Firstly, thank you
for your love and care for our family.
We know we don’t communicate nearly enough and our efforts at keeping in
touch are sporadic, but we truly are grateful for all you do to keep us in your
thoughts and prayers despite the distance between us.
Well as I sit here
reflecting about this past year I see Spencer eating his breakfast at the
table… dressed up as a bear. Our
children continue to be a source of much joy and laughter for David and I. They are growing up so quickly and sometimes
I wish I could just freeze them at their current ages.
It’s been an
interesting year and maybe one of our hardest so far. It’s difficult to pinpoint why this is the
case as we feel settled in our home, the children love school and life, there
have been no major cases of sickness etc. but, life has, at times, felt
overwhelming and exhausting. It has been
through this year though that we have been able to clearly see God’s hand on
our family and know that He’s sustained us and given us the energy and strength
that we needed. As we continue to seek
Him in 2014, we trust that His plan for our lives and our work here will
continue to unfold.
I am so thankful
for the two times this year when we have been able to take some time to
rejuvenate and re-energise. In June this
year we took a week off and had a ‘staycation’ in Chiangmai at the Juniper
Tree, a place of rest for missionary families.
It was a precious time to get to know some other families who are
serving all over Asia as well as having time as a family without any of life’s
usual distractions. The second time of
refreshment was about a month ago. A
church in America paid for all the ZOE missionary families to go and stay at a
resort and they organised a four- day retreat/conference for us as a time of
reflection, teaching, rest as well as lots of fun. We felt so blessed and privileged to have
been given this gift.
Well, one
highlight from the beginning of 2013 was having Dave’s two sisters,
brother-in-law and nephew spend some time here in Chiang Mai. We loved having them here, especially when
Tammy stayed on longer to do an intensive language course. We shared a lot of laughs and a lot of mango and sticky rice
together.
I hit a bit of a low at the beginning of the year when my classes at ZOE
became increasingly challenging. Bogged down by the enormity of just what
some of my students had been through coupled with a deep yearning to connect
with them and show them God's amazing love through my life and actions,
I had to remind myself that it's all about God and not about me. Any
little thing I can do is only through His power. As His servant, my job is to continually and
diligently be in prayer and obedience, remembering, that it is God who breaks
the chains.
In February, it
was a pleasure to work alongside Dave and be the “official” photographers for
two different ZOE staff member’s weddings.
We had such a blast doing this as well as presenting them with framed
wedding photos as our gift to them. In
February, we also got an oven! Whoop!
Whoop! This was a highlight for me and it meant that I could, once again, bake
and cook some of our family’s favourite meals.
We also completed
our first ‘Run for Relief’ 5km fun run to raise money for the displaced people
in the neighbouring country of Burma. We
have since been back to walk/run this track and bike-ride. We look forward to
this being an annual event that our family completes together.
March brought us
to the decision to move Tobi to the Australian school where Eliana attends. It was a big decision, but one that we have
been so happy to have made. Eli and Tobi
were in the same class for the last part of the school year and are now in a
split 2/3 class.
Visiting the Elderly Home |
From April to
June, I busied myself by helping out at our children’s school by doing odd jobs
like purchasing and arranging a new air-conditioning unit to be installed,
helping to bring in a school uniform and even being the school
photographer! I was also able to set up
the schedule for our trip back to Australia and help Dave prepare for all the
different events that he was speaking at.
In amongst all of
that, I had the thought to put some of our stories into a book as source of
encouragement for other people… this proved to be a bigger project than I had
anticipated, but when it was finished (the day before we left for Australia) it
was all worth it and I was so glad that Dave had supported me and kept
encouraging me until it was completed.
After returning to
Thailand, we found out that there was still no teacher for Tobi and Eliana’s
2/3 class for the coming school year which was to begin in 2 weeks time. I stepped in to help out for a couple of days
a week, which very quickly turned into full time. It was a huge task to jump in without much
preparation, but thankfully it is a small class and despite the busyness of the
past 5 months, it has been a joy to have the opportunity to teach, not only, an
age group that I love, but also two of my own children!
It would be
untruthful to say that it’s all been smooth sailing, the craziness of working
full time and balancing family life has definitely been a struggle. I am thankful that David has been so
understanding and supportive. What a blessing and privilege it is to be able to see how our children are growing in confidence each day and be a big part of educating them in this season.
The past five
months really have been a blur! It is
nice to finally be on 2 weeks school holidays.
We are looking forward to our ZOE missionary Christmas party on Monday,
Christmas Eve with the ZOE family on Christmas Eve and a quiet Christmas Day at
home on Wednesday.
I guess my summary
of the past year would be, “a year of unplanned moments”. I wrote a blog post about it back in October,
which I will paste part of here, but I really think that, it is these moments
in life that we often get to see God’s work at hand. To be able to pause for long enough to see
Him in these instances in all His goodness is what I hope to be able to do each
and every day.
Nearly 4 years ago when we uprooted our family from life in Australia and
moved across the seas to Thailand, we never could’ve imagined all the things
that God had in mind for us. Thankfully
God has been right here alongside us every step of the way.
I like what Alan Ward writes,
"Isn’t all of life an
unplanned journey? Each day comes to us; we don’t get to preview it and skip
the days that we don’t like. We can only choose to receive what each day brings
and struggle to find God in the midst of it all—for God is with us always if we
can but train our eyes to see, our ears to hear, and our hearts to be open to
receive Christ into our lives anew each day.
I hope and pray that in time we will all learn to see God with us in
every present moment and especially on the unplanned journeys that are so much
a part of this life."
As we head into
2014, it is our prayer that we will seek God in every situation and live to
please Him knowing that He is with us
through it all.
May you have a
blessed and joyful Christmas.
With much love
from our home to yours,
Andrea (on behalf
of The Cross Family).
P.S. A short update from Dave…
One of my
favourite things to do at Christmas is to reflect on the past year. As I sit here and do this, I know that it
sure has been a wonderful year at ZOE.
Many children have been rescued this year and we have been blessed with
incredible provision from the Lord to do this work.
During one of my
times at a ZOE safe-house this year, one of the boys was asking me about
Christmas, what it meant, how we celebrated etc, and he was quite fascinated by
it. I am excited that in just a few days
he will enjoy his very first Christmas.
He, like many others who we have rescued this year, have been through
some incredible challenges. He is
definitely still in the initial stages of healing, but I am very excited to be
able to spend Christmas Eve with him and the other children at ZOE.
The year for me,
just like Andie mentioned, has been very full.
We have had more involvement with the Government of Thailand and I have
attended many other meetings with organisations and governments from countries
outside of Thailand.
I often sit in
these meetings with people who have much higher qualifications and experience
than me, wondering how I came to be
there. It is during these times that I
say (many) quiet prayers and ask the Lord to give me the wisdom that only He
can. It is interesting to see what’s happening as we work with and alongside
people from a wide variety of cultures and viewpoints.
I have also
enjoyed being part of the team to review and develop the plans for the ZOE safe
houses and I pray that soon we will have the finances required for these necessary
buildings.
In addition to
these things, I have enjoyed teaching sport to some of the children, three
times per week. I have two basketball
classes and one karate class. I have
found that this has been such a great way to continue building relationships
with the children –especially the newly rescued ones.
The Lord is so
good and He continues to help and guide us in our work at ZOE.
Thank you for
continuing to empower us to do this work.
Blessings, David.