The Olivers In Thailand

Greetings and love from the Oliver family for Christmas 2008!

We are now well into our third year and third house here in Chiang Mai. We are privileged to be living in a larger rented house which has enabled us to host quite a few visitors which we have greatly enjoyed. Adrian continues to work very hard on PocketWeather which is helping us stay out here. Not much work from Eurotherm these days though.

Our main focus remains helping the large children's home in the Northern village of Hoay Maw. It has been a steep learning curve but very rewarding to see major improvements in the daily quality of life of the 80 children who live there. Two years ago the children were eating rice only for weeks and even months on end. There was no staff structure only ad-hoc volunteers. There is now a staff team of 9. The children eat vegetables daily and regular eggs, meat and fruit. Organisation into “family groups” enables more personal care of each child as well as leadership training for teenagers. A number of self-sufficiency initiatives have been developed including pigs, mushrooms and vegetables. Fish and egg farm projects are in initial stages. They have done so much to help themselves. We would like to encourage further partnerships with individuals, groups, churches or businesses who would like to support in any way. See hoaymaw.ajoliver.org

The local Ban San Faan children’s home now has 22 children whom we love and spend time with regularly. They are currently working on their Christmas presentation which they will show at local school, church and community events. For details of their performances see: The Perfect Tree

We enjoyed a two month stay in the UK kindly hosted by our good friends the West family. Highlights included quality time with family and friends, the Oliver family reunion, on team with Powerpack, day out to Southampton, Granny's cooking, wholemeal bread and feeling cool (temperature wise)! For more details see Summer Diaries

The children continue to thoroughly enjoy life here. They love the school and enjoy many good friends.

Thomas (14 ½) is in Grade 9 High School. We are having to get our heads around the American school system. Tom continues to be very musical and can play most things although he has given up formal lessons for the moment. Tom is joint class president and helps organise fund-raising and planning for their grade project which is a children's home in the Mae Sot refugee camps (4 hours drive).

David (13) is now in Middle School Grade 7. Still no pets but a tame rabbit has adopted our garden as it likes nibbling our plants. David is class Vice President.

David and Jess both took part in after school sports including basketball & football which Adrian coached. Futsol and tag rugby are yet to come. Tom did Ultimate Frisbee and plans to do swimming next year.

Jessica (10 ¾) is in Grade 6. She seems to have some of her big brother's musical intuition and is progressing well on the clarinet. We look forward to the Christmas concert next week.

Jenny’s Mum, Jillian, is here with us for Christmas. Our friends and family near and far will be in our thoughts as we celebrate this Christmas - Emmanuel – God with us! Our love and prayers for a peaceful and happy Christmas and New Year. Jenny, Adrian, Thomas, David & Jessica XXXXX

Last Christmas we had been in Chiang Mai only a short time but were already considering the possibility of staying on for a further school year. We unanimously voted to stay.

There is not space to cover all our adventures but we have recorded details with photos on our blog.

In Feb, Jenny joined a team to a conference for Christians in the military. Recently Adrian has had the privilege to join a team providing training for pastors. Our concern has grown for those around the world who don’t enjoy the same liberties that we do.

Wa Bible Meeting

We have been working on typesetting a Bible for the Wa people group. This will be released in April, the 100 yr anniversary since the first Wa believer. We have become interested in the development of software tools to support Bible translation work.

With some of the children at Hoay Maw

Helping the large orphanage at Hoay Maw has had its challenges. The establishment of an organic pig farm has been a slow process but we are pleased to announce that a second litter of 9 piglets was born on Christmas eve.

Adrian inspects the piglets

A positive area of progress has been the introduction of a staff team who have improved the care of the children making it more personal. They have recorded personal details with photos for each child in the home. They have also organised the children into small ‘family’ groups with young leaders as a forum for relational, spiritual, social and recreational development.

Ban San Faan children at Oct Play-Scheme

We have continued to spend regular times with the children and staff of the local Ban San Faan children’s home. The 17 children are a delight. We have again worked on a Christmas production which they have presented at a local school, church and community events.

We have worked hard on PocketWeather. Our original plan to release an upgrade by Christmas ’06 has extended until the present. Adrian released the new version for Pocket PC on Christmas Eve. The Smart Phone version will be released on New Year’s Eve. We hope this will be fruitful.

With cousins in Tonbridge

We enjoyed a 2 month stay in the UK spending some quality time with family, friends and church. It wasn’t exactly a holiday though as Adrian worked full-time on-site at Eurotherm.

The children continue to thoroughly enjoy life here. They love the school and enjoy many good friends.

Tom at Swim Meet

Thomas (13 ½) is in Grade 8. He is now a teenager! Tom had the opportunity to study with a friend for ABRSM music theory grade 5 and got 75%. He got 80% clarinet grade 5 with merit in early December. In Sept he was in the swim team. He had a great time with the middle school at a residential camp led by a team of young Americans.

David's Birthday

David (12) is in Grade 6. David has started band and is learning to play tenor sax – which is big and loud. I think he wanted to compete with Tom’s clarinet. He still devours books. He has partially fulfilled his dream of having a pet by looking after the class albino hamster, ‘Fatima’, during break and also stocking the garden pond with goldfish.

David and Jess both took part in after school sports including soccer, basketball, futsol and tag rugby.

Jessica at Charin Garden Pie Shop

Jessica (9 ¾) is in Grade 5. She copes well with working up a grade level and we were delighted that she received the ‘Academic Excellence’ award in her class last year. She has started learning the clarinet.

After Christmas Lunch at The Dukes

Jenny’s Mum, Jillian, is here with us for Christmas. Our friends and family near and far will be in our thoughts as we celebrate this Christmas - Emmanuel – God with us!
Our love and prayers for a peaceful and happy Christmas and New Year.

Jenny, Adrian, Thomas, David & Jessica
XXXXX

At the time of writing last years Christmas letter we were anticipating our visit to Thailand at Easter. We didn’t realise that we would be writing this year’s Christmas letter based here in Chiang Mai!

After returning from our Easter visit we began to seriously consider whether this would be the right step for our family to take. The further we got into investigating the feasibility of spending a year in Thailand, the more our conviction grew that this was how God was leading us even though the practicalities were not straightforward.

The rest is history. After a whirlwind of preparation during the Summer, we flew out to Chiang Mai on 25th August. The children are now attending Grace International School. The school is based on the American system and is the second largest school of its kind that caters for children of missionaries.
We hesitate to call ourselves missionaries in the traditional sense but we do have a “mission” which is to help a large orphanage in the North of Thailand develop a sustainable source of income. More details and photos of our life, work and experiences here in Thailand can be seen on our blog.

We also spend time at a small local orphanage for 16 children. We visit as a family each Thursday evening when we have a time of “family worship” and prayer with the children and staff. Jenny has produced a Christmas musical with them. There are several performances of “Hosanna Rock!” including at Grace school, our church here and at Airport Plaza (the main shopping mall in Chiang Mai). It is a privilege to be able to help these Thai children present the message of the birth of Christ.

Adrian and Jenny are both working on PocketWeather and also doing a little contract work for our old company, Eurotherm. Together with the rent from our house in the UK we are earning a living.

The children have acclimatised incredibly well. They have all made good friends and enjoy living in a neighbourhood were they have freedom to cycle around and meet up with friends after school. It is wonderful for them to experience a multi-cultural school, something that Adrian greatly values from his upbringing in an International school. The school also has a HUGE swimming pool.

Thomas (12 1/2) is in Grade 7. He has enjoyed competing in the school swim team. Swim training was 1 ½ hrs 4 nights a week with a coach who has trained Olympians. In England Thomas got a Merit in his Grade 4 clarinet and also got Grade 2 piano. Here in Chiang Mai he is privileged to have an hour weekly individual clarinet lesson with the Professor of music at the Payap University. He has been able to work on his tone in a way that wasn’t possible in group lessons.

David (11) is in Grade 5. He celebrated his birthday soon after we arrived in Thailand by inviting a bunch of friends to a paintball tournament. This would not be allowed in UK but despite tears and large bruises, the boys all wanted to play again. David has also had a haircut under not too much duress and still looks very handsome and cute (OK, we admit it – we’re biased).

Jessica (nearly 9) is in Grade 4. She went up a grade because there wasn’t space in G3. She is coping well with the work. We encouraged her to take to opportunity to get involved in a sport and she has enthusiastically joined the girls’ soccer team.

We are looking forward to having Jenny’s Mum, Jillian, join us for 5 weeks over Christmas. We will meet up with our friends the Mays and the Wongs for the Christmas week.

Our friends and family near and far will be in our thoughts as we celebrate this Christmas.

Our love and prayers for a peaceful and happy Christmas and New Year.

Jenny, Adrian, Thomas, David & Jessica
XXXXX

Another eventful year has passed and its time to send our news and greetings for Christmas 2005.

"Reindeer" from a dye painting by Jessica

Thomas (11 1/2) has started at secondary school and is settling really well. He got a good Merit in his Grade 3 clarinet and is working towards Grade 2 piano. He plays clarinet in an ensemble at school and also in the Southern Area band. In the Summer he played in a concert at the Assembly Halls which was a really inspiring evening. We all dressed up posh and thoroughly enjoyed the evening.

Thomas under a waterfall at Doi Inthernon

David and Jessica both continue at primary school and have lovely teachers.

David with a custom made meal at the Shangri La Hotel, Bangkok

David (10) is now in yr 5. He enjoys learning drums and continues to do very well at school. He is very well organised and is a brilliant practical helper when it comes to all things technical. Even the teacher asks him for help with the computer and was only slightly embarrassed when David beat her at chess.

Jessica enjoying a whole fish in Khao Lak

Jessica (nearly 8) is now a Junior. She has a lovely sunny personality. She continues swimming lessons and is very confident in the water. She also loves gym club at school.

Jenny is still part-time at Eurotherm. She continues with the Juniors at church (TAG).

Adrian is still at Eurotherm. He is further developing “PocketWeather” which continues to sell about 400 per month . For more details see www.sbsh.net.

At Easter we had an amazing experience as a family travelling to Thailand for 3 weeks to visit friends. More details and photos can be seen on our web-site. Our trip included visiting the area worst hit by the tsunami and also visiting 2 orphanages in the North where it was our privilege to spend time with some wonderful children. On our return the children at church held a sale and raised over £1000 for the orphanages. This has been used to start a tea plantation that will help them to become self sufficient. We are booked for a return visit next Easter.

In the whitsun half-term we went camping in the New Forest with some friends.

Jenny and the children attended Kingdom Faith camp, Peterborough in early Summer. This year Jenny was leading the programme for the Live Wires (5-6yr olds). Thomas played clarinet and guitar and David led actions to songs and helped with puppets. Although the preparation was quite demanding, the week went really well and was very rewarding. We've been invited back again to lead next year. As a family we attended Grapevine Celebration in Lincoln and worked with the 8-11yr olds. It was a super weekend which I think impacted us all.

We miss our friends in Thailand – so much that we are going to visit them again next Easter!

Jenny’s Mum Jill and Adrian’s parents Jackie and Steve are well. We will all be together at The Chine for Christmas Day.

Our friends and family near and far will be in our thoughts as we celebrate this Christmas.

Our love and prayers for a peaceful and happy Christmas and New Year.

Jenny, Adrian, Thomas, David & Jessica

XXXXX