Joy in Unexpected Places

I've been meditating on joy a lot recently. I quote I read goes something like this - "Thanksgiving is the attitude of the heart. Joy is the abundance it creates."  I want to live in the joyful abundance of thanksgiving. This morning as I was cleaning and hanging up laundry in the cold wintry air, I got to pondering how thankful I am for these things! Why? Because of what they mean to me. 

Laundry means family - loved ones who are healthy and can work and play. They are a gift to me from the Lord.

The dirt and hand prints that my little ones make are evidence of this also. And so are the muddy tracks from my husband's work boots. It means that God graciously gave him his job back, and we didn't need to come back and look and search for work in this low economy! It means I have a wonderful husband and provider! "Where no oxen are the crib is clean, but much increase is by the strength of the ox." (I'm not saying he's an ox, only that it may be less work to be alone, but I'd much rather the work and my lovely family)

These past eight months

It’s the beginning of a new year… I look back and ponder all the way that the Lord has led us. This time last year we had no idea that today we would look back on eight months of Bible School in Asia. In fact, at the time we had very little knowledge of what IGo even was.

 

our little family in Thailand

    But God opened doors and directed us through them and we are very thankful for His leading and rest in the steadfast hope that he will continue to lead in the future.
    So a bit of a sum up.
If you read back over past posts, you will be able to form a bit of an idea what life looked like for us there.  There were a lot of changes to make to adjust to being students. We’ve both been out of school for years, and were mostly home-schooled, add to that being spouses and parents. I had no idea what a challenge that would be. After the first term, I stopped taking classes in the class room and did a bit of listening over skype or to recordings while caring for the children.

  

 John and Christy playing in the dirt

Darren took all of the morning classes, but for the most part used the afternoon for studying. After a few terms I began taking one class in the afternoon while the children napped. That was a blessing.
    The teaching we received enriched our lives and the experiences of living in unusual circumstances and working closely with other people day in and day out was very good training for us. I learned to understand better what it means to live “in a fish bowl” or a “glass house.” They say that people who live in glass houses should never throw stones. I think I understand that concept better than ever. Those who lived with us, and worked with us over these past months can testify to our many faults. I hope also, by God’s grace, they could testify that they have seen us reaching forward, and striving to overcome them. As I saw my own weaknesses exposed for everyone to see, I  think I learned to feel for others more deeply and to give them more grace in their weakness. I hope I don’t forget but continue to learn this lesson.
 

My little monkey

 
  After Darren’s last accident, we had one more term and then took the trip to Cambodia that we had been planning to take when he got hurt. 

(That hurt foot healed very slowly and his toe still gives him pain)

    Our original contact had to take a quick leave of absence, and was not able to give oversight to the planned work, so we worked with a kindergarten school there instead. It was a rather unique experience. Teaching a bunch of 4-7 year olds to say their letters and words like - eyes, mouth, ears…. Not exactly what we would have chosen, but God knows best. Cambodia has a horrifying history of genocide during the Pol Put regime. If you don’t know anything about it, maybe you should research it sometime. I understand that about 1in 3 of the people were tortured and killed during the horrific reign of the Khmer Rouge. The stories make your blood run cold. All the older people (over 30) can remember those days. It definitely still has its affect.

In Cambodia

 

Change of Plans

The heart of man plans his way,

but the LORD establishes his steps. Prov. 16:9

    The last post, I mentioned that we were packing up for Cambodia. The Lord has changed our plans.
    On Tuesday afternoon as I was packing up the last few things and preparing for our trip, I was interrupted by a visitor. One of the other ladies had gotten a call that the men had had an accident. Darren was involved and was being taken to the hospital for xrays on his foot. I was relieved that it was simply a foot they were concerned about, because motorcycle accidents can be so bad!
    It turned out that they didn't find any break, but did remove the nail and put 12 stitches in, including some where the nail had been. He had a severe sprain and some burst blood vessels besides.
The amazing thing is that this injury was actually worse than the ones he got from his tumble down the falls! We measured that when we went back, and found that it was around 60 ft. from the top to were he landed! God is good!
    Now he is down recovering. The foot was very painful at first, but the pain is beginning to lessen.
    But of course that has meant a change of plans! We are thankful that we know - "All things work together for good to those that love him." We do love him, so we know he has some good thing for us through it all.

Testing and packing

Today was the final day for this term. We finished our testing for the day. Now to pack for our expedition to Cambodia! We leave on Wednesday, Lordwilling. I'm not exactly sure what the details of this trip will be. But we trust that He will go before us and set a path for our feet. Then it's one more term, one more trip, and we wrap up to come home! Continue to hold us in your prayers.

 

And here's a plane that Darren took a picture of the other day!

Nok(Bird) Airlines! For the birds?

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.