunteer.

We have had a great start after new year with our weekend school. We gathered over 20 children the first weekend.

All the children have got a New Testament now, and we read a chapter together every Saturday and Sunday.

I have started teaching English again because the five months that our volunteers from Switzerland were here have come to and end.

Goodbye to Our Volunteer
In early January, we said goodbye to our volunteer from Switzerland, Lea, who was working with us for five months.

We are grateful for her dedication to come out here, and she was a great help to both the kids at our weekend school, the young people we reach out to and several Shan families.

She actually managed to learn some Shan language in five months and was able to communicate a bit, which was impressive.

Picture: Our goodbye party for our volunteer Lea

Visit By My Parents and an Unexpected Ending

My parents came to visit us on December 17th. We had a grate Christmas holiday and Christmas celebration together, and it was special time for my parents to celebrate Christmas with their youngest granddaughter, Elisabeth. We don't know if we can do this again?

On January 20th I drove my mother and father down to Chiang Mai, and we all planned to go down to Hua Hin (Cha Am) in Thailand on a beach holiday together on the 23rd, but it did not turned out the way we planned.

Around the 18th my mother was bitten by an insect. She began to notice an itch the following day, the next day her whole leg turned red, the following night her leg swollen up and it looked like she had a very big water blister. We rushed her to the emergency room, they got out the water and bandaged it, and they said we should come back the next day.

The following night things got worse, and in the morning they went back to the hospital where she was admitted to the intensive care unit. There she stayed for four days, before she was moved to a separate room. She had a severe infection in the leg from the bite.

We were told by the doctor that she might spend three to four days in the hospital and that she would recover relatively quickly. So we went as a family to the beach and waited for my mom and dad to come there after us (it is about 1200km from where we live and it is the closest beach to us), but it turned out that it would take longer than we thought. She was at the operating table three times to drain and remove the infection. 

When we returned from the beach, I sent my family home and went down to Chiang Mai (I had to stay in a hotel) to assist my parents, and I was there for almost fourteen days.

On Monday we finally were able to send her home. She has recovered well this past week and she is fever and infection-free, but she was sent home by stretcher, because she is still a bit weak in her body after the infection and has difficulty walking.

She is now at the hospital in Oslo for recreation, and everything is fine.
We are grateful for that, but it was a bit sad that we did not get a beach holiday together and that my mother and father's trip to Thailand ended this way.
Remember to still pray for my mother, and for her to recover quickly.

Corona virus

There is also some fear here in Thailand in connection with the Corona virus from China. Thailand is close to China and they have many Chinese tourists here.

Almost everyone wears a mask, and our daughters have to use it at school.

Thai authorities have reassured that they have control over it, and some Thai doctors also found a cure for it a week ago.

There are 32 cases of the virus in Thailand so far, most, with a few exceptions, being Chinese or Thai people who have been to China.

Remember to pray for protection against this as well.