Not The Same As Family

 

 More and more, it seems, my life is measured by spaces of time spent on either side of the globe.   I’m either here or there, Canada or Thailand, Highview or Hot Springs, home or--- home.  And now, one month into this new reality into which I’ve been released , this sense of both/and is getting stronger.

In less than a month now, I’ll be heading for a visit with the spectacular children at Hot Springs and the superheroes who care for them, aka Suradet and Yupa.    By now it goes without saying, this is my ‘other’ family, and after seven months apart I am aching to be with them, for sure.

As Missionary In Residence I am hoping to be able to stay in Thailand twice a year for six weeks at a time.  But not this time.  This visit will be for two weeks only.   Just a timing thing, really, and taking into consideration that I was there already for a month in January. 

But even for fourteen days worth, there’s been a lot to get ready.  I have two sermons prepared, just in case.  Ten stories about the miracles of Jesus, complete with a ‘cup of miracles’ brimming with little story-related trinkets for each child.  I’ll be introducing a new vocabulary list of 100 words to build on the ESL we’ve already done.  There will be another ‘reading club’ complete with prizes.  And of course I’ll be taking along packets and envelopes lovingly prepared by our Sponsors.  (Already I anticipate some luggage challenges, but that seems to be that happy problem that is part of every preparation.)

 

In a bigger way, the focus of this trip will be on addressing the challenge of our current property deeds, and how the lack thereof makes our kids vulnerable to possible displacement by the government.  This is a situation we’ve known about for about 2 years now but are seeking to be more proactive in securing a solution.  There is a strong possibility that I will be able to meet together with Suradet and Yupa, Asia’s Hope National Director Tutu, and John McCollum, Executive Director while I’m there.   Prayers for timing, discernment and solutions are appreciated.

 

But mostly, for this particular visit, I’m just looking forward to being together with them in the gentle, loving community that is Hot Springs.  Home or ---- home.

By necessity I am away from the deeply important-to-me community called Highview right now, taking a hiatus during a transition that just needs this ‘away time’ component.  I am feeling the absence of my peeps in cavernous and uncomfortable ways.  Yet, in all things, God supplies.  Part of what I find so massively abundant in my life is this great lavish profusion of love and family and community that comes to me from so many varied places.  Hot Springs is one of them.   How comforting it will be to sit and receive that love for a bit.  I can only hope that what I have to bring, as meagre as it seems in comparison, might serve to encourage and sustain them too.

When I was there last January, something happened.   I used a phrase they started saying very early in the relationship to describe how they were experiencing the connection.   “Meun gum korpkua”  ‘Same as family’.    I didn’t trust it at first, or maybe just didn’t believe it.  I thought it was just Thai manners.  And maybe even a little bit of the way they would express thanks and respect to someone who is seen as the connection to the practical support we provide.  But gradually, visit by visit, they convinced me they actually mean it.  And then at Bee’s funeral, in that tragic circumstance, there was no question.  I was treated ‘meun gum korpkua’. 

But last time, last January, something happened with that.  Yupa changed it.  “Mai chai” she said, Mai meun gum.  Korpkua townun.”    No. Not ‘same as’.  Just ‘family’. 

Sometimes I am just overwhelmed. 

So yes, I am eager, painfully so as is often the case, to see them again, and worship together, eat together, work together with my family.  Not the same as.  Just as it is. 

Home or --- home.