One Step At A Time

This morning we took over a whole row of seats, complete with two charging stations. We've prayed with a man who found himself as a book end to our row. He's on his way home to Kenya but has been stranded at the airport since yesterday waiting for his ticket issues to be worked out.

We've checked in, with relatively no issues. We've checked our bags through to LAX. We've cleared security and passport check. We've made it to our gate and have set up camp. We should be boarding our flight about 2:40pm (12:40am for you California folks). We'll fly into Taiwan for a layover there before our final leg, Taiwan to LAX. Spirits are still high, we're going with the flow, and enjoying the journey God has set forth before us. We don't know His why, but we know He is good, and we rest in that. ❤

Until Next Time

Monday evening we said good bye. We had dinner with the kids, then we all headed to the chapel. Many kids had prepared performances for us. They rocked them! It was great to watch them sing, dance, & play instruments for us. We were touched. They also surprised us with gifts: handcrafted Akha items, such as, hand stitched cloths, woven fruit baskets, fans, and rice bowls. We also received Jasmin corsages, a symbol of honor. Michelle, Connie, and myself were not permitted to stand by each other as we're the "sentimental criers" of the team, but I tell you what, it was not just us 3 with tears in our eyes. We broke into groups after that, a handful of kids to two of our team members, with good bye's said and promises of praying for each other. Relationships have been formed, bonds have been made, it was hard to let go for some. After returning to the guest house, Luka, Ghan, & girls joined us for our last team devotion. We worshipped and prayed together, and we said good night knowing the morning would bring more good bye's and tears.
Morning came, we packed the last of our things. Checked the house over twice. Loaded our bags, and prepared to say good bye's. Ghan and the girls packed us all beautiful fruit platters for our trip to the airport. So incredibly thoughtful. They included a verse they picked for each one of us. Each one different. Each one chosen for a specific person.

Man, my heart is full, humbled, and so very blessed. I can't speak for the others, though I imagine it's similar, but the verse chosen for me is a perfect fit. Completely God designed. We decided that this wasn't "good bye," it was "see you later." We will be back. Sooner rather than later. God has imprinted Luka, Ghan, their girls, AYDC, and the Akha community as a whole on our hearts, and us on their's. This is only the beginning of what is an incredibly beautiful relationship between us. So, it's not good bye, it's see you later. ❤

Sleeping in a Box

We're still in Bangkok. We fly out at 3pm local time, which is 1am California time. We'll land at LAX about 9:30pm Wed 8/1.
Mark & Titus found us a "boxtel" where we were able to sleep and rest for 6 hours. Now we're up and moving again. Finding coffee, essential for some, and breakfast. We have a little over 4 hours before we can check in for our flight to LAX. Currently, we're carting all of our bags around on luggage carts, 1 per person. I imagine we're quite the sight to see. Lol. Once we are able to check in and get our bags checked bag in, we'll be able to ditch the luggage carts, pass through security, and head to our gate. We're all tired and ready to be home, but still, our spirits are good and we're enjoying the journey. Still lots of laughs to be had.

Re-Routed to Bangkok

Waiting in Chiang Mai

After many phone calls and running around, praying, waiting, pacing, and more phone calls and more praying... it became clear we would not make it to Singapore on time to make our connecting flight to LAX. However, Mark & Connie were able to get us re-routed through Bangkok. We raced through the airport, through our second security check point, and to our gate with minutes to spare before boarding to Bangkok. We made it to Bangkok though!! We're tired, but our spirits are high. We have quite a layover here before heading to LAX, we're hopeful for an earlier flight out but we'll see what happens. Either way, we're happy with forward progress and to be on our journey home. Things haven't gone as planned, but that's okay, we're flexible and know God is in control. Have I mention how awesome Mark & Connie are?!? Because they are, tremendously so! I don't think I can say it enough, we as a team are so blessed by their leadership!!

Stuck in Chiang Mai

We said our "good bye's" this morning, or rather, our "see you later's" and came to the airport in Chiang Mai. Our drive was good, and we made great time. Our hearts were sad to leave but we're ready to be home too. When we went to check in, we realized there was some confusion with our tickets and we missed our flight by 24 hours. It left yesterday. Mark has been working tirelessly to find us and alternative. Our hope is to be able to make it to Singapore before our connecting flight leaves to LAX. As time passes, that seems unlikely. However, all options are being exhausted and we're looking at all scenarios. The team's spirit's are good. We're praying, laughing, and believing God has everything under control, even when we don't know what His plan is. We know we'll get home eventually. We're all so thankful for Mark & Connie's leadership. They have done and are doing an amazing job at leading our team! We are so blessed by them!

Love Is All You Need

Isn't that view just amazing?!?! That's part of the view from the Akha church in Luka's village. We attended church there on Sunday. The kids performed a song for us. They were adorable. The adults performed for us as well, and they sounded amazing. And then we performed for them, we sang "God is so Good" in both Akha and English. I'm sure we didn't sound as great as they did, but we sang from our hearts. I believe it was well received. They served us an incredible lunch then we toured the church and village. We saw the spot where they want to put the water bottling & ice factory, pending government approval. We don't speak the same language, but our love for Jesus and for each other joined us together.

The evening found us once again in town. Most of us ate at a pizza place, it wasn't quite like home but was good anyhow. Elaine found a McDonald's and that was just like home, with added curly fries. And as I suspected, Mark got his ice cream!

Monday brought several Akha pastors and their families to AYDC for their monthly meeting. It was a time of fellowship and encouragement. Mark and Pastor Kim shared a little as well as some of them shared with us. Then we shared the noon meal together. Again, I was reminded that while we don't share the same verbal language, our hearts share the love of Jesus.

Before I came to Thailand, I asked my kids to write a note or draw a picture for me to bring with me. One of my girls drew a picture of me and her, she wrote "Love is all you need". She didn't know it, but that has proven to be true, over and over this trip. We love each other and love on each other because we love Jesus and we love His people. Love trumps language barriers.

Rice, Games, & Blessings

We have a new found respect for rice farmers. The rice AYDC grows on site here feeds them for about 6 months. This last week was planting time. On Friday, we helped. It was fun and blessed us to be able to help them in that way, at least we hope we were helpful. It is hard work, and we've all been feeling it. Some more than others. Lol. There were all sorts of God's creatures socializing with us in the rice paddies, such as snakes, mud crabs, and an infinite number of creepy crawlies. Thankfully, most of us were not aware of them until close to the end.

Friday was a holiday in celebration of the king's birthday so the schools were closed. Many families of the AYDC kids came and helped plant the rice, then took their kids home for the weekend. There were a handful of kids that stayed here. On Saturday, we spent time playing games, painting faces, playing legos, and weaving lanyards/bracelets. 

 Saturday evening we were invited to dinner at a friend of Luka & Ghan's. People from her small community/neighborhood joined us as well. She has recently been in the hospital and had surgery on her intestines. This dinner was a celebration of God's faithfulness and provision. In turn, people took the opportunity to bless her financially. It was heart warming to look around and see the people love on each other, and on us. To bless one another. We sat and sang together, worshipping our awesome God. It blessed my heart tremendously. 

After we left there, we found ourselves again at the Night Bazaar and Walking Street. We enjoyed the sights & sounds of all they had to offer. It started raining as we were getting ready to leave. Mark missed out on getting ice cream at Swenson's. I'm sure he won't miss out tonight!