Year in Review 2022

Happy New Year! Our December post each year is a summary of what transpired that year. If you are new to our blog, you can get a fairly quick overview by just reading through previous December posts in the “Year in Review” category. (Though 2015-18 are password protected due to our host country at the time, so email us directly if you’d like the password.)

​FYI – I’m taking over writing the blog going forward so Ruth can focus on homeschool and other tasks. She has a gift for writing that I don’t possess, but I’ll do my best!

​The first part of 2022 saw quite a few changes for us:
Church gatherings resumed after having been frequently shut down from Covid restrictions, so the home church we had been helping lead drew to a close, and we were all able to start attending an international church here in town. Our service with the set up of Frontier Ventures’ Asian Hub office drew to a close. We transitioned from our first homeschool helper (Amanda) to our second (Sarah). They were about as different in personality as is possible, so we feel like God was showing us the full spectrum of who could come in the future, and we learned a great deal about aligning expectations, emotional support, boundaries, the effect of culture shock, etc.

Then mid-way through 2022 we left for the States for our first trip back since our arrival in Feb. 2020. This was really our first time trying to intentionally plan a circuit of speaking and updating churches and supporters, and we could have done a better job of planning/scheduling, so hopefully next time around it will be a bit less haphazard. It was really wonderful to connect with family, friends, and supporters! We were also able to increase our support level a bit, which is very helpful now that we’re back in Thailand.

We returned to Chiang Mai in November. Our friend Lek and her daughter had lived in our house and watched our cats while we were gone, which was a huge blessing. If we had left it vacant, our house would have most likely been overrun by mold, cockroaches, and other critters. Even with her helping in that way, it took about a month to get our home and life back up and running. Visa documentation and getting my motorcycle driver’s license required hours of waiting at government offices over the course of about two weeks.

In December Ruth and I were asked to lead a Christmas celebration evening with carols at the missionary guest house like we did last year. It was a bit larger this year, with about 50 or 60 people in attendance. There were folks hailing from ten different countries, and it was a unique, eclectic, and wonderful time of fellowship!

​Blessings,
– Lance, for the Baker family