MISSION UPDATE: Q & A (Part 2)

If you missed Part One where I answered 7 commonly asked questions, you can find it HERE.

If the children are required to be in school, doesn't that leave you with a lot of free time? It would seem that it should but the short answer is no, it doesn't. It leaves us with time where we aren't providing the direct care of the children, but there's a lot that goes into ministry outside of parenting. We plan for morning and evening worship which happens every, single day. We plan the weekly church service, which flows very similarly to a service stateside. We prepare sermons and children's stories and make sure the kids are practicing for special music when it's their turn. We do the treasury for church (we're a conference-approved outreach center under the Thai Adventist Mission) and we send the tithes and offerings collected to the TAM. We do our own bookkeeping, accounting, and payroll for the ministry. We manage an 8 person Thai staff which includes weekly meetings with those working in our office. We plan and execute activities on and off site, we take the children to distribute literature, and we shuttle the children the 25 minute drive each way, to and from school. We create all our own printables that get distributed each weekend, including the church bulletin, campus newsletter, staff newsletter, and weekly Bible reading plans for each age group. We also maintain the website and send out communications through email when we're able to make the time. Robbie does a lot of maintenance work around the property, and Hannah, Abi, and I share the administrative tasks. There's also a rotation for providing care for the two youngest of our children who weren't old enough to live on BTY property (they'll both be at, or above, the required age on Gauv's birthday in March when he turns 6)...they currently live at a house we rent in town where Naam attends the private school and Gauv does some simple "homeschool" activities. Additionally, we care for our own homes, meals, and laundry. And we homeschool Levi, Quinn, and Zach. The goal in sharing all of that isn't to suggest we're too busy, but to reassure anyone with questions about what we do that we're certainly busy enough. :)

Do you speak, read, or write Thai? We do, but all to varying degrees. I took 6 months of online Thai classes, which got me conversational at a very elementary level. I can get by as long as the people I'm communicating with are patient and attentive. I can read (slowly and carefully) and write Thai but many words I'm reading aren't words I know the meaning of, so there's that. Hannah, Abi, Levi, Quinn, and Zach all speak, read, and write far more fluently than I can. Robbie hasn't yet taken classes, and can't yet read or write Thai, but he still manages to get by.

Do you speak in Thai or English with the children? We speak both. When a new child comes to live with us, we speak Thai since they come to us not knowing English. But after a few weeks of them settling in and hearing English happening around them, we start speaking a combination of Thai and English ... meaning a single sentence will often contain words in both languages. As confusing as that might sound, it works really well. Most of our children speak and understand a lot of English just from picking it up through conversation. Those early days when we were raising Thai-speaking children (when we didn't speak Thai and they didn't speak English) were more than a little overwhelming, for everyone involved. God did the communicating we couldn't do, no matter how we tried. He has always been the sustainer.

Do you ever get scared being there? We're human and fear is a human emotion but it's not one God wants us sitting with. He tells us again and again and again to NOT be afraid. So yes, there are things that tempt us to fear, at times. But the years here have taught us that fear really is counterproductive so I can honestly say there's not a lot we truly fear. I'd say a bigger struggle we have is overthinking the things we don't understand due to language and culture barriers, as well as trying to balance life between two continents.

Have you ever doubted it was God who led you there? Yep, at times we sure have. But those times are generally fueled by fatigue and overwhelm, not actual doubt. Sometimes we can be thoroughly convinced it was God who led, and who has sustained, and yet still feel almost unwilling to follow through with what He's asking. When the human wills crosses God's will, rather than surrendering to it, it can easily be mistaken for doubt. God has been so good and so faithful to keep people planted in our lives who speak truth to us when we need the reminder. We have people to remind us of the miraculous ways God has provided and the impossible things we've experienced. We have 7+ years, plus all the years preceding our time here, to have built a relationship with a God who trusts us to wait patiently for the day when He can explain everything we wish we could understand right now. Doubt isn't something we want to be caught participating in.

Do expect to maintain relationships with your Thai children after they graduate? Absolutely! Those relationships will probably look different for each child, but we're family now. My biological children don't all communicate in the same way and I fully expect that trend will continue with our Thai children. Kwan has already graduated and is in college and I chat with her about every other day. She still wants advice, encouragement, and prayer even as she finds her own footing. We love these kids, and while they also love their biological families, we know they love us, too. There's a bond that's been forged through the struggles we've been through together and we've also had the blessed honor of getting to introduce them to the God in pursuit of them.

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