OceanicThai

It has been very distressing to see some of the kids who professed Christ participate in the Vegetarian Festival. They told us their grandfather or some other family member wanted them to "gin jee." This year they will probably not go to the temple to be possessed, but they are dressing in white and abstaining from meat, fish and eggs to "purify" themselves. We are holding our camp, and it went well yesterday. Some of the parents no longer allow their teenage children to associate with us or do anything with us because their children have professed faith in Christ. Other kids are travelling or just off doing their own thing during this school break. We had 7 kids yesterday. John held it at his house and we helped him make a Filipino pork dish, very yummy. Today we are holding it at our house and will have homemade pizza & Thai food. We will take them to the beach later to body/boogie-board surf.

This is an ancient story revisited. Um is a girl who has been coming to our center for the past 2 years. This year she is 16 and in 11th grade. Um has been having episodes where she freezes up, turns greenish, and starts to panic for no reason. Our partner John has taken her to the hospital 3 times; we went the 2nd time to a hospital 2 hours away that had a good reputation. The diagnosis was stress. Every time John would pray for her and then she would be fine. After John brought her home from the hospital for the last time, her mom opened up about the cause of her stress. Several years ago the mother was in terrible debt and did not know what to do. She gave her children over to the Vegetarian Festival priests to get help. Shortly after that she won a lottery and paid all her debts off. Um began to have her panic attacks sometime after that. This year the priests want Um to participate in the Vegetarian Festival and sleep overnight at the temple for the week. She did not want t...

As the Vegetarian/Possession Festival gears up, spiritual warfare in this country also kicks into high gear. Across the country Thailand's Christians are praying and some are even fasting. Hundreds of people will become possessed by spirits, including teenagers and even children. The gruesome and bloody acts of self-multilation follow possession. It will begin this Thursday. At the same time we will be holding a half-day camp for our teens at the center who have professed Christ to help them avoid the community & parental/family pressure to cave and participate in the festival. Like a spiritual cloud decending on the provinces here that participate, the darkness is palpable. The presence of spiritual beings is oppressive and discouraging. We are in the middle of a part of the world that has been under the enemy's control for thousands of years and this festival is just the latest manifestation of the show of this control. We are teaching our teens and new believing ...

This is our least favorite time of the year, watching hundreds of people get possessed by the spirits and mutilate themselves. We are going to do a teen camp this year for the kids who have professed Christ so they can get away from the pressure of their community & parents to participate in the festival. One girl is already abstaining from meat and thus becoming a participant. It is discouraging. We are praying.

It is a wonderful gift to know you are in the very place you should be, and feel happy to be there, too. Coming back to Thailand has been a blessing. Poppy is in the dorm and she loves it, and her new school. We have met the new believers and more have believed since we arrived back and it has been wonderful to get to know them all. To date we have 17 teens who have believed. Kennedy is teaching art and I am teaching English in the evenings Monday through Thursday. Kennedy spends an hour with Jasper in the morning to get some quality dad time in every day. Fridays and Saturdays are family days. Kennedy almost got bit by a juvenile cobra the first week we returned. This past week he found an adult and killed it with a lawnmower, in our yard. We are seranaded every night by drunk men in the karoake bar across the street from us. A few nights ago Kennedy was dreaming he was going to get into a fist fight with them because he couldn't get any sleep. So we are kind of sleepy duri...

We came to say goodbye to a beloved mother. Now we are saying another, shorter, goodbye to many beloved people, places, and yes, the creature & cultural comforts of our America. Next week Tuesday night we board our long flight across the Pacific Ocean and cross into the incredibly different world of southeast Asia. I am already starting to have dreams of speaking Thai and using my hands to "wai" or make the Thai greeting. There are now 14 teens that we will have the joy of baptising with John our Filipino partner, in the gorgeous Andaman Sea. The activities at the center are growing, and we will put our hands and hearts into it to minister, for the sake of and because of the love of the Christ that is our strength and joy. We don't know where we will live or if Poppy will have a dorm to go to, but we live by faith and He has never, never let us down. Thank you for being part of our journey, for being our friend, we cherish you.

Our family came back to the U.S. in January to say goodbye and be with Kennedy's mom Rosie as she went through the last stage of bone cancer. Rosie died April 2oth, 11:23 a.m. When she died Kennedy was holding her hand and she was in her own room in her own house. The memorial service was beautiful, a gathering of those who loved her and colorful flowers arranged around a favorite picture. We are grateful that we had the time to spend here at home with her, to say all the things we wanted to say, and for a sweet goodbye to a beloved woman. We are going to Chicago for the first 2 weeks of this month, May. Our children will stay with their grandparents and finish up schooling. This summer we are planning to spend a lot of time camping and hiking before we pack our bags to return to Southern Thailand late July. We are praying that this time will be a time to quiet and heal our hearts as a family so we are ready to give it our all when we return to Thailand. There are 13 new be...

Sweep in like a tidal inundation seep into the earth, erosion, erode and fill push in then flow out again take part of me with you leave part of you with me I step into your ocean I step into your world strange creatures lurk under your mysterious waves dangerous, poisonous I tremble all your flotsam and jetsam swirl around me I hear your weeping wind blow through gentle melodies, violent dissonance I will gather the moments I have had with you like colored glass on a beach let them slide through my fingers Your waves crash over me Rush in like an inundating wave and then recede tidal water, rushes back ebbing and rising here and then gone

Monday Kennedy went to his mom's house to visit her and meet with her nurse, Chad. Chad let the family know that it looks like days before Rosie passes away. It was quite a shock for all of us, we had expected another 2 months, or at least several weeks. So everyone is on high alert and we are preparing to say goodbye. Yesterday I was able to communicate what a wonderful mother-in-law she has been for me, as well as such a special friend, and how much I love her. I talked about the special times we've had as a family and especially with Poppy & Jasper. Rosie was with me when I gave birth to Poppy and helped convince me to go ahead and give her the name "Poppy." It was wonderful to have her all these years, she has been a gift and brought a lot of happiness & laughter into my life. It is difficult to let her go.

Fantastic news! What we have been waiting and praying for the past year. In the past 3 weeks our Filipino partner, John Arcenas, has led 8 teens to faith. Here is his story: "At the airport on the 25th of February, God gave me a word. It’s at 8th chapter of John verses 31-36, “the truth will set you free...We (Jews) answered him (Jesus)...have never been slaved by anyone...Jesus answered them, everyone who commits sin is slave to sin...So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” The Thais are proud that they never been slaved by any Western power and they are very proud of that. They thought they are FREE! But, Jesus said “everyone who commits sin is slave to sin”. The Thais need Jesus to set them free too. The Sunday of 28th of February, I shared the message I got from God with our youth during our cell group. Some of our youth were convicted. They realized that they are enslaved in sin and needing Jesus to set them free. There were seven youth which are in the pict...

Weeping, questions, and movement of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of teenagers...this is such an answer to so many prayers at our Peace Music & Art Center. Valentine's day, last Sunday, our partner John Arcenas showed Christ's passion at the center for our "cell group" (kind of like a seeker-service.) Southern Thai teenagers watched this excerpt from Gibson's Passion as John explained the cost of reconciliation between a holy God and fallen man. Although the gospel message has been related to them before, this day's response was dramatically different than the usual fidgeting, cell-phone calling, running off to buy snacks Sunday meeting antics. In a world where one worships the governing spirits of the area, ancestors, the Buddha and some Hindu gods thrown in there as well, the idea of one God is a radical one. That this God is interested in our lives personally and desires not only reconciliation but relationship is also a strange concept for Theravada Bu...

Hospice and enough morphine have been huge blessings in the life of Rosie, Kennedy's mom, as she battles the cancer that has ravaged her body. Upon our arrival in America a little over a month ago, we found Rosie in intense and unrelenting pain that was tormenting her both day and night. Sometime last year the cancer that was in her lungs spread to her bones and took up residence in her ribs, skull and neck, femur and spine. This kind of bone cancer is known to cause excruciating pain, and the medications that she was on were not enough to keep the pain in check. It is a terrible experience to see someone you love in so much pain and distress and not know what to do about it or how to help. Our first few visits with Rosie were heartbreaking and difficult to deal with. When Rosie chose to do chemotherapy it caused mouth sores, gastrointestinal distress and other symptoms that made it impossible for her to continue the chemo treatment, even though it would mean adding months to...

Tonight driving home the driving beat of Switchfoot and Creed soothed the pain I felt and was like some kind of therapy for the numbness I was experiencing. The visits with Rosie have been very difficult and it is hard for me not to simply "shut down." The sky turned into a brilliant collection of fiery sunset colors as we drove, then dimmed to dull smokey oranges and charcoals, the clouds collected in towering swatches across the sky, dully lit and torn in places. The leafless winter trees were grotesque lacy black cutouts in a bizarre landscape. Oncoming cars swept by like dull and dirty stars, and the tension in me eased as the miles unwound themselves on the asphalt. I know it's probably better to talk through one's emotions, but I haven't been good at that lately. I feel too numb, I don't want to talk about what I'm feeling or thinking. But I love these long drives where I don't have to say a word, and these long runs where I can be silent ...

Fog stills and isolates, sound is hushed, muted, the landscape becomes veiled and mysterious. My 10 mile, 2-hour run yesterday morning was a gift to quiet my overwhelmed heart and mind. Periodically I would cross bridges over deep fresh-water channels filled with calling birds among the reeds. Behind my back the dawning sun was burning a gold and blue fissure in the grey, quiet world. Winter's leafless trees were heavily laden with sparkling dew and red-winged blackbirds. The incredible beauty of Your creation sings to my soul, O Lord.

We have had several visits with Rosie thus far. It has been pretty shocking to see how fast and dramtic the cancer has affected her. It is heartbreaking to see her so racked with pain and unable to do the things she loves to do. The everyday and mundane tasks of life have become impossible for her, and I believe it is exceedingly frustrating for her to be in this position. Rosie has always been very independent and self-reliant, a rock for other people to lean and depend on. Being a nurse she was the one comforting and ministering to other people hurting and in need. She worked for years on the oncology ward, the cancer ward. Now she is finding herself on the "other side" and I can imagine it is very difficult for her to be in this position. And for Rosie, as a woman who had so much love and care for other people, I have to wonder if it is difficult to give up that role and let others do the caring. For those beautiful people who are the "givers" rather tha...

I never imagined running would be one of my favorite things to do...in the past it was usually at the very bottom, meaning I hated it with a passion. I liked gyms, weight lifting, Nautilus machines. I started running in Thailand because there was no gym available and I wanted to excercise. In 2009 I decided I wanted to run more than a couple of miles, when I got my first MP3 player. Previously, my favorite kinds of music were classical, Van Gelis, Tangerine Dream, Seal, Kate Bush, and a few Christian bands like Jars of Clay. Once I started running it all changed. I started listening to bands with a harder beat to help me keep going when I started feeling the pain of longer runs. And to block out my labored breathing! I've added roughly a mile per month and this month I will be going for 11 miles. I have been training for a June half-marathon in Phuket, Thailand, but of course that had to be cancelled. So I found a new half-marathon in Fair Oaks, California, May 1st, along t...

It's like a strange dream, being back in the U.S. Kennedy is with his mother at the doctor's office this morning learning what exactly she has and the prognosis. It was very hard to leave Thailand, even though we know we need to be here with Kennedy's mom. We trust what God is doing in our lives, though, and we know this is where we are supposed to be. Our last few weeks were a blur of packing and saying goodbye to the ones we love. I was surprised how often I found myself weeping, and how hard it was to leave. I remember how hard it was to leave the U.S. over 10 years ago, and I never imagined it would be so hard to leave Thailand to come back. Of course we plan to go back, but nothing is certain, and we gave up our home before we came back this time. Every step of the process of leaving was filled with the mercy of God. We are amazed at His love and provision day by day, moment by moment. I am so grateful for how smoothly everything went, and for the great support ...