the rose of the north

Yes my friends, last week was a doozy.  This week was also doozy.  I had two weepy, weepy breakdowns (which only Jon saw, as always).  Oh friends.  But I think I’m coming through it now.  And looking back over my years of teaching, I do remember that the week before the start of school, and the first week of school were particularly draining.  And whichever week fell around Halloween.  Yeesh, how I loathe that holiday!  Anything harvesty, Thanksgivingy, pumpkin patchy…. great!  Anything scary, vampirey, ghosty….yuck.  And I read online that Halloween is second only to Christmas in terms of merchandising, etc.  Not that I relish that Christmas is number one in merchandising.  Just sayin’.  What was I sayin’?  I’m off track.

Right.  Yes, well, we’ve come through the week now.  To add on to the fullness of our already full days, our Foundation hosted a week long church planting conference called the International Church Planting Summit at a hotel downtown.  It was really amazing….over a hundred faithful Thai nationals attended, ready for words of encouragement and community sharing of ideas.  Prayer.  Worship….which was Jon’s contribution, as well as attending some of the workshops.  It was, as I said, awesome.  The workshops were powerful.  To see all the men and women who gathered in itself was powerful; seeing God at work in their hearts and minds, ready and willing.  So beautiful.  Beautiful like the words from Isaiah 52:

“How BEAUTIFUL on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news,

who proclaim peace,

who bring good tidings,

who proclaim salvation,

who say to Zion,

“Your God reigns!”

Listen!  Your watchmen lift up their voices;

together they shout for joy.

When the Lord returns to Zion,

they will see it with their own eyes,

Burst into songs of joy together,

you ruins of Jerusalem,

for the Lord has comforted his people,

he has redeemed Jerusalem.

The Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations,

and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.

….

The Lord will go before you,

the God of Israel will be your rear guard.”

You know that movie with Steve Martin called “The Jerk”?  I don’t even know if I’ve watched it more than once but there’s this one quasi-famous, oft-quoted scene where he has some sort of a breakdown after he loses all his fortunes.  He shuffles down the hallway in his robe and jammies, taking random things along the way.  He mutters things like “All I need is this stapler, that’s all I need.  And this remote.  And that’s all.  That’s it.  And this chair.  The stapler, the remote and the chair and that’s all.  That’s all I need.  And this phone book.”

I look like that some mornings.  Some of you have seen me like this in the mornings; shuffling along in despair, robed and bedraggled.  I looked like that this very morning, sadly enough.  Many mornings, as of late, as a matter of fact.  And in my head, I think things to get myself going.  This morning it felt very Steve Martin and I just thought I’d share.  “God, that’s all I need.  God and a cup of coffee and that’s it.  And Jon, and that’s all.  God, coffee and Jon, and that’s all.  And my kids.  And that’s all I need.”  And God, in His mercy, fills my proverbial “cup” as Jon fills my coffee cup.

Ah, me.  This week is going to be a doozy, I can see it already.  This week is a full week of planning meetings, aligning schedules, putting finishing touches on the curriculum, meeting new families, answering many questions.  To top it all off, there is an Open House this Friday night; nothing I like more than standing in front of grown-ups talking like I know what I’m talking about.  Give me a room full of children any day of the week.  But I digress.  This morning I woke up just wishing someone else was doing this instead of me….how easy would that be.  But no, this is my portion.  And I do love it, I care deeply for this project.  Maybe that’s why it’s so draining; I just can’t quit because I don’t want to.

Pray for me friends.  Pray that my mornings are less “The Jerk” and more “Morning Has Broken”.  Pray that I feel less daunted and more emboldened.

I’m so “sited!” (“excited”, when Sean is too excited to pronounce the whole word!)

It took us over two hours winding over mountains, twisting around on small roads, and yet we all stayed cheery, enjoying the glory of God’s creation.  Northern Thailand leaves me speachless, so often, so beautiful.  So jungely.

This is our little bungalow; we stayed at the Belle Villa Resort.  The reason we could afford such a nice place is that they are in the midst of massive construction.  From eight in the morning to five in the evening, it’s hammering and sawing in two different spots.  Loud, but then again, we have young children who are themselves noisy.  Didn’t bother us a bit.  Neither did the huge room discount and the 10% off food.

Amazing breakfast buffet, included, of course.  Tasty, but not at delicious as the view!  My lands.

Our favorite feature of the bungalow….A lovely window seat by day….

….and a snuggly bed at night for two sillies!  Actually, only one silly.  We brought a crib for the littlest silly.  They were just waiting for a bedtime story in this photo.

Ok….That’s enough for one blog.  There’ll be three, maybe four more blogs coming your way; the World War II memorial bridge, Sean’s fishing trip, Mo Paeng Waterfall and the Tha Pai Hot Springs.  We’ll see.  Hopefully.

Just in case you were wondering if you got the wrong blog, no worries.  I was getting tired of those yellow stripes and thought I’d find an easier design to work with.  Not that any of this is easy for me, but I am trying!  As soon as I can get some pictures uploaded I’ll start posting about our recent adventures in Pai.  Until then, here’s one from a recent trip to the zoo with our new friends Marie and Francois.  They helped us take some of the foster kids to the zoo; it was a wonderful, memorable day.  Thank you dear friends!  God bless you!

Love this little girl!

We had a great time in Pai; stories, pics and maybe videos to follow!

Tomorrow we head north to a small town called Pai.  I’ve been wanting to check it out for some time now, and since October is a break for us, and because we need it, we’re taking a mini family vacation!  We leave tomorrow (October 15th) and drive for about two and a half hours.  We’ll be home sometime on Saturday the 18th.  If you need to, you can still get a hold of us via cell phone.  We’re taking the computer and will be able to check and send emails, but we’re keeping it to a minimum!  It’s a vacation, after all!

The school year is different than in the States, and that has taken some getting used to!  It’s now October, half way through the school year.  And the entire month of October is a holiday for the students.  Teachers have a week break, but they are to be working during the rest of the weeks.

Here is what the school year in Thailand typically looks like (there are two terms/semesters):

First Term:  Mid-May to last day of September (There is a long weekend holiday somewhere in August)

Mid-Year Break:  October

Second Term:  November through Mid-March (There are two days off at the beginning of December and a two week holiday at the end of December to celebrate the New Year.)

Summer Break:  Mid-March to Mid-May (about two months)

So there you have it.  During this month I have been working with the Thai staff on some new ideas for curriculum at the preschool.  It has been wonderful, but such a challenge because my Thai language skills aren’t what I wish they were and we do all the planning in Thai. We’re laying it all out on big pieces of newsprint.  We want to spend the first term on Old Testament stories, helping the children to encounter an amazing Creator God and learning about the people God used to do big things.  We’d like to spend the second term helping the children to encounter Jesus.  Cool, right?  We’re trying to integrate learning skills with the stories.  It’s been a really good exercise for all of us!

Here is a picture of us, hard at work during October break!

….as promised! 

Every morning before school starts we sing the Thai national anthem, and raise the flag.

Musical Chairs…..classic.  They were absolutely hilarias!  Some could care less if they got a chair when the music ended, some were all game.  So fun.

Not sure what’s going on here, but I see that Anna joined us, and apparently needed a pillow to sit on.  Looks like we’re playing a hand game.  I’m all about games and singing and playing!  And loving these dear ones!

Our dog, Shadow, had to find a new home last week.  Sad, I know.  I’ll give you the short version of the story.  Shadow was sleeping on the floor and Anna decided that it would be a great idea to flop on top of said sleeping dog in all her two year old exuberance.  She hasn’t learned the old adage, “Let sleeping dogs lie” and got a nasty bite on her ear and back of the head as a life lesson.  And Shadow found herself a new home within 24 hours, because we absolutely can’t have a dog that can’t handle a two year old.  It actually wasn’t a tough decision, and we found a great place for her out in the country at a handicraft factory with a few other happy dogs, and no kids in sight.  So yeah, sad, definitely, especially for Sean.  Big tears were shed over the loss of his dog, though he totally understood why she had to go.  Poor, dear little Anna, with those nasty, nasty bite marks (that have already healed, by the way, amazing).  She has to go through the series of rabies shots….five shots in one month, and is almost finished with those.  Shadow was up to date on all her shots, even rabies, but you just can’t be to careful.  Drama, to be sure!

And life goes on…..

These pictures melt my heart!  So sweet.