"Enjoy your flight"

Greetings once again from Chiang Rai, Thailand, were the Rutledge family is busy making final preparations for our upcoming visit to the States. It is amazing how much work goes into preparing for a four week trip. We have been busy getting passports for the girls, a visa for Mam, plane tickets for all of us, and lining up places to stay once we arrive in America. Mam is busy sewing lots of cool things to give out to supporters and friends, Garuna and Bratana are working on their English, and I am trying to put together a prayer card of our family and a short video about the ministry. Lord willing come September 30^th we will have everything finished and be able to truly enjoy our visit with you. For those who haven’t heard of the latest schedule. Here it is one more time.

We arrive in Boise on the 30^th of September and will be in the Boise area until the 6^th of October. Then we will drive to Pocatello and be there until the 13^th of October. We will drive back to Boise and on the 14^th of October we will fly to Michigan for my sisters wedding. On the 19^th we will fly back to Idaho and drive to Twin Falls. We will be in Twin Falls about two days and on the 21^st drive to Hailey. We will be in Hailey until the 22^nd or 23^rd and then we will drive back to Boise. We will be in the Boise area until the 28^th of October when we fly back to Thailand. It is going to be a busy time, but we are truly looking forward to visiting as many of you as we can.

Please continue to pray for guidance as we firm up travel dates and complete all the necessary preparations for the trip. We are thankful that over $2000 has come in to help cover our air expenses. The total cost of our tickets is $5800 so we are trusting that the rest will come in soon. Also we have been so blessed with many offers of places to stay. Thank you everyone who so willingly offered the use of their houses during our visit. What a sweet aroma your gifts are to God. Thank you. We are still looking for a vehicle to use while we travel. Please pray that we will come across one that will help transport us during our travels to Pocatello, Twin Falls, and around the Boise area. (Praise God, for He is so good, as I was writing this letter, I received an email from the Stauffer family offering us the use of their vehicle while we are in the States. Thank God for His answered prayers and for everyone’s willingness to be a vessel of service for our King).

We have been busy getting ready for our trip, but that has not stopped us from having lots of fun here over the past two months. Since my last update we have been planting rice, husking corn, pulling teeth, and doing everything else that needs to be done to keep this huge family running.

This year we were blessed with an abundant amount of rain, and so when it came time to plant rice, we almost had too much water. But God is so good, and the week we started planting rice, the rains stopped and helped us be able to get all the paddies planted before it rained again. The price of rice has almost tripled and so if we have a good harvest this year, that will help cut done on the expense for next year. We also planted a huge field of corn and for the past two weeks, everyone has been working hard to husk all the corn. Not shuck, but husk. That means taking each and every kernel off of the husk. It has been fun sitting around with a bunch of kids on a big pile of corn working our fingers to the bone, literally. We all have nice blisters on our thumbs and palms after husking corn for hours. Our meeting hall is full of corn, and with so much corn around it is hard not act “corney”. Ok bad joke, I am sorry.

Right after our rice was all planted and all the corn harvested, we had a team of dentists come to do a yearly check up on all our teeth. Dr. Luce has been offering his dental skills to Akha Outreach Foundation for the past five years. Each time he comes, he spends the week; filling, cleaning and pulling teeth for all the children, Bible Students, staff, and even pastors and church members from the village. He has established a portable dentist office, and each year he comes back he adds to it. He also adds to his staff, last year he brought two assistants with him, this year he brought a group of nine, included was an oral sergeant. During their one week here, they divided into two teams, one traveling to a village and offering basic dental care. The second group staying here at the foundation checking on all the children, and Bible students, both groups together did more work then we could have accomplished in a year of going to the dentist. On one after noon alone I assisted in pulling over 18 wisdom teeth.

Growing up I was not a big fan of dentist, but after spending time with Dr. Luce and his fellow dentists, I have become a huge fan of dentist. In fact I am a huge fan of anyone willing to use the skills God gave them to serve His Kingdom. We all don’t have to be dentist’s to serve God in big ways, just being willing to offer your self to serve others, as Christ offered Himself for us, this is what the world needs to see. If we as Christians would live our lives for this, then we would begin to see people longing to know more about Christ.

Thank you all for your prayers and for your servants’ hearts. So many of you give so freely of your time and finances to help our family be able to live and work here at Akha Outreach Foundation. Your partnership with us is such a blessing and we do look forward to sharing with you how God is using YOU to reach the Akha with His hope. Thank you for taking the time to read this blog, and we do look forward to catching up with as many of you as possible once we reach the States.

God bless and protect you, and remember that we are daily thanking God for you.

Your fellow servants in Him

Dan, Mam, Garuna, Bratana, and Moetana Rutledge