A Day out in Chiang Mai

On Wednesday last week I spent a lovely day in Chiang Mai with Melinda.

Melinda is an Aussie who is a dorm assistant with OMF at Grace International School in Chiang Mai.

 I began my day out by catching the song taew in our small town of Doi Saket. They leave every few minutes to take the half hour trip into the city of Chiang Mai. I really enjoy chatting with the locals on the journey.

On my journeys in the song taew I have met a Danish/Thai girl who grew up in Denmark, who is taking a gap year to come to her mother's homeland to learn Thai.

I also met an older woman, who tried to speak to me in Thai. Of course I couldn't answer but told her I liked her hair (It was just like mine!). She said, in really good English: "I like yours too!". Thus began our lesson as she tried to teach me Thai all the way into town!

 While I was waiting for Melinda I saw this guy selling brooms from his pushbike along the side of the road - as you do!

Melinda and I ate lunch at a very traditional Thai restaurant on the second floor of the Warorot market. Was good food.

Then Melinda and I decided to take a cruise along the Ping River in a rice boat. Reminded me of cruising the French canals with Mal. Lots of happy memories there.

And today was another day for making good memories.

Dom, our driver, was such a lovely guy who spoke good English - learned from the tourists - and told us about the things we saw along the route.

We stopped at a Thai Farmer's house - well, it used to be a farmer's house! Now it is more like a museum of farming equipment with rabbits and ducks, a great garden with many herbs, all labelled, plus a restaurant where we were treated to delicious fruit and cool drinks.

We asked our boat driver, Dom, to take a photo of us and he wanted us to sit on the water buffalo! So we did!

 

There is also a Thai cooking school at this venue and if I return to Chiang Mai sometime in the future I'd love to do a one week cooking class here.

 When our boat cruise was over we walked some of the streets of Chiang Mai, browsed, bought a few gifts for family and checked out an art gallery.

Then it was time for me to go to meet the rest of the Embark team to go teach English to the Chiang Mai YFC staff - our usual Wednesday evening activity.

It was my last opportunity to catch a tuk tuk while I am in Chiang Mai, so I couldn't resist!

I really enjoyed my tuk tuk experience. The driver was so helpful and showed me photos of him with his son and his mother! I needed donuts for my English students to party at the end of our classes and so he took me to the supermarket, found donuts for me and we continued on our way. Another very positive experience in Thailand.

Meeting the girls at the Holiday Inn was a bonus. I was able to have a wash and refresh after a long warm day on the town and before heading off to our last English class!

Living with a cat

I've never lived with a cat. I grew up in a family that had an 'attitude' towards cats. We were a dog family, right brothers?

But at our house in Thailand there is a pretty nice cat! (Never thought I'd hear myself say that!)

His name is Pee Paw. He got his name from the owners of the house when they were living here. As a kitten he made puddles on the floor and walked through the puddles leaving paw marks behind him. Hence the name - Pee Paw!!

 

 Pee Paw really likes to smooch.

 He loves us to spend quality time with him.

And because he wants to be part of 'the family' he sleeps on top of the truck hoping that he can come along with us next time we're heading off.

 

I'm not sure that I'll become a cat-lover in my senior years, but I do quite like Pee Paw.

The rainy season in Thailand

It's rainy season right now in northern Thailand.
Well, it's nearing the end of the rainy season. Soon it will be what they call 'winter' but it's nothing like the winter that I'm familiar with.

The rainy season goes from the end of May until end of October, but it's wettest in September. 

Check it out here, if you like http://www.1stopchiangmai.com/about_cm/seasons/

The rainy season is characterized by torrential downpours. They can be sudden bursts that only last for half an hour or so or solid rain for hours at a time - mostly at night, thankfully.
Meanwhile the temperature remains in the thirties!

And the mini lakes in our garden form within minutes of the start of a downpour. And our tropical paradise becomes a wet tropical paradise!

Here Alicia is wondering if she'll venture out in the rain or not.

We're not inconvenienced by it too much. The downpours are usually over pretty quickly, the water drains away and we go on as if they hadn't occurred, except that it's very slushy underfoot.

I was sorry I didn't take photos of us caught in a downpour a couple of weeks ago at the night bazaar in Chiang Mai. It was raining SERIOUSLY and we got VERY wet 

and I LOVED it!
You would have enjoyed seeing me in my mauve disposable waterproof poncho.

Living in Community in Chiang Mai

Kristi has just sent a newsletter to all her friends, family and supporters. We all contributed our thoughts about living in community. I thought you might be interested to read what we had to say.

Kristi shared: "There is nothing like living in community. We have all lived in families with people who were called to love us and sometimes did it well. However, living in community is volunteering to enter a family you did not choose. In community, I walk between being known and unknown, being seen and unseen. I waver between rebellion and surrender every day. It is like living with a mirror in front of my face. I see the best and the worst of myself when I see myself reflected in the eyes of those with whom I am living. I asked each of the women I am living with right now to talk about community and what they are learning."

Lana confessed, “I am going to be honest, I was as apprehensive as excited about the idea of living in a houseful of women. I have been brought up in North America where 'making it on my own' has been placed as a much higher achievement than living in community. Six weeks in, I can see that something beautiful and unique has been set into motion here and I am thankful for the growth, sharpening and refining that has happened before my eyes and in the mirror. I look forward to walking with years of EMBARK students because I know it will leave them (and me) changed for good.”

Jane wrote, “We are all different. We didn’t choose to live together. God chose it for us. But He knew what He was doing and as we learn to live together, He is growing and shaping us to be more useful to Him. Living, studying and working together 7 days a week, we are continually confronted with each other’s strengths and weaknesses. It’s in our strengths that we help to carry each other’s load. It’s in our weakness that we are forced to rely on each other. We are all pretty independent, competent and determined women, but as the weeks go by we are learning to let down our defenses, to be open and honest, as we are listened to and loved without judgment, and as we grow in love for and trust in Jesus and each other. I have a new appreciation for the way living in community can shape us to be more like Jesus and more useful to Him.”

For Alicia, “Living in community is a good challenge. I was ready to let God stretch me when I left for EMBARK and there’s nothing better for me than living with four other people, who I hardly knew six weeks ago, to grow me. Although stretching, it has also been so rewarding. There’s nothing I can compare to our times of giggling with each other, playing games, having meaningful conversation, prepping for ministry and TESOL, learning together, and experiencing God together. We were created for community and it is so good to learn to live that out in a context that is so welcoming to community.”

Olivia said, “Living in the EMBARK community has been beneficial for me because not only am I having to deal with challenges that come with living in any community, such as working around everyone’s schedules and making compromises, but also because in this particular community I am constantly surrounded by women who love God and want the best for me. Constantly having people to hold me accountable when I need accountability and encourage me when I need encouragement has been such a blessing and I have been
growing more than I ever have before in my relationship with the Lord during my time here. The advantages far outweigh any discomforts or inconveniences that come along with living in community.”

In his book 'Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places', Eugene Peterson wrote, “I often found myself preferring the company of people outside my congregation, men and women who did not follow Jesus. Or worse, preferring the company of my sovereign self. But soon I found that my preferences were honored by neither Scripture nor Jesus. I didn't come to the conviction easily, but finally there was no getting around it: there can be no maturity in the spiritual life, no obedience in following Jesus, no wholeness in the Christian life apart from immersion and embrace of community. I am not myself by myself. Community, not the highly vaunted individualism of our culture, is the setting in which Christ is at play.” 

The EMBARK curriculum is awesome. The things we are learning about evangelism, culture, and teaching English are invaluable skills. The ministry we are having with our neighbors, our English students, our regulars at the shops and markets in the Doi Saket community is exciting. However, nothing is changing us the way living in community is changing us. Life together is where maturity is being tested, obedience in following Jesus is required, and wholeness is being found. It is in the immersion into this community where Jesus meets us and transforms us.

Thanks Kristi for allowing me to put your newsletter onto my blog.

Great is Thy Faithfulness!

Yesterday we sang this beautiful old hymn at church. Great is Thy Faithfulness.

It holds so much meaning and so many memories for me. 

Mal and I sang it on our wedding day nearly 14 years ago.

 

One of the lines that stands out for me is: 'Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow'

'Bright hope for tomorrow'. An exciting life ahead of us with Jesus.

 .

  

 What fun we had! What adventures! What  priveleges God gave us as we served Him together.

Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Mal.

  Three years ago we said 'goodbye for now'. 

We sang Great is Thy Faithffulness at Mal's thanksgiving service. 

That same line was full of meaning for me then too: 'Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow'. Amidst my tears I believed it wholeheartedly then and I still do. God is so good to me and although I go now without my dearest companion in life, my journey is exciting and fulfilling. God knew. God knows and He's awesome. He gives me strength for each new today and my hope for tomorrow is in His promises.

Yesterday, when we sang in church I couldn't sing again through my tears.

They were tears of sadness because the love of my life is no longer by my side. And they were mingled with tears of thankfulness to a God who gives wonderful gifts and has seen me through each day and will continue to do just that.