Wide Open, But Not Yet Clear

 Hi everyone. I want to share with people who have been asking about "our stuff." Well, it's been 1 year & 4 days since the Thai moving company came to our house in Thailand, completely packed up everything & took it to Bangkok. And it has never left Bangkok. I know that many of you have been praying for the movement of our personal belongings & that we would not have to pay more than what we've already paid. There have been some crazy high extra prices ($29,000 USD) given to us. But, each time as we email back & forth. The company has always unexpectedly said that they will continue to store our belongings free of extra charges.

On a side note I was told that the Eagle Movers company owner is in hospital. Please pray that he will be healed. 

I recently received a message from a friend that asked if there was any movement with our stuff. He then passed on a message of a shipping company owner in Thailand that there will be "windows of lower shipping rates." Good news in the middle of what still feels like, we are living out of a suitcase. 

I personally would like to thank everyone who has journeyed with us, our mission, our lives in the US, Canada, Mongolia & Thailand. So many of you supported us in prayer & financially. I will be taking the time over the next couple of months to personally call each of you to thank-you. 

We started our YWAM (Youth With A Mission) journey in 2008 & now 2022 feel it's time to move on to what's next. 

There have been the craziest of highs & the difficult to describe lowest of lows. We have been part of & experienced miracles that we still cannot explain. We served the lowest/poorest & laughed/cried with the highest of high in one country. We have made so many friends from all over the world. We have been adopted as family & have adopted others as family being so far from our biological families. Please know that our home, no matter where in the world will be the same. "Our door is always open & the coffee pot is always on." 

Маш их баярлалаа найзууд минь (Mongolian)

ขอบคุณมากเพื่อนของฉัน. (Thai)

Discouragement as we try to move forward

I am feeling discouraged. I received an email from the Thai moving company, Eagle Movers saying that to ship our belongings from Bangkok to Kentville we need to pay $29,000 USD . We already paid the amount originally in our contract over 8 months ago before they came to pack our home. Eagle Movers reassured us 2 months before & 1 month before packing day that they had a container/place for our belongings. Then 2 days after they packed up all our belongings we received an email saying that infact they did not have a container/place for our things.

Eagle Movers said we could wait, but would have to start paying storage fees. They did not say what their fees were & could be added to the extra price ($29,000 USD) they are already telling us. I have contacted a shipping company In Saint John NB to help. But are not sure what or how they can do.

This is challenging when we have spent the last 13 years living & serving the poor in Ulaanbaatar Mongolia & the last 8 years the inner city poor in Chiang Mai Thailand.

We need a miracle. Please pray with us.

https://eaglemoversthailand.com/

Bangkok

The Ninth Tower, 33/4,

Tower A Rama 9 Road,

Huai Khwang, 10310 Bangkok

Phone: +66 (0) 21 180 378

Time to Post Again

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.

Going Online

Chaing Mai has issued a work from home reccomendation. I am currently with an IT project. My team, the academy dept of the project made a goal to move our IT Foundamentals and IT ESL classes to online enviroments. IT ESL is my thing and am super excited that my task this week is to rework my class materials for online learning. 

New software/apps to learn, working with my teammates in a new way and using our current  systems in more depth.

Please be safe everyone and wear your masks when out in public. 

Romans 13:1-5

Christmas Celebrations

 A week and ½ ago we had the community centre Christmas parity in a ladies car port and on the street. The community centre staff and the church that has been helping for the past few months lead the party in the street. The kids with their parents, grandparents and other others played games, performed dances, played guitar and gave personal life stories. 

Close to the end of our party some of the Thai church volunteers shared a personal story and then the meaning of Christmas to everyone. Once they finished ask if anyone would like to know Jesus personally and become a Christian. A teen girl and 7 adults asked if they could become Christians. It was an exciting day. 

3 days ago the church had their open evening Christmas service and party. 29 people said they wanted to go. So we drove them with a group of parents on scooters ahead of us. The longest service I have ever been (6-10:30pm) but everyone was having a fun time. I have gotten to know the Thai pastor and his wife and they are amazing people. 

For years our community centres focus and purpose has been to love, serve and help people freely, with no hidden agendas. To sponsor education, teach life skills, provide clean water and aid small business to help break the cycle of poverty. This always leads to people eventually asking, why. Why are you doing this?  I share that I love people and enjoy serving them. I also say, I believe it's the purpose God has given me to do? Then they honsstly want to know more about my God because they say their God is veey different from mine. 

I will share that the Thai church in the new year will be continuing the work of the community centre. They already have many people that have been coming to help and lead activities. They shared they wanted to continue the centre and the foundstion leadership thought this was the best time. I honeslty feel it's a gift that the local church wants to continue the community centre. The church has asked me to keep my keys and continue to use the centre's classroom to continue  teaching English to adults in the village. 

In the new year I am sxcited about starting something new.

Something Special

 We are at an Elephant Park with 18 of our community kids. They are sooo excited and scared at the same time because the elephants are so big. This is something they would never be able to do.