reposted from a guest blogging article written at JasonRuggles.com FOOD FRIDAY: EAT LIKE AN AHKA Posted on 29. Jan, 2010 by April As we’ve mentioned more than once, last month we went up to an Akha village for a few days to experience their culture.  Part of that was, of course, their food.  My favorite part was [...]

Yesterday we were asked to appear as subjects / insiders for a media group called Emerge Network that will be coming into our village to create three short videos about our lives and the lives of the Akha in Mae Salong. We’re very honored to help serve this team and are excited to see what [...]

Many of you are familiar with the story of the two deaf children who live in our village. Those of you who have not heard this story, read a post here or here to fill yourself in. Anyone who has visited our village knows A-Paw, 8, is the younger of the two siblings. She is [...]

The Akha way of life is centered around rice. It encompasses every aspect of their lives.  Preparing the fields, planting, harvesting. every meal every day every month every year It’s no wonder that rice is the center of religion, culture and celebration in the Akha world. But, if there is a secondary symbol of importance [...]

The Akha Hilltribe originate from Tibet and Mongolia, but currently live in the mountainous area of the Mekong Subregion in Southeast Asia. Although the Akha live in five countries, including China, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), Vietnam and Thailand, they speak a common, tonal language classified as Sino-Tibetan / Sino-Burmese.  Akha villages are generally located in the [...]

Living in an Akha village is a constant discovery of talents and craftsmanship. Whether it’s a man making a bamboo ladder, women creating ornate Akha stitch work, or the simple, pure skill of the machete as a daily tool. The other day while Lori was out in the village she came across another incredible sight. [...]

Well, it’s time again for another Abigail baby book entry! Luckily, we’re still in month 12, so it’s a bit easier to remember/observe all of her little tricks! We’re really loving this time; she’s such a busy little girl and it’s a joy to watch her learn. Took her first steps: 3 days before her [...]

Recently I’ve been thinking about how much you (our beloved readers) still don’t know about our lives in Thailand! Even after three years of blogging, we haven’t begun to scratch the surface of all the interesting things we see and do on a daily basis. So, I’m hoping to start blogging a bit more about [...]

While I’m stuck in meetings discussing the new Akha orthography (actually, a really cool experience that I will fill you all in more on later) Lori is much more literally stuck in Mae Salong with a broken vehicle. You heard it right, our truck is broken again. A very similar problem to all our other [...]

Our director is off to Singapore tomorrow to teach on the subject “Communicating the Gospel in a Pluralist Context” for Haggai Institute. I have had the privilege to help him prepare for these 8 lectures: we have been working on the powerpoints for months, and intensively over these past two weeks. The time is upon [...]

I need to apologize to all of you, especially our new readers from the recent issue of Foursquare’s Missions Advance magazine (see article here), for the current state of the Vernon Journal. We recently had some server changes which have required some coding updates on all of our pages, and a complete overhaul of our [...]

Unbelievable. Six runs in the bottom of the fourth inning in game 4 have all but guaranteed that the Colorado Rockies have swept the Arizona Diamondbacks for the National League Pennant, and will play in the 2007 World Series for the right to be called World Champions. October belongs to the Colorado Rockies. I have [...]

A team from Faith Bible Chapel has come out for a short-term missions trip. They are a great group and we have enjoyed spending some time with them. Last week we went with a number of them to an Akha church here in Chiang Rai and at the beginning of this week we brought them [...]

The Akha Wedding ceremony is a long process, beginning in the wife’s family village and ending in the husband’s family village. The big “wedding” event occurs in the husband’s village with the “Wife Celebration“. There is a lot to be told about this event, and for Lori and I there is still a lot to [...]

We have a lot of stories to share from this time in the village. Harrowing adventures, miracles, weddings and hospital trips top the list. We are resting in our bamboo hut this afternoon after a wild week, and will return to the city on Monday to pick up our Suzuki from the mechanic. (No word [...]

Over the past few weeks, the reality of having a baby in a little over 4 months has started to set in. Maybe it’s the recent arrival of our friend’s baby girl, or maybe it’s the fact that we have crossed that half-way mark, but either way, those notorious pregnancy-nesting-tendencies are starting to appear! Up [...]

Lately I’ve been on a photo kick; something in me is just yearning to be creative! So, despite our less than cooperative camera, I’ve been snapping pictures more often than usual. A couple weeks ago, everything in the village just seemed especially beautiful, so I set out to capture all the little things that I [...]

A couple of our recent posts have talked about some of the animals common in the village (like cats, dogs, chickens and rats.) Since we’ve been in the city the past week or so, I wanted to tell you about some of the critters we encounter here. While our village home is literally a bamboo [...]

It’s a quiet morning in the village (except for little Mi-Yo making her presence known to the world by using our bamboo platform as a trampoline). We are waiting for an Akha Foursquare friend of ours to come visit. In the relatively peaceful morning I caught up on some tech news and found an amazing [...]

This has been a very enjoyable homecoming to the village. Sure, we have some rats again and all of our snacks were eaten by some Akha boys with too much time on their hands, but it is so good to see our Akha family again.Especially nice has been the chance to spend some time with [...]