Bigger Than the Both of Us

 I love this picture of Ken and I in Thailand in fall of 2015 at one of the Royal Gardens.

That's bamboo behind us.  

It represents to me an aspect of our marriage I totally didn't expect.  That is, how much bigger and broader has been the scope of what God has chosen to do with two awkward kids from Scarborough over the 50 year span of their relationship, 45 of those as a married couple.  

Are you kidding me?  This many 'children' and 'grandchildren'?  Thailand?

It's all the more remarkable since the beginning of our story includes a chapter where I was anguishing over my pre-boyfriend career choice of missionary to Southeast Asia, realizing that if I followed through in the way that would seem most normal - that being Bible School right after high school, then heading off to the other side of the world - I may have to give up some personal dreams.

In the end I relinquished.  On my bed one night after a spell of crying/praying, I said yes to whatever God wanted.  And, well, the rest of it played out so very differently than anyone expected.

Now here we are, 45 years later, heading off to Southeast Asia, as missionaries, together.  Spending time with a family God was building for us, not from our DNA, but from His heart.  

Having just spent an intensely satisfying time with our DNA family, it's a strange and wondrous thing that now, in just a few days, we'll be on the plane for a different kind of family-immersion experience.

All I know is that to say yes to God is to say yes to far bigger things you could possibly imagine.

It's the Ephesians 3:20-21 thing.

"Our God is able to do more than we could ever ask or imagine.  He does everything by His power that is working in us.  Give Him glory in the church and in Christ Jesus.  Give Him glory through all time and for ever and ever."

If you're having a hard time remembering our trip dates, don't worry.  Keeping track of the Breithaupt's summer schedule has become a part time job for me too.

July 25 to August 8 is our time away.

Leaving Toronto Airport at 1:45 a.m. July 25.  Arriving in Chiang Mai Wednesday, July 26 around 10:30 a.m.

Thank you so much, everyone for your support and love!

Because: A Missionary-Pastor's Guide to Getting Away

"Because so many people were coming and going that they didn't even have a chance to eat, Jesus said to His disciples, "Come away with Me by yourselves to a quiet place, and get some rest."  Mark 6:31

It's June so it's time to get to the cottage.

At least, that's been my go-to for the majority of my adult life, both as I was raising kids and then later as I was pastoring a church.  Cross the finish line of a school or ministry season, then head off to that solitary place where life is quieter, simpler, off the radar.

Because ....so many people coming and going.

And now? Now that I'm a missionary-pastor?

I find the people part to still be true.  But the lines of life and ministry are less defined.

Because.

Pastoral work can be Canadian-seasonal.  Missionary work is not.

Working from "Home" has its pros and cons.

With greater freedom comes greater responsibility.

Even so, we're embracing God's good gift of a home by the water, heading away on Sunday afternoon to figure it out and go with the flow.

So.  Just to be clear, because....expectations are real.

I am taking time away from my non-MIR volunteer roles at Highview (helping to plan Sunday morning services, pastoral care involvement) from June 18 to September 3.  I've made special arrangements with my mentoring relationships for the same period of time.  I've let all the folks I'm accountable to know this.

Most of July will be absorbed with final plans of the July trip, prepping lessons and sermons, and making sure we have the books, supplies and Sponsors' packets packed and weighed to take with us.

Ken and I will be travelling together to Thailand from July 25 to August 8.  During this visit we will be holding meetings for the Management Committee of NFF, working with Suradet and Yupa to plan for both their visit to Canada in October and a Team from Highview travelling to Hot Springs in November, helping with the ESL and English Reading initiative with our children there, teaching Bible Lessons each evening, preaching on Sundays, and any other ministry that presents itself while we are there. Communicating with everyone back home is also a high priority.  We'll be busy, don't worry.

August will see us home for a week to recover from jet lag.  I am preaching at Highview on August 13.  We will return to the cottage to finish out the month, following up on the work generated by our visit.  And then, before you know it, it will be the Labour Day weekend when we will be back in the city again.

Somewhere in all of that there is time booked to spend with grandchildren (and their parents) at the cottage.  And hopefully a week or so to completely unplug and just, well, rest.

Because.

Even with the lines less defined, the cottage is a place where life is quieter, simpler and off the radar.

Because.

(whispered) Jesus' invitation is just so compelling.  

Are you kidding me?  

I need to be with Him by myself in a quiet place and get some rest.  

I just do.

Plans and Plans and God's Good Grace

 

And we're off!

Not getting on the plane yet....just catching that wave now of planning, planning, planning.

After the 'travel drought' brought on by the pandemic, it does indeed feel rather 'abundant' for me to have three trips in the works.  Yes, three.  As Missionary in Residence I most certainly have my work cut out for me!

July 

Ken and I will celebrate 45 years of partnership on August 19.  This trip will just be the two of us, and will mark a stage in our lives together that very much centres around all that is the goodness of our Thai family.  We are doubly blessed.  Our "DNA" family is close at hand, and we enjoy the happy presence of all five of our grandchildren in our lives on a regular basis.  The Thai part of our family is quite literally as far away as possible, making our visits with them that much more cherished.  Especially for Ken who normally cares for things at home while I'm gone.  Even though this trip will just involve two people, Ken and myself, there's still a lot to get ready for in terms of sermons, Bible Lessons, ESL and gathering up the packets from Sponsors.  

October

Suradet, Yupa and Bell will come this way.  We are inching closer to purchasing the tickets.  That's when any trip feels 'confirmed' to me, so I'm hoping that can happen in the next week or so.  Meanwhile, plans for their time here are shaping up.  It will include a fun night of music and dessert with a mini 'Thai market' all towards raising funds for New Family Foundation.  Yes, lots of plans underway for this as well.  (And if you'd be interested in contributing to the cost of their ride here, your donation would be most appreciated.  Email me at rabreithaupt@hcckw.ca.

November

Had a first meeting last night with potential Team Members for a trip to Hot Springs in November.  Oh the logistics of gathering seven for such an undertaking.  LOVED the energy and curiosity of everyone at the meeting, and the excitement of those who've been before.  Again, plans are coming together.

For how far out all that sounds, I am reminded again of our dependence on God's loving direction in all our planning. 

"In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps."  Proverbs 16:9

And that's exactly how we prayed last night, and how we're approaching all of these trips.  With diligence and surrender both.

Looking forward to reporting on all of these adventures.  

Grateful for all of you who 'go with' me, even when your stay put.

Because of You: Marking the Graduation of Four Young Women

We Don't Take This For Granted

Always everywhere, a graduation is an important marking moment.

Schools make it a big deal.   Families make it a big deal.  And so we should.   A LOT of hard work and perseverance on behalf of the student is being acknowledged.  Yay and hooray!!!

But in Northern Thailand where there are so many children who won't automatically get this opportunity, every educational milestone is all that more remarkable.

I'm so glad I've been to the villages.  I'm so glad I've seen for myself the contrast in what is and is not available for children whose family origins, for oh so many reasons, would not provide the opportunity for a solid education.  I'm so glad it's abundantly clear why celebrating Fah and Pui and Pancake's completion of grade eight - especially since they are girls - is such a very big deal!

Congratulations!!!!

Fah, Pui, Yupa and Pancake - Three girls graduate from Grade 8

To their Sponsors specifically, thank you.

To all our Supporters more generally, you made this possible too.

To everyone who gives, prays, visits, or in any way at all turns your heart and your energies towards us, you have helped accomplish what would never have happened otherwise.  This changes everything for us, and we don't take it for granted.

And then there's Da.

Da Graduates High School and is accepted into Nursing School

 Again, to her Sponsors specifically - you've been in this for the long haul.  And here's proof of your pudding, dear friends.  She came as a shy, sweet girl, struggling to adapt to the demands of learning in Thai (Karen was her first language), and has truly come into her own.  Being accepted into the nursing program at Phra Boromrajonai College of Nursing is no easy thing.  She did it!!!  Congratulations!!!  Her hard work paid off.   And she did it with your support.  Everyone wins in this.  Everyone.

If You Want Part of This Action

Our post secondary students are funded separately from our regular monthly operational budget.  This Student Fund comes primarily from fundraisers marked especially for this,  AND from separate donations specifically assigned as such.

If you are not already part of our New Family Foundation Sponsors and Supporters and would like to be, AND/OR you would like to make a donation in honour of any of our students, we would be so happy to hear from you.  

rabreithaupt@hcckw.ca is a good place to start.  (That's my email.)

You can also head over to Highview Community Church's website and visit the Giving page, and follow directions from there.  Mark your gift "Student Fund". 

So many good things to report.

 

When You Can See It and (Honestly) When You Can't

 In 2008 we were timidly getting to know each other.  They were just children, at-risk but now gathered under the roof of a ridiculously compassionate couple who had suffered poverty themselves as children; people I was also just getting to know.

And now.

Miki is married.

Entorn is married.

Both stepping into this next responsibility of adult life with hope and optimism that comes from having been well fed, well loved and well educated in the context of a stable, grace-filled family.  A solid platform on which they can each build their own families now.

Gotta love it when this happens!!!  And we celebrate and congratulate and praise the God of sparrow-focused compassion Who gifted us with their care when they were so vulnerable.  

"These are my children.  Do something!"  I heard it as clearly as we ever hear these things we claim God spoke to us.  "Feed my sheep."  That's how Suradet says he heard it.  

So we did.

And on wedding days full of joy and flowers and sunshine, it feels so good to have followed those leadings.  It's all worth it when you can see the clear fruit of your investments.

And also.

I won't, but I could list you names of children that left our care prematurely.  We didn't get to see them to that place of strength where you can launch with confidence into a future that isn't determined by poverty.  Children who's living family members don't have the capacity to understand the need for education and take them back to send them to work to make money for the household.  Children who's living family members got too terrified of COVID and were convinced the safest place was to stay isolated in the mountains.  True orphans who's elder siblings made things more complex.  Children who's academic struggles brought their living relatives 'shame', hindering our attempts to find special education opportunities.  I could go on.  Each of these premature goodbyes still stings.  

I have friends who are foster parents in Canada, in a system way more structured and legal than anything we work with in Thailand, who say the same things are in play for them.  We don't call these  children 'vulnerable' for nothing.  Life everywhere, life there, is so complex.  And generational poverty does its damnedest (bad word intended).  We make agreements with living family members, but we do not override the authority of blood relatives.  We are in no way like a 'residential school.'  

So we do what we can do.

And sometimes they grow up and leave to go to university or solid jobs, and keep coming 'home' for holidays and family meals, and find life partners and marry them, and we are so happy and quick to say "yay God" for this!!!  And we should.

But my heart is often drawn back to the other ones.  I still pray for them by name.

Love like you won't get hurt, but you do.

And I write these things today because you really can't have one and ignore the other.  Because it's really a thing to be authentic and tell both kinds of stories.  Because we are entrusted with so much, and absolutely must be honest about it all.  To our supporters.  To ourselves.  

And a huge, huge thank you to Sponsors and Supporters who get it, who stick with us when it's complicated.  Without you, we couldn't be there for any of them.  

Touch Points and Tech: A Mini Report on Highview's Thailand Sunday January 22

 

One of the most challenging learnings for me as a shepherd-leader during the pandemic has been how to counter the necessity to employ "high-tech" methods with the need to remain "high-touch" shepherds.(1)  During the height of the lockdowns this was especially difficult.  As we all navigated our way through online services, taped messages, and virtual meetings, there were times when it all felt so distanced, so impersonal, so sterile.  As one frustrated person said to me, "It feels like church is being 'done to' me."

The lack of warmth from in-person, high-touch interactions was made even more chilly for us at New Family Foundation when it meant we couldn't travel.  A normal touch point year would include three visits.  For almost three years, nothing.

Well, not quite.  

They say that passion-driven learning is best, and I would add maybe even the only way some things can be mastered.  Zoom for instance.  The fact that I now have a Zoom account AND that I actually know how to use it (for the most part anyway) is only because it was intolerable for my heart not to connect, face and voice, with Suradet and Yupa and the children during the travel restrictions.

All this to say that on Sunday we invited Pastors Suradet and Yupa to bring to us a message (via recorded Zoom interview) of resilience and hope based on Isaiah 35:1-10 and the truths it holds that are lived out so vibrantly in their lives.

Strengthen feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, "Be strong; do not fear: your God will come."  Isaiah 35:3-4a

And this profound picture of joy later in the same chapter.

Therefore the redeemed of the LORD will return and enter Zion (God's ultimate city of peace) with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads.  Gladness and joy will overtake them and sorrow and sighing will flee away.  Isaiah 35:10

I will invite you to remember that these are people who have experienced life in harsher ways than many of us in other parts of the world can properly appreciate.  And here they are, inspiring us.  

Via Zoom, no less!

Sunday was for me a high-touch moment, even though it involved so much high-tech.  For all the behind the scenes support, I absolutely must thank my good friend Dave Driver, whose own passion for Thailand and his heart for our children kept him hunched over his computer for several weeks working on the tedious subtitling/translations.  Thank you!

And also a big thanks to Derek Goupil, Highview's Music Director, who can lead our worship teams to make any request for any particular song not only sound fantastic, but be part of what brings us into those spaces where we can imagine for ourselves what it will be like to be part of that throng going through the city gates one day.

It would be important to also mention our gratitude to Pastor Erin and the Elders of Highview for their continued support of all we do, as the leaders of New Family Foundation's 'umbrella' church.

And of course.  Always.  To all our Sponsors and Supporters.  There is no possible way to bring enough gratitude, in any way it might be communicated, to adequately express how much we see you as our heroes.   Thank you, thank you, thank you.  And may God bless you in accordance to the measure that you have blessed us.

And if you ever want to 'touch base' with me about anything at all to do with our incredible family in Thailand, please reach out (via tech) at rabreithaupt@hcckw.ca.

(1)  This was just one of three counterpoints in my thesis for a directed reading and research academic study of preaching for spiritual formation during disorienting times, undertaken in the winter of 2021.  Fascinating opportunity and I learned so much!!!

Healing Hospitality

Baby bananas, if you're wondering.

That's what the picture is.  From under the petals of this gigantic purple bloom emerge the first bits of what will be afternoon snack in a few days from now.

They say a fun hello to welcome me each morning as I walk back and forth from the house to the gate on my mini fitness routine while at Hot Springs last November.  I imagine their voices to be small and chirpy, (like Alvin and his friends, for those who would get the reference).  They amuse me, even just being there.  Because no where at home do I walk past a banana tree.  And well, just look at them!

Beyond the novelty and cuteness, though, there is a picture of a deeper invitation.  As if the slow spreading of the purple petals drawing me in is a picture of the sweet healing of this place.

I felt it first in 2008, my second only trip to Thailand, but the first time I actually stayed here.  I was still reeling from one of my life's worst nightmares, just five months out, and still de-numbing from it. I had no sweet clue as to how much I would need the healing.  Certainly didn't expect to receive it.  

I was, after all, here to serve, right?  I was here to represent the support and love Highview had so recently offered in this new-then adventure of partnering with Suradet and Yupa to raise up a gathered family.  I was the bringer, the one with the goods, the one they needed.

Right?

At this point in telling our story I always must stop.  

Father, thank You for Your forgiveness, mercy and grace that somehow saw through my arrogance and held it up for me to view, in all its ugliness.  Jesus, thank You for offering Yourself freely on the cross to pay for my sin of superiority.  Spirit, thank You for Your patient, intimate interactions with my soul as I continue to be shaped more and more into Your humility.  Triune God, please don't stop this work in me.

There.

Healing.  

If ever a spiritual gift was needed in ministry to children traumatized by poverty, it's the gift of hospitality.  And both Suradet and Yupa have it in spades.  And we feel it when we are here.  We all do.  The welcome of it, the comfort of it, the belonging of it. 

The healing of it.

I once had a team member say that they felt more loved at Hot Springs than they did among their friends at home.  That they 'belonged' here better.  And without getting into a bigger analysis of it, I would say that in some ways, for different reasons, in a different home context, I knew what they meant.

Two takeaways.

One is that if you're serving kids who desperately need the love and security of home, healing hospitality is the way to go.  It's what's needed first.  More of a priority, even, than good education and expanded opportunities, which is still part of what we seek to provide, of course.  So for our kids at New Family Foundation, that we know and experience this ourselves is a good reassurance.  Yes.  

And two.  It makes me want to do this better myself.  To be a place of healing hospitality, just in my personhood.  Maybe that includes offering a meal or a cup of tea.  Maybe it includes my physical space of home.

But more importantly, I want this to be just part of what people experience when they are in my presence.  A sense of being welcomed into the space of presence.  That they have my undivided attention.  That they are heard and seen, understood and validated.

I can describe this so well because of the people who have done this so well for me.  Suradet and Yupa.  And others.  And I am so grateful.  I need them.  Badly.

Phot cred:  Dave Driver