Bookends 2022

One way I like to look back at the year is to compare the beginning of the year with the end of the year using photos. They aren't necessarily the first and last photos of the year, but will be within a day or two.

We started off the year with a bike ride. I took Ingrid on a journey to show her some of the places I discovered on some of my morning bike rides. About 6 kilometers west from our house there is a temple located close to the Pao River. Like many of the temples around here, there is a forest associated with it. Someone put a paved walkway through part of the forest. We decided to take our bikes down the trail, but it was a bit challenging because of all the vines crossing the path—the one's pictured here weren't the worst. A few times we had to get off our bikes to get around the convoluted stems crossing the path.

Path Through the Forest Temple Grounds

Later in the day, we went to Doi Chang Coffee that it is on the eastern edge of Kamalasai District. Their coffee is a bit more pricy than some places (though not near as much as Starbucks), but they have the best blended mocha around. There are lot's of pretty plants at Doi Chang coffee, and here we found another vine over the "trail." This time it was the pretty clusters of lavender-colored blossoms of Queen's Wreath (Petrea volubilis).

Queen's Wreath at Soi Chang Coffee in Dong Ling

After leaving the coffee shop, we took a detour down a dirt road that runs along the edge of a nearby community forest. We parked the car and walked down a trail that we spotted. Here we encountered even more lengthy (and knotty) lianas.

Vine Maze

Sometimes the vines seem to bypass the tree trunks on the way to the canopies above, at other times, they seem to want to choke the trees like a woody boa constrictor. Or maybe it's just a love-hug.

Hanging on for Dear Life

Maybe the vines were supposed to be a metaphor for the year ahead—lots of twists and turns in the road but beauty to be found along the way.

• We began the year working on our own, but in May and intern came to join us and help with the work.
• We have periods of excitement when so many people are participating in our activities that it is hard to keep up. Then there are other times when there are just three or four of us gathered for times of worship and prayer.
• On some occasions we are so frustrated we want to just go back to the "normalcy" of North America. And there there are times when we can't imagine leaving our adopted country.
• There are times that we think we have identified a potential leader. And then comes the time when that person decides that there are better things to do than try to follow Jesus.

Amidst all the changes in activities, there is one constant, and that is my companion of the past almost 40 years. I don't know how my wife manages to get more beautiful each year, but somehow she does it. So it was only fitting that we end the year by checking out this new coffee shop:

Gorgeous Coffee in Khong Chai

I'm not sure why they chose this English name for their coffee shop. They don't even have a Thai equivalent or Thai phonetic anywhere. But I suppose our going here also shows another constant in our life: coffee. Both our first and last day stories involve that wonderful beverage.

The flavor of the blended mochas at Gorgeous Coffee are as good as Doi Chang, but they were more watery. They also came in these weird pop-top containers that did not hold as much coffee, though the cost the same. While the idea of this sealed coffee is kind of cute, I don't really care for the resource heavy nature of it with heavier plastic and the aluminum lid.

Blended Mocha from Gorgeous Coffee
Resource Heavy Packaging

Here is the blended mocha from Doi Chang for comparison.

Blended Mocha from Soi Chang

So was last year. While I can't guarantee that the coming year won't have as many twists and turns as the last one—in fact, it will probably have more—the important thing for us is to be following the path God sets before us. And so we echo the prayer of the psalmist:

Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. Psalm 25:4-5 (NIV)

And we trust in the promise of God:

This is what the LORD says-- your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go. Isaiah 48:17 (NIV)