Lessons of the Heart

One of the things that God has been doing for me during our time here is giving me a peek into my heart and motives...It's not always as pretty as I wish. Sometimes I really don't like the things I see there. I see, at times an inordinate desire to please people... to fit in, and cut the grade...But that's not what God wants me to be seeking. I really want to live for him alone. I'm asking God work in my heart and to give me a heart of pure worship to him that simply delights to do His will and doesn't care so much what others think of me.

 

 I've started to think a lot about returning home, now that our time here is drawing towards a close. In two month we will be wrapping up here and preparing to come home. So, I think what it will mean to come back and try to readjust to "normal" life. I want to be all there, yet I also do not want to simply forget the lessons God has taught us here. 

We've talked some about what we will do. We want to plug in more in our church, but we are also thinking of trying to do some ministry in D.C. It's really not that far away, and there are people there from all over the world. God will need to continue to direct our steps... We're still praying about whether He wants us to make a sort of exploratory trip to northern India once we have enough funds. Or is he perhaps calling us to minister in the US, possibly among the many many ethnic minorities represented in our big cities? We don't feel that we have a clear direction as yet. Please keep praying for us.

Adventures in Laos

We are in Laos right now, and I'm typing this bit of an update on the iPad. (edited later to add photos)
Wed  morning we hustled away in a great hurry to catch our bus, only to sit and wait at the office for a while until it arrived... This is life! Our ride was fairly uneventful. The children did quite well. We got to the border town around 4:30 or so, and were shown to our nights lodging... It was quite a luxury suite! Not! But I figured we'd still sleep just fine. There I was mistaken. It was under a bar and by another bar, so that about the time we settled in to sleep for the night some other folks were just beginning their evening's activities. The druken noises continued till sometime around 2:00 am, and shortly thereafter John awoke and decided he was ready to get up. Besides which my part of the twin sized bed in our fan-less room had a few extra comfy springs to massage my ribs!
Anyway, the night ended at last and after some toast and jam as our substantial breakfast we were on our way to cross the border.

Our crossing was by boat...quite the boat! Mom would have LOVED this! I was holding my breath and praying for safety, and definately relieved to reach the other side safetly!Maybe I wouldn't be so petrified of rickety overloaded boats if I knew how to swim, but since I don't and with two little ones besides.... And the life jacket you see on John was an adult one that didn't buckle... How much help that would have been God knows, but I'm glad we had no cause to find out!

We were taken to the bus station by our tour coordinator, and then a long wait for the bus while we found ourselves being closely observed by the Laotians around us. I had to wonder how often they had seen foreigners before, especially little foreigners!  The man you see beside Darren in the photo is from Israel. He joked about us being aliens and our our ufo being parked further down the road.
I spoke to him about the Lord, but he is not religious and looks at Christianity and other religions as being simple a product of the brain to make us all feel better about ourselves, so it was hard to get any where. He just smiled as if to say - Yes, it's so nice you can have such a comforting belief!  But of course I know better than to think it is reality.
Soon we were on our way on long bus ride to the village town we are staying in. On the way the driver stopped and said something in Laos. I asked a lady who spoke some English what we were stopping for and she said with a heavy accent and a gesture around her. "You can go to bathroom... Anywhere you want"
We arrived and got a taxi to a very nice guesthouse for around $8.50 a night. That's nice, especially since food is more expensive here than we expected. Today we spent some time exploring the town as well as in prayer and reading.

These two little girls were enjoying some desert together at the table outside our guesthouse

 

Here is a picture of the strange rotor tiller powered type vehicles that are common on the roads here in Laos - Driven by a youngster

 

Two cuties that we passed enjoying a secret

The landscape

The houses of the rich are quite a contrast to those of their poorer neighbors

 

John loved the riding toy that the guesthouse owners allowed him to use

 

Our cutey!

 

 

Refuge from the pouring rain

      We took public transport on the way back. Observe the speedometer reading and gages - We were going full speed though they do not show it.

      The Lord orchestrated our trip and led us to a man from Laos who wants to be a Christian.  Please pray for him that he will be real one. He wants to talk with Darren more on the phone today or tommorrow. Pray that God will give Darren the words to say and wisdom to make truth plain to him. His name is Sene.

     So here's a very recent family picture! We are just finishing up 4th term and ready to head off to Laos for our trip. It should be an adventure! We have bus tickets to get there and a hotel for the first night away from home. After that we are on our own. No connections in a foreign, and Communist country! So remember us to our Father! We really have no idea what to expect, and no real plans for what we will do there.  I have a phrase book with some Laotian phrases and usually you can find somebody who speaks at least a little English. Otherwise it will be through signs and wonders - We sign, and they wonder and vica versa.   So yeah, it could be interesting! It's a little scary, too, even though I do like adventure!

     And here's a snap-shot of the two of us that someone took the other evening at Rick's house.
Our time here had been very good for us as a couple. I think we've learned to know each other better than ever, and also to realize how much more we have to learn about how we each think, as we talk things through... miss each other occasionally, and finally learn to see how the other sees. I really appreciate those times of visiting and sharing hearts. Especially when Darren makes time after a long day of study!

Here is a picture of me working on the painting I've just finished on Lee and Joyce's wall... while it was still lacking some things! That was a lot of fun! I've got another one to do when we get back from Laos.

See John's bandaids? He just got over a case of boils and last night I discovered that it's Christy's turn next. :(  Please pray that she will get over them with out any more trouble! She cried like her heart would break when I squeezed them out last night. I know it has to be extremely painful! This morning she seemed like she had a grudge against me till finally I wondered if she was upset about me hurting her last night and so I sat down and talked with her and told her I was very sorry I had had to hurt her and that I didn't want to. Then she kissed me and was okay again. It's almost surprising sometimes how much she seems to understand!

Our Trip to Omkoi

For our last ministry trip we went with the group of students in the picture above to a Karen village about 3 1/2 hours South of Chiang Mai. The Thai man at the top of the picture is Pastor Kiat. He made the contacts for us, and directed the revival meetings in the evenings, as well as teaching at the local Bible School during the days.

This is a Karen boy in a traditional handwoven Karen shirt.

Huh? What? Who? Me?! I'm not doing anything, Daddy, honest and trully!

One of Christy's many "admirers" :) Just playing :)

This is a traditional Karen women and myself after an evening meeting. Many of the local people had responded for salvation that night.

Here is Christy in her Karen dress that was gifted to her. The people loved her! She was sick a lot of our stay with the stomach flu, but overall she has done pretty well.

Here is the group of students that we worked with a lot during the days, teaching English.

This is the student body of the local Bible School where we ate most of our meals. They basically hosted out stay in the village.

Darren and Asher with some of the students in their traditional dress.

 

Several of the girls wanted to pose for pictures with us. 

And lastly just a couple shots of the children, since some of you have been saying you would like to see them on here. 

A cute kissing moment between my two little munchkins! Johnny can be so original at times! This morning he told me "Josiah was so satisfied because he couldn't do along to volleyball!" He meant sad. :)

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An excerpt from the letter we sent to our church folks, for those of you who haven't already read it and wish too. It says some of the same things, but without the added pictures:

    Greetings!  We just returned from our third, and favorite ministry trip! We went to Southern Thailand with Pastor Kiat, and stayed in a Karen village. The people were very friendly and hospitable, but the food was somewhat trying, especially the cucumber stew. The first morning that they served us the cucumber soup/stew, I had stayed home with Christy because she was sick. Darren brought some back to me and it was cold and rather gross. I tasted it, and my stomach did some flip flopping. But I hadn’t commented yet when John tasted it. He took one enthusiastic bite and then turned away with “Put that stuff in the POT, Mom!” I had to mentally agree with his deduction. So if any of you all have extra cucumbers this year, and were just thinking that soup might be a creative way to deal with them.... Do a retake. :) 
    In the evenings we helped with the revival services at the local churches in the village. Quite a number of people responded for salvation. But I had to wonder how deep their understanding of sin and salvation was. Pray that the pastor there would be able to disciple them, and that they would not fall away and become more gospel hardened.
    The history of the Karen tribe here in Thailand is that when the gospel came, they turned to Christ by the hundreds. But now it is several generations ago, and many of people do not really have more than a nominal Christianity. The smell of opium was on the air even at the church service, and one of the talented local men, who could sing and play guitar, and spoke very fluent English, had obviously fried part of his brain doing drugs. There is much need for discipleship among these hill people.