Since We're Talking About School

 

With October being a focus on raising funds for our University Students at New Family Foundation, I thought it appropriate to extend a hearty congratulations to Pastors Suradet and Yupa on their own recent academic success.

Both have received their Masters of Theology degree having completed the requirements of a long distance learning program out of Wesley University (Korean Methodist) in Jakarta, Indonesia.  This was a two year program requiring diligent study and the writing of several research papers, plus Hebrew language studies, all done remotely, except for a few strategic trips to Bangkok.  

Pictured here is a 'remote' graduation ceremony held in Thailand.  A full out graduation and presentation of their parchments won't happen until travel bans are lifted and they can be together with their class in Indonesia.

There are several remarkable things about this.

One is that Suradet and Yupa chose to fund these studies out of the frugal budgeting of the modest salary they receive from their small local church (where they serve as Pastors) and from New Family Foundation as Directors and Parents for our gathered family there.  Anyone who's been to market with Yupa, or has been there to observe the tedious care with which resources are stewarded won't find this impossible to imagine, just once again impressive to know.

The other is that they managed these studies in between their abundant life of ministry and service, AND the latter part all happened during Covid restrictions when the children were learning from home.  It takes a lot for either of them to admit that they're tired, so when I was asking them and they were saying so, I knew that it was taking a herculean effort to keep it all going.

But they did.  And they're finished.  And we are so grateful to have such tenacious, hard-working people leading the way by example for our family at Hot Springs.

Congratulations and well done!!!

Education in Thailand is not taken for granted.  There is no publicly-funded system at any learning level, beginning from kindergarten all the way to post secondary education.  Our Sponsors help to make sure our student from K to 12 can go to school, as part of their monthly contributions pay for school fees.  

When it comes to post secondary, we don't ask Sponsors to bear that weight, but participate in other fundraising efforts to put towards a separate fund so that all of our young people, if they want to, can continue their education and go as far as they want to go.

Hence our "NOT A GARAGE SALE" this year.

Normally we would have been gathering items all summer long, set them up in the parking lot in mid September, and have gathered the funds for the coming year.  With Covid making safety protocols difficult (especially not being able to bring things indoors if it rained), we opted with a grand experiment and brought the sale online.

If you're comfortable with online shopping, you'll find the 'store' easy to navigate.  I'd invite you to take a look at https://www.hcckw.ca/store/c2/Thailand_Fundraiser.html#/    We've got baked goods, masks, art, painted rocks and even a devotional (my own Pandemic Ponderings!) for you to choose from.

NOTE:  We are advertising Waterloo Region deliveries only, but if there's something (not food) that you want to consider, I'd be happy to negotiate something with you.

NOTE 2:  If anyone's curious I am STILL working on my Masters of Divinity from Tyndale with only three courses to go, one of which I am working on as we speak.  It's a preaching elective I've crafted and had approved called "What Then Shall We Say?  Preaching For Spiritual Formation During Disorienting Times".  Think it'll be relevant for the 9 month interim pastor role I'm filling at Highview this winter/spring?

Oh school!  I love it!!!

Please Don't Iron My Underwear

 

When we stay at Hot Springs our laundry is done for us.  This is part practical, part cultural and part instructional.   Even without the heart to serve built into every Thai soul, with twenty-five people and three machines going almost every single day, it's just way easier for our laundry to get included in the cycles.  And the children are required to do a lot of this themselves.  As a result, our laundry is usually returned to us, washed and sun-dried, and neatly folded.  If anything needed pressing, that's been done too. 

Every time I offer to help with hanging or gathering and folding.  Always I'm chased away back to my desk where I was working or even to my chair where I was reading.  Sometimes I'm sneaky and I get away with bringing in the laundry when no one's looking.

That's what I'm trying to do when Wara catches me this one day.

It's our underwear.   Just all nice and fresh and hanging there under the carport of the guest house.  And I have a minute so I go out to get it.  But Wara comes out from behind the hedge, stops in surprise, and with a cry of dismay runs over to persuade me to let her do it instead.

But I insist and we have a bit of a gentle tug of war.  And in the midst of it she asks me, But don't I want it all to be ironed?

I'm confused at first, wondering if I understood her - what's the word for ironing in Thai? But she's miming the back-and-forth of an iron on a board, so, no - yeah - that's what she means.

And a new thought dawns on me that hasn't really ocurred in the 11 years so far that I've been having my laundry done by others when I've been here.  They iron our underwear?  

My turn for a cry of dismay.

In my own journey and in the journey of our church to forge an honest, reciprocal relationship with our ministry partners in Thailand, it's been so important to continue to learn this dance of culture and roles and ways to love and be loved.  Dignity and respect and listening to and learning from, especially in the day to day of living in community is essential.

Liz Forkin Bohannan, founder of Sseko Designs, a socially conscious fashion brand creating education and economic opportunity for women across the globe, articulates it so well.

"I believe that we are called to live in community with others, across the street and across the globe.  Community where we do this sacred dance together through seasons of needing and being needed.  Giving and receiving.  Barely staying above water one minutes and being the lifesaver the next.  It's how humans are designed to exist together, pushing us al toward greater empathy and dignity and unity.  In any relationship, when we start to get confused and think these seasons and circumstances are permanent roles we are meant to play, we strip ourselves and others of the dignity of being a dynamic, complex fellow human who is both terribly broken and brilliantly bright."  From Beginner's Pluck (p97)

Love this!

But back to the underwear.

I convince Wara that, no, our underwear does NOT need ironing.  And she is over the top grateful.  "Oh Thank you Ahjahn Ruth!  You've given me some free time!"  And she hugs me and runs happily off to have some fun.  

I bring our underwear back to our room and tell the Team in disbelief.  They iron our underwear!!!  Everyone is astounded, and glad I have put matters straight.  Please.  Don't iron our underwear!

Later I feel it's important to communicate directly to the boss-lady Yupa.  I thank her profusely for all the ways we are taken care of when we visit.  But I insist that this task of ironing our underwear be stopped.  She seems confused.  This happens often enough as both of us are learning each other's language.  But when we clarify and Yupa understands what I'm saying, she tells me.  "But Ahjahn Ruth.  We don't iron your underwear."

What?  A little more back and forth and we realize.  Wara was playing a joke!!!  We laugh a lot about this.

I love this story because it speaks to the life and mischief and joy and heart of this young lady who is currently in her first year of Bible School in Bangkok.  She's one of our 'university' students (In Thai the term 'university' is used for all secondary education) and she's truly a delight worth investing in.

When she's not pulling one over on Ahjahn Ruth, she's excelling in school, particularly linguistics, or creating beautiful things out of paper, or helping her young siblings with homework, and, of course pitching in with the domestics required to raise a family of twenty-five.  She's smart and spirited and kind.  Wherever she's headed with her studies, she's going to be amazing.  

I personally think she'd make a great pastor.

During the month of October we are raising funds to send Wara and also Boy (our other Bible school student) along in their educational journey.  

Check it out at https://www.hcckw.ca/store/c2/Thailand_Fundraiser.html#/

(No underwear was harmed during the writing of this post.)