Summer 2013

This summer is going to be epic for our family!

-         Travel  from Asia to America back and forth.

-         Classes and cru staff conference in Ft. Collins, Colorado for 6 weeks.

-         Birth of 2 new grand babies.

-         Foltz family with four of our grandkids moving USA to Thailand

The timing of each event makes it even a bit more crazy.  Of course no one knows when the 2 babies will decide to make their entrance into our lives- so here’s our tentative schedule.

May 27-   Mike, Thailand to Washington State, then Iowa, then Arkansas

June 1-   Judy, Thailand to Arkansas

June 6,7-   Family caravan Arkansas to Colorado

June 9 to July 12-   X-Track overseas training for Foltz family

June 9 to July 12-   New Staff Training for Michael, Bethany, and Lori

June 13 to July 10-   IBS (Institute of Biblical Studies) classes for Mike

June 13 to June 26-   IBS classes for Judy

June 27 to July 13-   Judy to Arkansas for birth of baby Seiler

July 13-   Foltz family from Colorado to Arkansas  to Florida for good-byes

July 14 to 20-   Cru US staff conference in Ft. Collins for Allens,  Lori, and us

July 21-   5 of us travel Colorado back to Arkansas

July 28 -   Foltz 6 fly Orlando to Bangkok

July 31-   Mike flies Cedar Rapids to Bangkok

August 13-   Baby Allen’s due date

August 31-   Judy says good-bye to 2 newborns and flies Arkansas to Thailand

Whew! Feel tired reading this?  There are definitely pros and cons to our life style. I write this en route on my first of 5 flights.  Chiang Mai to Bangkok to Tokyo to San Francisco to Houston to Fayetteville.  Packing up the house and preparing to be gone this summer already has me pretty weary and yet so so excited to be with our kids and grand kids.  We're also really looking forward to getting in the Word and taking some classes to be refreshed.  Appreciate your prayers as you think of us throughout the summer.  

A Mother's Heart

Parenting should not be that hard. The family was God's first plan for people in relating to each other.  To me, a mother and father's love for their child is so natural, but it has gotten very complicated over time and many families do not operate today as God intended.

When we raised our daughters in Asia, I did not have access to extended family, seminars, and other parenting tools.  Books were my best resource.  With no Internet and social media in those days, I spent a lot of my free time reading. I really  miss those days a lot.  Social media has robbed me of reading time. The books I read were varied a lot, with different opinions.   I would pick and choose the philosophies, that I  resonated with the most.

Without a doubt, this book was one of my all time favorites.  It is so basic!  I believe it has the essence of mothering the way God intended it to be.  It reminds me of what a privilege mothering is and takes me back to the basics- so that parenting is not such a complicated thing.

With two more grand babies entering the world in the next few months, I've been thinking about parenting more.  I am concerned about the world's influences that all my grand kids will grow up with.  I enjoyed re-reading this book once again.

I just heard a  special news report that really bothered me.  It was full of statistics of how many mom's work today.  The parents are  not the primary influence in most kids lives anymore.  Its another care taker.  I am sort of stepping out on a limb here, and I know that some people think that I am just old fashioned.  Sometimes old fashioned is good though.  The family units use to be so much stronger when the mother's focused on her family and not time away from her family.  I am thankful for my upbringing and a mother who taught me a style of mothering that I hope will pass down through generations.

There are enough people out there sharing an opposite opinion of the value of motherhood, so I want my chance to say that not everyone believes in women's rights, equality, women deserving higher wages than men, etc. etc.

If you're a young mom, I recommend this book as a huge encouragement to you.  Like I said, it's nothing mind shattering- but basic!  I believe it's what a mom needs.   Jennifer and Bethany- I am getting the book ordered for you as soon as I finish this post.  My prayer is that God will use it to turn your hearts and other mothers to their children.

Where's Waldo/Judy?

So thankful for around 150 volunteers that helped make call2all a success! 

 They served joyfully, tirelessly, cheerfully as unto the Lord!  

They blessed many lives! 

 A big thanks to each one of you! 

Exciting Family Update

The news that I am about to share has been an on going process over the past year.  I have wanted to share it sooner, but was waiting for more official confirmations.  We want to share an update on each of our daughters and their families.

Jon and Marisa have just finished their 5th year on the cru staff team at University of Arkansas and will be moving their family back to Thailand at the end of July.  They are looking at this as a long term move this time, which means we will get to have Collin, Summer, Hayley, and Nathan (our grand kids)  near us.   Since both Jon and Marisa grew up here, fell in love in high school and have been back on several cru summer projects and year long stint teams- this is not a very big surprise to most.  Packing up their lives of 10 years in the USA and possessions accumulated with 4 kids though has been a HUGE undertaking. They are just about finished with the packing and will be in Colorado during June and July for their overseas training before leaving the USA on July 28.  I know they'd appreciate your prayers for all their transitioning.

Lori has enjoyed this past year of living in NW Arkansas near her sisters and working at Potter's House ministry, but several months ago felt a yearning to serve God full time in ministry and decided to apply to work on the staff of Cru.  She was recently accepted and will go through the New Staff Training program in Ft. Collins, Colorado this June and July.  She does not know her assignment yet, but will find out at the end of her training.

Michael and Bethany have just completed their second year as interns with cru at University of Arkansas and want to continue on what they have been doing so they too applied and were just accepted to full time staff with cru.   They will go through the New Staff Training in Ft. Collins this summer and find out their assignment at the end of the summer.  Most likely, because they have had such a fruitful ministry and Michael has specifically helped a lot with his filming jobs- we think they will be assigned to continue there at UofA....and yet God is always full of surprises and they could be relocated.  

Ben and Jen have been talking with us throughout this whole past year about their desire to apply to work with Cru. Wanting to be sure and  after a year of praying and seeking guidance, they felt God leading them to apply, were accepted, and have already gone through their first round of training this month. They had a week of training at our Orlando Lake Hart Headquarters and are now building their support team. They got their assignment during their training, but I'll let them be the ones to announce that.  They will not be able to attend New Staff Training in Colorado because baby Seiler is due right in the middle of the training on July 2.   (Just about one more month) They have a lot of upcoming changes in their lives along with all of the girls.

So if you haven't figured it out yet.... this means that all 4 girls and families will be on staff with cru once they build their teams of ministry partners.

Our reactions??? Initially  when it was all happening at once we were a bit stunned and thought about the reality of them all raising a support team.  Since the girls grew up here- our own support team and family  are their contacts and can only stretch so far.  Yet, we've been reminded over and over that if this is what God wants for them.. the finances will not be an issue  Nothing is too difficult for God and His resources for fulfilling the Great Commission are unlimited.

Some of the first people that we shared the news with were supporters in Kansas City.  We were actually apologizing a bit and they stopped us by telling us that many parents would love to know that all their children want to follow God in full time ministry and we should be proud instead of apologizing.

This wall hanging has hung in my living room  for almost 25 years. (You can tell by the stains)  I asked a friend to make it for me when the girls were young to help me keep focused  after I had read that Dr. Dobson had it on his mantle.   A few days ago as I glanced at it- tears filled my eyes.  Life has not always been easy and there is no guarantee that it will always be this way.  In fact, it most likely will not, but for now we do feel extremely thankful and want to enjoy this season of life with our kids.  We will also be joining them all for training in Ft. Collins this summer and taking classes for enrichment, in the midst of two more babies joining the family. Some parents may not feel that these pursuits of our children are something to be thankful for, but for us- we feel so blessed. God has blessed us indeed! More on our crazy summer schedules later.......

Call2all Chiang Mai

Call2all Chiang Mai is now history- and I feel like I could sleep for a week! :)  That's not possible though, as one week from today I will be travelling to the USA.  It was a week of early mornings and late nights and little rest in between, but it was all for the purpose of giving God glory and furthering His Kingdom here on earth. It was actually a great week and very rewarding!

After recruiting our 130 volunteers and helping with their day of training, I spent a lot of time at the "Connection Center" once the congress got started.  This was a table where people could come for anything like "I lost my name tag" to "I need a translator" to "I can't find my workshop room". The girls that I worked with were mostly our TCCC staff and I enjoyed everyday with them.  Their servant hearts encouraged me so much.  Moo and others  thanked me numerous times for giving her the opportunity to serve others.

The worship times were heavenly.  Each song was translated into English, Thai, Korean and Chinese, all singing at the same time with many other languages, too.  This was one of the bands that I recruited from Bangkok with some of our TCCC staff.

The Map Walk on Wednesday was an activity unique to Call2all and one that I enjoyed most.  A giant map of the world was spread out over the floor and for two hours more than 1000 people walked barefoot over the map as the MC led us in different ways to pray for the world and claim unreached areas for Jesus.  Wish you could have been there.

On the last day they had a Commitment Ceremony, when people turned in a form with their commitment to engage with unreached people groups, or help establish churches, or reach people with the Gospel message, etc.  After turning in their form, they were prayed for and then we entered the statistics and they were projected on the screen so delegates could see the numbers. We came away with increased faith for what God will do as we move toward "Finishing the Task".

Last night, Steve Douglass, the president of CCCI spoke in the plenary session.  Our northern TCCC staff were thrilled that he met with them personally before the session to appreciate them and share some of his testimony.  It was really a treat for them, and several of them told me afterwards how thankful they are for such a committed and loving leader.

Of course their favorite part of the evening was getting to take pictures with him and the few minutes they had for that was so funny!  Wish you could have watched them.  They were literally running up beside him by teams and families to get as many photos with him as possible.  He was such a good sport and found it pretty funny himself.  Love our staff so much!  I was so proud of them throughout this week.  They served endlessly with long schedules and yet were always so joyful and eager to help.  I know their lives were a testimony to many this week.  Praying for much fruit to come out of Call2all Thailand as delegates are still processing. It has been my privilege these last 5 months to work toward this congress, and now I'm eager to move on to our summer activities.

Call2all Thailand

Call2all Thailand is taking place right now.  We are almost finished with day #3 and  tomorrow will be the last. It is exciting to see people from so many nations and different groups engaging with each other in talking about fulfilling the Great Commission. For me the days have been long and the  nights have been short- but I am energized when I see our staff with such servant hearts, working so hard to help with this congress.  God's spirit is moving! More to come- but thanks for all your prayers thus far! 

Rew & Dew

Rew and Dew's engagement ceremony yesterday was such a meaningful and  sweet time.  They are both full time staff members of Thailand Campus Crusade. Dew has worked with us up here in northern Thailand for the past 9 years.  It is such a joy for us to see two of our staff members who have  worked side by side as brothers and sisters in the Lord for many years, eventually learn to appreciate and admire each others qualities and then fall in love.  Dew and Rew have worked together for years as just friends, but now they will enter into a different phase of ministry as a family.

Our northern TCCC staff family with the engaged couple!

The thing that I enjoyed most about their engagement ceremony was their humble hearts. After going through all the protocol and traditions of a Thai engagement ceremony, they both wanted to share with their family and friends about their journey.  They were so full of gratefulness for everyone who had an impact in  their lives, that their emotions made it hard for them to express their thankfulness.


Dew's parents passed away when she was young, so she thanked other family members for raising her and most of all the TCCC staff family for all that they have poured into her life.  They are such a neat example of God providing for young people when they walk with Him, as they have both grown so much in maturity and now to the point of finding each other as ideal life mates. Rew has been a campus director with TCCC for several years.

Thai traditional dowry presentation.

Both of their familys members traveled in from the south and the north for the ceremony.

Presentation of the engagement ring! 

Mike was asked to share with them some words of encouragement concerning love.

Listening to Mike's challenge.

A time of prayer for them as they start this journey together.

 (Engagement is a bigger commitment in Thailand than in our American culture- more like marriage) 

After every Thailand ceremony, it ends with a lot of picture taking.  This is the Thailand international group photo.

Congratulations Rew and Dew!  We are so so happy for you... and indeed He makes everything beautiful in His time! We are so excited for your wedding in October! 

Beautiful Engagement Ceremony

It was a beautiful and precious ceremony and I can't wait to share my perspective.  But here's a recap of the day through the eyes of other friends, cuz today is a busy day for me!

Mint

Please meet my friend Mint. Mint has been living at our northern TCCC center in one of the  staff houses now for two years, but I have just recently gotten to know her well.  We have been working together the last few months in the Call2all office.  I love her!  She is sweet, fun, loves God and her heart is so sincere.  One night as we had dinner together, she shared with me that it is hard for her to understand God's "love" for her, because she never knew her father and felt his love.  When we talk about "God our heavenly Father", it is hard for her to know His love.  As she has shared her life story with me, I asked her permission to share it with you.   This is what she gave me:

I was born into a Buddhist family. When I was very young my parents separated, so I lived with my grandma. She raised me and I lived with her in Chiang Mai until I was 16 years old. My childhood was not good and I do not have happy memories at all. I did not feel love from anyone.  I needed hugs but never got them. I tried to fill my empty heart with many things, but nothing  fulfilled me. I have many bad memories and a lot of bitter roots from things that happened in my past. I was violated by my real uncle. It made me hate him and I wanted to kill him. I kept hate in my heart all the time. My grandma knew about this, but did not do anything about it.  It increased my feelings of hatred even more, because she did not help me.

One day, I decided that I could not stand it anymore and left her house and went to another place in southern Thailand, because I heard that my mom was in that area. I finally found her and stayed with her for awhile, but she was living with her new husband.  I was afraid that the same things would happen again like when I lived in Chiang Mai with my uncle, so I decided that it was best for me to leave there. Several months after I left there, my mother died of Aids. I really did not know what to do with my life and where to even live.

One thing I knew was that I wanted to study more.  My father worked for the government, and with his status he could get me free tuition.  I had never met my father, but I decided to look for him and I finally found him.  I told him about my life and my mom and asked him if he could help me. I told him that I wanted to study, but I had no money.  He wanted to help me and told me to meet him at the government office the next day, so that he could help me with a name change.   When I went the next day, I found out that his new wife did not want him to help me and told him to reject me. She blamed me a lot, but I was only 17 years old. This was a very very hard time for me to feel so rejected and I cried a lot.

I returned back to Chiang Mai to find a job and study. I worked every night in bars selling alcohol and studied during the day. I stayed alone and had to take care of all my own needs.  I had no family and had only myself to help me.

One day, a student from TCCC met me and shared with me about Jesus. After a few days, I decided to invite Jesus into my life.  Ever since that day, He has changed me so much. For the first time in my life, I have felt the meaning of the word, “Love”.  I have been healed only by God’s hands. He has given me new life, and has helped me let go of the hatred I felt. Now I know that God is the truth and love in my life.

I still have some bitter roots that I need to work on and painful scars, but I believe that God is faithful and He is helping me. He will keep working on me until He completes the work in me. I am still not as good as I should be, but I am much better than I use to be and I will never be the same again.  I still battle with many things in my mind, my heart, and my thoughts- but God never lets me down. I am so thankful for his grace in my life.

I hope this testimony even though it is short will encourage you even if just a little bit.  God has done many things in my life and he is still working in me- so much more than I have time to write down on just this one sheet of paper. I am so thankful for the Thailand Campus Crusade family, because I have never had a family before. 

Mint is planning to be an intern with TCCC this year, and  will work on campus with our staff team.  She told me that she has had so many experiences in life, that she loves to meet new students and hear some things about their interests and life  and then adapt her testimony to share with them what God has done for her in a way that they will relate to her. She will need to raise her salary ($300/month), so that she does not need to continue to work, but can serve with Campus Crusade. If you want to write her some encouraging words, her email is: baimint2011@hotmail.com  She encourages me every-time that I am with her.

PS: Today is her 24th birthday.... tell her Happy Birthday! 

Good-Bye Smith Family

Last night was a sad good-bye party.  Greg, Becky, Audrey, Erin, and Peyton are moving back to the USA. We have worked together with them here in Thailand for about 13 years.  We were neighbors in Bangkok when they were newly weds and then have watched them raise their family here.

A friend who was visiting us and came to the party commented that Thai's really know how to make people feel special and throw a great send-off party. There was a lot of sharing of how their family has helped the ministry here, gifts given, the staff sang them a song, tears were shed, and prayers by everyone to bless them as they leave. 

For anyone who has worked here, leaving our TCCC staff is the hardest thing, for sure!  They are loving compassionate, and very hard to say good-bye to!  We will all miss the Smiths alot!

The Very First Commandment

One of our recent guests is a photographer  and asked me to take her around to get pictures of Thailand's Buddhism.  Enjoying photography also, I decided to join her in the photo shoot. The timing was bad as we were out right about sunny noon time, but this is what I got.

As I've mentioned before, I am reading through the Bible in the chronological order this year.  Living in a Buddhist nation, I get accustomed to seeing idols around me everywhere.  Almost every home in my neighborhood has a spirit house, and idols reside on  most every piece of property.

However, as I've been reading through the OT, I am reminded how very very much, God warns against idol worship.   I know, we all have idols in our lives that we worship that we may not even see;  but the idols all around me here are so so blatant.

 The VERY FIRST commandment is: "You shall have no other Gods before me."

God talks about idol worship so much and He says that  making an idol is breaking His law. Deut. 27:15, "Cursed is anyone who makes an idol- a thing detestable to the lord, the work of skilled hands."

He says that he detests idol worship and warns his people repeatedly about falling into the making of idols and yet I still see it everywhere here.  That is WHY we are here... they do not know the one true God to worship him, so they have made other idols.

No wonder Thailand has been less than 1% Christian after so many years of idol worship, in spite of Christian missionary efforts. In this next picture they are pulling a cable with a cup of water to deliver up to the idols at the top.

Deut. 4: 2, "Do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the Lord your God has forbidden."

Deut. 4:25-28, After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time-- if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God and arousing his anger, ....you will quickly perish......!

Deut. 4:28, You will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell.

I am so thankful that his commands do not end there......DEUT. 4;29 "IF FROM THERE YOU SEEK THE LORD YOUR GOD, YOU WILL FIND HIM IF YOU SEEK HIM WITH ALL YOUR HEART AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL."

Lord God, help us to seek you, so that we can find you!  Help these Thai people that I am surrounded by and live with- to seek you so that they can find you!

I Samuel 7: 3-4 "If you are returning to the lord with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods... and then commit yourselves to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you...

Oh what joy it is to watch our staff and students who no longer worship idols- but the one and only true God!  Just yesterday, there was a training in our northern center and the room was packed with Thai Christians. To hear Thai's  sing praises to God and worship Him, is a reminder that when we seek God- WE WILL FIND HIM!  It's a promise from God! He does not break His promises! Pray for Thai people all over this country to find the one true God!

MK2MK

Our daughters were definitely NOT raised in the same culture of their mid-west Iowa parents.  All 4 born in Asia and growing up there until they went to the USA for college, has given them a 'Third culture" experience.  I am so thankful for our organization's emphasis on helping their missionary kids.  They just made this video explaining a unique  ministry called MK2MK.  I think that Marisa was on their first internship program back in 2000, and Lori worked with MK2MK one summer on a project in Colorado.  I LOVE this ministry and the people, the Kushner's, who had a vision to start it.

MK2MK 

I've also come across other vdos' explaining the uniqueness of TCK's like this one- but the people on here have grown up in a much more multi-cultured experience than our girls and have felt the displacement quite a bit more.  Our girls have mostly just dealt with the Philippines, Thailand and the USA. This will help someone to understand TCK's better, but if you are not that interested in the topic - don't watch it.   I really like this one about Black Forest Academy in Germany as it gives a great feel for the environment that missionary kids grow up in.  After watching it, it reminds me a lot of  the difficulty of sending our girls away from our home to the USA for college.  We are so thankful that they made that huge adjustment with God by their sides.

Now our own kids are entering into the culture of raising a family overseas and our grand-kids will grow up in another culture.  When they go through their training this summer; Nathan, Summer, Hayley, and Nathan will be in classes that help them even at their young age to learn how to adapt to this unique life style.  I am so thankful for the MK2MK ministry and the vision it will give our grand-kids for the world   We pray that they will have hearts to engage along with their parents and this summer they will start to understand just how special this lifestyle is that God is giving them.

road trip with hubby

Don't we all love weekends?  Everyone has a story on Monday mornings to report on what they did over their weekend.  Our family in the USA had a baby shower for Bethany.  Jenny just did a darling blog post about it.  You can read it here.

Mike and I took a Thai road trip! It was a 'work and play' combo overnight  road trip!  We got three things accomplished in one trip!

The first stop after we had been on the road for a few hours was the infamous Charin restaurant as we got close to Chiang Rai.

They are known for their very delicious variety of pies which is so unusual, out in the middle of northern Thailand, especially since Thai's do not really make and eat pies.  The owner lived in the USA for awhile and makes amazing pies.  It is always hard to choose one slice, but I went with the fresh coconut cream this time..... total contentment to my taste buds!

I can't begin to count how many times, we have made a road stop at this place.  It is always very refreshing, a great place to stretch our legs, and a peaceful atmosphere.

The variety of contents on, behind, and on top of trucks that we observe is always entertaining.

The next stop was the "work" part of the trip.  We needed to stop at our Chiang Rai campus Crusade Center to do an inventory on some dental supplies that were left there.  Another dental project from "Smiles for Everyone Foundation" is coming next month to do dental work on northern Thai people, most of them who have never been to a dentist   They had left supplies here after their last project, and needed a report of that inventory.  Mike and I sorted through about three trunks of dental stuff along with other equipment and then sent the list to them.

Next stop was after we drove up to the northern most border of Thailand and crossed over into Burma for some immigration business.  While there, we did the usual purchasing of a few cheaper  items unique to Burma.

Gotta love this immigration official who slept the entire time that we were in his office and his friend who thought it was funny too and told us to take his picture!

Driving back down to Chiang Rai, our next stop was at a nice hotel to celebrate our 36th wedding anniversary this month.  It falls on the opening day of Call2all, May 21 and we know that we will in no way be celebrating during that week.  As a matter of fact, this was about the only day that the two of us would be together and alone this month, so we decided to go BIG on the celebration.

One more thing that we love about Thailand, is that we can stay at a swanky 5 star hotel, for the same cost that it costs to stop for a quick ordinary overnight hotel on the interstate while travelling in the USA.  It was a beautiful and peaceful place to celebrate our "THIRTY-SIX" years of wedded bliss!

When the hotel found out our occasion for being there, they gave us some special treatment, too- delivered to our room.

We got back on Saturday evening in time for a going away dinner with the Utleys and Smiths, our fellow Cru friends that we work with.   Greg and Becky will be moving back to the USA after living and working here with us for many years after their last son, Peyton graduates from high-school next month! We are very sad to see them go.

My Sunday afternoon was spent making homemade mango crisp to take to a dinner for our Call2all office team.  It's a great way to cook up my Iowa roots of a fruit crisp but using  Mango, our favorite Thai fruit. Topped with a little dollop of vanilla ice cream- it creates a pretty delicious dessert!

It was nice to have a fun evening together in Micah and Morgan's home,  other than our normal office work atmosphere.  This is our last week, before the international Call2all team arrives, and then the week of the congress itself.  Busy times are approaching already, so it was good we got this meal in now. Hope your weekend was an enjoyable one too!