On the Ground in Thailand

Greetings from Chaing Mai, Thailand!  It’s been a long time since my last blog post. I apologize to those of you who have been wondering how things are going.   The month leading up to our move was very busy and filled with so much that blogging took a back seat.  In the end though, we managed to get things in order and to get out the door.  We ended up at the airport with 12 pieces of luggage plus our carry-ons and personal items.  We couldn’t have done this without the help of friends who picked us up and drove us to the airport.  It has been one week since we left the U.S.   Our daughter Lydia left at 6:30 a.m the same Sunday we left at 8:30 p.m.  She is enjoying her choir tour and coming to the end of it when she will fly from Seattle to Colorado to work at Golden Bell camp for the summer.  She is very excited about this and we are excited for her!

While it has been a week since we left U.S. soil, we’ve only been in Thailand 6 days.  We arrived in Bangkok after a very long flight where we were met by David and Naomi Phillips, the Field Strategy Coordinators here.  We checked into our apartment, dropped off our luggage and headed out into the city.  Our first stop was at the BTS station to get transit cards.  These enable us to get around the city by train.  We then headed to a mall where there was a Tesco/Lotus.  This is kind of like a Walmart Supercenter.  There we were able to get SIM cards for our phones, buy groceries, and eat dinner.   After that we headed back to the apartment to shower and rest.  By then it was around 6 p.m.  I managed to stay awake another 30 minutes before falling asleep hard and fast (Caleb may have been out before me).  Noah and Kevin managed to stay up an additional hour.   However, I only woke up once during the night at 3:15 a.m., and was able to go right back to sleep until 5.  Each night since then we’ve managed to stay up later.  So, we’ve been conquering jet lag a little at a time.

We spent the next three days exploring the town, checking out language school and meeting some of our team.  We also visited 3 more malls.  Bangkok has a lot of malls, one of which has a different country theme for each floor (Paris, London, San Franscisco, etc.).  We rode the BTS line from one end to the other to get a little more feel for the city, but that really only scratches the surface.  Bangkok is constantly moving; there are plenty of people, traffic, noises, smells, sounds and sights to overwhelm the senses.

The weather here is hot and muggy, but not nearly as hot as I expected.  I think that’s because we are at the end of the hot season and the beginning of the rainy (monsoon) season.  There have been some cool thunderstorms and downpours.  This is not the season to dry laundry out on the rooftop garden or open balcony (yes, I did learn that by experience).

Currently we are in Chiangmai with a group from Olivet Nazarene University.  Today is our first Sunday and very soon we will be headed to our first church service in Thailand.  Chiangmai is big but much more laid back than Bangkok.  It also has more green space.  Last night we went to the night market and ate in an open air restaurant .  The rain was coming down hard, so the cockroaches decided to join us in the restaurant to keep from drowning.  Unfortunately, several of them met untimely deaths anyway, thanks to quick feet.  Today we all slept in and then ate some wonderful Thai food!  Sam and Lumae Yangmi are our hosts and they are just wonderful!  They have working and serving the Lord in this part of Thailand for many years and we are excited to learn all we can from them.

As we were leaving Central Oregon, a very dear friend’s final words to us were, “Play the grateful game!”  We have been and I thought we would share with you some of what we are grateful for so far:

1.  Safe, uneventful travels. 2. The prayers of our Church Family all over the U.S. 3.  Good health, 4. FaceTime, Facebook, internet access, etc.—so nice to be able to touch base so easily! 5.  God’s Word, it still sustains us every day (our daughter even made us a tin of 365 verses so we could look one up together as a family each day). 6.  The Holy Spirit—our guide and teacher.  7.  Our identity as God’s children  8. The privilege of serving in this capacity and in this place 9.  The body of Christ, both those back at home and the new brothers and sisters we are meeting here.  10.  Our Lord who gives us himself, hears our prayers and provides for our every need.

Prayer requests:

Health: I (Jeni) have come down with a terrible head cold.   Also, my very dear friend’s mom is struggling with her health and is currently hospitalized.  The doctors are having a hard time finding out what’s causing the problems.

The Olivet team:  pray that God works in their lives and in the lives of those they came to interact with through this trip.  And pray that they all stay healthy!

Resources and provision for the work here.

The people of Thailand:  that they would come to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
Many more updates are soon to come!  I’ve so much to tell in the next few days!

Jeni