What are you living for?

I want to dedicate this post to a very special lady named Joni.  I've been meaning to write this for a long time now and after talking about it a few times recently, with some friends of mine, I figured... no better time than the present. :)

Probably within the first month of being in Thailand, a friend from our sending church, Joni, sent me this link to a Francis Chan sermon.  As many of you know, I had a rough start to life here and have definitely had many moments of questioning whether we should be here... fighting feelings of extreme homesickness... missing all things familiar.  But little did Joni know, that this little clip would bring a WORLD of hope... proper perspective... needed refocusing for me.  And I have called it to mind, time and time and time again.

You see... whenever life over here starts to feel heavy, or I feel as though what I've "given up to be here" is too great, God has brought this sermon to mind.  And suddenly, its as if I get snapped back to the reality of what I really, truly, actually want.  And what I want is, to stand before my Father on that Final Day, and be able to say that I followed obediently and did my best to fulfill what God has called me to do.  I want to know that I lived life in light of the white part of the rope, rather than the red.  That I treated life as the brief gift that it is, and made every effort to live out and share God's truth and love with the world.

Are there still days that feel really hard?  For sure.  Do I still miss my friends and family everyday?  Absolutely.  But I also know that I get to spend the "white part of the rope" with them, and therefore, the sacrifice of the "now," is SO worth the reward at the end.

So, Joni... I cannot thank you enough... for caring enough to think of me... for caring enough to take the time to send this... and for being used in a mighty way, by our caring Father, in my life... over and over again.  Thank-you.

1 year...

It really is hard to believe that its October 14th again.  It feels like just yesterday we were stepping off our Cathay Pacific flight, after a LOOOONG journey from Vancouver to Bangkok.

So much has changed since then.  

One of the biggest things being, that there were 3 of us when we arrived in Thailand on October 14th, 2011,

and now there are 4 :)

Not to mention all of the crazy things that happened in between.

All in all, its been quite the year.  I'd say one of the deepest truths we've had reaffirmed since we've been here, is that God truly, truly is FAITHFUL and hasn't left us... not even for a second.  There have been some dark times... some of the hardest times of our lives... but also some really incredibly rich times.  And through it all, God has remained the strength that has got us through and the joy that has shone through, even when we felt like we couldn't do this.  

And I guess what I just really want to say in this post is THANK-YOU.  

Thank you to all of you who have believed in us... who have walked alongside us on the long road that got us here... who have supported us financially... who have supported us through prayer... who have sent us ridiculously awesome care packages... who have emailed and FB messaged us, just to say you're thinking of us and praying for us daily... who have taken time to Skype with us... who have come (or are planning to come) visit us... who love us... who want to see us succeed... who have made this entire last year (and the many to come) possible.  We feel deeply, deeply blessed by all of you.

Thanks for being a part of this crazy journey we're on!  We honestly couldn't do it without you and we're so thankful you're along for the ride! :)

So, as I reflect back over this past year, I guess my heart just feels really thankful.  Thankful to God and thankful to all of you.  And I can't wait to see what God has in store for us in the year to come.   

1 Peter 5:10 says...

"And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast."

Karen sent us this verse in a text, just after I was released from hospital.  These words bring tears to my eyes today as I think about the truth in them.  As tough as this last week has been, I am reminded of WHY we came and WHO we're serving and the fact that HE will in fact, restore us and guide us for the journey ahead.  Its amazing how hazy things can get when life feels overwhelming. :)
I just feel really thankful for the promises in the Word today and hope that maybe these words will be an encouragement to some of you out there in bloggerland.  Not sure where YOU'RE at, but rest assured, you have a loving, heavenly Father who will reach out his hand and save you, even when it feels impossible.
Thank-you Lord, for your grace and understanding heart.

Week ONE

Well, its been quite the first week here in Thailand!  Since my last post, I've been deathly ill and ended up in hospital for a night.  They diagnosed it as gastroenteritis, and let me just say that it was AWFUL.  Don't think I've EVER been that sick in all my life.

After an entire day of sickness, Karen came and took me to one of the private hospitals here in Chonburi.  I was so dehydrated that it took 4 tries for them to get my IV in, during which I kept passing out.  It definitely got worse before it could get better.

But they did finally get my IV in and started both saline as well as antibiotics.  Karen was incredible and stayed the whole night in hospital with me (seeing as Jon needed to stay back to take care of Callie)!  Thank-you again Karen... you're the BEST!

It was amazing what a day on the IV did for me, and I was released the next afternoon.  I'm still not feeling 100% (a bit weak still and taking it slowly with food) but am definitely feeling infinitely better than I was.  Thank-you to everyone who has been/is praying for me!  Your prayers have been evident and God has been gracious.  So far Jon and Callie have been OK but you can definitely keep praying that they'll stay healthy.  I don't want either of them to have to experience that!

Other than recovering, we've been doing some orientation with Ricky & Karen.  Yesterday we had a day at the TMBF office (Thailand Mennonite Brethren Foundation) and each had an hour language lesson.  The office overlooks a beautiful pool so Jon and I tag-teamed and took turns taking Callie in the pool while the other one had their language lesson.  Callie absolutely LOVED it!  The pool had two different slides and a kiddie area that was shallow enough for her to stand on her own.  I can imagine we'll probably visit that pool again someday in the future... it was a huge hit!

Jon is busy getting paperwork done today for a work permit.  I'm not exactly sure all that's involved but it is a pretty lengthy process so we're hoping/praying it will go smoothly.  We also have to extend our visas at some point as the Thailand consulate in Vancouver would only give us 90 day visas.  If you think of it, this is all stuff we could use prayer for.

We have a little less than a week left here in Chonburi before we fly up to Chiang Mai (next Thursday, Oct. 27th) and settle in for the year.  Our friends & fellow missionaries, Andy & Carmen, are currently busy trying to find us a place to live in Chiang Mai.  Language school is set to start on Nov. 7th so that leaves us just over a week to get settled in before classes start.  We're REALLY hoping they are able to find something before we get there so we can unpack and get settled.  Living out of suitcases has been a bit exhausting these days :)

Well... that's all for now.  I'll leave you with a couple of pictures I've taken on the iPod over the last week.  Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Flying into Bangkok... just a small glimpse of some of the flooding that has been happening.
The scary part is that it has gotten SO much worse since we got here.
Please remember to pray for the people of Thailand that are being affected!

Riding in "Uncle" Ricky's car

The evening sky from our hotel balcony

This kid continues to be the epitome of flexibility...
sleeping in her make-shift bed in our hotel room :)

Callie got to enjoy a day at the aquarium with Daddy while Mommy was sick...

... they saw tons of cool fish...

... and even got to "ride" one :)

First post from THAILAND!!

Yup.... the time has come! Here we are with all of our luggage, ready to leave Vancouver in the early hours of the morning on Thursday, Oct. 13th... bound for Thailand!  Can you believe we only had to pay for 1 extra bag and 1 overweight bag!?!  That's the blessing of having a sister who works for Menno Travel! :)

We left Vancouver airport at 2:45am on Thursday, had a really brief layover in Hong Kong (a little less than 1.5 hours as our flight was late getting in), and then we landed in Bangkok, Thailand at around 10:35am on Friday.  The flights felt LONG but thankfully Callie slept for a lot of the first lag, the meals were excellent (yay for Cathay Pacific!!) and all of our luggage arrived with us!  Praise the Lord!!

We got through customs easily and were soon greeted by Ricky Sanchez!  We impressively fit ALL of this baggage in his SUV and were on the road for the 45 min. drive to Chon Buri.  Here's a really quick recap of our last few days:

Day 1- Arrived in Chon Buri and settled in at the "Bai Bua Beach Resort" in Ang Sila.  The room was spacious, clean and just a few steps from the pool that overlooked the sea.  Just gorgeous!  We unpacked, grabbed some lunch, had a brief nap (easier said than done when all your body wants to do is SLEEEP!), had supper at the Sanchez home, and then off to bed!!

Day 2- EARLY morning wake-up from Callie (4:15am to be precise), breakfast in our room, early morning swim in the pool, relaxing in our room, lunch with Ricky, more recouping in our room, dinner and Aree's birthday party at the Sanchez home, off to bed :)

Day 3- Yet another EARLY morning wake-up from Callie (again... 4:15am), early morning swim in the pool, ventured out on our own.  We walked and walked and WALKED in the heat of the day, waiting for a songtaew to pick us up.  We finally made it from Ang Sila, all the way to the beach front in Bangsaen and stopped for chicken, rice and Coca-Cola on the beach.  Then we made our way back to Ang Sila.  Again, easier said than done when you don't speak Thai :)  But we eventually made it back to our hotel in one piece, exhausted and ready for another swim to cool off; then it was nap time again, quiet Thai supper in our room (delicious!) and an early night.

Day 4- Yup... you guessed it!  Another EARLY wake up from Callie (4:00am this time.... can you see a pattern here?  Please pray that the jet lag will go away SOON!!), early morning swim in the pool, packed up our room, moved from Ang Sila to Bangsaen and are now staying at the Yanadin Inn.  We stayed here the last time we were in Thailand so it feels very familiar and much more like "home." :)  The Bai Bua hotel was nice but very isolated which made it tough to get food, etc.

So that brings us to now!  We got settled into our room here at the Yanadin Inn and then headed to Bangsaen beach with Ricky for some great Thai food.  It was just as delicious as I remembered it to be from last time :)  Then the rain clouds came and we made our way back to the hotel.  Its been nice to spend the rest of the afternoon reading emails and catching up on Facebook, while Callie watches videos on the laptop.  I (Bonnie) am looking forward to getting out this evening with some of the ladies here for Karen Sanchez' birthday.  Jon is hoping to get to bed early with Callie seeing as we managed to skip naps today.... praying that will be enough to get her to sleep in tomorrow!!!

We'll be in Chon Buri for the next 2 weeks, doing orientation with Ricky & Karen.  Then, on Oct. 27th, we'll fly up to Chiang Mai and finally get settled into a home.  Language study will start on Nov. 1st.
If I'm really honest, these last few days have been tough.  The jet lag is killer, its tough not being able to communicate, and I'm feeling quite homesick realizing this is it now.  Its hard to leave loved ones and familiar surroundings behind.  But we're also continuing to trust that God has a very specific purpose for us here and that it will get better, once we can settle in a bit more.  Its been tough being in Thailand but still having to live out of suitcases in a hotel room.  Please pray for comfort as we let go of life in Canada and try to start a new life here in Thailand.  We are excited about what lies ahead and know that this is just a season!  And please pray, again, that jet lag would be gone SOON and we can have a bit more energy to soak in these weeks of orientation.

Thanks for everyone who has sent Facebook messages/comments, emails and has been praying for us over the last few days!  We have definitely felt your prayers and couldn't do it without you!  We love you all and will do our best to keep you updated.  Until next time.... :)

To be really honest...

Can it really be the end of April already?  Wasn't it just January yesterday?  Its hard to believe that the start of our internship at Central (and the final phase of our training) wasn't just a few weeks ago anymore, and that we're actually nearing the finish line now.  Only 2 months to go.

If I'm going to be perfectly honest, on one hand, the thought of that is almost debilitating.  The fear & anxiety that come with the reality of picking up and moving continents and cultures and languages is pretty much more than I can bear at times.  And if I look at it that way (ie: me handling it), then yes... you may as well take me out of the game and put me on the bench.  Because I can't and won't be able to handle that kind of change on my own strength.
But this is exactly why I'm extra thankful this year, for what Easter is really all about.  The fact that I have a relationship with the Father of the universe.  A Father that loves me deeply.  And a Father that not only wants to give guidance & strength for the journey, but also actually does give guidance & strength for the journey.  What an incredible gift!!  Its been absolutely amazing to see the way God has brought peace whenever I start to feel like I can't possibly do this.  The refocus that has come as I've wrestled through the "why's" and the "how's" and the "what if's."  I love the gentleness He uses when he needs to slowly bring me back to the reassuring call he's put on our lives.  I'm so thankful for the unwavering love of my heavenly Father.

Thankfully, there is another 'hand.' And on that, I can't wait for our journey in Thailand to start.  Last week I just felt true & utter excitement for what lies ahead.  All these months of training and preparing and waiting.  Its all been leading to our life ahead in Thailand and that is exciting.
Of course there are a lot of unknowns (ie: where we'll live, where our language training will be, what team we'll join, etc...).  But as scary as those unknowns can be at times, they're also really exciting at times.  Almost like a fresh start to life.  Something totally and completely new.

Anyway... all this to say that I've been doing a lot of reflecting lately.  Life has brought lots of change over the last few months and there's only more change to come.  And if I'm perfectly honest... the emotions that come with that are very 'wave-like.'  Lots of good days.  Lots of not-so-good days.  Lots of joy.  Lots of grief.  But through it all, I'm just so grateful for the Lord's leading and the fact that I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that He'll never leave us and will be there every step of the journey.  Just like He has been all along.

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast.  For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

Ephesians 2:8-10