HAPPY NEW YEAR!
We hope everyone had a good Christmas season and a happy New Year! My house is on a 12 rai (6 acre) piece which contains a big deep fish pond, my house and office, a kitchen /laundry building, a cottage for two boys who finished school, a cottage for the cook and her handyman husband, and a machinery shed. The two boys had dipped into drugs, but are relatively free now. Both are HIV positive. The cook/laundress is a woman who came to us in fourth grade, and also is HIV positive. She married a real good guy and they have a delightful little boy. On December 30 we had our first party for the kids at the 12 rai property which consists of about 7 rai of rice paddy, and a garden/orchard. I fed them pizza, cake, ice cream and pop. Every kid seems to have one of those cheap cell phones and I was getting my photo taken regularly. I was quite proud, until I heard one little strumpet tell another, “Better get your photo with him now; he might not be around for long”!
Sarnelli House received news of a Christmas gift, which is the return of Fr. Ole to work with the children. Fr. Ole was taken from us and stationed at the International School in Bangkok. He also was assistant to the Province treasurer (Procurator). Now he is rumored to become the procurator himself, and will be running from Bangkok to Sarnelli and back! We are still waiting to hear if Brother Geng will continue on at Sarnelli. Geng just graduated from a course on Education at the KhonKaen University. Our nurse Kate and her husband Brian went to their respective homes for Christmas. Both will return in early January. They make up an integral part of our family, and are sorely missed when gone for long periods of time.
A lady from Pattaya came up to pay for a Christmas dinner for the kids, and a family in the area who fed and watered the horde for New Year. At the office, the ladies are closing the books and getting ready to turn out our yearly reception and expense sheet, plus an overall tally of our financial status. I will then do the 2019 budget for Sarnelli so we can send out the narrative reports and financial reports, plus the budgets to trustees and foundations who help us yearly.
The weather here is sunny but quite cool. New Year brought in cold weather, with promise of even colder weather to come. When I was young, I reviled in the cold, but now my old bones ache just thinking of cold weather. Years ago, it froze several times in the northeast, killing banana trees, and making life extremely miserable for everyone. We haven’t had weather like that in years.
We pray for you all, that you have good health and happiness throughout 2019! God bless you and yours!
Fr. Mike
