The Word

I’ve never considered the concept of having a “word for the year”.

But two days ago I read another missionary’s blog about her Word for the Year.

Then, yesterday we received an e-mail from another missionary about her word for the year.  That same day she commented about a facebook  post of ours, referring to our present house-hunting trip to northern Thailand as a “vision trip”.

And so now I have a word-a transformational word that has been planted in my brain, which spun my whole day around and removed the haze that was obscuring the bright sunlight.  It may be the word for the moment, the word for the day, the word for the week or maybe even the word for the year (but I don’t know that I will repeat this annually, so I hesitate to call it that)…

Vision

In 2007 we went on a Prayer and Vision trip to Thailand.  At the time, we were not thinking of becoming foreign missionaries, not even at the conclusion of the trip.

But a vision was born, none-the-less, and a few years later we found ourselves in training with MB Mission.  At the end of that, were we asked to consider moving to Thailand.  And so, in February, 2010, we made a vision trip to Thailand, to see what our work there might look like.

And so we developed a vision to be on a church planting team in northern Thailand.

So we moved to Thailand in the spring of 2011.  But, about a year into our our stay, we were asked to put that vision aside and consider a new vision: form a new team to move to Isaan—northeast Thailand—to bring the good news of Jesus to that part of the country.

After several trips to Isaan with our team-mates, a new vision was born in us—to bring the good news of Jesus to a region desperately in need of it.

But then, due to some health issues with our team-mates, we were asked to lay that vision down.

And then we were asked what our vision was.

And we made a proposal.

And we were asked to think of something else.

And I found myself reluctant to dream again—reluctant to develop some new vision out of fear that I’d just have to lay it aside.  I’m not a great visionary in the first place, so I don’t just pull these things out of a hat.

Vision is important.

I have a problem in my eyes that makes it hard for me to see details.  I especially notice this when I try to take photographs.  I often cannot tell whether something is in focus or not.  It may look OK, but when I take the photo and enlarge it, I can tell that it was not in focus. 

But it is not just in photography where bad vision leads to poor results.  Our lives need clear vision to get good results.

We read in Proverbs: Where there is no prophetic vision, the people are discouraged (Proverbs 29:18, ESV, alternate rendering).

And we definitely felt discouraged after having having to lay aside our vision so many times.

But someone else had a vision.  A Khmu believer in northern Thailand had a vision to move to Isaan to bring the good news of Jesus there.

So then we developed a plan—I hesitate to call it a vision at that point.  The plan is to join with this person who has a vision to see if we can develop that vision together.

We really don’t know how this will work.  We believe God CAN do something with this—we also know that WE don’t have the wherewithal to make anything happen with it.

And so now we are moving northern Thailand.  Right now we are headed to there to look at possible places to stay.  We have a lot of questions.  Since we don’t know exactly what the ministry will look like at this point, we aren’t sure what the best location is.  We do have some ideas.

But what we really need to do—more so than find a place to live—is to form a vision.

And so, we will pick up our friend’s comment and call this a Vision Trip.

It makes a difference what you call it.

A house-hunting trip sounds like work.

A vision-casting trip sounds exciting.

SO my word of the day—and my word for this trip—and perhaps my word of the year is

Vision

Vision of Northern Thailand

Top Twelve 2013

I thought it would be fun to look back over my year by picking out a favorite photo from each month.  When I first thought of doing this it seemed a bit daunting because I have several thousand photos to pick from covering quite an array of activities.  And the object was not to pick out my best photos, per se, but ones that stand out to me for one reason or another.  So here it goes.

January-Egrets

It was with a bit of trepidation that we had moved to Ban Phrueksa 36 in rural Chachoengsao in December 2012.  It is not far from Lat Krabang, which was just over the line in Bangkok province.  The thought of living in such a tightly packed subdivision was a bit overwhelming.

But as we toured around, we discovered that there are a lot of birds adapted to the rice paddy/fish pond environment that we found ourselves living in.  So we started to enjoy bicycling, walking and driving around just to see the rural landscapes.  Often, on the way back from church, we will take a scenic route, where the roads are less crowded and the driving more relaxed.  And I usually keep my tripod in the car in case a photo op comes up.

At other times, we just hop in the car, go find us a cold coffee somewhere, and drive back along the back roads.  It was along such a trip we happened upon these frolicking egrets (mostly little egrets--Egretta garzetta--similar to snowy egrets).  The reason I liked this one, of the many I took, was the way the one egret flew with his legs hanging down.

Little Egret-Egretta garzetta-Ardeidae-นกยางเปีย

Little Egret-Egretta garzetta-Ardeidae-นกยางเปีย

February-Consultation

In our kid's clubs and other activities, one little fellow really took a liking to us.  This young guy, Toon (or perhaps his twin--I have a hard time keeping them straight) would tool around the neighborhood on his mini-bicycle with training wheels.  If we were outside the house, he would usually stop by to chat.

He happened to be visiting with Ingrid on this occasion.  I grabbed a camera quick and snapped the shutter.  If I had more time I might have set things up for a better exposure.  Still, I think this one came out really nice.

Ingrid and Toon

March-Rice Rat
We were taking a scenic road home one day when we happened upon a combine harvesting rice.  We thought it would be great to grab a few shots of the brightly colored combines that they use here.  But it was while doing this that we noticed what we found was a common practice here--alongside the rice harvest there is also a rat harvest.

It seems to be the practice when they harvest in the dry season (the ground is too wet for this in wet season harvest) that some people will walk alongside to combine carrying sticks that they use to kill rats that are flushed out of the field by the combine.  This is not for pest control purposes--it is for dinner.

In these parts there are even roadside stands selling BBQ rice rat.

Harvesting Rice Rat

April-Frog Legs

On one of my coffee runs, I decided to take a round about way home.  There was a rice paddy that was flooded between harvests, awaiting being tilled.  Birds love to hang out in these kind of fields.

Amongst the many photos I snapped that day was a Javan Pond Heron eating a frog.

My camera's auto focus was not working well and my eyesight is not so good anymore, so getting an in-focus shot through my telephoto is sometimes a bit of a challenge.  But this one came out reasonable.

Javan Pond Heron eating a Frog

May-Snake Roots in Khao Yai

In May, Ingrid's nephew moved to Thailand to begin teaching in an international school.  When he first arrived, he stayed with us for a few days before moving to Bangkok.

While he was here we took a trip to Khao Yai National Park, located about a 3 hour drive north of here.  On our way to Heo Narok waterfall, we detoured down to the river that feeds it.  There was this interesting tree with snake-like roots that were reflected in the ponded water of the river bed.  It seemed like a scene out of some fantasy movie.

Tree along Heo Narok River

June-Courage

My June photo is actually not one that I took--that's because I was more involved in the process of getting it set up.

In June we had a team from Heritage Bible Church in Bakersfield, California, come assist us.  There were three adults and 6 young people.

The first week they were here, we held an English Camp in a nearby school.  One day I noticed this big strange-looking beetle crawling on the floor.  I was thinking that with many beetles, they are similar in to a Saint Bernard--because of their size, Saint Bernards can be quite intimidating, but the only danger from them is if, in the process of kissing your face, they knock you over and you get hurt.

Using that line of reasoning, I reached down and let it crawl on my hand.  After I let it crawl on my hand a while, I asked if any of the young people wanted to give it a try.  ONLY ONE volunteered--a young woman named Dani.

I was really impressed by this act of courage.  If I was a young man looking for a potential spouse, it is this kind of behavior that would land someone in my "possibiities" list.  (Thirty years ago, I did, in fact, marry a courageous woman like that.)

I think the photo was actually taken by Bri, another young woman on the team.

Dani and the Beetle

July-Making Cupcakes with Neighborhood Children

For much of the time that we lived in Ban Phrueksa, Ingrid has given baking classes. Typically, he students are adults, but sometimes the young people want to get involved as well (mostly because they want to eat the results.)

This particular day, we had two groups.  The adults were working one table and the kids on another.  I like this photo mostly because it reminds me of some of the fun time we had with the neighbor kids in the house.  You can tell by the photo that not all of them actually participate in the work.  Mostly it is an excuse for them to hang out together and have fun.  And eat cupcakes.

Making Cupcakes with the Neighborhood Children

August-Double Rainbow Over Mill Lake

We had only recently arrived in Abbotsford and had stopped to visit Ingrid’s brother and sister-in-law.  We weren’t planning on staying long at their place, but they asked if we wanted to go for a walk.

It was late in the day and the sun was getting quite low.  I didn’t think that there would be many photo ops, so I didn’t bother to reach into the car to get my camera.

Then, as we’re walking around Mill Lake, just at sunset, there was a beautiful double rainbow.  Not only did I not have my camera, but Ingrid did not have her phone (which has a reasonable camera).  So I used my old Samsung phone with it’s 640x480 camera and snapped about 5 photos with portrait orientation, which I later stitched into a panorama using Adobe Photoshop Elements.  It is not the greatest photo in the world, but it is a nice remembrance of the awesome rainbow that we saw.
 

Double Rainbow over Mill Lake

September-Columbia Icefields

After we were finished with all the necessary meetings at our office in Abbotsford, it was time for some vacation.  Ingrid's parents had driven down from the Edmonton area.  We drove back with them, taking the scenic route through the Icefields Parkway in Banff and Jasper National Parks.

While we have been through these mountains many times since we got married, we had not actually gone down to the Columbia Icefields.  When I was a child, our family had stopped here on one of our cross-country trips, during which time we had gone out on the icefield in one of the Snow Tracs.

This time we decided we had time to walk around a bit.  The place where we parked to walk up the terminal moraine was pretty much the edge of the glacier when we had visited there in 1970.  Now were were able to walk along that area which had been buried by ice back then--and we never even got as far as the tip of the glacier.

This photo was take with my little Fuji Finepix--the only camera I had brought along.  I used the built in panorama ability to capture the photo.

Columbia Icefields and Athabasca Glacier

October-30th Anniversary Trip to Monterey

October marked ur thirtieth anniversary.  Because of all the changes that have gone on in our lives the past few years, we never even made the big trip we wanted to take for our 25th.  Now, for our 30th, we still had little time or money to make much of a trip.

We decided to go to Monterey for a few days, only this time we stayed close to the beach in a better facility than the Motel 6 in Marina that we have typically stayed at in the past.

Our main activity was to walk along the beach and shoreline.  It was on one of these evening strolls that we happened on these brown pelicans on the rocks below.  I braced my little Fuji camera on the guard rail as I zoomed in in order that the picture would be somewhat sharp.

Brown Pelicans in Monterey

November-Birthday Trip to Morro Bay
This was a hard month to pick photos for  because we visited our two most favorite places in California: Lake Isabella and Morro Bay.

In the end I picked this photo taken from the trail to Valencia Peak, showing my favorite person in the world and Morro Rock and the Sand Spit in the background.

We have climbed Valencia Peak many times, but often the fog obscures any decent views.  We were happy to have such nice weather and an unusually warm day.  This was the first day I have been to Montana de Oro State Park where I did not wear a windbreaker while walking along the bluffs.

On Valencia Peak Trail in Montana de Oro State Park

December-Two Heads are Better than One

As our time in North America came to a close, we finished off by spending Christmas week with my sister and her family.  Her daughter and son-in-law and grandkids were there that week as well.

I spent a lot of time playing with the twins.  I tried to get some photos of them, but it was hard as they were little balls of energy--seldom sitting still long enough to pose.

Then, on one occasion, they were sprawled out on the floor, so I sprawled out on the floor in front of them to grab this photo.  In the photo, it looks like the twins share a single body with two heads coming out of it.

The Twins at Christmastime

Bookends 2013

As I have done the past couple of years, my first blog post will be taken from my first and last photos of the years.



It seems appropriate to begin with a sunrise.  For this was indeed the beginning of not just a new year, but also a new ministry in a new location.  We had moved into a subdivision called Ban Phrueksa 36 only about 10 days earlier.  We were still in the process of moving and getting settled.  We had not yet begun any regular ministry activities.

On New Year’s Eve, we stayed up late to watch the fireworks set off by our neighbors.  But still I was up by 7, walking around, checkng out our new neighborhood.

Before the sun came up (or maybe it was up but obscured by the murky sky), I caught a photo of a palm tree silhouette.
 
Coconut palms are fairly common in this area.  They are often planted at the edges of rice paddies or fish ponds.  One of the things I came to enjoy about this area was morning walks or bike rides on the narrow country lanes—watching the birds and seeing the constant rhythm of life on the rice farms and fish farms.

We were also able to see the contrast of life in our subdivision with life outside the gates.  Our subdivision is comprised of about 1000 units of tightly packed townhouses.  These are relatively inexpensive units and give opportunity for those in the lower middle class to have affordable housing.  We came to find out that many of the people who live here work at the airport or some airport related industry (e.g. import/export).

Outside the gates are the home of the rice and fish farmers.  Typically the houses are on a narrow strip of land between the road and the irrigation/flood control canals.  When the canals get really full, some people's yards (or even homes) get quite soggy.  The minimum wage of 300 baht a day (about $10 US) would probably be an improvement for many of these people.

Sometimes the cluster of spirit houses (often 3 of them per household) seems to be in better condition than the homes.

It was into this environment we found ourselves planted, and like the coconut palm, we hoped that this would be fertile ground to produce fruit.

Even though things did not work out at all like we expected, we were able to touch  many lives through our ministry here—teaching English, teaching guitar, teaching baking, playing games with the children, leading Bible studies, praying with our church family and telling people the good news about Jesus.  And the fruit of our efforts was the lives we saw transformed by the Holy Spirit.

Fast forward to December 31st, 2013.  It is New Year’s eve, but we are not staying up late like we did the previous year.  We just arrived back from our first MINA (Mobilization in North America) less than 48 hours ago and we were quite tired from lack of sleep over the past couple of days.

(We were already tired coming back from MINA.  While MINA was a great time to connect with people, it can be quite tiring for introverts like us.  This is because one of the main activities of MINA is to meet with individuals, small groups and churches.  We shared in 13 different churches (in Alberta, British Columbia, California and Oregon) on 13 different Sunday mornings.

Another challenge in meeting with people for me is that not everyone is a morning person.  So we would tend to meet with people at dinner time or later as opposed to breakfast or before.  But, as my saying goes, you can take a person out of the morning but you can’t take the morning out of the person.  And so we would often stay up later than we are used to but I would find myself still waking early.)

And so we headed out early for a New Year’s Eve walk in our neighborhood—about 7 pm.  “Christmas” lights adorn many houses—only these are more like New Years lights as opposed to Christmas lights.  People had set up tables in the streets and the drinking had already started.  We received many invites to sit down and consume so of the local brew (which we declined).  Many children and youth were roaming the streets along with the adults.  And one didn't have to look to see that big amplifiers were set up and running all over the place. We noticed that some people are much better at karaoke than others.  It looked like it would be another good night for ear plugs.



Fortunately, the temperature is really cool this year and it is comfortable to sleep with the windows shut to keep out the noise.  We watch a movie and hit the hay before 10 pm.

Goodbye 2013.