Hi everyone. I know that it has been a long time since I have posted anything or have even been on facebook. To be honest one of the main reasons has been "what do I say?" For the last 13 years we have lived in different countries, cultures & that's long enough that coming so called "home" is now completely different also.
To be honest this change has been very very difficult, for many different reasons. Although, what we are experiencing is normal & healthy according to the week long class we attended from The Well International counselling centre close to our old home in Chiang Mai.
Even now I am not sure what to say. Many times words, thoughts & emotions come. Then I process them through my many filters having been overseas for years. I don't feel the need to share or tell others like I used to. I don't have the burning desire to get with others, on a stage, platform or behind a pulpit to share all that I know. I have learned so much from Jesus, people & situations. I prefer to listen because I have been the foreigner for so long. I know I cannot assume I know, but need to be in the place of learner & listener. When others ask I do answer. It's not a fear thing as much as I am finding that the culture here in Canada is so loud and there is so much already. I feel there is no need for me to add. I am not judging on the value, just my need to speak.
We have been blessed by family, friends, & church teams since returning back to Canada. We were blessed to be given a vehicle, household items & tools. All of our household items are still in a warehouse in Bangkok awaiting a shipping container. We are praying that it arrives before Winter. It's been challenging to still be living out of the one suitcase we each brought of clothes & personal items. In many ways it delays the "settling in process."
We have a home here in Kentville NS. The house is a "fixer upper" as we say in Canada & the US. As many of you know that this type of home usually comes with all the unseen issues. The seen issues were large enough. All of the wooden panelling in the house needing to be removed, the gyproc behind needing to be repaired, filled & painted. New light fixtures, flooring being removed, floorboards repaired & painted. 5 new windows needed & the list goes on. The unseen issues of asbestos removal & a plumber finding a large open, uncapped sewer pipe hidden in the dirt basement floor has been a lot. This has been what we have been spending our time since returning.
I do want to say a thank-you to family that has helped me with some repairs & the tools needed. I also want to Thank Colby Community Church & Life Bridge Church in Dartmouth for sending down their senior pastor's & people from their churches to help us with some of the repairs. It's so encouraging to have repairs that would have taken weeks alone, being completed in a days time.
A couple of weeks ago an apple farmer I know called me & asked if i could help. He said he was in a bind not being able to get all his foreign workers to harvest his apple crop due to COVID. I said that I could help. This verse came to mind, "He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Luke 10:2"
Wow, picking apples 8 hours a day is really hard work. Rain or shine you still need to pick. Most days this job has been a test or my mind body & soul. I can truly say that It has been so good. For years now I don't associate what's good with what's easy or simple. Apple harvesting is a great example of this. I laughed out loud one day in the apple orchard realizing that I had been doing foreigner work overseas for years & now I am doing a type of foreigner work in my own country. In many ways I am still the foreigner. Jesus has been using this job to teach me so much about Himself, myself (both good & bad) & life in general.
I cannot count how many people over the years have said that I should write a book. Personally I think that there are way too many books & I don't need to add to the list. I have experienced enough of life to know that a book doesn't come close to the real life learning like an experience. Some people use books, commentaries or other written forms to remove the need to travel & experience the world. I firmly advocate the opposite. Read to prepare you for the journey to come, but not to be the journey itself.
