Updates and Plans

​Whew! Like the rest of the year has, September just flew by for us. Lots of things are happening though so that’s good, and bad. Good that they’re happening, bad since there’s so much we could be doing that we can’t physically (mentally, emotionally…) choose to do it all. We are actively reminding ourselves it is responsible and appropriate to make sure we take the time we need for our own family’s emotional, mental, physical, spiritual health and not just focus on other’s needs in those areas. There will always be another need in this world, no matter how many we can help, so we need to give ourselves grace to not try to meet them all and lean on God for wisdom to know which He wants us to meet. The harder trick is to only schedule 80% of our time/resources to leave room for the inevitable 20% last minute/emergency help someone might need so we don’t end up continually committed at 120%. (That’s a little sermon to myself that you can listen in on if you’d like.)

​Update on Amanda’s status: [Reminder – Amanda was planning on coming over to help us with the kids’ homeschool so we could focus on language learning. She was supposed to come a few weeks after us but then the borders closed (Covid) the weekend after we got here, and we haven’t found a way for her to join us since then.] A month or so ago we thought we had a solution for her to come (including a lot of acrobatics and paperwork) but that fell through as the only new student visas they’re currently issuing are for full-time university students living on campus. Lance learned last week from a fellow soccer player that there may be another way to get her here through a volunteer visa. This would be such an answer to prayer. He contacted the lady in charge this week and she is going to look into it (and the accompanying acrobatics and paperwork) for us. Apparently this is a really new option (just starting last week) so she doesn’t know the details of how it works yet. We are often the guinea pigs of never-done-it-before-but-lets-try-it, and sometimes it even works out (our current visas) so we’ll see what happens and keep you updated. I’m praying that she can be here by January. ​

We are in the planning stages of a Thanksgiving celebration for the single missionaries we know and a huge Christmas Eve celebration for the singles and a group of single Ch_nese christian moms living here in Chiang Mai. Being a single missionary is super hard, and their unique needs are often overlooked or unrecognized. Obviously I can’t relate personally, but this is definitely an area of missionary support that’s on my heart and I hope to write more about in the future. If in no other way, I hope our family will be able to be family for the singles we know, especially during the holidays that are traditional family times.

We also keep getting opportunities to be involved with the large Ch_nese community here in Chiang Mai. We knew they were here, but before we came, we didn’t know if we’d have a way to be involved with this group. However, we knew God may have plans to use our unique background of knowing their language and our family knowing their culture to minister to these people here. We hope to get together with some of them before the holidays but our “big event” will be hosting a Christmas Eve celebration. Please pray for these interactions and relationships as they start to develop. (I’m still not typing our last country’s name because, since we are involved with missionaries in closed countries, we don’t want both words searchable on our site. This is also the reason we won’t post the names of the guest houses and organizations we work with to help protect anonymity.)

​And last, but definitely not least, THANK YOU SO MUCH for those of you who were able to send us money to help us with the upfront costs we have for our ministry. Not only were we blessed to be able to start to move forward, but we felt loved with each connection made (and I was glad to know my posts don’t go out into the void of digital nothingness!). 

Thank you for your continued prayers and support,
​- Ruth, for the Baker family

Apparently, we’ve noticed, that palm trees grow a lot of other random things besides coconuts. Who knew?