Where's Reg

This last weekend I went with a bunch of friends to the Baker hot springs in Washington. As you can see, this hot spring is not that big, but they say that in the middle of the springs you will be up to your neck. I love hot springs and so I was really looking forward to getting there and just relaxing in the warm/hot water. We left at about 1:30 in the afternoon and after taking a few wrong turns, we eventually got there about three hours later. The first gravel road turn-off turned out to be a wash out, so we decided to check out the other road that lead right to the parking lot where the trail head to the hot springs was. Because there was no snow, we were able to get to the parking lot and from there we only had a 10 minute walk or so to the actual hot springs. When we arrived at the parking lot, the sun was setting and so we had to pull out our headlamps. One of the guys with us had a propane lamp (thanks Duane), so that was nice, not knowing how handy it would be later.
Back when we were on the road to the hot springs we drove passed many trees that had fallen on the road from the crazy storm we had a few days earlier. You would think we woud have started to think that we might have some complications with the hot springs, but I don't think that ever crossed our minds?
After hiking for a few minutes we came across a puddle, I jokingly said, "It's the hot springs". We kept hiking and then we came across an area that was looking a lot like the pic above, but something was very different.

Scroll down to see what we saw.































That's right! I guess when I was joking before about the small puddle, it was prophetic,lol. There were three of these little puddles and they were all about an inch deep, but very hot. The storm that had brought down all those trees we passed on the road had also brought down a lot of mud and filled in this nice little hot spring. So after digging for a while we were able to make two of the puddles into a pool to lie down in. The other one was only big enough to fit one person, but it was still nice.
Then we got 5 of the seven of us into the mud puddle and took this great picture. I guess it was a good thing it was dark so we could not see what we were sitting in.



So what did I learn? This hot spring story is similar to what my team and I could face as we go to Thailand. We have an idea of what to expect and we anticipate what the future holds, but it could be and probably will be different than we expect.
With all this in mind, this is one thing I know forsure. If we are faithful to the call, God will use us in a mighty way. We may come across some unexpected puddles, caused by some storms, but I know that with God's strength, we will carry on and see God do some amazing things in the people of Northern Thailand. Through all of the challenges we will face, my prayer is that many will come to know Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour and be able to anticipate the HOPE that we have in Jesus Christ!

Last week Bitsy's (team member) mom and my sister's mother-in-law was in surgery and faced some complications. It was a really scary situation, but God heard our prayers and now she is doing much better.
In my last blog I shared about Philip (Bob and Chris's son). Well, they went in for the tests and were able to find out what was causing the seizures. There were no tumors and it wasn't epilepsy. They found out that these seizures were brought on by stress. This is something that can totally be worked with. In the last year Philip has gone through some pretty tough things for a young guy. Continue to keep them in your prayers, but praise God that now we know what has been causing them and that it is not something organic, that should help a lot. Praise God!