Full & Good

I can tell already that this post is going to be messy... I have so much to share and yet it seems like too much time has passed now to cover it all. Sorry if I jump around!

Life is full. God is good.

Recently I wrote a post over on the ZOE blog called The Gift of a 'Work in Progress'. 

As an Enneagram Type 7 person I like to experience life to the fullest, but I avoid pain. So the idea of entering into chaos and mess is often not natural for me. But God is helping me to enter in more fully and “be” with others in the same way that He is with me. 

As a Type 7, I also get bored easily which is why I like excitement and trying out new things. Sometimes it might mean that I leave things unfinished though as I move onto something new... which is why I started this post a while ago and it was never completed. 

Yes! I'm sure this explains a lot about me :) 

Life is full.

Way back in September I had a quick trip back to Australia for the Geography Teachers' Association of Victoria (GTAV) conference in Melbourne. Sharon and I were representing ZOE handing out and sharing with teachers all about our updated Year 10 curriculum. We passed out 100 USB sticks to different Geography teachers from schools all over the state, and heard many positive comments from teachers who were already using it in their schools.

At ZOE, I work as part of the International Communication Team, which means I collect and share stories about what God is doing. As ZOE grows, our team aims to be able to support our coworkers in Australia, Thailand, USA, Japan and Mexico.  I love this role because it is quite diverse. From developing guidelines, collaborating on projects, to collecting stories, writing creatively etc.  The role entails meeting with local and foreign staff in order to gather information and news to make posts for the international website. I am also working on tasks like the Thailand Quarterly Report, International Annual Report, Australian social media pages etc. amongst other things.

During the times when I'm not at ZOE, I am still attending Thai language classes two mornings a week (slowly.... slowly).  I have also enjoyed serving at our local church a bit more. For the past few months, I was able to help on a committee for the annual women’s retreat here in Chiang Mai. It was a wonderful experience. I have also helped out by writing a couple of devotionals for our church's Christmas Advent devotional, as well as ushering/ serving communion once a month.

God is good.

The women's retreat was a wonderful opportunity to spend more time with seven other women from ZOE who also attended. It was a peaceful weekend with periods of restful meditation, times of learning, many hearty laughs and sweet conversations with friends. It truly was such a joy-filled time and a real blessing.

Our family is growing (upwards). Our eldest son was shorter than me in June and then taller than me in July! And it happened that quickly. Our daughter will be 'officially' a teenager next month and our youngest is becoming more and more independent with each passing day -despite the fact that I keep trying to hang on to 'my baby'. 

11 year old boys making pizza!

These past months for our kids have been full of sports-tryouts, birthday parties, auditions, youth group, games, rehearsals, tournaments, projects, lots of homework, friends over and rich discussions about as much as possible. These times are precious and tiring but oh how proud I am of the people they are becoming. I go to bed late and exhausted but with a full heart of thankfulness for all God is doing in each of their lives. I am blessed.

Really - I have no idea how to parent teenagers. Seriously!! It is the most wonderful and challenging of experiences. But these are very precious times not to be wasted. What a joy and honor to have this job.  I often have this feeling like I'm fumbling around blindfolded and I have to carefully find my way around in the dark.  It's causing me to have to rely on my other senses more. Even when I can't "see" what God is doing, I am learning to tune in and hear His guiding voice more. And I know that His goodness and love surround me. Even when I'm not sure where the path ahead is, I can step out in faith knowing He will lead me as I trust Him.

See! I told you this post would be messy! But hey, life is messy... and marvelous all at once! May we fully enter in. 

"I’m so thankful that God gives us discernment and sensitivity to the needs around us so that at those times when we just want to walk around, go a different way, or avoid the chaos, He helps us to enter in and “be” with others in the same way that He is with us." 

- The Gift of a 'Work in Progress'  

A Few Good Men

You want the truth? You can't handle the truth! 

It's the famous line from the play A Few Good Men later made into a movie in 1992 starring Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, and Demi Moore. It was also performed as a play again by some very talented students at my children's school last week. Our son made an appearance too as one of the lesser known lawyers as well as a marine soldier and he had a fantastic time being a part of the cast.

~

Yesterday started off in such a lovely way. My children let me sleep in which was so kind but not only that, just before 9am, my daughter brought me pancakes in bed. Unfortunately it was about that time that the day started to go rapidly downhill... You want the truth?

As I started eating pancakes in bed, my daughter informed me that she had discovered our little dog outside with a baby bird in his mouth surrounded by adult birds swooping him and crying loudly. As I sleepily made my way to where the incident had taken place, I could see the baby bird motionless under the tree and the other birds were sitting up on the roof still wailing loudly, my heart broke. How sad! Shortly after our dog started barking loudly at something in the laundry. Erg, what now?

I watched the dog as he used his paw and pulled a plastic box that had garbage bags in it off the low shelf and just as he did... out ran a rat! Seriously? So disgusting! You may remember the last time I saw a rat in this house. 

So I hate rats... I really do. Even as I write this 24 hours later, I am still looking over my shoulder at the slightest noise. Sadly Dave wasn't home when I saw the rat which reduced the number of the Few Good Men in this house by one, and the other two 'young men' seemed to have mysteriously disappeared to their bedrooms leaving just 'Two Good Women' to sort out the rat problem.

And sort it out we did! My daughter and I made a strategic plan. We knew it had scampered into the room next to laundry which is a small storage room with the deep freezer and refrigerator in it and a shelf for the school bags etc.  We pulled the shelf out and blocked the door way with it so the rat was trapped in the room. We moved the fridge/ freezer out from the wall to allow enough room for our dog to get in and around the back and then we released the hound!

It took a lot of waiting as the rat had managed to make its way into a small compartment at the back of the fridge. Using the light from my phone, we could see his tail hanging down and so could our dog! Eventually after much poking and prodding, the rat made a move and the chase was on... dog vs rat.

I won't share the rest of the gory details... I can't handle the truth!

Needless to say, that rat is no longer living in this house (or any house).

I felt traumatised but I do think the whole experience drew my daughter and I closer as we had to solve this problem together. 

After cleaning up, putting everything back in its place and making myself a coffee, I realised that it was now way past lunch time so my daughter and I set to work with the next task, making lunch. 

I'd had enough drama for one day however who knows, that's often not how it works, right? After lunch, I heard the kids screaming that they'd found ticks on our dog which lead us to begin operation "de-ticking". It's a 2-3 person job and not a pleasant one. As we carefully held our dog down and removed the ticks one by one with tweezers the minutes turned to hours.

Eventually after that was over, I put a movie on for the kids and made dinner. 

As I tucked the kids into bed last night, and had to kill a cockroach that had flown in and was sitting on their bedroom dresser, I started to think about yet another quote from A Few Good Men, 

"I STRENUOUSLY object". But no... "Overruled". 

#thejoysofparenting

As I finally sat down at my computer to try to get some "work" done, the kind that requires you to concentrate, uninterrupted... I encountered another setback, I was so jumpy by then that every little noise in the house had my heart racing. I just couldn't handle it anymore, as I went to crawl into bed, I realised that I had not even had a shower and I was still in the shorts and tank top I'd slept in the night before. 

You want the truth? 

As I said, I can't even handle the truth!

Number 8: New Beginnings!

Click on the picture to enlarge

Today we celebrate our eighth anniversary of being here in Thailand. 
Over the years, I have been reflective about our journey and you can check out some of those past posts by clicking on the links below:

8 years ago!

1 Year
2 Years
3 Years
4 Years
5 Years
6 Years
7 Years



The number 'eight' is a special number. It is the number of "New Beginnings!"

There are 7 days in a week but the eighth day is a brand new beginning to a new week of new opportunities and new possibilities! And that's what I am claiming over this year ahead.

We are excited about what God is going to do this year at both ZOE and in our personal lives.

Thank you for supporting us these past eight years and for your continued prayers for our family.

Finding Joy in the Journey

Part 1

Ninja Whinger Warrior

We arrived home on Saturday, after being away for over two months.  From driving up north of Thailand to then flying down south of Thailand, we then headed over to Sydney and Melbourne and then back to Chiangmai.  It’s been quite the adventure with a mix of relaxation and “working holiday” [now there’s an oxymoron!]

In the beginning of June, we could see our family holiday time approaching, but just making it over the finish line for the end of school felt like completing a round of Ninja Warrior (…with a limp) and many obstacles.

The day before school was finished for the year, our daughter split her lip open and needed a couple of visits to the local hospital. Then someone hit Dave on his motorbike and drove away.  And so, with food being baked for class parties, teacher gifts, friend’s gifts and all the final goodbyes; we started wondering if we were ever going to get on the road to go.

Heading up north, through winding roads, the complaints of swollen lips and feeling carsick were silenced by quiet prayers as the brakes on our car suddenly overheated on a downhill slope. We all held our breath and when eventually Dave cautiously proceeded (after letting them cool down) we hoped and prayed that we would make it on to our destination safely.

With the car brakes working again, we set off once more through the hills until finally we arrived at our hotel.  Glad to be safe and out of the car, we unloaded our bags and found our rooms, only to discover that the hotel was actually not going to be a suitable place to stay {insert sad face here}.

You can imagine how disheartened we were by now and so through language barriers and phone-negotiations with Agoda, the challenges of the Ninja Warrior obstacle course began again as we loaded our cases back into the car and set off once more to find an alternative sleeping arrangement for the night.

As the evening wore on though, it became clear that the car of Ninja Warriors had transformed into the Whinger Warriors with three tired, hungry and disappointed children who, by now, just needed dinner and to know that they had a place to rest their weary heads for the night.

What a great lesson in trusting God!

After finding a restaurant and ordering, Dave slipped out from the table and headed across the road vanishing into the darkness. Appearing back some minutes later with a relieved look, a room booked and a place to sleep for the night… we were all very thankful, to say the least. The next day we would look more carefully and book somewhere for the remainder of our stay but at least we knew we had a bed for one night!

Some highlights:

Part 2

Beauty and the Feast

Down south of Thailand is just so beautiful. Ironically, after our next booked accommodation did not work out either (a dodgy house booked through airbnb this time) but we stumbled upon a hotel on the beach with reduced prices because they were going through a major renovation. We were right on the beach and our room was far enough away from the construction that we couldn’t hear all the banging. The sand was just a few feet away and the place included a great breakfast too- thank you God. It really was beauty and the feast!!

With the exception of a few jellyfish stings on the first day: the beach, the weather, the food and the water were all amazing. We truly enjoyed our precious family time here swimming, boogie boarding, playing cards and just relaxing.

Highlights:

Part 3

The Roads to Rhodes

Our next destination was Rhodes for a mix of work-related engagements (speaking at two churches) as well as spiritual refreshment (attending the Hillsong Conference).  And, yes, we did see Justin Bieber!!
The weather in Sydney was cold but the sunny-blue skies made it appealing to be outside.  The amazing sights of the Sydney Harbour and the coast had us all falling in love with this part of Australia and of course it was fun to show the kids the Bridge and the Opera House.  The people who we spent time with at both Narara Valley and Kiama are all such wonderful, warm, generous and welcoming people. It was a blessing to have this time together.

Highlights:

Part 4

The Blizzard of Oz!

♪We’re off to see the Blizzard, the wonderful Blizzard of Oz! ♫

Well Sydney had helped us adjust a little bit to the winter weather, but the cold winds of Melbourne definitely felt like ice as we landed at the airport of our final destination.

“I've a feeling we're not in Kansas Thailand any more.” 

Home to so many of our friends and family, we were thankful for such a warm welcome with not only Dave’s parents there to pick us up but also one of our nephews, and Dave’s grandmother as well!

Throughout the four weeks in Melbourne, it was an honor to share with six different church groups, a youth group and a missions group.   On top of that, Dave also shared at six schools and met with several people who have pledged to help ZOE in significant ways. God is good!

Throughout all the bookings, we did manage to see family, have medical check ups, walk on the beach, go to the library, watch Australian TV (yes that’s a novelty for us) and eat way too much pizza!

Saying goodbye never gets easier!  There is some truth in the Wizard’s words to the Tin Man.

“You want a heart! You don't know how lucky you are not to HAVE one! Hearts will NEVER be practical until they can be made unbreakable.”

So, yes, we arrived home on Saturday, after being away for over two months.  From the north to the south of Thailand to Sydney and Melbourne but I must say, it felt good to be back home.

I’ll finish with one more Wizard of Oz quote:

“Toto, we're home. Home! And this is my room, and you're all here…

and - oh, Auntie Em - there's no place like home!”

Thanks for reading and keeping updated with our family.  We do love your encouraging emails and messages. And please do stay in touch!

Melbourne Highlights:

One month on...

Well, we left Australia with our hearts full.  Dave was a tad exhausted after a busy 6 weeks, but it is always such a blessing to have time with family and good friends.  After years of missing different things, there is only one thing that I really wish I could bring back to Thailand with me; the very precious people in my life.

~

Unfortunately I experienced travel sickness on the way home so I was very glad when the plane finally hit the runway and I was standing on solid ground again.  As we exited customs, our wonderful friend Laura and her girls greeted us. It was a joyous reunion with lots of laughter and chatter as we lugged suitcases and joked about how hot we all were, still dressed in our winter clothes. We were really looking forward to showers and bed by this stage.

It was only as we were preparing to leave in Laura’s car that our spirits were suddenly dampened. We realized that her bag containing her wallet, phone, passport, bankbook and i-pad had been stolen from the front seat of her car while we’d been loading the suitcases into the back.

Dave, Laura and I took turns to stay at the car with the children and rotated who would go off praying and searching nearby bushes, in the backs of trucks and rubbish piles.  Laura managed to get the attention of the police and we searched anywhere and everywhere in the hope that the thieves would just take the cash and then dump the rest of the contents.

… 3 and a half hours after arriving at the airport, sweaty, tired and thirsty, we began thanking God for His faithfulness. The phone ‘find me’ service was able to help police to locate her bag, which, as we had prayed, was dumped with everything still in it, apart from the money and the i-pad.

With mixed emotions of thankfulness and shock, Laura finally dropped us off.  After a sleepless night on the plane, the travel sickness and the strain of the airport incident, I can assure you, my head was very happy to hit the pillow that night!

The past few weeks have not been quite so dramatic, thankfully.

After finding the adjustment back a little more difficult this time, I feel like we are finally settling into a good routine now.  Our children are back at school and are enjoying their new teachers, classes and being around their friends.

Rock climbing at a friend's party.

I recently posted on Facebook:

I love seeing how God faithfully answers my prayers and continues to provide and supply all my needs but when He answers my children’s big, important requests with abundance… it makes my heart so very, very happy!

I was reminded recently that the way God can show us He’s in control is when we are in situations that we can’t control.

When I see the way my children’s faith is growing; I praise God for his presence in their lives.

~

Shortly after arriving home, one of the young ladies who was living with us at the transitional house was preparing to move to her university dorm.  We know that we will not see her as often now because her university is a long way away so it was with both excitement and sadness that we had to farewell such a wonderful girl.  It was fun to celebrate her out, encourage her with our words and pray blessing on her. We look forward to seeing how she blossoms, grows and changes even more this year.  We believe she has an amazing future ahead of her.

~

With the children back at school, I thought about all the many things that I have wanted to do but somehow the first 2 weeks of school just slipped by very quickly.

I am learning some new cooking skills at the moment, trying to incorporate wheat free, dairy free and low sugar alongside some homemade probiotics to help a few members of our family. Just think a few months ago, I’d never even heard of kefir, fermenting SCOBYs or kombucha, let alone thought about making bone both soup.  And my friend’s text message the other day as we chatted about our soups read something like, “and the more chicken feet the better”.

When did my life start incorporating chicken feet conversations relating to food?

Hmmm!

~

We feel ready for this next season. We know there will be obstacles and trials but we know our God is good. He is able and He is in control.

Visiting the zoo with friends from Australia here.

As you sit and read this, please take a moment to pray for the precious children at ZOE Children’s Home, for our family, the other volunteers and for your family too… for all us… that we will continue to acknowledge when God faithfully answers our prayers and provides with His amazing abundance.

From our home (of fermenting SCOBYs and chicken feet) to yours with love!!

Choosing bones for our soup!