The Vernon Journal - Journey Notes

Podcast :: Eastern Council of Foursquare Churches

2006-12-09T12:08:00.000+07:00

As promised, the audio recordings from Pastor Jack Hayford's teaching "Anointed to Serve" to the Eastern Council of Foursquare Churches are now available for download. Special thanks to our Foursquare family at Mustard Seed Fellowship in Australia for originally recording and casting the audio. (For those of you using iTunes, please download the audio from the here)

In total, six recordings are available, one for each of the talks Pastor Jack gave.

We hope these are a blessing to all of you!

2006 Eastern Council of Foursquare Churches Podcasts

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Late but still Thankful

2006-11-24T14:46:00.000+07:00

Through October and the beginning of November we were in villages attending Akha new-rice festivals, celebrating the harvest and remembering in thanks all of our blessings. So, when the American thanksgiving rolled around Lori and I smiled at each other and said Happy Thanksgiving and then enjoyed our staple city lunch of khao mun gai (Thai style chicken, soup and rice).

Tomorrow, however, we are going to do the "real thing" with a big American-style Thanksgiving (just a few days late) with our American friends here in Chiang Rai. Like last year, this means lots of work for the ladies as they prepare the turkey and mashed potatoes and casseroles and pies. Unlike last year, however, this year Lori has a can of pumpkin pie filling, so she won't have to mince a pumpkin by hand again.

The thanksgiving season reminds us of two things: first, how thankful we are to live in Thailand and work with the Akha mountain people and second, how thankful we are for all of you, our friends and family and partners in our ministry.

We hope you all have had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

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Topless in Bangkok

2006-11-20T20:11:00.000+07:00

Pastors, leaders missionaries and delegates from countries all over Asia and the Pacific gathered to Bangkok for the Eastern Council of Foursquare Churches conference last week. Nearly 700 men and women came to fellowship and join in a community of faith.

Pastor Jack was there.
Our supervisors were there.
Our supervisor's supervisors were there.
National church leaders from around the world were there.
This was a big deal - and I started the conference off wearing nothing but a sheet tied around my waist.

I didn't plan it that way.

We took an early flight from Chiang Rai with Pastor Timothy and his wife and arrived to find out that the conference didn't begin until 7:00 that evening. After a nice lunch and a little exploring of the area around the hotel we decided to take an afternoon nap to get ready for the conference that night.

Around 4:00 I found myself waking up halfway through a telephone conversation... I can answer the phone while sleeping and sound awake and coherent. Do any of you have this skill? I learned it in college and it has gotten me in so much trouble. I've had entire conversations while sleeping where I have committed to things I don't remember when I actually wake up... anyway, I slowly realized that I had just committed to do something to help the Bangkok team for the opening ceremony of the ECFC conference.

Voice on the line : "So, can you come down to the business center right now?"
Me (sounding alert) : "Sure, where is it?"
Voice on the line : "Third floor"
Me (still sounding alert) : "When do you need me there"
Voice on the line : "... um, right now"
Me (slowly becoming alert) : "Uh, yeah, sure... do I need to bring anything?"
Voice on the line : "No, they have everything you will need down there."
Me (actually awake now) : "They have everything I need, great... OK, I'll see you in a minute."
Voice on the line : "Um, one more thing... You are going to be topless"
Me (wondering if I'm awake) : "... "
Voice on the line : "Is that OK?"
Me (wondering what I committed to) : "I guess so. I'll be right down"

A few minutes later I was in a room full of the young leaders from Bangkok dressing up in very ornate traditional Thai dress - and discovered that I was going to be dressed as a traditional Thai slave who carried royalty on a litter. Apparently they couldn't get many volunteers for that role. So, while everyone else was dressing up in ornate costumes and jewelery and while the dignitaries from around Asia were dressing for dinner and the evening conference, I was having a sheet tied around my waist and a turban tied around my head. Finally with a slap on the back and an admonition of "Don't drop her" I was off to attend my first Foursquare conference.

Lori, of course, got a kick out of the whole thing, merrily snapping pictures of the scene. All joking aside, the Thai staff in Bangkok were incredible. They worked long hours, entertaining and helping everyone around the conference and Bangkok with great care. It was an honor to help them in even the smallest of ways.

The conference (and the subsequent meeting of missionaries from throughout Asia) was an incredible blessing and a rousing success. We met amazing men and women, heard insightful teaching (in English!) and received ministry where we are hurting. We will continue to share more about the entire experience through this next week and will hopefully have some links to Pastor Jack's talks from the conference.

We had hoped to share updates last week but did not have internet access while at the hotel (which was as much blessing as inconvenience), but are now back in Chiang Rai. We will be sharing at the Akha Bible Institute tomorrow and will spend the rest of this week in the city to celebrate Thanksgiving with our friends here.

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Pastor Jack Hayford in Bangkok

2006-11-12T10:12:00.000+07:00

Pastor Jack Hayford, President of the ICFG and more commonly known as "Pastor Jack" will be coming to Bangkok this Tuesday to share at the Eastern Council of Foursquare Churches (ECFC) conference. This conference will host pastors, leaders and missionaries from all over East Asia. We are very excited to have a chance to meet and hear from these church leaders and learn more about the ministries throughout Asia, and this will be Lori's first time hearing Pastor Jack share (he has shared at Faith a number of times in the past). After the conference, the missionaries who attend will treated by FMI to a time of fellowship and teaching for two additional nights.

We will be traveling to the ECFC conference on Tuesday November 14th and will remain in Bangkok to meet and fellowship with Foursquare missionaries from all of East Asia until Sunday November 19th.

We have been busy these last few months. Lori's parents were here last month and we were traveling to Rice Festivals and around the North with them. This past week a team of sponsors has been in from Colorado and we have spent some time with them, including a long day yesterday helping and learning from Dr. Wesley as he diagnosed, treated and cared for 200 Akha villagers. We will try to get some pictures of that trip up in the next week or so for you to see.

While in Bangkok we should have internet access and are hoping to share with you some of our experiences, lessons and maybe even some media from the conference - so stay tuned!

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Stronger than Sympathy

2006-10-31T10:30:00.000+07:00

I remember an elementary school teacher explaining the difference between sympathy and empathy to our class. She said that sympathy is feeling compassion for someone in a difficult condition, such as poverty or sickness or loss, whereas empathy is the ability to feel compassion and personally relate to the same condition.

Mirriam-Webster online defines empathy as follows:

em-pa-thy : the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner; also : the capacity for this

The capacity to vicariously experience. Sympathy with memory. It is a powerful ability. It is why we chose to live in an Akha village.
We experience the lives we sympathize with.
We experience the pains we minister to.
We experience first-hand the Akha experience.

Now, we know this experience, this empathy, will never be complete. We will never fully understand all their hardships. They will always be Akha and we will always be American, there will always be a difference in backgrounds and experiences. But we desire, for better and for worse, to relate as best as we can.

Today, I'm relating for worse.

Last week, one of the leaders of our village came to me and said "You need to come down and pray for Mi Shui's dad." So, off we went to see what was the matter. It was early evening and as we walked into their home, Ado Pa was in terrible discomfort, itching his thighs and behind his shoulders. It was scabies, and one of the worst cases we had seen.

We have seen many cases of scabies in our mobile Akha clinic. Sarcoptes scabiei, that dastardly little mite, burrows into the skin and lays more little mites causing inflammation and horrible itching, especially at night. It can easily be passed by blankets, mattresses and contact in an Akha village.

We prayed for Mi Shui's dad and gave him Benzyl Benzoate cream for the mites in his skin, gave him instructions to lay out his bedding in the sun to kill the mites in his blankets and gave him our sympathy for his discomfort. Then, two nights ago, little red welts began to appear on my skin and when the evening came these little welts began to itch like mosquito bites on chicken pox.

Now I really feel compassion for Mi Shui's dad. I understand firsthand how miserable it is, and when I think of all those nights he was in such discomfort because he doesn't speak enough Thai to go to a local clinic, or read enough Thai to purchase the medicine himself, or make enough money to purchase medicine if he could.

We will always have medicine available for the Akha we meet with scabies. They shouldn't have to endure that discomfort.

Empathy truly is stronger than sympathy.

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Northern Thailand Foursquare Pastors

2006-09-15T21:11:00.000+07:00

We are in the city for a little while as we try to work out some of the details for our home. Since we have the time (and the computer access) we wanted to give a few updates on our recent activities. In Asian cultures you have to spend a lot of time just visiting, and that was on the agenda for us last week as we had a chance to get out of the village and visit two of the Foursquare pastors in Northern Thailand.

We first went down to Fang to visit our old friend Pastor Timothy and his wife (Expanding our Map, June 2005). Pastor Timothy is from Singapore, but they have been living in Thailand so long now that they are basically Thai. Pastor Timothy is the point-man for Foursquare Northern Thailand and has the heart of an evangelist and the vision of a leader and it is always great to spend time with him.

As soon as we got to Fang we got to work clearing land near a Lahu Village. The Lahu are another hilltribe in Northern Thailand whose language has some similarities to Akha. This village had asked Pastor Timothy to come up and share for a week and then will decide if it will become a Christian village (such a different world from America!). We didn't last long, it was really hot and by noon we were all ready to call it a day. We set fire to the fields (another thing that is difficult for us Americans) and went off to lunch.

The next few hours were spent just talking vision and the direction of churches and orphanage (there is a small orphanage of Lahu children run by the Foursquare church in Fang). They are building a new church next to the orphanage and need finances and prayer to see that project completed.

Next we went back towards Mae Salong to visit an Akha Foursquare pastor who just had a baby boy. It was the first time we had been to the home of Pastor Noah and we met his wife (who was shocked that we spoke some Akha) and his 10-day old baby boy Solomon. No one had visited them yet, so it was wonderful to just sit down, eat some fruit and visit with this Akha family.

Please remember each of these Pastors and the Foursquare and AOF churches in the North as they continue to minister to all the different people groups living in Northern Thailand.

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Akha - the Written Language

2006-09-07T21:14:00.000+07:00

An interesting change is occurring among the Akha as the younger generation is learning how to read and write the Akha language. While we were in the city last weekend our old pastor and housemate was up in Mae Salong. Now, whenever someone visits our village they usually sleep in our house (which is really the village's home), we are then told dozens of times by various neighbors all about who stayed in our house while we were away.

This last time, however, the pastor left us a note (in Akha) on our door. Everyone in the village saw him do it, but just didn't understand what he was doing. When we came back to the village one of the little girls and one of our Akha grandmas, who we affectionately call Mrs. Santa Claus, took us to the note and said "The pastor did this".

We then proceeded to read (out loud) what the note said: "Paul and Lori, I came and stayed at your home, slept on your mats, ate your rice and food, and drank your tea. Thank you very much, God bless you."

They really enjoyed hearing us read this message in Akha, and insisted that we do it multiple times - and we were happy that we understood the whole message so we were glad to read it over and over again. They were especially tickled to hear this message passed over time and distance in this fashion and in their language. It certainly did not replace the oral tradition of passing news (everyone in our village still told us about the pastor coming to visit), but added to the story by sharing about how a 'written conversation' was left on our door.

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My Akha Mom

2006-09-06T11:22:00.000+07:00

Some time ago I wrote about my Akha wife and how proud I am of her. Although she is my wife, she is not really Akha. Today I am writing about my Akha mother and how much fun we have been having with her these last few days. Although she is Akha, she is not really my mother.

We have shared in our newsletters and in previous blogs about the Akha woman we lovingly refer to as Lydia because of her generosity. In reality, we call her 'Atsu Kuh', and she is our Akha mom.

From our first moments in the village this widowed Akha woman has taken care of us. Feeding us, teaching us, administering painful Akha remedies on us when we are ill, and generally trying to get us to live with her. Through our time with her we have learned that her husband died nearly 23 years ago and she raised her two daughters alone. Her daughters have since grown up and now live in Korea where they sell Ginsing products for a Korean company.

Well, her daughters have come back for this week and we have been able to spend some time with them. We are the same age, 28 and 26 (not taking Akha years into account), and have had a lot of fun with them while they have been running around and fussing over their mom, buying her telephones and things for her home. And Lydia is loving every minute of it.

With their Chinese education from Doi Mae Salong, her daughters can make more money in Korea than they ever could here in Thailand and are therefore able to take good financial care of their mother, but she misses them so much. Seeing her with her daughters helps us to understand why she has taken us under her wing. It also helps us to understand how our parents feel about us living off in a distant country. But we also see the pride and love in Lydia's eyes when she looks at her daughters.

Seperation is hard on all of our families but it also reminds us that wherever we go in this Family, we will always find love, and those who need it.

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Baby Geckos and Other Critters

2006-09-01T14:48:00.000+07:00

A couple of our recent posts have talked about some of the animals common in the village (like cats, dogs, chickens and rats.) Since we've been in the city the past week or so, I wanted to tell you about some of the critters we encounter here.

While our village home is literally a bamboo hut (thatch roof, dirt floors and all), the house we live in when we're in the city has concrete walls, tile floors, an internet connection and even air conditioning in a couple rooms. Still, we run into a surprising number of bugs and critters in our city home. We are constantly fighting (what seems to be) a losing battle with the ants, cockroaches and centipedes, which is, oddly, not something we deal with in the village. Also, in the city home w e generally live in peace with about 5 geckos who pretty much have free run of the house. I say "generally", because we've gotten to the point where we don't even notice them, except for when we occasionally find a gecko dropping in an inopportune location (like on the clean dishes drying on the rack! Gross!) Geckos (at least the ones in our house) are usually about 4-5" from nose to tail, but we've noticed that July and August must be "hatching" season because lately we've seen several "baby geckos" who are only about an 1" long.

As I said, I don't really mind the geckos, but I don't particularly like them either. However, these baby geckos are so darn tiny and cute that I always find my self saying, "Oh, look at the baby gecko!" and running for my camera to snap a picture. I've taken lots of pictures of baby geckos, but they never seem to turn out because most of them lack a point of reference. You see, a picture of a baby gecko on a white wall looks pretty much like a picture of a full grown gecko on a white wall. But the other day I went to turn on the light in the kitchen and there was a baby gecko right next to the light switch, so I finally got a picture to show you how cute these little guys are! I photoshopped a tape measure in to show you the scale.

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The Joys of Illiteracy (Part 2)

2006-08-26T19:03:00.000+07:00

About a year and a half ago, on our third day in Thailand, we wrote a blog about not being able to speak or read Thai and the difficulties that come with this handicap (like accidentally purchasing a pastry with "mystery meat" filling!) By now, most missionaries would be writing about how much progress they've made and how all those little communication problems that they ran into when they first arrived are becoming a thing of the past. Unfortunately, it seems that we are not "most missionaries!"

We are in very odd situation. We chose to learn Akha instead of Thai because we are working with the Akha people, however we are still living in the country of Thailand. So, although we do great when we're in an Akha village, when we are down in the city (where everyone speaks Thai), we are not much better off than the day we stepped off the plane. This fact, was clearly illustrated by our egg experience yesterday.

Paul and I were out running errands and decided that it would be fun to make chocolate chip cookies. So we stopped by a market to pick up some eggs on the way home. Buying eggs in Thailand is very different from buying eggs in America. I could tell you all the ways it's different, but I think that's another blog altogether, so I'll just tell you the one thing that matters for this story; there are three different colors of eggs: white, brown and pink. I've always thought that the pink dye was to signify that the egg was hard boiled while the white and brown were both fresh eggs. I normally buy brown eggs because that's what they sell at the market in MaeSalong, but the vendor that we went to yesterday only had white and pink eggs. So we bought 5 white eggs and headed home.

When it came time to make the cookies, I cracked the egg only to find that it was hard-boiled. Not only was it hard-boiled, but the yolk was a funky oily orange and the egg white had an odd opaque chalky appearance (Not like any hard boiled egg I've ever seen ... And certainly not anything I was interested in tasting!) So, with the cookies half made, I sent Paul off to the market again to get brown eggs this time. He came back with fresh eggs and the cookie project was saved.

Later, I got to thinking how all of that day's "egg hassle" could have been averted if I only knew how to say "Are these eggs fresh or have they been cooked already?" in Thai. While it can get pretty frustrating to continue having these moments even after a year and a half in Thailand, we've learned to laugh at our mishaps. And I comfort myself with the fact that I can say "Is this egg hard-boiled?" in Akha (even though that didn't help me much yesterday.) All in all, we're happy with the language path God has us on ... despite the slight inconveniences it sometimes creates in the city.

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Police, Parents and Prodigals

2006-08-21T19:48:00.000+07:00

The highways in Thailand are scattered with police checkpoints. Imagine driving down a major highway like I-70 or I-5 and every few miles having to slow down and drive through a coned area with the Police stopping or searching every few cars looking for drugs or signs of human-trafficking and illegal immigrants. Being largely surrounded by Myanmar, Laos and Indonesia there is a significant need for these checkpoints. To the Akha, however, they serve as a frequent reminder that they are a people without a country and are often unwanted by the countries they are in. Even today as we drove down from Mae Salong with an Akha friend of ours we were stopped and he had to show proof (by ID cards) that he had the right to drive down to Chiang Rai.

Two nights ago, however, four of the families from our village were very grateful for one of these checkpoints. On Saturday night as things were winding down in the village and kids were heading home from playing in the village and the surrounding area on their day off from school, one of the village elders came running to me in a panic. "The police have my little boy! The police have caught my little boy! You have to go get him!" Soon the whole village was gathered and talking and we understood that five Akha boys from our village, aged 7 to 12, were at a police checkpoint thirty miles from our village.

Now, at this point, you need to understand a little bit about Akha boys. Perhaps the best American illustration that I can use to illustrate a typical Akha boy is that of Huckleberry Finn. Independent, adventurous, intimately knowledgeable about their surroundings, fearless (at least during the daylight hours) and generally unconcerned about trivial things such as their appearance or whether their parents know where they are.

Well, five of these little Huckleberrys from our village had apparently decided they were going to run away (probably to one of their relatives villages) to a town about 45 miles from Dama Gojo in Mae Salong. They gathered a few baht together and hopped in a song tau (Thai taxi/minibus system) towards Mahinte. No one from our village knew where the were until a phone call came from one of these police checkpoints.

Apparently, the policemen at this checkpoint thought it was highly suspicious that five Akha boys would be traveling on their own so they pulled them into their office and eventually got the story of what village they belonged to. They then called our village and the very worried parents sent the pastor (who speaks fluent Thai) and I down to fetch them.

About 9:00 at night we arrived to a sober group of hungry Akha boys. The police had turned them over to an Akha family who gave them a good talking-to and this vagabond group was not looking forward to going home to their worried parents. After visiting with the Akha family for a short while and purchasing some snacks for the boys to take an edge of their hunger (the adventure had distracted them from eating all day), all seven of us trudged through the rain and into our little four-seat Suzuki Caribbean.

An hour later, we were back in the village again having added another surreal chapter to our lives with the Akha.

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A Tale of Three Chickens

2006-08-19T13:38:00.000+07:00

I have been reading through Exodus, where God gave the law to Israel after taking them from Egypt. Pages of commandments about what is appropriate compensation to pay if your bull eats your neighbor's crops. I must admit, I was dragging my way through it - wanting to skip ahead to more exciting reading. But an interesting event in our village has shed new light on this passage for me, and the importance of justice in every culture.
Yesterday while we were sitting with our village enjoying fruit and conversation, a young woman from our village shouted something about a dog and ran down the hill toward her home. A short time later she came back, quite distraught, with her largest rooster dangling in her arms. Over the next 20 minutes, two more chickens were found, all three had been killed by two village dogs.
In an Akha village, dogs and chickens are all livestock for the dinner table. They are not caged up, but roam the village freely eating what scraps they can find. Although these animals often appear to be wild, they all have owners who feed them and, eventually, eat them. Generally all the animals co-exist peacefully, dogs learn as puppies that the chickens are not for them to eat.
But on this day the young Akha woman had lost three chickens, quite a large loss, meat enough to feed her family for some time. The two dogs which had attacked her chickens were owned by two different families.
We wondered how this situation would be handled. In our experience, village issues are often handled either by fists or by ignoring the real issue. But in this case there was a precedent, a village law. In front of the whole village a scale was brought out and the dead animals were weighed. Once all three had been weighed the woman was offered her choice of market value cash for the chickens or new chickens from the dog-owner's flock. She chose the money (about $12) and the dog owners were given the dead chickens. No fights, no hard feelings. Justice exists to protect those who cannot protect themselves.

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The Rat and the Cat

2006-08-12T13:48:00.000+07:00

Last year we had a bit of a rat problem. And you might have noticed in Paul's recent post, Our Akha Homecoming, that we are again sharing our Akha hut with these little rodents. Having dealt with rats before, we knew exactly what to do... (drumroll please!) Glueboard Rat Traps to the rescue! I don't think they are very common in the U.S., but they are the standard way to catch a rat here in Thailand. If you haven't already figured it out by the name, this trap consists of a piece of cardboard (about 15"x 15") on which a super-sticky-goo must be spread. Finally, a tasty treat is put in the center and when Mr. Rat goes for the food he gets stuck; the more he moves around trying to free himself, the more he gets stuck.

The other night we set our trap, and sure enough around 3 o'clock in the morning we woke to a commotion in the kitchen. We weren't particularly excited about having an execution ceremony then and there, so we left the rat alone and said "We'll deal with it in the morning", (...secretly hoping we could get one of our Akha friends to kill it, since we're both a little wimpy about that sort of thing.) We tried to go back to sleep, attempting to ignore the intermittent thumping and whining coming from the kitchen.

About 30 minutes later, we heard another commotion. The thumpings were much louder this time and we thought, "We must have caught a second one, a 'biggun' by the sounds of it!" However, after a few seconds, we heard the sounds move quickly towards the main room of our hut and it was obvious that this was no rat! We hopped out of bed and turned on the light. It turns out a village cat had heard the cries of the rat and assumed he'd get an easy meal, but he didn't plan on getting his tail caught in the super sticky glue! When we found the cat, he was tearing around the hut at near-light speeds with the piece of cardboard (rat and all) still stuck to his tail. While our hut has many cat-worthy escape routes, this terrified cat with the large piece of cardboard stuck to its tail was having a hard time getting out. Finally, armed with a couple brooms, we were able to herd the cat out into the night.

Although we're not keen on having a good night's sleep interrupted by a rat and cat fiasco, we have to admit that we still love the adventure in our lives! But even more than the adventure, we love living & working with the Akha people. By sharing in these simple day-to-day experiences, we come just a tiny bit closer to understanding the life that an Akha leads, allowing us to share the love of God in a way that's relevant to their lives! This is why we're here in the village!

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Learning to Share

2006-08-07T19:44:00.000+07:00

Without children's church or nursery, church services in an Akha village tend to be a bit nosier and more "active" than in America. Little ones roam about during the two hour long service, toddling up and down the aisles, playing as quietly as can be expected, sometimes sitting down to play a little game, or landing on mom's lap for a quick nap. Some of my readers, especially those with small children, may wonder how this system works at all. What I haven't mentioned yet, is the widespread use of bribery during those two hours. Every Akha mom makes sure she has a few sugary treats in her bag on Sunday morning to keep potentially noisy mouths busy with other endeavors.

All parenting philosophies aside (not to mention dental concerns), the candy does seem to accomplish its goal beautifully. As an added benefit, it makes going to church a really special event for kids who don't normally get the luxury of snacks.

Yesterday at church, I snapped this priceless picture of two brothers (ages 1 and 3). They were sitting quietly at their mother's feet eating their lollipops contentedly when they realized that their own lollipop tasted best just after they'd had a taste of their brother's different-flavored pop!

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Years Go By

2006-08-07T18:13:00.000+07:00

One of the favorite jokes in the village is my age. Sometimes it's me joking aroung saying that I'm getting old because the Akha kids run circles around me, sometimes it's my Akha friends who say that since I don't have black hair I'm obviously one of the tsaw maw (the best translation we have is elder or grandparent). But the joke became a little closer to reality when I learned - much to my discomfort - that in the Akha account of time and age I'm 30 years-old. Yikes!

This recent revelation that I've reached the big three-oh has inspired some thoughts of days gone by. Now I know many of you reading this blog have seen 30 come and go. Some of you have even seen 30 years twice over. You're probably reading this and thinking I'm insane for writing about my old age, but you have to realize the shock is not just from turning 30, but from hitting that mark 2 years early!

How did I get these extra years? Well, as best as I can tell, here's how:

In the Western world we count from zero. This not based on natural truth as much as it is based on a philosophical idea. Our sense of time and mathematics, however, depends heavily on this idea so the first 12 months of our lives are spent in the zero^th year, not turning one until twelve months after we are born. (If you know much about interest and finance the idea is simalar to interest being accrued at the begining of a period vs. the end of a period.) Children have an acute understanding of the problems this system creates which is why we have so many six-and-a-half year-olds running around. In fact that system is not used in school. We do not say that a child in the first year of school is in the 0^th grade, we say they are in 1^st grade.

So it seems that traditionally the Akha say that a child is one-year-old throughout it's first year of life, counting ahead rather than behind. That accounts for one of the extra years added to my life, but still would have made me only 29 years-old. As my discussion with our friend MiNah proved, the Akha accounting of years is even more involved. Traditionally the Akha say that when a baby is born it is anywhere between 8 and 10 months into it's first year. Naturally within their culture the Akha seem to believe that life begins at conception. This being the case, three months after a child has been born it is beginning its second year - or as the Akha would say two-years-old.

This accounting of time seems to have changed as birth certificates and the western calendar have made their way into Akha culture. But, based on the zodiac (12-year cycle of animals) calendars familiar throughout Asian cultures including the Akha hilltribe, the 28 year-old friend of mine in our village was born two years after I was, making me 30 Akha-years-old.

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Our Akha Homecoming

2006-08-05T11:27:00.000+07:00

This has been a very enjoyable homecoming to the village. Sure, we have some rats again and all of our snacks were eaten by some Akha boys with too much time on their hands, but it is so good to see our Akha family again.
Especially nice has been the chance to spend some time with the current Pastor / intern. With our traveling and his schedule and responsibilities we haven't seen a lot of each other since he started in May. Last night we were able to spend some good time with him, just sitting around talking over the delicassy of the season - corn on the cob.
There is something wonderful about village life. Time moves differently here. Right now, sitting in our bamboo hut listening to the kids on the salah outside chatting about their treasures from the Saturday morning market, I'm struck by how far removed we are from the rest of the world, the wars in the Middle East, even from the political issues in Thailand. It reminds us that this Akha village is where our hearts are, and though we are often pulled and distracted by many good things that require much of our attention and time, this is where we feel most at home.

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In Memory of ...

2006-08-01T20:19:00.000+07:00

On June 20th, we joined a long list of couples who have suffered a miscarriage. You'll have to bear with me as I find it a little odd to write about this . Most people don't write about their miscarriage for all the world to read, but then again most people don't live 8,000 miles away from their friends & family. However, we know many of you have been praying for us and are anxious to hear how we're doing.

It's been a long time since we've done a blog update and that's mostly because we've been occupied. I know that's a weird way to describe it, so let me explain. We've been in the city for about a month and while our daily lives have progressed in pretty much normal fashion (no more or less busy than normal), our minds have been terribly busy with the unusual task of working through emotions that don't behave as they "should" (otherwise known as grieving.) Unfortunately, all this emotional & mental labor left little room for blogging.

And now that we're feeling ready to write blogs and move on, it seems wrong to just pick up where we left off with out acknowledging the loss of our unborn child and the process that brought us to this point. There are so many lessons and experiences from the past month that we'd love to share (and maybe later on we will, as we're leaving our Baby Notes Blog
active), but we really just want to share with you a spirit of rejoicing. As an Akha woman in our village recently reminded us, our little Bean is in God's country; he skipped the struggles of this world and all he knows of life is the glory of heaven.

(Note: To read a more detailed story of what has happened in the past month, you can download our most recent newsletter.)

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A Very Long Month

2006-07-14T11:57:00.000+07:00

Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement over this last month. We have gone through tremendous extremes both emotionally and physically and are just now assessing our surroundings again. Please continue to hold our lives in prayer. Also, because it would take so long to respond to each and every one of your emails (we have well over 300 emails in our inboxes right now), I want to thank all of you for your kind words.

We are learning a lot about God's faithfulness and have seen first-hand His sovereign love for us, but are not through everything yet.

You all should receive an email with more updates in the coming week as we hope to process this past month and get some of our thoughts written out.

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Slowly but surely

2006-06-03T17:59:00.000+07:00

I think it's always hard to gauge language acquisition - but it's especially difficult without the measuring stick of classes, teachers or tests. Unlike our friends in Bangkok taking Thai lessons, we can't say, "Well, I passed level three, they say level four is really hard!" Since we returned from America, however we've had a renewed endurance in the area of language. Many things are starting to seem more natural and I just wanted to take a minute to share a few victories.

We've started teaching English every Tuesday evening in the village. While a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggethis may not seem like an "Akha Language Victory", let me assure you, it is. Speaking in front of a group in English has never been an issue for Paul or me, but speaking in front of a group in Akha can leave us terrified. Even just introducing ourselves can be botched due to nervousness. So this opportunity to start out with the kids and teenagers (who tend to be a very forgiving audience) has been great! The fact that our Akha is far from perfect makes for a pretty relaxed and interactive learning environment and allows them to correct our Akha as we correct their English (which is very different from the super-structured-rote-memorization teaching style found in the Thai schools). All in all, it's been a good experience thus far and we're happy about how comfortable we are using Akha to teach English.

It's funny how the little things can be so encouraging when learning a foreign language. Like for instance, the other day we went to visit our friend (who we often call our Akha mom), Lydia. She wasn't out front when we arrived so we proceeded yell, "Hey Aunt-ie are you home? We've come to visit you!", which is the standard Akha custom in a situation like this. After a minute we heard her response from within, so I let myself in to greet her. When she saw me, she was visibly surprised, apparently she had not recognized that it was me from my initial greeting. If you're wondering why this story is so significant, it's because in some small way I must have sounded like an Akha because she thought I was someone else! Of course, the fact that she's rapidly losing her hearing could be part of it, but either way I'm going to count it in the Win Column!

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A(nother) Good Hair Day

2006-06-02T13:22:00.000+07:00

Do you remember MiBya? She is one of the hard stories in our village. Back in October 2005 we wrote this story:

She [Mi Bya] is a particularly tough case, and lives in a difficult home in our village. We never see her smile and although she is intrigued by us "pa la" she usually observes us from a distance. Like many children in Akha villages she has very short hair (lice & scabies). She was watching all the girls and their fancy hair braids and was just stoic in her observations. Our hearts were broken and we knew we had to do something for her. Lori remembered she had a handkerchief in our house that she might be able to use. We pulled her aside and made a big deal out of her new "hair". Once it sunk in that we really thought she was a beautiful little girl, she ran off. When she came back she had cleaned herself all up and had put on a dress! This little girl who never smiled was grinning from ear to ear for days - knowing that she truly is lovely.

Well we have since grown to know both MiBya and her little brother much better. They have a really difficult home life. Their mother is mentally ill, we are guessing the mental equivalent of a six-year old, and their father is flighty - often leaving for days at a time. We watched and helped as best we could this past summer as MiBya was taking care of her little brother all by herself. We even tried to get them into a home to care for them but the family has no paperwork, no record of any births.

As we struggled through that difficult summer, we were encouraged to see the village step in and care for the family. On one occasion when the father had run off, a girl from the village invited the kids to stay with her. This is one of the joys of living in a Christian Akha village.

Things have stablized a little, and although things are still rough at home, MiBya is able to go to school in Mae Salong. She loves school and is very bright.

The other night, she came to our home and said "My teacher says I need a haircut". In Thailand all the schoolchildren wear uniforms, the boys have very short hair and the girls must have their hair cut above their earlobes and collars.

Lori, being the incredibly skilled woman that she is, pulled out her scissors and hair clips and went to work. An hour later (it was the first schoolgirl haircut Lori has ever given) MiBya was a different girl. The little crewcut girl from our Good Hair Day is growing into a beautiful young Akha. We literally don't recognize her anymore as she walks up to us with her great haircut and an even better smile.

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A Blogging Baby

2006-06-02T12:48:00.000+07:00

OK, so our baby is not exactly blogging - yet. But the little bean does have a blog!

Created to keep your email inboxes light and our newsletters full of more than just updates on the pregnancy (it's our first child, we can go overboard if we want to), Baby Notes is the place to go to read everything baby and about our experiences having a baby abroad. You can even bookmark our Baby's Blog if you feel so inclined.

The updates to Baby Notes will also be viewable in the "Personal" section of the right sidebar (down at the bottom of the sidebar on the right -----------------> )

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Rainy Days

2006-06-01T15:34:00.000+07:00

What an amazing experience this life is! Here, on the very edge of 'civilization', leaning back against the woven bamboo walls of my home, listening to the interaction of three Akha mothers sewing and sheltering from the rain and the peeping of baby chicks learning to find their supper I can hardly remember the busy life outside of the village. In Northern Thailand the rainy season and the school year start at the same moment, making for a quiet time in the village.

The Akha have their difficulties, they live hard and work hard to put food on their tables and to care for their children, but in moments of peace and light rains on the mountain they know how to sit and take in the world around them. It is so natural in them, but it takes so much effort for me.

All of our little friends have just walked back from school, so no more writing (no more quiet either) - it's time to play in the rain.

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Flexibility has it's rewards

2006-05-24T10:35:00.000+07:00

For the past couple of days, Paul and I have been trying to get up to the village. However, it seems that every afternoon when we should be loading up the car to go, something delays us and we have to put the village off another day. While we've certainly learned the value of flexibility in the past year and a half, it can still be rather frustrating to have our plans and expectations constantly "thwarted". Yesterday, as per tradition, something came up which prevented us from getting to the village, however as it turned out we were not frustrated but blessed by the experience.

One of our friends, a national Foursquare pastor who lives a couple hours away was at a hospital here in the Chaing Rai with his wife. We were glad to find out that she had not been admitted, but simply had an appointment with a specialist. His wife has a thyroid condition and would appreciate your prayers.

In Asia, if someone is in town, you take the time to see them despite your own "plans and expectations". So we hopped in the car to join them at the hospital. We had a great time catching up with them while they waited for her medications and offered to give them a ride back to the bus station.

They gladly accepted the ride, but politely asked if we could stop by Big C on the way. Big C is kind of like Super Wal-mart or Super Target in The States. However, instead of being a stand alone store, Big C's are usually located in a mall (for lack of a better word) which also has many smaller stores and restaurants. When we are in Chiang Rai, we frequent Big C and indulge in KFC, Dairy Queen, or even Auntie Anne's Pretzels.

When we stepped through the automated sliding glass doors, it was obvious that our friend's wife & 9 year old daughter had never seen anything like it. They live in a small rural town with nothing even resembling the "big city" atmosphere of a Big C. The little girl's eyes popped and sparkled as if she were at an amusement park and the mom's eyes glazed over at the frenzy of lights, noise and crowds. As they approached the escalator both mom and daughter viewed it with trepidation and wonder. Luckily, dad knew his way around and led his family proudly through the exciting chaos. We left the family to their shopping and grabbed a Lemon Frost from Black Canyon Coffee while we waited.

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Really Tiny News

2006-05-22T12:01:00.000+07:00

It's love, of course, that makes us fathers do it - love for the woman we've married and love for every baby we've ever seen, except the one that threw up on our shoes. And so, in spite of all our reservations about this scary business of reproduction, we must admit that people look happy when they're carrying babies. - Bill Cosby, Fatherhood

We had grand plans of keeping the secret much longer than this, but we are terrible secret keepers. We also wanted to call each and every one of you and let you all in on the news personally, but living in Thailand makes that task very difficult. So this announcement will have to do. We are excited to let you all know... We're going to have a baby!

We found out for certain on May 14th, which was a wonderful Mother's Day present both for Lori as well as for the newly expectant grandmothers (who, we might add, are very excited). We have bounced from very excited, to very scared, to utter disbelief. In fact, to help convince us that we really are pregnant, we went out to buy Lori her first maternity outfit. This task was much more difficult than you might think, because pregnant women in Thailand wear "tarp like moo moos" (this quote thanks to Lori). As much as we desire to blend with the cultures around us, Lori has put her foot down regarding Thai maternity dresses. However, we were able to find one outfit in Chiang Mai that met her standards for cuteness and with visitors coming soon we have more American maternity clothes on the way.

We know you will have lots of questions and comments, and we encourage you to leave us a comment on this page. Since we cannot have these conversations with you individually, we will now list the most frequently asked questions and answer them accordingly:

When are you due?

The "official" due date is January 15th. Although the ob/gyn said it could come as early as Christmas.

Where are you having the baby?

We will have the baby at a hospital here in Chiang Rai.

Do you have a doctor?

Yes. Our doctor speaks English very well and has delivered many of the missionaries' babies here in Chiang Rai. We have already had one appointment with him and really liked him.

Are you going to find out the sex of the baby?

Yes, We think.

How fat are you? (boys) or Are you showing? (girls)

Not showing (fat) yet.

Are you scared?

Sometimes. A little about the pregnancy, a lot about the parenting. But we have been given a great verse that encourages us:

Psalm 78

5 He decreed statutes for Jacob
and established the law in Israel,
which he commanded our forefathers
to teach their children,

6 so the next generation would know them,
even the children yet to be born,
and they in turn would tell their children.

7 Then they would put their trust in God
and would not forget his deeds
but would keep his commands.

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Journey Notes Updates

2006-05-18T23:55:00.000+07:00

Here is a quick update to our Journey Notes while we are in town:

Tomorrow Mi Shui returns to the hospital for a check-up on her broken arm. We are hoping things have healed well and a new cast will be all she needs. If she needs surgery we will update again in the next day or so.

A Wa did not return to the deaf school in Chiang Rai. We are unsure as to the specifics of why (it is difficult to communicate with him) but about a month ago his father was arrested for smoking opium. His father is a pillar in the community and since his arrest A Wa has been struggling against his mom. This might be a cumulation of those feelings. We picked up his paperwork from the deaf school and will try to get him into school in Mae Salong. Please remember this family in your prayers.

We did bring two other children to school in Chiang Mai. The first is a girl from an Akha Village in Mae Salong. The other is a young boy from an Akha Village in WiangPapao. Both are handicapped and there is a special needs school there for them.

Sorry to be so factual - we'll get you some more fun stories as soon as we can - but we wanted to keep you all in the loop.

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