Wild Kingdom

Today was one of those days. It seems that life on the mission field is never dull. There is always some sort of unusual event that keeps life exciting. I started the day off pretty normally. On Tuesdays I meet with a single girl on our team to talk and study the Bible. I get a phone call from Jack at about 10:40 A.M. telling me that one of our Thai neighbors showed up to talk with me. I told him that I'd be home shortly to talk and hang out with her. When I get home, my friend and I settle in to chat. After about an hour or so, my daughter starts screaming that there is a tick on her. I quickly remove her shirt since she seemed to think it was inside her shirt. Sure enough, there was a tick inside her shirt. Our dog has had a tick or two but we've never seen one off the dog. About 5 minutes later, I notice a tick on our curtains. I pick it off and dispose of it. Then I see another. And another. Before I know it, my Thai friend and I are picking ticks off our curtains! We were moving furniture and going through curtains. All told there were 40 ticks! Yuk. After a while of doing this we felt pretty confident that we got them all. Meanwhile we have 3 children running around excitedly in the house. My friend and I finally settle back in to continue our chat, when I look outside the window and see a snake slithering around my back yard! I go outside to find one of our security gaurd-cum-snake handlers but no one is to be found. My friend decides to call one of the guys who cuts grass around here. About 3 minutes later, his truck comes flying up to our house and Tho and another guy come brandishing big sticks. They weren't able to catch the snake but offered to club the thing next time if I wasn't willing...umm...no. Of course the kids were all running around excitedly again. No one could identify the snake, but we know it is black with a yellow throat. Today really felt like a day in "Wild Kingdom"!