Clay Pots and Open Hands

 

It's a fresh morning out there!
A beautiful Tuesday sunrise on a day where I'm eager and curious to press into whatever unfolds.

As I write, Suradet, Yupa and Bell have made their connection and are on their last flight home. They'll let us know when they arrive safely, and I'll pass that along when I can.

Meanwhile, here I am in the last stretch of preparations for my own long journey there in less than a week's time. There's still a fair bit to do; packing, preparing lessons, writing sermons, and tying up the last bits of things here that a month's absence always requires.

I'll admit that my own health situ is still a tad ambiguous until I can have 'the conversation' with my doctor once tests results are in. It's not a bad thing, though, to be put in that space where all my talk about living a 'surrendered life' has the chance to be lived out in real time.

In my journal last night I wrote it all out. Did the ask, with specific details. But in the end, who am I to tell God how to do His job? I ended it with a freeing statement of release that I meant with all my heart.

"Whatever. I'm Yours."

Some more words, from one of my all time cherished chapters in the New Testament.

"But we have this treasure (the good news of Jesus) in jars of clay (our human bodies or limitations) to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us."
2 Corinthians 4:7

So, pressing into that, here I come Tuesday.

Hope yours is everything you need it to be.
Stay happy and safe if you're trick or treating.

Well Okay, If You Insist

 

In the midst of all the official work, meetings and events of this past month, we have also wanted of course to make sure our visiting Thai family has had lots of opportunities for fun and recreation.

Thrift shopping has been about that. Niagara Falls was about that. Visiting the CN Tower was about that. Their outings with the Gabbers and the Bowmans for apple picking and a corn maze respectively were about that. All of it was amazing and we've made so many good memories, a few good finds and lots of pictures.

And. Some of our best fun has happened right outside our house, both in the front and back yards. It has involved logs, a wood splitter, and a whole lot of leaves.

Okay. Full disclosure. Right now I am sitting in the family room with my feet up, much improved but still being careful with my kidneys until I get some tests back from the doctor. Suradet, Yupa and Bell, on the other hand, are out there chasing every last leaf to the curb as if it were some kind of Canadian frontier vs Thai work-ethic competition. And if I dare so much as step out onto the porch I will be scolded back inside to 'praporn' (rest).

It feels odd to let them do it, yes. They are guests after all, and Ken and I are certainly capable home owners. But -- they genuinely seem to be having fun. Ken and I have lived in this house for over 35 years and have raked our fair share. While it's a pleasant enough activity on a good day, it certainly doesn't hold the wonder of novelty it apparently does for Suradet, Yupa and Bell.

And the wood-splitter? We've renamed it Suradet's toy.

The result is that our house has the unusual designation this year of being the one on the street that's ahead of the game. The one where everyone else drives by and says, "Oh yeah. I should get at that." Like I do most other years.

As well, we are ready for the fireplace season to begin with so much wood stacked our hearth will be all things warm and inviting for all the cold nights this winter can throw at us.

This is our last day together where nothing else is expected of us. We had our NFF Management Committee Meeting first thing, finished up some thrift shopping in the early afternoon, and then home for this last bit in the sunshine raking leaves, or resting as the case may be. They insisted.

I do think it all evens out somehow.
I hope so.
That's what reciprocal partnerships are about, after all.

Hard to believe the month is coming to a close.
They are heading home on Monday.
Then one week later, I'm on a plane with our Highview Team to go visit them.
Hoo boy.

#abundantlife #checksandbalances #forallintensivepurposestoseeifestherisreadingthis #woodsplittingisfunafterall #maybetheyshouldcomehereeveryfall

Pressing Pause

In stark contrast to the pace I've been keeping lately, I spent the day in the family room on our big comfy chair with my feet up and a heating pad on my back, drinking ridiculous amounts of water.

I may be passing a kidney stone.

Yup. If timing is everything this is pretty much it.

Surprisingly, I'm staying calm and optimistic, hoping to hear back from my urologist and grateful that my symptoms, while fairly obvious (not my first rodeo), are still relatively mild.

The household was totally chill about it, more than okay to cancel any penciled-in plans about going to market (raining anyways) or even Thrift on Kent (which I do hope we can get to at one point). Maybe we all needed a cozy day inside with totally nowhere to get to and nothing to be on time for.

Happily, work is an excellent distraction for me while my body works to do its thing. I am coming to the end of this work day in a very satisfied state of mind. Lots of quiet concentration to press into some November-related tasks. More than I expected in the middle of the night last night when my symptoms kept me up for a couple of interesting hours.

Yes, this pause day is just what I needed.

If you are the praying sort, I'd appreciate some support in terms of having all of this done and gone by November 6th please. That's the day we all fly out as a Team for our first group visit since January 2020. And we've planned for several months on this already.

So that's the ask, as we've been invited to do.

And, having said that, I truly am trusting that God can do His job in whatever way He decides.

Gotta love it when 'one day at a time' becomes more real.

Blessings on this Thursday, all. 

So Much Respect

 

This morning I had the chance to revel in preparation for a sermon where I get to talk about someone I admire very much.

Dr. Daniel McGilvary, pioneer missionary to Northern Thailand.

Without laying out the entire of my message (on November 5 at Highview, if you are so inclined), I'll just offer a rather lengthy quote in the hopes of demonstrating the clarity and intelligence with which McGilvary attended to the people he believed he had been sent to love.

I do so in hopes of balancing out the sadly understandable negative image conjured up by the word 'missionary', especially at the turn of the century when the Christian message was first brought to northern Thailand (and other places of the world). Sadly understandable, but not, I contend, deserved across the board.

Humour me for a minute and just listen to his respect for process, culture, and the journey of the human spirit.

"I presume that most Christian people in America have a very crude idea of the method of preaching the Gospel often, or perhaps, generally, used by missionaries, particularly in new fields. If they think that the bell is rung, that the people assemble in orderly fashion, and take their seats, that a hymn is sung, prayer offered, the Scripture read, a sermon delivered, and the congregation dismissed with the doxology and benediction, -- they are very much mistaken.

"All that comes in time...Long after the time we are now speaking of, one could talk of religion to the people by the hour, or even by the day; one might sing hymns, might solemnly utter prayer, in response to inquiry as to how we worshipped -- and they would listen respectfully and with interest.

But if public worship had been announced, and these same people had been invited to remain, every soul would have fled away for fear of being caught in some trap and made Christians without their consent, or for fear of being make to suffer the consequences of being reputed Christians before they were ready to take that step....I have seen people who were standing about the church door and looking in, driven quite away by the mere invitation to come in and be seated."

From "Half a Century Among the Siamese and Lao: An Autobiography" Daniel McGilvary

I am impressed by and want to emulate this kind of sensitivity for the whole process of spiritual formation across humanity. If I understand myself to be a 'missionary pastor', I hope this is the kind of reputation I can continue.

"But in your hearts set apart Christ s Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who ask you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect."

1 Peter 3:15

In a world where we seem to be less and and less able to disagree agreeably, I hope we can find our way to embrace gentleness and respect at every opportunity.

Invitation to Ask

 

I really want this to be a shorter reflection this morning, but even as I get started, I realize how many layers or nuances or tracks this whole topic could take us.

But for now I'll just say that our conversation after supper last night centered around some pretty big things we're trusting God for right now, both in terms of the next steps of the Property Development Project for NFF, and some more personal family decisions. Big things, not necessarily unusual, given stages of life and normal life transitions, but weighty, and exciting, and scary, and all of it.

And as we were talking together, praying together, these words of Jesus came to mind, so we read them out loud in both Thai and English.

"Ask and it will be given to you;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
....how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!"
Matthew 7:7-11

Yes, I know that pulled up and held dangling and untethered to the context of the Sermon on the Mount, these words can and have been used to claim some kind of near-magical powers to manipulate God into doing what you want Him to do. That's not where we went with it.

Instead, we marveled at a God who, unlike others, does not demand from us, but instead invites us to ask. Like you would a loving Father who wants the best for His children.

And we realized again the humility and vulnerability of trust, of asking, of waiting confidently, content in the now while watching for what God will do in the future.

A little flashback to the morning sky this summer seemed an appropriate visual for all this somehow.

When a Plan Comes Together

Many are the plans in a person's heart,

but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails.

Proverbs 19:21

It's Toronto today. Right downtown. And yes, we'll do some sights because who can resist the CN Tower? And truth be told, I've never been to the Aquarium myself.

But we're also exploring (personally, not through NFF) some educational possibilities for Bell in the future. Just keeping an open mind and seeing what's out there. The world is a big place, after all.

And it's all been in the works for months already, setting up appointments and mapping out the calendar. Not just for this visit, but for the whole 'abundant' fall that it's been.

And it's not over yet. A Team of six of us will be leaving for Chiang Mai November 6. You want to believe there's lots of planning happening for that as well.

It's been a lot. Even for me, who loves planning.

I woke up this morning realizing that basically we're already half way through this well-planned out fall. Wow! That went fast! And I'm happy to say that for all intents and purposes, it's all happening more or less how I imagined it.

Plans are unfolding nicely.

And.

All intents and purposes are, for me, not up to me in the end. That's what the proverb reminds us of. God's plans and purposes are what we're after, what we want to see prevail. And no worries, because the story of God is that He does indeed lead us to the end game of restoration, peace, healing, forgiveness, and all things being as they should be.

Yes, I know that's a loaded piece of theology/philosophy to plonk down at the beginning of a day that will take us to Toronto. And I know that I could legalistically tack on, "God willing" to the end of every sentence, this one included.

But I'd rather live it out that tack it on.

I'd rather just live in the humility of making plans but moving forward trusting that the God who loves me will lead me like I'm asking Him to.

He does. He has. He will.

-----

I think I should be taking more pictures.

Pretty sure today will hold lots of photo ops.

On Being Held

Isaiah 41:10

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous hand.

Yupa provides the text for our reflections after supper last night.

It's a spirit-lifting bonus when you have a guitar in the house (thanks Dave Driver!), a proficient guitar player, and others who value taking a pause near the end of the day to give simple thanks for all good things.

It's about 20 minutes of evening worship, mirroring the evening time that happens at Hot Springs every day. I am particularly glad, because it's giving me a chance to 'field test' the song book I'm preparing for the November Team; songs written in Thai, transcript, and translation (an inspiration from Esther Weatherall, again thanks!). Then someone simply talks about what they may have heard from God over that day, or a verse that means a lot to them, or something they are worried about. All in the context of building each others' faith.

Last night we were all of us reflecting on the 'big weekend' we'd had. Saturday was the gathering of supportive friends to hear Suradet and Yupa cast the vision for the development of our new party. So much dessert! Lots of great conversations. Good questions. And...I'll keep you in suspense a bit longer because funds are still coming in -- but it's a happy number so far already .

Then Sunday Highview graciously gave us the whole morning to tell the story of Suradet and Yupa's childhood. What an inspiration to hear how they have overcome so many harsh realities to bring such gentleness the family God has now gathered around them.

Yes, a big weekend. We were all tired. But also humbled and glad.

This verse, then, from Isaiah, reminded Yupa on Saturday morning, and then all of us last night, Who is really looking after all these things. It' true. When you've been planning out these things for almost a year, it can get to feeling like maybe it's you driving it. Maybe it's all up to how carefully you can plan it out and communicate things and gather the teams.

But it's not.

And all along we have known this feeling. Of being held up, carried, strengthened, upheld, by the mighty hand of God.

A quieter day of rest and recovery is planned. A fun outing with friends, but nothing demanding. We need it.

And please let me take this opportunity to say here that there were MANY hands working to make this weekend happen. We felt the love. We really did. Thank you so much!!!!!

Quietly According to Plan

 

As expected, I find in these days fewer moments to sit down to the computer to write stuff. There's no lack of mindfulness, however. I'm feeling it all and ruminating in the between moments.

And it's all so good.

A big of it is just being together. Talking or not. Doing or not. Quietly or excitedly in the family room with the fire on. Happily on a walk, or in a thrift store, or at the church, wherever we need to be in the moment. It's. Just. Happening. This being together thing.

This is my sense as I walk first thing this morning.

When God has given you a deep partnership with beautiful humans who live half way around the world, there's just a lot of time in any given year when you are apart.

And that's hard.

And I suppose some of it is a sense of still trying to catch up from the long absence imposed by the pandemic. But even in our most frequent travelling back and forth seasons, there's never enough time, it seems for us to simply just be together just being.

Sunrise was magical again this morning, made more so by the low laying fog that lingered. I've been putting enough steps on my fitness tracker for sure. But this was the first real walk since Monday when Suradet, Yupa and Bell cam along (and we saw the coyote). Going with the flow in any given day's plans includes the weather of course, but also places we have to be in the morning, or other first morning priorities. There's lots to do to be ready for this coming weekend.

It was good for all of us to see the sun today, I think. The first rays since their arrival. And a perfect day to visit St. Jacob's market and see what might be found. As a little surprise, a man heard us speaking Thai and approached us for a brief and friendly conversation. He's from Laos, having immigrated some 43 years ago already, but still speaks Thai fluently. It was a fun little bit of serendipity, that.

Another little fun thing. I wanted just one of the 'smoldering red peppers' (that's how they were advertised) but the price was $20.00 for a rather large basket. When I asked how much for one, I was offered to take it for free. Well then, thank you! This might help spice up a dish or two.

We are quiet this afternoon. Later Suradet and I will rehearse Sunday's sermon again. We've already prepped the agenda for the November Team's meeting tonight for potluck supper. Norma's here already, having come from work to join us for lunch, and then to ride over with us for the meeting.

They'll be a campfire tonight.
And Suradet on his guitar.
And roasted salmon and other goodies.
And an agenda about all we might like to do when we visit them there next month.

And it all rolls out accordingly.
I've been planning all this since January. Not kidding.
The three things.
Ken and I in July going there.
Suradet, Yupa and Bell in October coming here.
The November Team going there in, well, November.

Here we are in the middle of the Thailand trifecta.
And it's all so good.

Gotta' love it when it happens that way.

Gratitude's Destination

 

The Scripture

“And my God will meet all your needs

according to the riches of His glory

in Christ Jesus.”

Philippians 4:19

 

The Song

“For food and friends

and all God sends

we give Him thanks.

Amen”

 

First the song.

 

This simple childhood prayer-song is happily stuck in my head this Thanksgiving Sunday morning.

The way I learned it, it starts high and swings melodically downward in a joyful lilt.

Simple.

But it basically covers it.

 

All the best parts of my life are coming together this day.

Suradet, Yupa and Bell arrived yesterday all the way from Thailand.  Our first hours together have been so rich already.

Worship at Highview in the morning.  What can I say?  How else would you spend Thanksgiving Sunday moring?  

Family gathering for turkey dinner in the evening.  We do not take this for granted!

And everything that unfolds before me is more than everything I could ask or imagine.

 That’s the Scripture.

The promise.

Everyday it comes true in a thousand-million ways of praise.

 

I am overwhelmed.

Oh.  My.  God.

You.

Worship is the inevitable destination of gratitude. 

May your Thanksgiving overwhelm you too.

Carry Me

 

Even to your old age and gray hairs

I am He,

I am He who will sustain you.

I have made you and I will carry you;

I will sustain you and I will rescue you.

Isaiah 46:4

 

Definitely time for some cozy by now, and that’s okay with me.  Summer held on for more than one go-round of a last hurrah, and I for one soaked it all in.  Now the temperatures start to come down to seasonal.

That’s when the candle gets lit in my little office space down here.

 Right now the candlelight flickers up toward the carved image of a shepherdess carrying a lamb that sits on the mantle behind me.  It was a gift from a friend when I was first officially called pastor; a moment in ministry that I had waited a long time for, and was navigating all the feels about.  I loved her all the more for so ‘getting it’ with this gift; that this was about loving and caring and serving and carrying, and not about titles.   Not at all.

And of course, as shepherds in any context, we only image The Shepherd.  The One we in turn have been carried by.  And the humility of it all.  Of Him, a God who would identify with the lowliest of vocations in order to upend the status quo and expectations to deeply comfort and reassure us all.  And perhaps this being “Pastor Appreciation Month”, I might acknowledge the absolute necessity of being carried.  Anyone in that role in any capacity whatsoever knows this.

I noticed the carved shepherdess this morning when I lit the candle.  It prompted me to look up the word ‘carry’ to find again this exquisite prose from the prophet Isaiah, forming these breath-snatching words of God.

And also the word ‘carry’ was in the prayer I sent off to Suradet, Yupa and Bell as they embark on the long journey to visit us here.  “Please carry my family safely here.”  Oh yes.

This is the last day to get ready.  Glad for it.  There’s still ‘enough’ left to do. But really, all we want now is for them to arrive safe and sound.

So, if you have a pastor, please say thank you at one point this month.  Unless you’ve done it, you really have no idea.

If you are a pastor, I pray you will feel carried by His strong arms, always.  Because the people you carry, they really have no idea.

And since it’s Friday too and the beginning of the Thanksgiving Weekend on top of that – Happy Thanksgiving everyone.  May the blessings of all you are grateful for carry you through all that you aren’t.

 

Sons

 

Again I am lagging in 'national day of's'.
Last time I missed daughters' day and now....

Apparently Thursday, September 28 is Sons' Day in Canada.

That's okay, because that was the day I dropped in to see my son unannounced once I was finished with my annual ultrasound at St. Mary's. He lives close by.

I wanted to just say hi and check in, because he's been giving of himself in rather demanding ways of late, helping a friend in need. Which is just one of the many reasons I'm proud of this guy, and the open heart he carries between these broad shoulders.

And I guess it says something when a Mom can spontaneously stop in on a Son and be so warmly welcomed. He's doing great, by the way, which wasn't a surprise at all.

Also of note:
His smile bears resemblance to his Dad's,
which is just another proof to me that God is merciful. ;)

Happy Just Normal Monday Day, Love!!