Bye, Bye, Thailand....

Paul told us in Romans 12 that we were to present ourselves to God as living sacrifices. I don’t mind giving up stuff, food or whatever for His Kingdom. I don’t mind sleeping on cement floors on outreaches ( I might now! I’m older), I don’t mind too much the times we’ve been taken advantage of, abused and even had our lives threatened…. You can get over stuff like that. What we really mind is one, simple little word: “bye.”

Today after church we got Bum and her boyfriend and told them that we’d be moving back to Florida in May or so. She looked up at me and said, “Are you leaving me?” That hurt. It still hurts. It may always hurt. It’s like telling your own kids, “Bye, we’re moving to Thailand for a year” (it’s been 4 now!). Now, to go back to Florida (FL) we have to tell our kid over here (Bum) “Yes, we are leaving you.” Think about those words for a few minutes, “leaving you,” and see how you feel about them. Jackie will be telling her little guys, “I’m leaving you,” and they’ll deal with it as kids do. But they will hurt and so will she.

So, perhaps you are wondering “why are you leaving?” Well, that’s what this blog is about and we want to share with all of you who have been hanging in with us through your prayers and support what’s going on.

Got to have at least one photo. Jackie and I joined
Chuck and Janet and went up a mountain to
explore. We're on the red bike and, by the way, most
signs don't have English translations!

About 8 months ago we thought it might be time to return to FL. We prayed and could get no peace about leaving, so we stayed. We do things one year at a time and that year will be up in May. Here’s what we believe God is asking of us. We are going to move back to St. Augustine for a year and rethink and reassess what we have been doing and what we will be doing in the future. As we see it right now, which is kind of like, 1Co 13:12: For now we see in a mirror dimly…, we have 3 options. 1) live in FL and be parents and grandparents again; 2) Move to Montana and work with YWAM/Montana again or 3) move back over here. Regardless of which door we choose, we’ll spend a year in FL because….

My lovely wife needs some R&R. Her heart is still a small issue we have to deal with. While it’s OK, it’s not OK. Does that make sense? I think she’s fine but the doctors at the last check up gave her a split decision. We think a year in our own culture might do wonders for her health. Truth is, there’s stress no matter where you live. But we feel like we are carrying a load over here and it’s time to put it down for a bit. We also feel like whatever it was we were supposed to do or be over here, we’ve done it. At least for now anyway.

We don’t think it’s time to turn in our missionary cards yet, but it is time to give ‘em a rest. But the rest doesn’t really start until we get back, find jobs and find a place to live and even that won’t be too restful. With the way housing prices have escalated in FL, we are reeling like a drunk on a sailboat thinking about how we can do it. Truth is, we can’t. When we look at our financial resources and what we have to come up with to make this move, it’s impossible. We do, however, still have a very wealthy Father in heaven who has consistently and faithfully met all our needs in Thailand these last 4 years.

Will you please, pretty please with sugar on top, pray specifically for us. 1) This hurts a lot. 2) We want to find our niche in FL for a year and hear God explain to us what it is we are to do next; 3) We would like to have jobs when we get off the plane cause we don’t have the savings to live without them; 4) We need a place to live. We don’t have a house anymore so we are going to have to rent. Leah has a place for us but it’s one bedroom in a garage for $600 a month! Seems kind of scary when our stuff would fill up one bedroom. 5) That through this transition, which is pretty high on the stressometer, God keeps our hearts in perfect peace.

So, that’s the news for February, or the end of January if you want to be accurate. We still have a few months over here and plenty of stuff to keep us busy. But, as always, we love praying for all of you. The highlight of our day is the beauty of spending the morning with Father in prayer. What a joy it is to know He keeps us in our sleep and joins us in the morning watch. May He ever be with you guys too. Blessings…

Bob and Jackie

RESOLUTIONS

This is a recent photo of most of the kids and that's Penny in the middle. She's the one we all prayed for last year to be healed of cancer... .

OK, we are wound up and ready to make our New Year's Resolutions. Oh no, wait, it's already 2007 and I'm late getting them made. Hmm, I wonder if this is any preview of what to expect? Truth is, we have no resolutions. If we lose any more weight we'll disappear. We're not searching for a new thrill or some deeper truth. What we did do, at least Jackie, that is, was go to the beach. Now, that's a resolution I can fully support!




There, on the right, is Jackie and Mai
Jackie had to go to Bangkok and get everything checked that's been fixed this year, which isn't that much: heart and knee. The knee is almost ready for full activity and it's good that we can now walk again without her leg sliding off to the side of her body! Her heart? That depended on which doctor you talked to. One said, "Eat Zocor and lower you cholesterol more," while the other one said, "No problem. He's going by American recommendations and they say low to sell more drugs for the pharmaceutical companies." Whatever, the pains have stopped, which were continuing up until a month ago and she's got energy again. So a few days after that she and 11 other staff took a 14 hour bus ride with the kids to Pattaya, the closest beach to us. Me? Left behind once again for 6 days. When she left she had a migraine but God was very merciful because that was the last of it. She got better, stronger and was a power woman on a mission to see that a good time was had by all. And, besides the normal old things like kids with ear aches and keeping people up all night, it was a great time for all. Jackie got to spend a lot of time with the staff, which is something she normally doesn't get to do.

Christmas? Yea, we have Christmas over here. On the left is us all full of joy and freezing to death. Our house was 55 degrees and the humidity hovers around 90%. Brrr but we did have a nice time with Chuck and Janet Lichtenberger and Glen and Bum. Jackie cooked up some cholesterol plus egg casserole that was delicious as usual. Chuck and I were supposed to work, but because mid-terms were going and we weren't on the proctoring schedule for the 25th, we got to have Christmas with our families. The Buddhist aren't big into Christmas nor are the Moslems. We called our kids in Florida and caught them at their grandma's so it was a special blessing for us to find all of them in one place.


How many Thais does it take to change a lightbulb...Only 3. Doesn't this look like something you'd find on the Internet that was to be passed to all your friends to help promote the spamming of the world? This was going on outside of our house and I was just amazed that they didn't fall. The ladder was wedged on scaffolding that was rocking back and forth with the guy on the ladder rocking in the opposite direction trying to keep it all upright. Once he got hold of the light it got steadier and he has lived to change another bulb on another day.
I woke up at 4:30 this morning and couldn't get back to sleep so I had the revelation to type this update I've been trying to do for 2 weeks. That was a good idea but it's pretty tough to be creative at this time of day. However, I read something you might all like. But first, a story. The other night the chief of our village had a party at her house. Now her house is a genuine mansion and she didn't just have a party, she had THE party of all parties. Her sound system could have been used to broadcast a football game with 70,000 screaming fans in attendance. Worse. She decided that the music of choice would be filled in with a bass line that would rattle windows for blocks--and it did. She started around 6:00 PM and we went to bed around 10:00 PM. The windows were still rattling and finally at midnight she turned it off. This is in the middle of the week, mind you, so most of the world is getting up at 6:00 or earlier to go to work. I lay in bed until the music stopped, kind of steaming about the noise. Finally, I got to sleep. Well, just because the music stopped didn't mean the party was over and at 2:30 some drunken folks got lost leaving and came down our street, which is a dead end with no way out but to back out. They were having problems backing up and were out of the car laughing and screaming at one another. I, on the other hand, wasn't laughing. I had all kinds of thoughts about how to "help" these drunks. Rocks came to mind. I lay there and I heard the strangest sound. It was deep in my heart and it talked to me. "It" said, "Why can't you love people?" Maybe my resolution should be to quit reading so much. See, I had just read the following a few days earlier, written by St Maximos the Confessor, a (580 - 650 ) Monk who lived a good ways back:

"Perfect love...loves all men equally. It loves the good as friends and the bad as enemies, helping them, exercising forbearance, patiently accepting whatever they do, not taking the evil into account at all but even suffering on their behalf if the OPPORTUNITY offers, so that, if possible, they too become friends. If it cannot achieve this, it does not change its own attitude; it continues to show the fruits of love to all men alike. It was on account of this that our Lord and God Jesus Christ, showing His love for us, suffered for the whole of mankind and gave to all men an equal hope of resurrection... ." And then this too was so helpful: "In everything that we do, God searches out our purpose to see whether we do it for Him or for some other motive."
Maybe we should talk about kids instead. It's easy to love kids (most of the time!). But to love noisy drunks at 2:30 in the morning...I'm not so sure about that. Maybe this should be our New Year's Resolution: Let's love God with all our strength, heart, soul and mind and our neighbors as ourselves--no matter where they are. Love is longsuffering and kind so an unloving person alienates himself from love and he who is alienated from love is alienated from God, for God is love.
What do you think? Give up reading? Or better yet, why don't we all resolve deep within ourselves that we will, indeed, love all--friends and enemies alike and we'll live lives that demonstrate at every level and every opportunity longsuffering and kindness.
We are asked all the time, "How long are you guys going to stay there?" If you were wondering we have a standard answer: One year. I sign a contract every May and Jackie renews her volunteer position commitment the same month. So we are here until May and then we just wait and see what God does. So far the contracts keep on coming and so does the money that comes with it. Which reminds me, many of you have financially supported us in 2006 and we are both so grateful. Our ends met, our bills were paid and we even made it to January with no credit card to pay off. Thank you all so much for your love, prayers and financial support. We are blessed. May our holy Lord Jesus Christ bless you too!