Celebrations

Bee's Graduation from High School with his family.  L to R Suradet, Bee, Yupa, Bao

Today was a day of celebrations.  First was Bee's graduation from high school in the morning.  Bee attends a large school in a neighbouring town of Sankampeung, boasting a student population of about 2000.  Graduation day is a big event, with students, graduates and family and friends all milling about on the grounds afterwards.

Bee and the Highview Team on Graduation Day, also pictured is one of Bee's Teachers

It's quite clear from the colour and noise that graduation day is a pretty important affair.  All graduates, male and female, receive flowers from well wishers, including a circle of flowers to wear as a crown.  Classmates pin pictures and contact information to the graduates' shirts.  Sort of instead of signing a year book we guessed.  Posing for pictures is made all the more celebratory by the creation of several backdrops spaced out on the grounds. 

Around the school are various photo op spots.  Very colourful, and so much fun!

The place was buzzing with excitement.  We had the chance to meet the school principal, and also one of Bee's teachers, both who could speak English very well and thanked us for coming and for supporting Bee's education.

Bee is only one of two of the children who are graduating from high school this year.  Somchai's celebrations, unfortunately will happen on Monday morning, the first Day of Day Camp.  We hope to be able to get some pictures of that to show you as well.  And on Monday night for evening worship we will be holding our own graduation ceremony of sorts.  More to follow. 

It is such a rewarding thing to be part of moments like this with Surdet and Yupa.  When we first met these kids, both Bee and Somchai were preteen boys adjusting to the larger family that God had begun under this one roof.  Now they are fine young men with future plans and dreams.  This would not have been possible without the support of their Sponsors.  So "thank you very so much" to Hilda and Elroy Gingrich and Jon and Carol Rehill. 

Cuddles from Da at the party

 

 

Suradet removes the roast pork from the bamboo skewer

Apple with Megan and Heidi, her sponsors and bff's, chillin' at the party

Another celebration, same day.  Festival!!!  This would be the same as having a big barbque party back home in the summer, although at Hot Springs this really only happens once in a long while.  The kind of food that was served at this party is not in the regular budget here.  Pork is roasted over the open fire.  Sticky rice, cookies and pop.  The kids eat so much they hurt afterwards, and walk around groaning about how full they are....but with big smiles on their faces.  That's really what makes the party so much fun....how much all of them, Suradet and Yupa included, are so clearly enjoying themselves. 

So am I.  And that's the other best thing.  Moments like these I just sit and revel in the simple joys and being part of this amazing family.  How did I ever get to this?  In all my life I could not have imagined it. 

The words of Paul keep echoing in my mind this trip.  "Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen."  Ephesians 3:20-21

In thinking back to any and everything I've ever asked God for, even the things He's said no to, I honestly could not have even imagined asking Him for this.  This is so much more than anything I could ask or think of to ask.  God's lavish generosity to my life completely overwhelms me, as I sit at the table hearing laughter and eating sticky rice.  I look up and catch Yupa's face, and our eyes meet.  A quick moment of connectedness and I simply say, "Prajao dii"  God is good.  She smiles, "Jing, jing."  Indeed.

This morning I woke up with a sore throat.  I'd appreciate your prayers.  I am using my voice all the time here, teaching devotions every morning and evening, preaching on Sunday, and then Day Camp of course.  This morning at worship time I determined not to sing, to try to preserve what I have.  But Suradet went and chose three songs that I can't NOT sing....Give Thanks, You Are Good, and Ruak Saou (can't translate) that move me deeply.  I sang.  And I cried.  It's so much.

Hot Springs Under Construction!

 It's fascinating to me how God arranges things.

There's a brand new and rather spacious building being built on the Hot Springs property.  This is being funded by the Korean Methodist Church, which is the denomination in which Suradet serves as pastor.  The property belongs to the denomination, and as such, they are keen to utilize it for a retreat/conference centre.  I don't blame them.  Out of the city.  Near a natural hot spring.  Several acres to enjoy.

The main building is almost done, except for the finishing touches inside.  More pictures of that later.  Right now the construction workers, who are also seminary students from the Korean Methodist school in Bangkok, are working on the concrete slab that will serve as an outside eating area.  It's fascinating to watch, as they actually make their own cement, fill the small buckets, and spread it out over the rebar. 

 For those who've been to Hot Springs before, this building is located where the garden used to be.  I know, makes me a little sad too.  But Suradet and Yupa have another garden space marked out already for the next growing season.  Aaaaand....when this building is done it will have another two to three rooms to be used as accommodations when Highview Teams come to visit.  Plus the large assembly room will serve very well for Day Camp.  So it's a bonus all the way.

Can't help but think of the 30 bed dorm Suradet dreams of building on the yet-to-be-purchased land next door.  This is not the mandate of the Korean Methodist Church.  Bringing displaced children into a loving family is the dream and passion of Suradet and Yupa, and now Highview.  So projects specific to that mission are following a different time line as we seek God's direction and provision together. 

Meanwhile, we're enjoying having the students with us.  They are beautiful, passionate believers and bring their energy and giftedness to the community life here.  One of them even taught the kids a dance routine to the song, "Every Move I Make".  We're going to tape that and bring it home.   :)

Day Camp.  We're moving closer to the week.  The Team is doing well to work together on some of the planning that had to be cancelled due to snow storms.  Hard to believe there is such a thing as snow on a day like today.  37 C!  Today we went into Chiang Mai to purchase supplies and snacks for the expected 60 children.  Stopped off to get some photocopying done.  Bought new strings for one of the guitars. 

Yesterday afternoon Eg came to me with a gift.  He had taken some of the modelling clay I had put in his packet and replicated the hugging salt and pepper shakers that have by now become iconic of the relationship between myself and these amazing people.  The story goes.....  I bought these after my very first stay at Hot Springs in the fall of 2008.  The red shaker represents Thailand and the red clay earth that is so much part of this place.  The white represents Canada and the snow that fascinates the children.  Each time I leave, I take the white one with me.  It stays on my mantle in my office at church, and the red one stays on Suradet and Yupa's dinner table.  When we are together, they are together.  When Suradet and Yupa came to Canada, the two nestled together on the dinner table at my house.

So Eg's gift is hugely significant.  And the way he made these...they're not coming apart.

Tomorrow we've been invited to go to Bee's graduation from high school.  Should be interesting!  Then in the evening we're having a festival - a part together here around the campfire, much like what happened when I was here in October.  That plus the continuing preparations for Day Camp...and the Sunday service we're doing March 30 will keep us busy enough :).

This Good Day

Me and Eg, who is so much more relaxed and comfortable with us this time :).

Heidi and Wara, sporting her cool Tomboy look these days.

Megan, humoring Eg who took my camera on assignment and fetched a multitude of wonderful, silly pictures.

L to R, Tonkhao, Bao (Bell), Cheunlong and Da, helping with morning chores (raking up the grounds after a heavy rainfall).

Dave and I getting technical details sorted out for Day Camp in Hot Springs sound booth,

As promised...finally....some pictures.  Most of these were captured by Eg, the little guy Ken and I sponsor, who was very responsible with my camera when I sent him out on assignment.  Sometimes that's the best way to get some candid shots.

It's been a very good, balanced day.  All starting at 6 a.m. for morning worship, there's been a lovely selection of time together with the kids, preparation for Day Camp, taking it easy in the heat (that means a nap at the hottest part of the day), and a quick visit to Hot Springs Park for a swim and a shower.

Yupa's cooking continues to amaze us, and we appreciate that she is only introducing the more spicy meals as our time goes on.  We are eating Karen (tribal) style in that as the guests we eat first at the table on our own.  I'm more used to this now, and realize there are other times when we can connect in conversation, which happens more and more naturally each time I'm here. 

Personally, I am reveling in the hugs.  The younger children especially, but even the older girls, are free with expressing their delight in our presence.  We come down the hill from the guest house and are met with a gentle, fervent swam of littles all waiting for their turn to throw thin brown arms around us.  Today we spent some wonderful time around the table on the porch of Yupa and Suradet's house.  Nothing fancy, just a pile of papers, one pair of scissors (must get some more) and several packets of pencil crayons.  Oh, and some nail polish.  Good for a couple of hours with that.  Love the relaxed, very interactive feel of times like this.

I must confess, this doesn't feel like hard work.  Not yet.  That will come during Day Camp, and even this weekend as we lead the service at Hot Springs and head over to the school to set up.  Next week will be very different.  So right now all of us are just enjoying the slower pace and relational opportunities of these days.  All are staying well hydrated and feeling good.  Jet lag is mostly, if not all done.  Now we're just tired when we're supposed to be :)....after a day well spent.

Wait. What?

Is it one Day Two so far?  My sense of being 'at home' at Hot Springs only adds to that sense of time disorientation as we ease into life and ministry here.  Starting pace has been good.  The temperature hasn't actually been all that hot compared to other years, but I think all of us might be feeling it more because of the extreme change from what we left behind in Canada - especially this year!

We've had some meetings to talk about finances, and also to arrange last minute details for Day Camp.  We've hung out with the kids under the dining shelter, learning more about the newest little ones and already receiving gifts of rainbow loom bracelets.  We've eaten well, of course, and Yupa is being particularly sensitive to only increase the spice factor a little bit each day.  We've given out the Sponsor Packets and the Sock Monkeys, and spent amazing times worshiping together.  And today we went into Chiang Mai for our first trip to "Big C", to exchange money and grab a few Team supplies.  Lots to do, but in this wonderful, slower-paced way that is rural Thailand.

Today we learned that we have been invited by the principal of the public - that means Buddhist - school to use a brand new assembly room for Day Camp.  Wait.  What?  They want us to come there?   It's larger than the sanctuary at Hot Springs and has air conditioning.  Plus there's playground equipment and a sports field on either side.  We went to visit today, and saw the set up.  Incredible.  And this is being offered to us free of charge!

What's more beautiful and redemptive is this cross over borderlands thing that's happening here!  On the stage is a Buddhist shrine.  We're respectfully on Buddhist territory where we are being shown grace and hospitality.  Today when we were there the principal made it clear that he knew we were Christians and would be teaching the children stories from the Christian Bible.  He was just so happy and very appreciative that volunteers from Canada would come so far to teach the children of his school to read and write English!

It's clear that this favour has been granted us because of the good reputation of Suradet and Yupa.  Several of our Hot Springs kids attend school there, and they have had good relationships with the staff as parents. 

I can't help but make the connection between all our prayers for Suradet and Yupa's mission to be salt and light to their own community, and this invitation.  And I also can't help make the comparison between where Hot Springs is at in terms of their 'own back yard' and where Highview is going.  Oh how much we have to learn from them!

By way of a 'big bug story', I came across a large black spider (not tarantula, but approaching the size) in the bathroom today.  Called for help, and brave and heroic Yupa came to my rescue, with only a little bit of laughing at me :).

By way of Sponsor story, Bouy received a bright lime t-shirt from Bill and Marilyn with the tags still on.  She's wearing the shirt but refuses to take off the tags.  It's rare that she actually gets a brand new shirt all to herself, so the tags become something of a status symbol.  :)

I'm sorry there's no pictures yet.  We haven't been that busy, but the timing for downloading hasn't worked out quite yet.  We'll get on it soon.  Likely tomorrow.

Hot Springs March 2014

Sunday morning already.

Arrived at Hot Springs late Friday night after what felt like a harder than usual trip, physically.  Everything went smoothly, and the Team (Dave Driver, Heidi Bramer and Megan Ogilvie) traveled well together (no surprise given they're all ventran Hot Springers :).  But physically, I think I was feeling all the accumulation of events over the past few weeks prior to this trip.

First day was mostly about settling in and acclimatizing.  We're in the low 30's C which, considering the bitter winter we've just left behind is most welcome, but also something of a shock to the system.  Very little is expected of us these first days, and that's a good thing.

Today is Sunday, already, and there will be much more going on here.  First they'll be morning devotions/worship with the kids.  Then breakfast.  Then a whole morning of big and wonderful things as the people of Hot Springs Church gather to worship together.  I'm preaching, and have pictures of the snow to show, which fascinates our Thai friends any time, but this year...they'll be so impressed :).

We'll have lunch and then head into town to do our money exchange and supplies trip into Chiang Mai.  Then back for a rest, supper, and evening devotions when we'll finally give out the Sponsors' packets.

Couldn't do it last night because the power was out for a few hours after a wonderful thunderstorm cleared the air.

Internet hook up is not quite as easy this year.  We are staying at a guest house next door to Hot Springs, and while it is very clean and lovely, and has been used by Team members in previous trips, we actually don't have a home base as it were, right at Hot Springs proper.  There's always something new to work with each trip, it seems, which is great.  Keeps us on our toes.

I'm not able to connect yet to the Thailand Team blog, so hopefully I'll be able to do links and such and keep everyone informed that way.  After today we may even have some pictures to send along.

Thank you a thousand times to everyone who always makes these trips possible.  All your support and help and love means the world to us ... here halfway around it.

More later.  I promise.

2013 A Year Divided

In my mind 2013 was clearly divided into two parts; sane and insane.  Only on the calendar it was reversed.

On this day last year, January 1, 2013, the insanity that had started my very first day back from the cottage that previous August, spilled over into the new year, stringing out into what would become days, weeks and months of non-stop, unpredictable, unrelated stresses.  It's true enough that my life is intrinsically entwined with the lives of about 100 other people in a community of faith that values authenticity, and that in itself is an invitation to the unexpected messes of reality.  Pastors are expected to become involved in all manner of situations without much notice.  And it's often an intensive kind of involvement.  Part of the territory for sure.

But in the 30 plus years I have been involved in this kind of work, both as a volunteer and otherwise, I cannot remember a time when the weirdness factor was quite so high.  So much.  So intense.  So relentless.

Serious medical crises, conflicts over policy and practice, walking someone through a criminal investigation, and three deaths in 11 days.  None of this ever showed up on the radar until it was urgent.  No planning possible.  At all.  For months I was thrust into a zone of my least competency - flying by the seat of my pants.  For months. 

And then of course, there's my own stuff going on.

My daughter and two of our grandchildren, who had lived with us for the past three years, had moved out just before Christmas.  And while this was very positive move, something we had been working toward together, representing strong things for our family, I found myself grieving harder than I expected at the sudden absence of their little selves in my daily life.  Because they were still relatively close and we saw them at least once a week, it was hard to explain, even perhaps to myself, why I was feeling it so strongly, why the sadness was so much.  I didn't talk about it too much because, well, it sounded silly. 

I was nursing some grudges during that time as well.  Old stuff.  At least eight years old, if not longer.  And I'm ashamed of it, because I know better.  I preach better on this than I was living it then, at the beginning of 2013.  And it's stupid.  Because the energies required to hold on to past hurts, and the brain space needed to keep thinking about it and trying to figure out why you were betrayed like that, and how badly you were duped into thinking a relationship was one thing when it really wasn't, and how all that swims around in your head like a stew of disgusting leftovers, really makes grudge-nursing a truly inefficient way to live internally.
But it was there, and I was working on it, but wasn't really gaining any freedom from it. 

So all this external stuff and all this internal stuff.

And I got to the cottage and laid down and thought I might never be able to get up again.

Except my first 10 hour sleep later I did.  And made a cup of tea and sat out on the deck and begged my way through Psalm 91.  All five, gasping, life-saving weeks of it.

She who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty, it begins. And so began a new learning.  Learning to dwell, live in, God, like He is my house.

I came home and everything was different.  Like, completely different.  It was like the insanity quotient for the year had run out, and now I was in the sane part.  I know that's not true.  I have had times when the insanity just keeps coming.  But 2013, totally divided.

I sat in the sunshine in August by the pond near the church and read in preparation for Christmas sermons.  I completed another credit towards my MDiv, mostly sitting outside in the courtyard at the school.  In leading Highview, I was able to map out weeks in advance and watch in wonder as everything got checked off my lists, almost every week.

Issues that loomed as enormous threats before I had left for the cottage came to surprising and peaceful resolutions.  Our church parking lot expansion project got done - finally!!  

I got to visit Thailand all by myself for two weeks in October, and came to a new appreciation for the deep synthesis of my life story with my Thai family's story in a way that feels like only God could have been part of it. 

Because of the sanity, Christmas was a joy, well planned, simplified and truly worshipful.  Probably the best Christmas I can remember in eight years.  I am still filled up from it, in deep, deep places of my soul.

I was able to let go of what was and accept what is in regards to my grandbabies.  Love them so much it scares me, and the time we had together when they were so young will forever bind us.  But it's okay now that they live in a different house.  And for the first time in a long time I experienced a release from the hurts I'd been holding onto.   I finally gave myself permission to set them free.  And it's working.  And there's so much more space in my heart now for good and beautiful thoughts instead.


Life still happened, but not to the extreme.  Nobody got really sick.  Nobody died. 







And then last night, surrounded by some of the best people on the planet, I got to dance with undignified joy and count in and pray over the New Year.





And there's no secret to this.  I'm just saying this is how it went.  Because that's how 2013 was.  Psalm 91 was not a magic spell that changed a bad year into a good year.  I could have come home to more of the same and be writing a very different ending to this blog.  But I didn't, and I'm grateful.


And God is good either way.


Because either way He is my dwelling.  And sane or insane, my life is His.  Strange year this. 

A divided year.  But clearly I have God's undivided attention. 

Open Letter to the Incredible People of Highview

December 2013 

Dearest Friends,

What is it about Christmas that deepens my affections for each one of you?

Maybe it’s the sweetness of the season as expressed to one another in cards and gifts and Christmas hugs, and just how the place looks so warm and fabulous this time of year.

Could be the love and sweat poured into preparing for Let It Be Christmas, now in its sixth season, and how this has become a kind of portal between the astonishing story of the Nativity and so many who don’t know Him in our city.

Maybe it’s how we’ve let our hearts grow bigger for God in reaching out to God-cherished people in our own backyard this year, and the way this is playing out in not-at-all-random acts of compassion over the holidays.  Perhaps it’s the stories of how families and individuals at Highview have opened their homes and their hearts to welcome those in need, living out the radical truths of Isaiah 58 and Matthew 25 in quiet, unassuming ways.

Or how quickly we were able to get the funds to get a stove for Yupa for Christmas.

I know for sure our shared losses this year are making this a bitter-sweet Christmas for me.  While we celebrate and wonder at what it would be like to be “Home for Christmas” in Heaven, we grieve deeply with the families of Dale Brown, George Duff, and Jonathan Webb; for them and for our own sense of painful separation from these we loved.  Grief-pain has a way of deepening everything, including our bonds with one another.

Whatever is it I know it is deep and profound and makes me grateful for you in ways I find poorly articulated in these far-less-than-adequate words.

I can only hope that in some way I could be found worthy of being part of this uniquely beautiful and gifted and Spirit-filled and generous community of grace called Highview Community Church. 

So, this Christmas, I pray God’s deepest peace be brought to your deepest longing; His brightest light to shine on your darkest path, and His abundant grace to cover your most desperate need. 

Whatever God brings to us in 2014, it’s ours to do together. 

With affection that grows deeper all the time,

Ruth Anne  

                                                                  

 Here is the man whose name is the Branch,

And he will branch out from his place and build the temple of the Lord.

Zechariah 6:12

You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house

to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices

acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 2:5