Thailand is a Buddhist country. When our neighbors built their house they then had monks perform a ceremony to bless it and remove evil spirits. The whole neighborhood was invited to join the ceremony and give alms. We didn’t attend, but were sent pictures of the event afterwards. These ceremonies are common for many things.
This year we’ve been able to participate in a wide range of ministries, some of which we wouldn’t/couldn’t have foreseen. We love having the ability to volunteer our help wherever we see a need, with whomever needs it. We absolutely see the need for the people here who are ministering within prescribed job descriptions through their specific organizations, but we’ve also clearly seen how we, and other families like ours, are so helpful in assisting these ministries, and are free to be able to, since we aren’t constrained by a specific job title. It has been a great year of networking, helping, encouraging and supporting the ministries around us.
The beginning of this year was spent working out logistics and details for getting multiple visas. We needed to get two visas for Amanda, our hopeful homeschool helper, one for her to get into the country and then another one to let her stay longer than 30 days. We also needed to find a permanent visa solution for our family since our student visa expired in March. With studious effort and the fortitude it takes to work out the ever-changing logistics of Asian governments, Lance was able to find practical solutions for both situations. We are now on a permanent volunteer visa with The Future Foundation established by a local believer here in Chiang Mai.
Pets in Asia are a different culture like everything else here. We’ve seen these dog backpacks for sale in the pet store but finally saw one in use at a night market we took Amanda to.
Our huge project this year was helping the organization Frontier Ventures (FV) establish their Asian headquarters here in Chiang Mai. They not only will be the Asian hub for FV bringing in and supporting their missionaries throughout the Asian countries they reach but also a resource for other organizations who are bringing people in by housing, training and offering support alongside FV’s own work. After setting up the office and boarding rooms, we worked with FV to help coordinate and house a short-term team coming in through another organization, TEAM (The Evangelical Alliance Mission). Through this collaboration we connected with the next young lady, Sarah, who will be joining us in 2022 as our next homeschool helper (Yay!) and are in discussions with TEAM about a possible collaboration between us and them to develop a homeschool helper program in partnership with them that we will lead to help support other homeschooling families on the field. Please pray for this possibility that God will lead us all as we seek His will and guidance in this endeavor and collaboration.
While hiking by the river we saw some elephants that the local Thais own for their work. They said we could pet them but Josiah had a little scare when the baby decided he liked his foot! Yes, I’m taking a picture instead of helping him, but Lance was on his way!
We’ve built a ministry with the neighborhood kids that we’ve worked on to develop since we’ve arrived. This year we’ve watched it finally come together into somewhat of an ongoing interaction/outreach opportunity as we have conversations and play soccer (which we’ve been fully subverted into calling football) often on a daily basis. Through intentional decisions that initially gathered in the kids, we’ve established our house as the center for the activities, giving us ample opportunities to speak further into their lives through everyday interaction and planned events. See our upcoming January post for more details about our latest planned activities with the kids in December.
This is called a “wai” with a slight bow from your shoulders or waist, depending on the level of appreciation for the other person. The Thais do this to say hello, goodbye and thank you.
– Ruth, for the Baker family.
|
|