Like I Never Left

The children stop to pray for the Sponsors who have sent their love in these packages.

Day two dawns all misty and cool.  The moon has a glimmering ring around it as we make our way to morning devotions in the dark.  By now the sun is warming the mountains who yield their cloudy cloak gradually into an end-of-rainy-season green-of-all-greens.   A huge snail slimes across the cement floor of the sheltered space outside Suradet and Yupa's house, where I am now parked for a bit.  Later we will head into Chiag Mai to do a currency exchange and have lunch.  Then I get to sit in on a parent-teacher meeting for Bao. 

I am feeling remarkably un-jet-lagged.  Slept beautifully all night last night.  Like, all night.  Appetite is normal for regular meal times.  And I'm loving the Thai food.  Feeling so good! 

There's always changes when I come.  Improvements to the property, rearrangements of who stays where or which out building is used for what.  This time there's a Korean couple staying in the guest house.  They are apparently here for a while, assigned from the Koren Methodist Church to do mission work in Thailand.  From what I can gather, they are working to establish a prayer ministry in Thailand, and Hot Springs, by virtue of the denominational affiliation and because, come on! - who wouldn't want to live here?, has become their home base.   I am, for the first time ever, staying with Suradet and Yupa in their space, eating at their table, sitting outside on their porch in the (relative) cool of a Friday morning.

And it's like I never left.  Little changes yes, but it still registers as remarkable that I can be this far away from home and feel so at home.  The chatter of little Thai voices.  All those crickets and frogs singing from the forest.  The tom kao (rice pudding) for breakfast.  Opening up new-but-becoming-less-so pathways in my brain to learn Thai.  The reliable rhythm of life here.  The slow and unassuming miracle of rescued lives transforming.

Last night after evening devotions, I had the enormous privilege of handing out the packages of love sent by the Sponsors at Highview.   Before that happened though, Suradet directed the children to put out their hands and pray prayers of blessing and love to each Sponsor.  They do it all at once.  All voices lifted in a cacophony of praise and gratitude for those who have made their rescue possible.  And it's wonderful.  And it reeks of God's compassion.

And in all of it, I am at home.  Driving in the driveway the first time, it feels like I'm coming home.

Can I say it too much?  Probably.  But the repeatable awe of it for me is that God would deem to grant me this great gift when I am so undeserving.  This much?  Really, God?  This is so much more than I would ever have dreamed up for, for myself. 

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."  Ephesians 3:20-21