diving in.

We have tickets for the 11:45am bus from Chiang Mai to Mae Sot. We plan to arrive at 5:30pm this evening, and these are the photos preparing us.

If any of you have been to visit, this is heading in to the downtown one-ways, taken from the corner of the little Tescos.

This is in the downtown area, near Dave’s. The car is actually driving the wrong way down the one-way.

And this is down by the border at the Moei River. This is the huge market there that we’ve taken some of you to.

At our house, we know the water made it up our driveway and covered at least one step up to our porch. Thus, we know our motorbike was sitting in about a foot of water.

We are hopeful it didn’t enter our house.

However, even having made it up to our steps, that’s about a third higher than the water was last year. That means that our neighbors’ houses that were almost under last year are definitely under this year. It means there are houses under at least six feet of water at this point, since the neighborhood is sloping. We are the highest point, and some of the houses are very, very low.

The good news? We work with some stellar people, and they came to the rescue of our neighbors and friends. They welcomed them into the Partners office, fed them, and entertained them with games.

Absolutely incredible kindness, and we are so grateful. It is so encouraging and beautiful to see these familiar faces smiling and giggling and clapping. And dry.

It sounds like the rains have stopped and the waters are done rising. We are praying they go down; we are praying for the homes that will need repairs. We are already contemplating blankets and food. We are praying for wisdom.

Please rejoice with us–pray blessings on our coworkers and our neighbors!  And please keep praying–for our bus ride and for settling back in, perhaps with bunkmates!