Weighing In

It's the least favourite part of packing for me.  Weighing the bags.

After all the planning and purchasing of teaching supplies, figuring out how the Sponsor's packets are going to fit, and adding this time the happy extra weight of new books for the English library, actually putting everything into the suitcases gets really persnickety.  A pound or two over limit here.  Switch things around and now it's too much for the other bag.  But there's a bit to spare in the first bag.  And lots of room still in the third.  And back and forth it goes.

It's even harder when I have to start deciding what just can't come along for this particular trip.  Because there's two of us this time, I had hoped there would be lots of weight space available.  But, alas, a few things have been left behind to take next trip. 

This weekend, as I was struggling with the weighing, I felt another kind of weight.  It happened when someone asked me what the main goal of the trip was.  I realized there were at least four.  And they all had some weight to them.

English Literacy
One of the best gifts we can bring to our Hot Springs family and the community beyond is to teach English.  Without question, English speaking Thais have more opportunities opened to them in almost every profession, particularly in terms of vocations of influence like teaching and civic leadership.   We would like to give this advantage to our kids.  So, a principal purpose for our going this time is to continue the reading program we have initiated at the beginning of this year.  Hence, all the books.

Future Planning
As mentioned before in previous posts, we are seeking to be pro-active in making plans for a new property and building project for our children.  Currently we are situated on land that is not deeded, and the government has since stipulated that all children's homes be properly registered on land that is deeded.  Conversations with Asia's Hope and continued prayer and planning by Suradet and Yupa keep us moving forward, imagining significant changes for the future.  Wisdom and discernment are needed.

Encouragement and Support
Always, one of the main reasons we go is to just be there, face to face, to offer encouragement and support to both Staff and Children in their day to day ministry as a family.  Teaching Bible and ESL in the evenings, preaching on Sundays, visiting church members, connecting with the community in a variety of ways - all are why we want to have a physical presence and help in the work.  It's why this is a partnership and not a project; a relationship and not an impersonal donation.  This one, to be honest, isn't as weighty as much as it is awesome.  Nurturing these relationships is of such importance though, and the more I read about cross cultural relationships, the more I am aware of how uniquely good this is.

Directed Reading and Research
This month away carries an added weight for me in terms of it being the fulfillment of the field assignment portion of my current course.  While there, the Bible and ESL lessons, the sermons, and a research paper will all need to be completed and handed in.  While much has already been accomplished towards this, it's that time in every semester, I guess, where the crunch is on.  I will need to plan out my days carefully - not always the way it goes in Thailand.

So in these past few days, things have actually seemed a little heavy already.  And then.

I leave tomorrow knowing that some people I love very much are not well.  And while they have assured me that they are fully behind what I'll be doing these next four weeks and have offered their blessings on my departure....And even with my own 'inner sense' that nothing that's happening at home warrants the disruption of all the plans laid out for this trip....Still.  I find myself wishing that somehow I could be in two places at once.  And I'm reminded again of the hard places trust can push me up against. 


Tonight, this moment, this quiet moment here before the fire to rest my list-laden brain, my trust-pressed heart, is a gift.  And not surprisingly, in the calm I find a deep gratitude as well, of course.  I'm so grateful for all that it means that I get to keep going to Thailand.  This is a sensational life! '

But more.  What a gift to know a God unbound by time and space, and to leave all things in His grace.  Perfect timing.  Writing the story.

 And I am in awe.  Again.

Leaving the house at 7 a.m.