Caitlin has finally learned to crawl and there is no stopping her now.  She can get anywhere she wants to go and get into just about anything.  Here's the video:

 

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If you can't see the video above, click here to view it directly on YouTube.

Our son Joshua emphatically refuses to go to a real barber shop with Daddy to get his haircut.  He insists that Mommy cut his hair in the "home barber shop", which is his room (minus his crib). During his most recent haircut, Daddy got videotaped an interview with the haircut-ee.  See below for the results:

 

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If you have trouble viewing the above video, click here to watch it on YouTube

 

This past month, we had the joy of having Caitlin baptized, welcoming her into the covenant community of the Christian church.  Baby Molly, the daughter of our friends Chris and Paige was baptized at the same time.  A fellow missionary videotaped the event and I include it below.  The video is all in Thai and I am afraid that I haven't had time to add English subtitles.

 

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If you have trouble viewing the above video, you may watch it directly on Vimeo.com

 

 

Pastor Natee, who did the baptism, had some really helpful comments about the nature of baptism that got me thinking.  First, people are baptized not because of what they have done but in recognition of what God has done.  Therefore, in the case of people who come to Christ and are baptized as adults, they are baptized in recognition of God's work in their life, regenerating their heart and granting them faith and repentance.  They are baptized because it is evident that God has chosen to bring them into the fold of the Christian church.  Baptism welcomes them into the visible church because God has already brought them into the invisible church. 

 

Living in Phrabaht, Karl and Joshua have a morning tradition of riding the bicycle to the market to buy grilled pork and sticky rice for breakfast.  Off they go!

 

Click on any thumbnail to see the full size image.

Press the left or right arrow to move forward or backward.

 

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English edition available from:  Amazon InterVarsity Press

 

This book has really helped us to think about how we can train our children to participate in the regular worship service of the church, and it gave me new motivation and new ideas for how to help our son to start to be more of a part of worship, instead of just playing with toys during the service.  There is also some helpful discussion about the pros and cons of children's church and if the kids do leave for part of the service, how that time apart for the kids can be used to help them to learn to worship in anticipation of integration with the regular church service.

 

 

We've been working on getting Joshua to memorize some Bible verses and catechism questions.  He is doing a decent job so far, even if he doesn't get it right all the time.  Actually, it takes quite a bit of work to get him to memorize them.  Not that he has a bad memory, but he is not always willing.  However, one day he picked up the little New Testament that was given him the last time we were in the States and did a Scripture "reading".  Multiple times over.  Amazingly, he was still doing it by the time I got the video camera out.  

 

Two small comments before you watch the video: 1) that is baby Caitlin crying in the background and yes, she is okay (Mommy is with her), and 2) Joshua's emphasis upon certain parts of John 3:16 is entirely of his own doing.  He was not coached to do that.  Might we have an aspiring preacher on our hands?

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If you have trouble viewing the video above, click here to view it on YouTube.

 

 

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Christmas time in Thailand is filled with opportunities to share about Christ. Thai people are curious about this foreign holiday and are happy to come out to special Christmas events put on by the Christians.   This past Saturday we hosted a children Christmas event in our neighborhood, right across the street from our house in the community center.  The neighborhood committee gave their approval and said we could use their public announcement system.  However, we found out at the last minute that the speakers were busted and we were unable to let people know that anything was happening.  Pastor Jareun and the teens from PhraBaht church hauled over the big speakers from church and we got the word out as best we could.

 

The other day our house helper was holding our baby Caitlin while I (Sun) grabbed a bite of lunch. She suddenly realized that Caitlin had a double cowlick on her head and, after confirming that the baby was born on a Monday, foretold that Caitlin would be feisty and strong-willed just like one of her sons who had similar traits. The week before she had told me that as an infant her son was so strong-willed and hard to please that she went through a Thai ceremony in hopes of making her son more manageable. With a group of elderly people around, the ceremony required her to ask aloud, “Who’s baby is this? Whatever spirit or ghost or demon out there that owns this baby, come and claim him.” At this point, the group of elders assuming the role of a “Mae Seu” (แม่ซื้อ) would respond by saying, “He’s ours and we will take him.” This ceremony is supposed to make the baby be less difficult to raise. However, it didn’t work for her, she confessed. He was still keeping her up all night from 7 pm to 7 am and sleeping during the day for a long, long time.

 

DOWNLOAD PDF - BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENT FOR CAITLIN

 

 

If you are curious about the name, "Caitlin" is an Irish name meaning "pure".

"Mei", in both Cambodian and Chinese, is a word meaning "beautiful".

 

 

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DOWNLOAD PDF - AUGUST 2009 DAHLFREDS PRAYER LETTER

 

Dear Friends & Family,The most enjoyable aspect of ministry this past month has been our evangelistic kids club in Nong Doan.  As we’ve begun to go through major Old Testament stories, starting with creation and the fall, it is exciting to know that some of the foundations of a Biblical worldview are being absorbed into these young minds.  While it is an evangelistic ENGLISH kids club, our focus is on the Bible stories and the whole thing is rather English-lite.  Each week, we introduce some English vocabulary that corresponds to the Bible story (i.e. “flood” “boat”  and “die” for Noah’s ark), practicing that vocab, and using it in a game.  But the Bible story is always told in Thai with review in simple English later on.  Every other week, Thai student worker Tam joins us for kids club and does a superb job telling the Bible story and interacting with the kids.  We need more like him.  On the weeks that Tam is not available, I (Karl) tell the story in Thai but it doesn’t compare with an active engaging Thai storyteller like Tam.  Tam is also an up and coming preacher.  I’d love to have him on a church planting team at some point down the road.  It has also been great to have short-termer Brent and missionary friend Chris coming to help with the kids club.  We haven’t gotten much help from the PhraBaht church so it is great to have some guys that I can rely upon.

In less than two months now, my wife Sun is due to have our second child.   One of our supporting churches recently told us that they wanted to have a baby shower for her in absentia.  We thought that it would be good to send something along to be read at the baby shower since she would not be able to be there.  As Sun and I got talking, we came up with the following list of challenges and blessings of being a young mom on the mission field.  Every woman, and every family, is different and various parts of the world are very different as well, but here are some thoughts on Sun’s experience here in Thailand.

Joshua is a boy always on the move but we managed to get him to slow down for moment this afternoon to answer some questions.  After dinner, we've been telling him Bible stories and helping him to memorize some questions from the Catechism for Small Children (a simplified version of the the Westminister Shorter Catechism) and some Bible verses.  We also try to sing some songs with him but Joshua usually protests (probably due to our musical incompetence). We try to make it interactive and interesting for him so that not only will great truths about God get into his head but that he will enjoy our times together learning about the big wonderful God who made all things and loves us. 

 

Karl sat Joshua down to test his memory of the things he's been learning. So far, he's memorized catechism questions 1-4, Genesis 1:1, Matthew 22:37, and a simple definition of sin.  Have a listen to the audio file below and see how Joshua did.  Please ignore the fact that Daddy didn't do as well, mistakenly asking Joshua to repeat Matthew 22:38 instead of Matthew 22:37.

 

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(If you don't see an audio player above, click here to download the file)

 

When I went to a local Buddhist merit making festival, I noticed a great number of children and school groups participating in the event.  Parents brought their little ones to participate and some schools brought all their students as a group, dressed in school uniforms.  The following Bible verse came to mind:

 

“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it”(Proverbs 22:6 ESV)

At the ripe old age of three, Joshua is currently researching various career options for his future employment.  Here are the photos of his investigations thus far.

 

 

One of Joshua's favorite activities is to get into our car (known as "Daddy car") and pretend to drive. I roll down the windows and let him play to his heart's content as the car sits parked in our carport. Sometimes he is going to the supermarket, sometimes to church, or sometimes he is just wearing Daddy's driving sunglasses and making "vroom" sounds. I think the following picture captures a bit of Joshua's joy in playing in Daddy car.

Joshua was born in May 2006 and Caitlin was born September 2009.

 

Joshua loves vehicles of any kind and whenever he sees the bicycle section of the shopping center, he makes a bee-line for it, running as if a rabid dog were in close pursuit. When we were trying to leave the Big C shopping center the other day, Joshua saw these electric motorcycles for sale and couldn't resist. He couldn't actually drive it anyplace but in his imagination, I think he went quite far.

DOWNLOAD PDF - APRIL 2009 DAHLFREDS PRAYER LETTER

 

Dear Friends & Family,Thank you for for your continued prayers.  We press on in all our responsibilities and we appreciate your pressing on in prayer for us.  Our big news is that Sun is pregnant again, about 17 weeks as of this writing.  Due date September 21st.   We are excited about the prospect of a new little one but also a bit anxious as Sun’s previous two pregnancies ended in miscarriage (at 4 months and 2 months, respectively).  Thus, we hold on to the fact that God is sovereign and God is good, praying that God will graciously give us another child to be with us for many years to come but also trusting that if He doesn’t, then it is good and He will strengthen us for whatever is ahead.  In the meantime, Sun has been exhausted for the past few months, eating every 2-3 hours, yet only nauseous on occasion.  Karl has been trying to take care of her and Joshua, while Joshua has been pretty self-focused as can be expected of any toddler.  It is fun, however, to watch him to look into Mommy’s bellybutton to see if he can see the new baby.