Mac N' Cheese

Before Niah was even able to talk, which I'm not sure I remember when that was since she's just shy of her 3rd birthday with the vocabulary of a 30 year old, she's known what she wanted and how to let you know about it! And I LOVE that about her! (I actually love everything about her!)
** Being so far away from her and Malachi is a million times worse than fundraising by the way!

Anyway, on this particular night, we were all out in the front yard and Cara asked Matthew what he wanted for dinner, before he could utter a suggestion, Niah yells, "Mac n Cheese!"  So, of course, Mac n Cheese it was for Niah! Vocab and negotiation skills like that at 22 months old had to be rewarded!

Tonight, still a bit sick, it came time to eat dinner and if you'd have asked me what I wanted I would've shouted quickly like Niah, "Mac N Cheese!" But that's not exactly something I can go pick up from a street vender here! (I actually have a box of it that I look at longingly every once in awhile, but I don't have a way to cook it in my hotel room! So, I'd have to walk up to the church and cook it and come back and I wasn't feeling up to that challenge tonight!) My heart sank a bit, (I know it sounds dumb, but I don't feel good and I was bummed!) but I pulled some things out of my fridge and was going to make the best of it. Then the phone rang.

"Hey this is Chanda, we just made some some Jumbalya and Mac N' Cheese would you want some of that?"

"Ummm, yes, please!"

I smiled, because I knew God was showing me He cared about the little things.

Who knew James 1:17 was about mac n cheese?  Every good and perfect gift is from above!
 Just like Matthew and Cara knew how to give Niah a good gifts, my Father in heaven takes care of me here in Thailand! Matthew 7:11

Chris and Chanda thanks so much for being so Spirit led and good to me!!! :)

Supporter Saturday! Featuring: Summit Park Church

As a missionary, I've been in nearly a constant state of fundraising since 2009.  Most missionaries will tell you that asking for money is the least favorite part of their job, it's not though, getting REJECTED or worse yet, IGNORED when you ask for money is! Hee! Hee! Not really,  it's tough, but it's definitely not the toughest thing we missionaries attempt! Plus, there's a fundraising UPSIDE.  Yes, when people give it's WONDERFUL, but for ME the upside is WHO gives!

I am constantly encouraged, humbled, strengthened, brought to tears, grins, and to my knees in thanks over the beautiful names that appear on my monthly supporter statement! Some date back to childhood, many are other missionaries, best friends, pastors I've known my whole life or never even met, people I've met along the way on the field, family, former co-workers, friend's parents, kids from my youth ministry days, churches in California, Ohio, Tennessee, Illinois, seriously, it's SO COOL!!!! 

I've wanted to do this for awhile and I can't promise I'll get to it every Saturday, but consider this my start to letting you know my supporters and how much I appreciate them! Join me in prayer for them! 

Today, a HUGE shout out goes to Pastor Scott Obremski and Summit Park Church.

I met Scott O in 1997 at Central Bible College. He went on to James River Assembly of God to pioneer a Master's Commission Program and I went on to Independence, Missouri to youth pastor. Scott brought his Master's Commission team up to KC to minister to my students every year. One of HIS students is now my pastor at North Point Church, Troy Hartman and one of MY students, Shaun, went through his master's commission program, joined my youth staff, and married one of my other youth staff, Kylee and they now attends his church plant! Talk about full circle!  Love this and love each of them!

Have I mentioned I love church planters!?  Church planters understand missions, church planters are outward focused, willing to give until it hurts, willing to invest at a deeper level! Most of my top givers are churches planted in the last 3 years! Summit Park has proven all this and more about church planters. They're still unloading and loading up all the equipment ever Sunday as they meet in a community center, they're still VOLUNTEERING a lot of their own time, money, and resources! They have a lot of needs and visions they still want to see met!  But I called in need and they answered, actually I emailed and they answered with a check! 

I had itemized three budget items that were going to increase as I returned to Thailand:

Housing $200 more a month

Language School $150 a month

Motorcycle $1200 or $100 a month

I asked about 30 pastors around the US if they could cover just one month of one need. 

Summit Park responded with, "We'll take care of the motorcycle."  And they did!



 And God has multiplied their efforts as not only was I able to use the motorcycle of another missionary for the cost of use and expenses, ALL my in country travel expenses, cars, buses, planes, fuel, song taos, tuk tuks, and maybe even elephants are COVERED because Summit Park was willing to give, willing to bless.  I told Scott yesterday that I'm going to name the motorcycle Summit because that's exactly what I want to see happen here in Thailand, I want Christ to be raised to the highest summit, the apex, in the hearts and lives of the beautiful people of Thailand. And I told him by default, it's last name will be PARK-ed because I'll constantly be saying, "where is Summit parked!?" 

I have a huge heart still for Kansas City and the hundreds of students that came through our doors at Englewood Ministries and I am so glad that Pastor Scott O and his family and Summit Park church are there! Praying God will bless them and use them in ways we can't even imagine! If you're in KC and don't have a church home! Go check them out and tell them thanks from their missionary friend in Thailand!

Going for a motorcycle ride!

The Lantern Festival

Loi Krathong (see previous blog) is coupled with a Lanna festival in which hot air, floating lanterns are released into the night sky in order to earn merit by Buddhists.

My students took me to several different celebrations surrounding this and I LOVED it! Fireworks and street foods and carnival games are all part of the festivities. Thankful for my students who let me be a part of this really, really cool holiday!

 Here's the lantern lift off! you can see it for miles! Unfortunately I was still a half mile away when they launched! #fail However, we later found poppers and sparklers and I taught them out to appropriately use both.  Of course the appropriate use of poppers is to throw them at the feet of your unsuspecting friends! This backfired on me as my feet seemed to be the prime target AND once I got home and a box had spilled in my purse and I dropped my purse to the floor and thought I was being gunned down in a drive by!

I taught them how to "write" with sparklers! We only spent about 20 minutes trying to get this photo!

The whole night was pretty amazing!

 If you like dried fish or pork balls or street sushi or guinea foul to snack on then this is the festival for you!





I spent a little too much time and money at the shoot'em over game, but my students got many laughs from my failed attempts.  To say we had a great time together would be an understatement! As a matter of fact on the way home one of my students said, "My cheeks hurt from smiling so much tonight!" Success!

Here are just a few more pics of our evening! Happy Loi Krathong!

 

 

It's a Jolly Holiday with Mary... or is it?

It's a jolly holiday with Mary...

Every Christmas we go and see a movie as a family. This year we chose, Saving Mr. Banks, we all loved Mary Poppins so it seemed like a no brainer. And... we all HATED it! We left depressed and deflated. I made mention of our disdain in a brief FB status! One would have thought I'd have said something against Phil Robertson. We were alone in our opinion of what was evidently an amazing, Oscar worthy film! I'm going to guess it was our real life understanding of the devastating effects of drug and alcohol addictions. But even without the sad, sad tale of the little girl's alcoholic father and mentally ill mother, it was SLOW and depressing and just NOT GOOD! I'm simply baffled that anyone liked it at ALL! 2 thumbs down from Mary herself!

or is it?

Why yes, me and Poppins do share our names. Which has gotten me thinking, is it really a jolly holiday with Mary?  With THIS Mary? (I prefer Mary Beth BTW or Bess, but only if you're Niah!) There would be many, many different answers to this very RHETORICAL question, IS it a jolly holiday with Mary?!  My goal is that the answer would be a resounding YES from all who encounter me, but I'm afraid I'm a little too human, one day you might get Mary Poppins the next you might get P.L. Travers herself!

Last year, I joined Beth Moore's scripture memory challenge and memorized 24 verses. (Well, if you can tell me how it starts I can finish it for you!) This year I'm hoping it really WILL be a jolly holiday with Mary, for all those who encounter her, and starting my year off memorizing Galatians 5:22-23 in hopes that when I'm bumped or hit by yet ANOTHER car that THIS is what spills out!

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law!"

If by chance you encounter me on a day that I resemble Travers more than Poppins, then just add a spoon full of sugar please and remember it's Mary that you love!

A terrible, terrible movie I tell you!

I'll Be Home for Loi Krathong

I'll be home for Loi Krathong! That actually has a nice ring to it doesn't it? I was very fortunate to be home for Christmas our largest Christian holiday!  (I'll never understand why non-Christians celebrate Christmas, but hope that one day THEY'll understand why they celebrate it!)

I was also fortunate to be "home" in Thailand for one of their biggest Buddhist holidays.  Loi Krathong.  Pronounced "Loy - Gra- Tong"  (I think).  Loi means to float and Krathong, kind of sort of means, lotus shaped container.  You'll get more from the pictures than you will my explanation of them so I'll just tell you that they're typically made of a slice of the trunk of a banana tree and banana leaves and straight pins.




  I got to learn about them and make them with my university students and these are the base items we used. Here's how mine turned out! I was going for a peacock theme!


Okay, Okay, that's not really mine! This is really mine!


 My Loi Krathong may not have won any beauty contests, but if there was a contest for most pins used, I'd have gotten first place for sure!

Once your little float is made you can beautify it with flowers and candles.  Some Buddhists will place incense for the spirits to take in or a coin as offering to the spirits.  Like us and our Christmas traditions, lots of people do different things for different reasons on this spiritual holiday. What I mostly understood from my university students is that it's kind of like "out with old, in with the new!"  When you float your lantern down the river all your "bad stuff", anger, hatred, trespasses, errors, misfortune, etc. go away with it.  It's a bit of an act of worship, attempt at making merit, hope for good luck, offering for forgiveness all wrapped up in one!

So we made our floats, some more meticulously than others, (I'm just not very Asian, okay?!) and we floated them down the river!! (Cue gasp! I should probably take this time to tell you, I also, celebrated Halloween and am a huge Santa supporter!) Take a Xanax infused with grace and hear me out! I won't debate you about my pagan holiday rituals except to say, Jesus is the Reason for the Season, Our God is Greater Our God is Higher, and This is the Day the Lord has Made,

 but there was more to our Loi Krathong celebration, so keep reading! 

Once a month we host and invite our students to an event we call Quest, it's a night where we answer their questions about Christianity and teach them about the foundations and threads of our faith, love, service, joy, peace, healing, thanksgiving,  and on this particular night FORGIVENESS.  The Gospel is always presented in Thai, to debunk the idea that it is a westerner's faith, He sent His Son for them too!!! God speaks their language as clear as He speaks our's, which makes Him even more mighty in my eyes than ever before because Thai is super hard to speak!  The full moon of the 12th Thai month, (Loi Krathong) just happened to fall or rather rise on a regularly scheduled Quest weekend!! So... we celebrated forgiveness with them! My pastor explained to them the simple message of the privilege of our DAILY Loi Krathong opportunity, the message of the cross, the TRUTH that we are ALL sinners, and have we all have plenty of things we need to float down the river, but that our Savior took care of that debt for us, that His mercies are new every morning and available to them too! Then we wrote down our sins and shortcomings that we wanted God to forgive, stuck them on our floats,  prayed together, and jumped on our motorbikes to float them down the river!

I kind of love my job!

Let Me Out of Here

I used to have this little box on my desk when I was a youth pastor.  Often times after I checked my Thursday morning voicemail or after students left my office I would push the button and concur with the lil man in the box! Or simply make it my prayer to God by saying, "Amen." at the end of the lil man's words!

We've all felt this way! Some of you are visiting family right now or holed up in a vehicle with all your children and are feeling this way in this EXACT moment!

Today the title of my devo was, "God In a Box."  God immediately reminded me of the little man in box that used to sit on my desk and let me know He feels this way sometimes too! Like on days when I try to do everything on my own, when I incessantly worry rather than pray.  When I succumb to being overwhelmed and wave the white flag of defeat! He says, "Excuse me! Excuse me! Could you let me out of here! Last I checked I was victorious over death, hell, and the grave! The Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the provider, the healer, the redeemer, the restorer, your Father, your Savior! So could you LET. ME. OUT. OF. HERE!?"

I smiled at my the humor of my very real God and said, "Sure thing Lord, let's hang out!" And I let Him out of the little box I keep Him in when I'm busy or worried or overwhelmed. What a world of difference it makes to let him loose!

Inspired by:  Priscilla Shirer's, "ONE in a million"

My Pictorial of my Day at the ZOO with Commentary of Course!

Okay, so there are a few things you should know before you move forward: 

 #1 I HATE animals, it's just true, write PETA or PITA and tell them I not care! 

#2 My co worker LOVES animals and knows a lot of dumb facts about them, I have to keep her from petting street dogs and cats so this was a true act of love and sacrifice to take her to the Zoo

 #3 Once you've been to Africa on a legit Safari and seen lions in the wild, a cheetah chase down a gazelle and rip it apart before your very eyes, and had to put your vehicle in reverse because the mommy elephant was not happy you were getting too close to her baby elephant, you are ruined for zoos FOREVER!! 

#4 However, if you're going to the Zoo, International Zoos are the way to go and I have to say Chiang Mai Zoo is nothing to sneeze at unless you're allergic to animals and all things outdoors like myself! What makes them so much better? How do I put this?  I think it's a lack of safety regulations, like if you WANT to stick your finger in and pet the tiger it's totally doable! 

To start the day off, there was this really cool sign I think it's translated: if you're old and wrinkled or a cute little girl you get a discount

Then you pass the pink flamingos, normally a pink flamingo in the front yard screams TRASHY or TACKY or WHITE TRASH (We can still say that one right?!) I mean last I checked it's okay to bash whites and Christians and it not be considered a hate crime right?! Wow! Where did that come from? But live pink flamingos in the front yard are CLASSY, COOL even, but I did feel real bad for this ugly duckling in the front! I hope he has a great personality and good sense of humor!

Like I said, she wants to pet ALL the animals and thanks to the international zoo standards, she gets to pet this Lemur, but I'm pretty sure he wasn't thrilled about it!        
Then we got to hold the birds! He nibbled on my ear! I was NOT thrilled!

It's totally normal for elephants to hang out behind my bamboo posts right?

Here  she goes again with the petting!
While the safety standards are a bit subpar, they are serious about NOT smoking! The penalty is time with the lion.  However, it's no so offensive in the Outback part of the zoo and you get rewarded with Koala time if you engage in smoking!

I almost bummed one off the rude British guy in front of me because seriously how cute is this guy!?
 
You see the TWO lizards?  One has sense to use sunscreen and sit in the shade, the other is going to be needing some aloe at the end of the day! It's common sense guys, it's a jungle out there!

This pretty pretty peacock better be so glad it rained on my mama when we came to the zoo because she would've had all his tail feathers in her suitcase bound for our Christmas tree!

I will admit I could have watched the monkey's all day! And if you've ever wondered what a woman scorned sounds like press play on the video below!

Okay, so I couldn't resist his cuteness. Notice what's standing between me and him, NADA! I captured this great lil cameo of Gratiana's head shot! 
And I'll admit I think that the penguins are pretty cool and kind of can't wait till they open the arctic exhibit because they're going to have cold weather penguins and a polar bear!

This is a southern elephant, he's drinking straight from the hose pipe! I wish I had it on video because when the guy tried to order him to give it back to him, the elephant just kept turning away from him and kept on drinking! I secretly love it when the animals don't do what the trainers say. I mean what's more entertaining watching tigers jump thru hoops or grab a man's head in his jaws?!

About those safety regulations! haha! Seriously, could have gotten a bear hug! And he was super cute I mean for an animal!

And last, but not least my favorite pic of the day, a tribute to all my tired mommy friends, which is unfortunately not clear at all, but see this sweet mama monkey breast feeding the lil baby monkey?  Her eyes are closed and she looks worn all out! The male monkey goes off to do a lil swinging and she let him know with some hollering and some arm swinging of her own that she was NOT happy!  Unfortunately I was far too enthralled with her look of exhaustion and irritation to catch it all on video!  Come see me and I'll take ya to the zoo!