desperate

This book is really geared to younger mom's, but since I will always have a heart of a mom and burden for mom's who need a God-given hope- I found it interesting. I'd like to pass this book on to the young mom's that I know here in our community.  Here's a short summary from my perspective.....

Mothering is quite different today than it was for me. It's hard! Sometimes, I think it would be easier for me to have kids now, because I grew with the role and learned more with each passing year- but I do not have the physical energy.  I think most grandma's probably feel that way.

I've learned that one of the most important things in life is to listen to God and not the world around you. I think that is so much harder today for mom's with social media.  It is about choosing right in the little things- to get off the computer or phone when the little ones want us to read them a book. Everyone knows that but it is so hard to do.  I feel like every mom honestly intends to engage more. Living out the intentions is not easy- but so rewarding.  I didn't have those struggles as much when ours were little ones- we had no mobile phones,  no iPads, and the computer was really just for work emails.  I don't even remember the option of browsing or looking up anything "on-line". I feel the battle for mom's today that they should not have.

Every families puzzle is different, and we can only please God when we listen to his call on our lives. With all our different personalities, strengths, limitations, passions, etc- God gives us the freedom to exercise wisdom and be the productive family that he wants us to be.

The scariest and yet most encouraging part of parenting to me is that "children learn most through watching and imitating".  They absorb our lifestyle as parents. If we expect our children to be patient, content, self-controlled in heart attitudes- we need to grow in this and they will model what they see. Scary, isn't it?

And about those teen years.... don't be afraid when they question their faith.  I feel like most teens need to go through a time when they have to question life and what they have been taught in order to grow strong in their own convictions.  Then it's their own faith.

Even though, so much has changed in my days of having little ones to now, I'm thankful for the same goal of each day no matter what phase of life I am in- "To walk each day in faith, keeping my eyes on Jesus, and my heart inclined to his word."

For you mom's who need some hope, if you can find time in between breaths, I recommend, "Desperate"!

Fun picture of the girls from last month's bamboo raft rides,  that I haven't posted yet. Yep, these are the girls that gave me some days of feeling desperate from motherhood, and yet so thankful for all that I learned through raising them.

turning sixty!

Having a birthday on December 27th was not always so fun as a child.  I use to tell my parents that they just saved one of my Christmas gifts and gave it to me two days later. Ha! This year it turned out to be an advantage and great timing because our girls were all here and could help me celebrate. And.....because I was turning one of those big 0 numbers and moving into a new decade, they thought we should celebrate BIG... and THAT we did.

I had been fighting laryngitis and with all the work around the house from our big group each day, we decided it would be fun to end our family holiday by getting away from home and going someplace together out of town.

Chiang Rai was our chosen destination.  It was one of the best decisions we made and so fun to just get away. If it was just Mike and I, we would have enjoyed a swanky hotel but that was not so affordable when we needed 6 rooms. Instead, we found a great family oriented hotel for only $25 per night.

The family treated me so so so special all day long!  I felt like a princess!  When I walked out of the hotel room in the morning, this is who I was greeted by yelling out "HAPPY BIRTHDAY".  It was a bit of a do-over of Mike's 60th two years ago, with his matching orange t-shirts.

Lovin's from my daughters at breakfast. 

We found the most quaint and delicious place for breakfast recommended by friends who live there. I highly recommend  Melt in your Mouth if you ever need a beautiful setting for breakfast in Chiang Rai. Nestled right next to the Mae Kok River, it was a fun  place for the kids to take walks, too while waiting for our food. 

Just the fact that we could all have this birthday meal together was special to me.  Something our family never takes for granted. 

They made it even more special in so many ways. Besides my princess crown, they all wrote special memories that they had with me on individual cards that totaled 60.  I took them out one by one and read them throughout the day with us together.  I loved the ones from each grandchild, son-in-law, daughter and of course, Mike! They were a variety of  funny, sweet, sentimental, and more special to me that I can express. 

Me and my girls!

Mike and his girls!

We enjoyed our breakfast's most in Chiang Rai.  The Chivit Thamma Da Coffee House for breakfast the next morning was pretty amazing, too.

Over all, the best times were just being together and the pool at our hotel was perfect for that. 

The kids loved it.

Needless to say, we had discovered a really fun  place for them to play with their cousins and aunt and uncles.

Memories in the making!

Auntie Lori with Ruby Kay!

Oh and about the t-shirts... they were custom made just in time to go on our trip. Everyone contributed on the back what came to mind when they thought of me. Some of them being an inside joke is what made it fun!

The front side summarizes it for me... it was a very happy 60th!  Thank-you to my family for being so thoughtful!  Hugs across the ocean back to all of you!

Auntie Judy and Uncle Mike

One of the hardest parts of missionary life is being so far away from family members.  It was hard for us when we had our children and raised them in Asia and did not have grandparents and aunts and uncles to share holidays, babysit, and just be "family" together.  The missionary community easily became that substitute extended family for us.  Our girl's and most MK's have more aunts and uncles than they can count.

Now I am beyond that stage of life, but I remember it so well, which is one of the reason's that I've had 3 sister's that are ages 11-13 here with us this week.  Their parents are off on some exotic Thailand beach celebrating their 25th anniversary, while I am playing the role of auntie to the girls. It actually seems pretty natural to me, as their girls have just filled our girls empty rooms.  They are very easy to have around, enjoy reading, and have each other to play with.

They brought their home schooling books with them and spent time each day doing a few assignments.  I was very impressed at how self-motivated they were.

Two little granddaughters of mine were very happy to have some new friends in the neighborhood to play with, too.

We've played board games, outside games, watched movies, and other things that little girls like to do.  The part that I DO NOT miss is thinking of meals three times a day.  Mealtime for empty-nester's is so much easier.

There may have been a little spoiling on my part, but when you only have them for 5 days- you can get by with that.  Our trip to the mall yesterday, seemed more like grazing from place to place on junk food.

This sweet five year old turns six on Monday, so Bethany, Ellie, and Micah bought her some little gifts and we had a hot fudge sundaes birthday party for her today.  Happy Birthday Hayley.... and Tim and Lisa I hope your time away was a very relaxing 25th anniversary celebration this week.

GO VISION 2020

GO VISION 2020 ended last night.  Today was a day of clean-up for all the staff.  It's a lot of work putting on a conference for 300 students and staff  who traveled in from all corners of the country.

It definitely had a camp atmosphere and the staff put a lot of work into the ambiance of the place. 

Students really enjoy coming up to Chiang Mai for camps, because it is  cooler this time of year and fun to get out of their cities.

Mike shared the message with the students one of the first nights entitled "Go and Tell".

His Thai language ability to communicate so well always amazes me.

Bethany and Michael were able to be here for part of the conference, which was neat for us to see them  get more of a vision of what God is doing in student's lives here through TCCC.

Michael gave two workshops during the breakout sessions on "Ministry Strategies in Film-making", using his experiences in the USA to give them new ideas. Mike was his translator which was fun for me to see them doing ministry together. 

Yesterday was their field day, when they served in communities.   They went to some neighborhoods near our office and a Buddhist temple to sweep the streets and cleaned up garbage. They shared God's love with people that they met throughout the day, practicing what they had learned about witnessing this week.  A gospel presentation was shared with 174 people and 26 prayed to receive Christ yesterday.

Last night, there was so much momentum in the closing night. Some well-know Thai producers and composers who were Christians came and lead the final praise and worship and the students really lifted the roof in music and worship.   They wore camouflage, decorated the room with an army theme,  and were  preparing to go back to their campuses and families as soldiers.  When they sang the old hymn "Stand up stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross", I could not help but think about all the potential in this room of passionate Christian students who wanted to share God's love.  To be a Christian in a Buddhist culture, made the words to this song come alive for me- as they really needed the encouragement from each other to truly  stand up for Jesus. Wish you could have been there. Please pray for them as they are returning home and to campuses today.

Reuniting with our TCCC staff

One of my favorite days during our daughters visit to Thailand, was the time they spent with our Thai CCC staff.  Our girls grew up in the ministry here and were involved as children.  They looked forward to going to the student camps, enjoyed spending time with our Thai staff at conferences, and when the ministry was first developing they were often the special music and entertainment at meetings.  I think that involvement which seemed so natural since they were young, had an influence on why they want to continue serving God with CRU as adults. Coming back to Thailand to visit, it was important to them to get some time with our staff.  One of their first days here, Mike set up a lunch for them all to share together what God is doing both here in Thailand and through our girls lives in ministry in the USA. The catered meal that he chose was one of their favorite's- Khao Soy. It is a northern dish made from hand cut egg noodles, coconut milk with a curry soup base.

What a joy it was for Mike to re-introduce each of the girls as adults now.  Jen was the last to leave, so our staff remembered her, although most of our team in the north are new staff now.

Jen and Ben shared about what God is teaching them through their time of raising their team of ministry partners which is something the Thai staff related to so much.  Each of our Thai staff also need to trust God for raising their own financial support.

Bethany and Michael shared about their ministry at the UofA campus and the opportunities that Michael has had to use his gifts in media.

Lori related well to them also as she told them how much she did NOT like her campus assignment at first, but as she obeyed God and went that he has blessed her by meeting her needs and giving her more disciples than she ever imagined.

Interspersed between our girls sharing, each of the Chiang Mai campuses shared an update, too. Nutti who was on our original team when we opened the ministry in Chiang Mai in 1992 happened to be in town and shared, which made it so special for us  to hear an update from her.

Another fun evening for the girls was our northern TCCC Christmas party.  Years ago the party would be at our home, but as the number's have grown, we now have it at our center. The staff are crazy and have so much fun at this party each year.

Lori entered in a talent show and did a great rap for the staff family.

The girls even joined in the family fun and did a stroll down memory lane by singing a song with actions as they did when they were kids at the Christmas parties.

It almost felt like old times for Mike and I have to have all our kids there with the staff as one big family just as it use to be.  We are so thankful for the TCCC staff relationships and the way they have loved our family and been there for all of us, through the years.

and then we were tourists for a day.......

No visit to Thailand is complete without visiting the elephants, and we decided to step it up and add ox-cart rides and bamboo rafts to our fun day.  It was a mandatory family outing day (except Collin & Summer were in school) and we all went together.

We started the day with elephants rides through the jungle, mountains, and river. 

Aunt Lori and Hayley were riding partners.

The Allen family had their first elephant ride together as a threesome. 

Jon has lots of fun with his new GoPro all day.

Ox-cart rides we went with guys and girls.

The elephant show was up next....

As usual, they impressed us with their paintings.

and putting hats on us....

Not so sure about the hats that they pass out for the bamboo rafts to protect us from the sun! 

I love that these four sisters enjoy each other so much and made everyday fun!

The bamboo raft rides were peaceful and relaxing. 

Rubes hung her legs in the river for most of the trip.

We each took a turn guiding the raft, but left most of the work up to our guides.

Elephants were working along our route.  We always love getting out of the city and enjoy the rural part of Thailand, even if it was a bit touristy.  Any day with the family all together is a treat, fun, and something we'll never take for granted.