Refelection

With about a month left in our time in Thailand we've been thinking a lot about what we've been apart of in the past five months and are starting to think about what is next. Jen has done a great job of telling the story of our family's time; I'd like to share a bit about the ministry time.

Oops, we woke him up but he got a free Bible :) 

With the team from Chile and Base Staff

If you have been reading our posts you'll remember Jen sharing that the pace of life changed a lot after Christmas. A couple of things happened; the biggest was a momentum swing with Share Bibles. The base goal was to finish bible distribution to every home, student and temple in the sub-district of Nang Lae. Check we got it done! We had two teams arrive early in January one from Kona, for 10 days, and another from Chile, that stayed with us 2 months, and a team from Australia in February here for 10 days, which were a huge help to accomplishing our goals.
If you've seen the video you'll have a sense of what we are doing (if not check it out here!) The country is broken down into Provinces (76), Districts (877), sub-Districts(LOTS), and villages (75,000!) We've been working hard to complete our sub-District, Nang Lae made up of 14 villages, more than 5000 homes, nearly 1700 students, 10 temples.

Emmetts favourite way to travel.
With friends in a Song Teaw.

So how does this work... we first gather a ton of data, some from various levels government, driving the areas in advance or using google street view to figure out where one village ends and the next begins. Then the villages are divided into sections; each section is given to a team of 3 to 5 people to distribute bibles home by home and temple by temple. Schools are tackled by larger teams usually with some kind of accompanying English teaching program, music and dramas. Lots of fun :)
"So then what?" you say. The team walks up to a home shouting out Sawadee krap/ka (hello). Sometimes we will have a Thai speaker with us but usually not. We tell them we have a free book for them. Everyone loves free especially if its one of our charming little boys making the offer, no one ever rejects a bible the boys offer. Show a short video that explains what to do and how to read it. We developed an app to collect addresses and GPS locations, snap a nice picture, and track who received a bible and how many or do they need a different type of material (language, audio/video formats).  It also allows non-Thai speakers to interact with Thais on a basic level. This way we track when did a home get a Bible and can plan for follow up with later teams. In the future teams that distributed the bibles will be able to see when a team goes back for follow-up, people ask for prayer, attend church, become a Christian and get baptized!

Kids at a school happy with their bibles

Pretty cool right? But will it work you wonder? What s amazing is every time we've done an afternoon of Bible distribution when we walk back to the truck you can see people sitting on their front steps reading, often already with a neighbour. We have been part of giving away a couple thousand Bibles!
Thais are social learners, the translation we use Thai Sourceview, has speaking parts printed in different colours. Black text represents the narrator. Red text symbolizes God's words. Green text indicates lead character words, and blue text is used for all other speaking parts. They will often adjust to their speaking parts using dramatic voices they think are appropriate for the part or character they are speaking. That's right they have fun reading the Bible together. Its been the best of what we've done here, being a part of the Holy Spirit's work in Thailand. 
What is so great is this allows for a church or ministry in a village to partner and take on responsibility for bible distribution in their village or sub-District. And allows individuals, groups or churches to sponsor a village by buying bibles or sending a team to help with the distribution. Some of the villages are pretty small; for couple of hundred dollars you could see an entire village receive Bibles or send a team for a week and we'll help you do it yourself. Its a great project for a community group or church to apart of. A mission that will see the Word in Thailand and fosters discipleship and church planting. 
Here is a video from one of the teams that was here in January:)

On the Share Bibles big picture; meetings that Rob had with other potential partners in other parts of Thailand were starting to bear some fruit. I got to join him on a trip to Chiang Mai in January. We received enough to print another 20,000 bibles! Just in time too as we are running very low. Then
Rob was invited to speak at a conference in Cambodia where there were ministry leaders from many countries. Suddenly, the secret was out and our quiet little plan to distribute 35,000,000 bibles to the 75,0000 villages in Thailand seems, well, kind of small. Many want to use the tools, the bible (in their language) and the app, the team here has developed to see the same work in their countries. Including one ministry that has 2 million people ready to cover and entire country in a single month later this year! This isn't a backyard project any more. Exciting and a little scary.

Unloading 20,000 Bibles

Fortunately, I've got some good connections. We reached out to a fellow in our Community Group back home (thanks Dave!) who has experience with data collection apps to help out with the app and hopefully making it robust enough to withstand the potential international onslaught of data collected. And to some other friends in network and database management and to the film industry, we want to make an animated version to go along with a dramatized audio version.

Yes we need help! Let me know if you are interested. App people, database people, animators, photographers, logistics people and if you want to come and bring bibles to peoples homes or provide resources for a team here to do.

Training a team to distribute bibles

Helping co-ordinate teams has been the other area of responsibility and a challenge.  There was a lot of learning on the fly. My bureaucratic experience has been coming in handy. I've got some systems coming into place for organization and communication, developing an orientation and information package, expectations and responsibilities as well as collecting feedback for ongoing improvement. But honestly January was like drinking from a fire hose. I didn't know the lingo, didn't really know what a DTS team was or what they were supposed to do. Spoke no Thai. Only knew one couple that didn't live on base. Most everyone on staff was either away on vacation, on outreach or at a conference. It was 12 hr days, 6 1/2 days a week with no net.  We learned alot; the first week was rough. Then some opportunities to get into schools and children's homes came along. I've started to develop a (small) network of ministries that can use teams. Sometimes it is working with kids, a physical or construction task, hospital visits or helping a senior with cleaning their home. Watching the teams serve in all these with all their hearts and full of love has been pretty special too. Its been a real honour to work so closely with these teams. They've made a real impression on our family.

The boys really helped out at a school

On the practical side of things I'm the maintenance guy. I've been cleaning up a lot of electrical and plumbing problems keeping the small equipment in order and once in a while helping out in the garden. While Jen has been helping out in the accounting and bookkeeping team. I'm sure no one at home is surprised to hear we host regular meals at our place, we hope to give a bit of a family feel to those who are far from their own families. Of course it's been a great way to get to know those we are serving alongside of.
At this point I'm not sure what God's plan is for our family but I know we'll be much more prepared to lead missionary teams; either receiving them here or bringing teams from home. Keep us in your prayers for direction; it will be exciting to see how this unfolds.

Oscar took this photo after giving them bibles

Hellos and Goodbyes

Our flights home are booked, and as of tomorrow, we have 5 weeks until we fly away from Thailand. Judging by how quickly the past 2.5 months have flown by it'll be here before we know it.

On returning from our visa run to Kuala Lumpur, the Chile team was still at the base and a team had arrived from Australian. The base staff and teams had been invited to go to three schools, grades 1 - 6,  in Chiang Kong; about an hour and a half drive north. Right on the border of Laos. The teams lead programs with the kids and our boys were showered with stickers and candies for Valentines Day. Different languages didn't stop anyone from having a great time.

In the Chile team's last week we did a few afternoons of bible distribution. One home we went to on the last trip had three women, likely three generations, who invited us onto their deck. Before you know it glasses of ice water came out, tomatoes from the garden and bunches of fresh bananas. While our group had no Thai speakers, with hand gestures and crazy antics from the boys, we were able to spend about 20 minutes together.  On the way home we saw one of the ladies explaining to her neighbour how to read the Bible we had left for her. It was such a great experience.

Sadly, the time had come to say goodbye to our beloved friends. Having them with us every day for two months, they had become part of our Thailand family. I have never met a group of people who were always so eager to do whatever job they were assigned, and always with a smile. We had them over for one last family dinner before they left, and were blessed by their love, service, and prayers. (Emmett looks at your pictures Friends every time he comes into the dinning hall.)

On the home front, our mornings have become more structured. As I am a highly qualified, competent homeschool teacher, I have taken in another student! Our friends and neighbours asked if their three year old son, Sadudee, could join us Monday and Tuesday mornings for school. Um... yes? What's another kid when you already have three littles ones, right?! This has forced me to be more organized in my school planning. Oscar is now more involved, before he and Emmett ran wild while I tried to work with Isaac. We do more crafts and snacks, and I'm learning to relax if it all falls apart and ends with crying children! 

One of the most rewarding homeschooling outcomes has been seeing Isaac learn how to read! He's not quite able to take over bedtime stories, but watching him sound out words and have many more sight words under his belt has been amazing!

We joined a playgroup that meets every Wednesday which has been so good for the boys to have new friends to play with, and for me to have mamas to hang out with.

Bum (pronounced boom), and Alee, Sadudee's parents, have had us all over for lunch a few times and have been great friends and mentors in Thai culture. Bum also gave me a Thai cooking lesson! I can't wait to share my new skills with you all when we get home.

We had two weeks of no teams on base in the beginning of March; a nice change of pace. Time to recover from the business of the previous two months, and spend time as staff to pray for God's direction in ministry. It was great to spend time together learning, praying and planning for the future.

Monday we filled back up again and the best part is it was people from home! A team from South Abbotsford Church arrived for two weeks of work projects and Bible distribution. On Wednesday a team from MEI, Rob and my old high school came too! While we only knew a few people on these teams, there's something extra special about people coming from home. We were back out with both teams doing bible distribution, the excitement tired Emmett right out.

Friday was Emmett's birthday, my littlest one is now two! He was excited to be awoken by his brothers singing happy birthday, and for cards to open from both sets of Grandparents.

He got sung to again at lunch and received a cake from the staff.

Then that evening had a birthday dinner at the base. We cooked his favourite foods, french fries and hot dogs. The South Abbotsford Church team made the best possible birthday dinner food; Rollkucken and watermelon. A classic Mennonite summertime meal! It was amazing.

One more week with the South Abbotsford Team, and the MEI team leaves tomorrow.
We are excited for what we will get to participate in these last five weeks. While we are looking forward to going home and reconnecting with those we miss, we know there is still so much more in store for us here. We may not know all that lies ahead, but we do know it will be above 35 degrees.

(Super dad made the boys a tire swing!)