First Days Daze

 

 

Jet lag and travel recovery become the priority every time.  But this time, with my own health issues being a thing in the final week of preparation, then a last minute cancellation by one of our Team members due to COVID, a delay in Toronto right at the start of our trip, a consequential Hollywood-style sprint through the airport to catch our connecting flight, and then not having our bags arrive with us, these first 48 hours in Thailand have been just a tad more disorienting than usual for me.

Except, while I’m certainly feeling the physicality of it, what’s been lovely is how quickly we’ve been enfolded into the gentleness of this place, and how that’s helped everyone be so chill about it all. 

 This is a good Team.

 And we miss Megan so I’ll mention that here, and probably a few times over the next little bit.  For those who don’t know, Megan had been preparing with us for months to join in this adventure.  But she got in on a ‘sharing’ of COVID that happened amongst our community of faith just before we were set to go.

Timing is everything, as they say.  So, we miss her, and continue to wish her a speedy recovery.

Yesterday we laid low.  Took a little walking tour of the garden and animal pens.  Named a baby pig.  Visited Hot Springs Park where we had lunch.  Slept in the afternoon.  Greeted the kids when they got home from school.  Prepared the little gift bags to be ready for evening worship.

Here’s a fun thing.  Only one out of ten of our checked bags arrived in Chiang Mai when we did.  And just to give some background, five of our checked bags were dedicated to gifts and books and reading incentives etc.  The rest were our own person clothing and such.  The one bag that came with?  It was the one that held the arrival gift bags and goodies we had hoped to be able to give out the first night we were here.  So, we were able to do that!  So happy we were able to do that!

Evening worship was lovely.  Happy dancing moments.  Glad words of welcome and greeting.  Introducing everyone to everyone.  A few words about missing Megan and trusting God’s goodness.  Then handing out the bags.  Then being done but not done with getting-to-know-you conversations happening for Sponsors meeting their special kids for the first time, and generally trying to remember names.

Around the table afterwards we just simply talked about the goodness of this day.  And just after that – out bags arrived!

So, for today we’ll be ready to keep going with the flow, only feeling a tad fresher I should think.

Thinking about heading into Chiang Mai to exchange our money at the banks at Big C.  But we’ll see where the day takes.

Hopefully more pictures. 

For everyone who’s supported us in any way whatsoever, our grateful thanks over and over again.