No, it’s not a football team. The Red Shirts are the Anti Gov. protest movement in Thailand. I knew that the successful shut down of the protests in Bangkok would bring the protesters into the provinces. We had the first taste of it on Sunday, when they rode through town and stopped in a few key locations around the city.

Today we were at the Kad Suan Keaw Mall about 5 minutes from our home. Sean was at a lunch meeting and I was taking care of Timothy as he explored the fish spa and the field next to it. At about 4pm I noticed a strange phenomenon – The shops were closing. And then I heard on the news in the food court something about Chiang Mai Airport and gas stations being closed. So, I wondered back over to the guys and told them, “Something’s going on. Everyone’s closing up shop. I think we need to go home.”

So, asked a few shop keepers and they just told us that the mall was closing early cause they were worried something might happen. And then they told us to get home in a hurry. We picked Samantha up from school and on  the way home we discussed the possibility of being home bound for a few days and whether we had enough ‘supplies’. One thing I do know, Samantha isn’t going to school for a few days, and the ministry trip we had planned for this week is postponed for a little while.

Edit: When we got home, we checked email and news, and found that there were protests in the east side of Chiang Mai, at Nawarat Bridge on the Ping River. In Bangkok, there are several buildings on fire, and I read briefly that one of the Red leaders called the protesters to burn the city down if there was a coup.

Please keep praying for Thailand.

Map of Chiang Mai, Thailand


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