Rick and I got to know each other when we were on a summer Walla Walla College/ADRA trip to Borneo in 1992. We married in June of 1994 and three weeks later were on Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands. Rick taught math and did maintenance for the Seventh-day Adventist K-8 school while I helped in the office. After our year was completed, the clinic invited us to come spend two years working with them. Rick was the maintenance department and helped with a building project and I apprenticed in as an optician in the eye clinic.

We returned to the States in the fall of 1997 and settled in Springfield, OR. Rick is a civil engineer specializing in structures and I am the manager of our home. We now have three happy, healthy kids. Melia just turned 10, Marcus is 8 and Marissa is 5 1/2.

For those of you who are curious about how our family ended up in Thailand, here is a bit of the history behind the call and some of the details:

Jon and Natalie Wood, the founders of "Jesus for Asia" (JFA) are former members of the Eugene, OR church, our home church. They came to Eugene late last summer (2008) and shared some the stories, opportunities, and challenges of their mission in India and throughout Southeast Asia. Jon and Natalie were friends of ours from their time in Eugene in the late 1990's. In fact, it was mostly because of their friendship on our first Sabbath in Eugene that we made the Eugene church our home church. Anyway, during their summer visit, we had just a brief opportunity to talk with them about JFA, as well as express our interest in participating in some sort of mission project. There didn't appear to be anything that we could do that could utilize Rick's skills in structural engineering or construction.

Our family had been contemplating for some time and praying to find God's will for our lives, if indeed, He would allow us to be used in some capacity beyond our roles here in Eugene. With nothing particular in mind, and no prospects for any such opportunity, our only option was to lay our plans before Him and make ourselves

available if and when He presented us with a call. Of course, this is what we should have done from the beginning. We chose to spend several days at a remote mountain-top fire lookout where dedicated ourselves, our family and everything that we own to Him. The call came from Natalie came in late November.

Looking back, I believe God used the intervening time between the Woods' visit in the summer and the call in November to put us in the mindset where we would be willing to leave all behind and go where He called. He did this through the influence of godly friends, inspiring reports from Maranatha, It is Written, and others, of the Gospels' advance around the world, and through the sobering realization of just how fast our earthly savings can vanish at the whim of the stock and real estate markets. Our desire increasingly became to have a chance to participate in the spread of the Gospel and to be able to use the means God had entrusted to us for His work before they became worthless - to lay up treasure in heaven where "moth and rust" do not destroy. Obviously, all of us can do these things wherever we are and, I believe that if we are willing, God will open more doors of opportunity, in whatever form, to participate in as we are faithful.

God called, we answered...now what, how and when? The logistics were staggering when we looked to do them ourselves: we had a house, duplex, two big dogs, and vehicles, besides needing to purchase airline tickets, passports and visas. But when the Lord calls, He provides. We found a wonderful couple to live in our home, a property management company to manage our duplex, amazing friends who took in our two big, socially challenged dogs, cashed in most of what was left of Rick's shrinking retirement plan and purchased open-ended airline tickets (good for one year and supposedly didn't exist), passports (came in eleven days-during the holidays) and visas (overnight). Wow!

After packing up most of the contents of our home, we spent a beautiful Valentine's Sabbath with our church family. Our church family has been praying for a thick hedge of protection around our family. God is good as that hedge has held firm!

We got to spend several weeks with family in California and then flew out of LAX on the 3rd of March, 2009 arriving in Bangkok on the 5th. We were met by an incredible missionary couple who hosted us for several days. Wow. It was rough going from the dead of winter of Oregon to the beginning of the hot season in Thailand! :-)

We went through a time of adjustment. The kids had an especially hard time. It was really hard to be away from home, family, friends, familiar food, pets, our church family and the english language. But, attending Mission Institute that was held in Chiang Mai in April really helped and they have been doing pretty well since then. Having both sets of grandparents visit and treat us to all kinds of fun, touristy activities really helped as well!

Fortunately the cost of living here is relatively low, that is, if you live like a local. We are living in a village of about 50 homes. We own one of the handful of vehicles in the village; everyone else either walks or rides a motorbike. We are renting a small, two-bedroom house for about 45 USD a month.

Rick spends most days working at the studio, getting it acoustically prepared, coordinating work with contractors, overseeing construction, etc. I spend most days at home coordinating and overseeing three children! For more details on the studio project, see our previous blog entry. Also, for additional current updates, go to Facebook.com and look for Judy Bond-Hernandez.

As we think about the potential for projects, such as this studio, to be among the final steps necessary to encircle the globe with the Gospel, we can't help but feel proud that we are a small part of it!

When you pray the "radical" prayer, hang on for the ride! Our airline tickets expire 3 March 2010 and our plan is to return to our home, church and income source, but I am reminded of the quote:

"If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans..."