It's Not the Heat, It's the Humility

 

When you tell folks you’re heading to Thailand in July, there’s often an initial response of concern about the weather here ‘this time of year’.

It’s hot, yes, I explain. But mostly I find that the fact that it’s summer in Canada too, and, like this summer, I’ve already experienced a fair bit of heat, the adjustment factor is not that significant.

More, it’s about the humidity.

Yes. And so right now, I’m hot and sweaty.

I guess it doesn’t help that we included a rousing bit of hop-around with the old favourite song “Your Everlasting Love” as part of our Fruit of the Spirit lesson on Love. For those who might not know, this song involves a full aerobic workout if you do it right. Side note: I’m always sure this will be the year they get tired of it, but no. It’s back by popular demand for every visit. And it’s always fun to watch the expressions on the new children who are bounding back and forth with God’s love being higher and deeper and reaching out to me, in a brand new way for them.

So much fun. And tonight, so much sweat.

Being here in sweaty July (believe me it’s worse in May, right Megan Ogilvie?) instead of drier, cooler November or February makes sense this year though. Our time here is meant to mark 45 years of marriage on August 19. And while our departure date is August 8, in an evet-oriented rather than a time-oriented culture, this is perfectly okay.

And pretty sticky.

But right here I need to come clean (and dry) and inform you that we are enjoying the not-luxury-but-survival air conditioning in our room. Even in November I’ll put it on at low for afternoon rest time. But now, in July, we have it running all night.

First night we tried to tough it out. Just used the room fan.
Nope. Not going to be okay, that.
Not if either of us wants to be of any use to anyone for any reason the next day.

My first few trips I felt differently about ‘indulging’ in such Western conveniences. Well, I guess at first, before we came alongside this work here, they didn’t have the resources themselves to install AC in a guest room. But even if they had, it seemed somehow counter intuitive to the ‘toughing it out missionary’ image I had in my mind ever since that ‘toughing it out missionary’ who came to my church when I was eleven described life here. Bugs, spicy food, snakes, unbearable heat, complex language. Who wants to come, he said. And I said, I do! I was elven, like I already said.

That was 55 years ago.
Believe me, my 66 year old body felt it after we did the song.
In the heat.
Also, I am apparently vain enough to notice how droopy I look in all the pictures. Just sayin.

Okay, here’s where I’m finally going to get to my point.

For what I do here, I need all the support I can get. From folks back in Canada, and – here’s the thing – from those I have come to serve. And that goes way further than just using the AC. It’s leaning into the back and forth humility of needing each other; the symbiotic nature of what it means to truly have reciprocity and balance and equality between us. And I don’t even think I’m touching the littlest bit of this here, explaining it properly using my survival need for AC in July, to really get to how this works.

Maybe I’m too hot, and my brain is just a little mushy. Jet lag is still a thing too actually.

So today we will play in the water.

A trip to the Waterpark in Sangkampeng is the plan for this happy, hot, sticky Saturday.
You can bet more pictures and videos will follow.
And we humbly thank those who made the extra contributions so we can do this.
I asked last night, and not one of our kids has ever been.
Here’s to new and cooler experiences!

And a few photo of flowers, because, they don't seem to look droopy in the heat.

Hope your Saturday is wild and comfortable and humbling,
and whatever you need it to be.