Just Love Mom

Life with the mom of a missionary family

Tag Archives: Thailand

English Camp

There’s something special about our neighborhood. Maybe it’s the way we consider each other family.

We Are Family

This week some Bible college students from Canada visited and helped us show our neighbors just how much we appreciate them.
We had a “Cultural Exchange”. The students taught our neighbors English and some North American games and songs, and our neighbors (mostly the children, but not only!!) taught the students some Thai and some Thai games and songs.

Not Sure if Mrs Chicken is a Thai Game or North American..

Every day women from the neighborhood brought drinks and lunch (real lunch, fried chicken or pork or noodles) for all the participants

Our Fairy God Mothers With Lunch

Gimme Some of That Real Food

We topped it all off with a big neighborhood party this morning.

It's Not a Party Unless There's Ice Cream!!

Face Painting!!

Crafts!! Snowflakes in Honor of Team Canada!!

Balloons!!! (these boys are taking a rest from chasing Ami with the balloons.)

Whew! busy day! Any body else tired?

Rahab Ministries


I wrote this soon after arriving here, in very early November. It’s taken me this long to amputate it from my soul and put it out on to the internet.

I haven’t really written anything since arriving in Bangkok. I’ve even really been awol from Twitter and Facebook. Not like me at all. Writing for me comes out of thinking. I usually wake up with three or four blog posts and twenty-five tweets pinging around in my brain. It could be the coffee. I’m usually a very caffeinated person. Not here. Haven’t found a great brand yet. I haven’t had the pinging thoughts here. My thoughts seem to sort of wade through my brain. Never really forming a perfect post. Just sort of slogging around.
Thoughts are heavier here. Thoughts are really heavy after yesterday. Yesterday I visited with Rahab Ministries. Rahab Ministries is an outreach to women and girls who work in the bars as prostitutes. They have a Bible study, English classes and a business making jewelery and crocheted stuffed animals so that girls who want to leave the bar scene can make an income. They don’t make alot. In the bars, the girls can make a whopping $10 a day. At Rahab, they only make minimum wage. (These are the numbers they gave me, not sure what minimum wage is here). After a girl has been out of the bar scene for six months, Rahab invests in retraining, education or trade, so that they can go on to support themselves. Slow thoughts here. A group of us went yesterday. We got to hear the testimonies of two of the women who had left the bar scene.

Outside Rahab


I’ve met prostitutes before. Their stories are painful and tragic. I’ve met former prostitutes before. Their stories are victorious and powerful. I’ve never met women like these before. These two ladies were moms whose marriages had failed who had no other way to support their kids. If you thought prostitution was dehumanizing before, come to Thailand and experience people being degraded on a whole new level. A guy walking in the red light district will be approached with a catalog of girls to choose from. Or they could pick one in a bar. Girls can be rented for days at a time. They’re encouraged to drink and take drugs so that they can put on a good face and please their customers. When you see bar girls with a Western guy, it looks like they’re having a great time. The better time they seem to be having, the more money they can make. But some of these are moms. It makes me wonder, who’s looking after their kids while they’re away? How can they parent dealing with the hours, the drugs, the shame?
I get to this point in my slow thought process and I’m bogged down in despair. It’s like my thoughts are wading though mud. We met some very young girls, some young moms. One little pregnant girl who was probably the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. How will they live? At Rahab they’ve learned to make stuffed animals. They were something you’d use to decorate a baby’s room, or give to your teenage daughter for Valentine’s Day. I bought Dagny a little puppy dog.
I was struck by the dichotomy of prostitutes making something so innocent.

Each stuffed animal takes one day to make and gives them one day’s wage. For every stuffed animal they sell, they can stay out of the bars for one day. They can live in freedom for 24 hours. They can work in a place that encourages, instead of one that degrades. They can learn about God and how much He loves them. They can see proof of God’s love as His people reach out to help them. They can stay awake during the day and be there for their kids at night. They can choose what to do with their bodies.

A better life

Reading this a few weeks later, I realized that I should include some contact information for Rahab. If you’d like to learn more about this ministry, support them or order Jewellery or some of the stuffed animals, you can contact them here: Rahab Ministries

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Burmese border school

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Dagny doesn’t realize that we’re on the border of a military dictatorship, or that she’s the only white kid, or that the playground is made of wood and steel, or that the houses are all bamboo, or that there’s dust everywhere, or that families live on two dollars a day. Nothing seems different. Nothing’s out of place. There’s a slide and friends and all seems right with the world.

Four Sleeps to Go – Moving to Thailand Update

Keep in mind, I’m using “sleep” in its very loosest form. Sleep meaning: laid there for a couple of hours until that got boring.

Our internet is gone. Our modem died on Monday and the internet company couldn’t replace it quickly enough for it to be worth it before we had to cancel anyway. I have the only internet access on my phone. The rest of the family has learned that they can use my phone to tether their ipods and computers. So I haven’t seen my phone lately. But today, since my husband, Banking and my son, Lego Universe are away and my daughters, Itunes, Facebook and YouTube are all still asleep, I have time to give you a brief update.

We are packed! Everything fits into some hockey bags and back packs. This is actually a pretty easy move for us because we’re not really bringing anything. The only things I’m really not looking forward to is the 20 hours of travel with a two year old.

This week has been full of goodbyes. And parties. And more goodbyes. And tears. And time for just one more coffee or one more dinner. Since Friday, we’ve:

Had a Nerf War birthday party for Irish

Carved pumpkins

Had a Christmaween (Halloween and Christmas) Party for the girls

Been commissioned at Highway Pentecostal and had a party with cake

Eaten with some great friends. Had coffee with other great friends

Largely ignored the mess

Let it sink in that we’re actually moving.

Our house in Bangkok is, at this time, still not flooded. Flood relief work has started in Bangkok and we hope to be a part of this as soon as we hit the ground.

Welcome Home

the government can't reach everyone affected

Hundreds dead, thousands displaced

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Moving to Thailand Daily Freakout – Getting a Grip on Honesty

Wednesday night I had a very uncharacteristic meltdown. I stayed up all night crying. But you’ve already read about that. I’ve gotten a grip now. Thursday was much better. But I think everyone was surprised that I could have so dramatic a freakout. I was even more surprised that I told anyone (never mind EVERYONE) about it. I like to play things close to the chest. I don’t like to melt down, and if I do, I like nobody to know about it.

But I’ve realized that that’s really pretty dishonest. (See how I throw all those qualifiers in there, it’s dishonest. That’s it.) People seem to assume that I’m doing this missionary thing because I have some quality that separates the missionaries from the non-missionaries. (The wrongness of the “non-missionary” title is a subject for another post). I don’t. I’m not braver, or stronger, or more together. I’m just a people. I just happen to be called to go to another country and I’m relying on Jesus to get me through each day, just like you. That’s honest. And it appears that sometimes I meltdown and cry all night. And you know what? That’s okay. And I found out that when I’m honest, I get help.

Help arrived! The troops rallied. Scott came home early (he left work at 8:30am so he was home at 4pm). My mother and sister came down for lunch today. Everybody is treating me as if I’m very delicate and looking at me as if one of my limbs may suddenly turn into a killer python or something.

Photo Credit: Rough Green Snake by Crookrw on flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardwc/4938625118/

It’s okay. I’m all better now. No more crying. I promise. For now.

But staying up all night Wednesday did take a bit of a toll on my judgment. Thursday I did what every rational person does after only getting three hours of sleep. I bought a domain name. Then I haunted GoDaddy on Twitter until I figured out what I was doing wrong. (Translation: I bought a domain name and had absolutely no idea what to do next. I’m sure I’ve earned a reputation at GoDaddy already)

This is it!! Isn’t it so pretty? It has red in it!

Then I went to sleep and woke up and bought jeans to replace the ones with the holes in them.

I have had a couple of moments today, but they weren’t meltdown moments, they were more like “Did I just stand here at the counter and stare into space and eat three pancakes?” moments.

So, this may not seem like a very productive day, but I actually got four things checked off my moving list,
Have Lunch With Mom and Sister,
Buy Jeans,
Eat Pancakes and Not Realize it While Staring Into Space,
Be Honest About Being Human

Thailand Countdown – 5 Weeks, I hope

Well, I’ve been holding off on this update because I wanted to give you GOOD NEWS!! But there isn’t any this week, so I’ll just fill you in on what’s going on.

We don’t have our visa yet.

We’ve been approved by Thailand. We were told that the papers had been been sent from Thailand to Ottawa. Scott took the necessary time off and we went to pick them up. They weren’t there. They were sent again. They’re still not there. We are now entering round 5 of sending and not receiving.

This is the mystery that is government.

Does this story seem a bit familiar? Probably because you’ve heard it here
from Amber and Matthew Price. Only difference is they’re here on a “vacation” from Poland, and she’s pregnant. So the whole where are we going to have the baby? thing must be weighing on their minds a bit. If you only have time to pray for one missionary, you should probably pray for them.

So, what are we doing now?

We’re Believing

We’ve been tempted to give up. But every time we are reminded in little ways to keep praying. Sometimes it’s through a friend. Sometimes it’s through a blog that someone has tweeted like this one from Ron Edmondson

We’re Planning

We obviously can’t do anything productive at this stage, like book tickets, but we can dream. And we can plan. And we can read exciting emails from our friends that are already in Bangkok.

We’re trusting

Sometimes things don’t “work out”. That visa may never come. We’re trusting that God knows what he’s doing. Lets be realistic. We all know that God could put his pinky down and the whole thing would be cleared up. He also could have given our friend Greg a jolt so that he remembered that he had left his LAPTOP on the roof of the car. Sometimes He doesn’t. And that’s cool with us. (Maybe not so cool with Greg)

Greg's not-so-fly, non-flying laptop


So, what about you? What do you do when things don’t go quite as smoothly as you’ve planned?

We have just over 6 weeks until we move to Thailand, and so I thought I’d share a little bit about stress and how I deal with it.

If there’s anything I’m truly an expert in, it’s stressful situations. Where to start with my stress resume… I have four kids. The oldest are twins. They were colicky, premie twins. We’ve moved 24 times since the oldest have been born. That’s moving while pregnant, with a newborn, and almost every year at Christmas. I’ve lived for months at a time in a tiny long-term hotel room with those kids. We’ve moved to two countries that are not our native country. We’re moving to a third. These past two years I’ve been a “single” mom in Canada during the week while my husband works in the USA. Enough stress? I’ve also walked through physical illness (my own), mental illness (someone else’s), a high risk pregnancy, bed rest, and trying to watch NFL games in Canada. That’s right. I haven’t watched a Packers game at all this season. So I’m familiar with stress.

A disclaimer: Now this isn’t major stress. I’ve never been divorced. I’m not widowed. I don’t have a terminal illness. All of my children are well. But even if you are going through something major, you may be able to glean something here.

Now, despite the stressful situations I’ve gone through, I am a relatively stress free person. My personality is part of it, but I also put alot of effort into being low stress in a high stress life. I obviously can’t share everything, but here’s a short list of what I do. I’ve tried to make it more of a HOW list than a WHAT list so that you can use some of these ideas.

1. I Don’t eat that.

Once upon a time I had stress. Then I cut out gluten. If you are an unusually stressed-out person, you may want to check with your doctor about food problems. Gluten, dairy and red meat can all cause stressful feelings in some people. Cutting out junk foods, empty carbs and sugars will also help your stress level. You’ve done enough reading to know that they mess up your blood sugar levels and make you irritable and more easily stressed.

2. I Go back to sleep

Getting enough sleep when you’re stressed can be particularly difficult because your stress keeps you thinking all night. I’m not immune to this. During particularly stressful times I keep a piece of paper beside the bed so I can write down any ideas that happen to wake me up. Then I go back to sleep. Not because it’s easy, but because I’ve decided that it’s my strategy. I tell myself that the best thing I can do about such-and-such is get enough sleep and deal with it in the morning. It’s a conscious decision. When you go about sleep in this manner you can justify getting a good night’s sleep as part of your action plan.
Whatever you do… Don’t check Twitter. Don’t do it. Just don’t. Nobody is on Twitter at 3am anyway. You’re just going to wake your mind up for no reason.

3. I Remember “It’s not about me”.

I think the situations that are most likely to cause me stress are the times when demands on me are really high. Especially when I don’t get my “me time”. I’m a little bit selfish about my “me time”. But honestly, this situation, this life, isn’t about me. It’s about how well I reflect Jesus to the world. Jesus needed his me time. He got up early to be alone to pray. He even went to such lengths as walking (across a lake) when he could have hitched a ride (in a boat… he really like his alone time). But even when he really needed that alone time and people needed him, he didn’t get all snippy and complain that he was “just off today because I didn’t get my me time…” (Of course, I just made that up, I’d never say anything like that… maybe…) He remembered that he was an emissary of God. He was the face man. When he left, he sent the Holy Spirit to help us be the representatives of God. So, it’s not about me, even though when the boy interrupts my me time, or the baby interrupts my sleep, I’d really like it to be.

4. I Move.

I feel so much better if I exercise. Plus I look better. This makes me feel even better. I can get through the most stressful situations if I know that my body is doing good things. I wish I could go back in time to the new mom me. My advice would be, don’t bother even getting those babies dressed, just stuff them in the stroller and go outside. You need fresh air and exercise. Right now I’m doing the single mom thing, exercise is difficult. I bought a video and I do it when I put the littles to bed.

5. I do something fun/mindless.

I watch TV, or football, or I read or write. Anything that isn’t the thing that causes me stress. I may even fit in some apple picking.

6. I try to keep things as normal as possible for the kids.

Bedtimes, school schedules (even if it’s a reduced school schedule), meals. Kids who know what’s going to happen next are happy kids. And happy kids don’t add to the stress.

7. I let go and let God.

Sorry. I’ve heard this so many times. What does that even mean? One time I was at a seminar, and the speaker actually had us whisper what stressed us out into our hands and then hold up our hands and wiggle our fingers to release it to God. There, now we won’t worry about that any more. Seriously. God isn’t one of those Honduran Dream Dolls that you whisper your problems to and put under your pillow.

7. (revised) I understand that God has a plan.

I believe that God has a plan. He has a plan for humanity, and he has a specific plan for my life. Prayer helps me understand the plan for my life, Bible reading helps me understand the big picture. I believe that this stressful situation is part of God’s plan. This change, this challenge, is affecting my life and the lives of those I come in contact with. Sometimes I see the result. Sometimes I don’t. But I believe that it’s part of The Plan. That makes stressful situations so much easier to deal with.

So, we have six weeks until we move to Bangkok. Things are just a bit stressful at this point. They’re going to get even more as I try to fit a major move into real life. These are some of the things I do when things get stressful, but I’d really appreciate hearing how you deal with stress. Then I can print the whole thing out and put it on the fridge.

Thailand Countdown – 9 weeks

We have nine weeks until we leave for Bangkok. It’s hard to believe that this season of our lives is almost over. The past year and a half in Canada has been like a 1950s fantasy in parenting. Little boys on bikes. Teens going for ice cream and to the library. Baby playing in the back yard. Friends for coffee. Sleep overs. Safety.

What am I doing at this stage of the game?

I’m starting to get rid of stuff.

My closet is empty except for what I actually wear and still fit into. All the post-baby clothes that were super cute but a bit too big are gone. All the sweet blouses that would look really great on probably anyone with a speck of fashion sense but that I could never get to go with anything are awaiting a thrifty and stylish new owner at Good Will.

My book collection has been pared down to the bare minimum. Book lovers and homeschoolers, I’ll spare you the details. The books are still in boxes in my sunroom. I’m waiting for the homestudy results for their prospective new owners.

I’m making appointments.

The kids see the dentist on Wednesday. We were able to squeeze our whole family into 6 appointments spread over 2 days at the dr’s office the week before we leave. Yup. They’re booked solid for the next 8 weeks.

I’m doing paper work.

We go this week to get Scott’s visa. Then we have to apply for mine and the kids’. An amazing church has just sent us the application for support and I’m filling that out. I’m writing thank you cards to the people who’ve recently come on as partners, and I’m planning on writing to each of those that have been with us from the beginning.

I’m crying a little.

It’s been a really nice ride here in Brockville. The kids all have alot of really nice friends. Our house is always busy and full. I have lots of other moms to have coffee with. Our families are nearby and we haven’t spent nearly enough time with them. We actually live in a house, in a neighborhood and we’re going to miss all this “normal”.

I’m potty training the baby.

And cooking meals, and doing excessive amounts of laundry, and putting the garbage out and mowing the lawn and teaching 4th grade math and facilitating high school. Because life is still happening, and Scott’s still in Pittsburgh.

Finally, I’m believing

I’m trusting God that the rest of our finances will come in. We have our first year fully paid for, and we have a good percentage of the rest of our term covered. We have the most amazing, encouraging partners. If you’d like to be part of our ministry, you can go here for more info.
I’m trusting that He has friends and good experiences lined up for the kids. God doesn’t just call mom and dad. He calls the whole family and he knows what’s best for each person in it.
I’m believing that the “new normal” will be as wonderful as He’s promised.

Surviving Sunday

There are a few of us for whom Sunday is far from a day of rest. We’re missionaries currently speaking at churches, fundraising for our ministry in Thailand. Sunday is a little crazy for us.

Here’s our old schedule

Wake at 5:30 am, destroy the house getting ready and making and eating breakfast
Drive for 2 or 3 or 4 hours
Speak at a church
Have lunch with the pastor (our pastors are awesome!)
Possibly speak at another church or service
Say goodbye to my husband Scott in the Restaurant or Church parking lot (he works in PA during the week)
Drive for 2 or 3 or 4 more hours
Return ex…haus….ted to a crazy messy house with 4 hungry cranky kids.

I would then do one of 3 things; order take-out (you can see how well this goes with fundraising), try to make supper, or collapse and let the kiddos fend for themselves (great for the teens, not so much for the baby). All while very consciously avoiding the mess and hoping that nobody would drop by.

I’m sure that other brilliant missionaries, church planters and PW’s have already figured out the secret to Sunday success, but for me it took a tweet from Charlie Sheen. (Hey, wisdom is wisdom, despite how rare it appears or how surprising the source).

The tweet was:

Plan Better.

Plan Better!! Brilliant!! (this is not a commentary on Charlie Sheen, so I’ll refrain from mentioning how well that’s worked for him… back on track now…) The reason my Sunday was so messed up is because I had failed to plan at all.

Now this is what I do Saturday Night:

1. Clean the house, make it the place I want to come home to on Sunday
2. Make Sunday’s supper, something that can be put on paper plates and warmed in the microwave, with enough left over just in case we still haven’t recovered on Monday.
3. Make breakfast, something that can be eaten mess free in the car if needed. Muffins, crepes and fruit are good for this. I also pack extra breakfast for snacks between services or the drive home.
4. Set up the delay brew Coffee Pot. (this is very very important. I think I will post soon on how to get the most out of your delay brew coffee.)

Now on Sunday, I return to a tidy house, put some food on paper plates, throw the whole dinner mess in the garbage and go to bed.

Plan Better. Thanks Charlie.