Singapore

Well, we have visited yet another "foreign" place! Because of paperwork for visas, it was necessary for our whole family to go to Singapore. Our flight left Bangkok a little after 9 p.m. last Tuesday night. We arrived in Singapore after midnight. We were so glad that we could book a motel room before arriving because it was around 2 a.m. before we were able to get in bed. Then, we had to get up at 6 a.m. so that we could be at the Thai Embassy in time to stand in line so that we would be assured of getting in on Wednesday. After waiting, with 5 kids, for what seemed like an eternity since we were exhausted, they first told us we had gone to Singapore for no reason. Since we still had a few weeks left on our visa, they said we would have to go back to Thailand and wait for our visas to expire and then exit the country again. Needless to say, we were NOT happy to hear that! We decided to go back to our motel to sleep and think! Randy tried making phone calls back to Thailand but was unable to make a connection. Then we walked down the street to a mall to eat lunch and found a Long John Silver's! It was funny how excited we were to see it but we haven't seen a Long John Silver's since we left the States. Later that afternoon, he said he was going to go back to the Thai Embassy to talk to them again because they had kept our passports to do an "investigation." Fortunately, he was able to talk with someone a little more helpful and re-explained the situation to her. She said we had done the right thing and did the paperwork and told him when to come back and pick up our passports. What a blessing! So, then we were able to enjoy Singapore. On Thursday, we took the children to a water park where we all had a lot of fun. They had a long canal that you could float down in tubes. By the time we did that, the little ones were exhausted and William fell asleep while he was floating! We also got to ride an indoor ferris wheel. On Friday, we did some sightseeing. We went to see the famous Merlion staute. The Merlion has the head of a lion and the body of a fish. It is the symbol of Singapore. The fish body represents the origin of Singapore as a fishing village and the lion head represents the originial name of Singapore which meant "lion city." It measures 28 feet tall and weighs 7o tons! Normally, the Merlion overlooks the Marina Bay and has water shooting out of its mouth. Currently, they have built a motel room around part of the body and the head. During the day, tourists can go in for a quick look and at night 2 people can check-in. This amazing room will only be there through May and every night was booked within an hour of them opening the reservation desk. What an awesome thing to be so up close to this symbolic statue!

After our sightseeing and a quick trip to a history museum, we ate lunch and took a much needed nap! We surprised the kids by taking them to the Night Safari. It is the ONLY night zoo in the world! It was incredible to see animals that we had never seen before. Most of the animals at this zoo (which OPENS at 7:30 p.m.!) are nocturnal animals. Instead of walking the trails, we rode the 45 minute tram with a guide.

This is the fun part of missionary life - being able to visit places and see things that otherwise we would never know about or only see in pictures. What stories our children will have to tell when we go back to the States. God has given us so many opportunities and we thank Him for every one.