Other's Reflections

If you haven't been tracking, there were 5 folks who went with us to Thailand... and they have now recounted their trip there with us on their own blogs...

Heath and Rhianon Wilhoit
Lisa Sharp
Ben and Chara Cote

Jetlag, What Jetlag?

Yah. It's 6.15am on Friday morning and I have been up for about 2 hours now. Holly, unfortunately, never really got to sleep last night. "Just a series of naps," she says.

The first night home, I got a solid 16 hours of sleep. Holly got about 12 hours. Lisa, 13 hours.

Last night though, the jetlag set in... or should I say that this morning at 4.30am, it set in... or that for Holly, it has just been a continuation of the bad sleep we got in Thailand.

Pray that we get back to normality with our sleep. But for now, off to Denny's for breakfast!

Home

We are home. Got in today to LAX around 11am or so. Chara was so kind to pick us up.

Drove home with a quick stop at Wendy's to get some grub American Fast Food. Mmm. (What a hypocrite I am for eating fast food!)

Got home, unpacked, did some laundry, and cleaned the place up a bit. Now to sleepy-time.

Thanks for following our journeys. Cheers.

In Osaka

We just arrived in Osaka and are getting ready to re-board the plane. Don't understand why they take us off to put us back on the same plane, but oh well.

Much turbulence. I kinda wondered if we were above the typhoon the whole time.

Anyway, it's midnight in CA right now and we will be home in about 10 hours. Sweet. More to come. Pray for no more turbulence please!

Someone is Watching...

So, our internet has been sketchy at best during our time in Thailand, but the last couple days has taken it to a new level. Now, someone is choosing what websites we will and won't get access to. For example, I cannot even check out our own sharpseven design site or check my finances with my bank. Heck, I can't even get onto apple.com!

Here is our latest photo gallery of our last couple days in Phi-Phi.

It was a good time to be in creation, on hikes, underwater, with friends.

We did a hike to the top of one of the hills to get a view of village where the tsunami hit so hard.

Before the tsunami...


6 months after the tsunami...


Already 7000 tons of rubbish removed... wow.

Tonight I do some music and some teaching at Hope of Thalang Church. Tomorrow we clean the house and car and then pack and get on a plane. A day or so in Bangkok with the gang and then home.

Hope you are all well. Thank you so much for all your support. Cheers!

Back in Phuket

Holly and I arrived safe and sound back in Phuket. Probably the smoothest ferry ride yet. Both of us are really wiped out. She is not feeling well again today. I think that the heat takes its toll on us more than we give it credit for.

Heath and Rhianon and Lisa are still on Phi-Phi, volunteering on the island. Holly and I noticed the higher number of tourists on the island this time over. That is really good news, since the island was pretty much empty the first time we came over here. Just a hundred or so volunteers. I'd say the island is getting back to normality.

This has been a good trip, if for no other reason than to be out of our comfort zones... and to be with friends. Many are asking if we are going to just stay here and never come home, but it's not looking quite that way. Truth is, this has been a very hard trip for us (as I am sure has come out in our posts), and I think we will need some time to decompress and debrief before we consider our next trip abroad. Right now I think Holly and I are just ready to get back to the 814, sleep in our own bed, and eat some American food! Is that awful?

We leave in less than 2 days for Bangkok and then to California. Please pray for us a strong ending to the trip. Thanks everyone.

Phi Phi... take 3

Hello everyone.

We have been on Phi Phi for the last 2 days... having a lot of fun... and getting some much needed rest.

Ryan and I will be heading back to Phuket today to be with Chris and the church in the first sea gypsy village. We are looking forward to visiting the family that adopted the baby boy we bought milk for on our first trip.

Lisa, Heath and Rhianon will be staying here in Phi Phi for another night to spend a day or so working with HI Phi Phi.

Thanks so much for your prayers. We are feeling much more encouraged.

New Pics...

This just in: Heath and Rhianon now have a blog. Make your way over if you can.

Here are some photos of the last couple of days. Wow, what great days.

Here's a sampling...



It was good just to play with these children. Seems as if they've been pretty neglected. Also good to time to spend some time in our second Sea Gypsy village today. Met some needs there. Kind of adopted a village through some Anchor Point funds. Good stuff.

More thoughts and reflections later. Tomorrow we leave for Phi-Phi at the crack of dawn. Prayers for great connection and opportunity please. Love and peace.

Wow.

What a great day. Just wanted to post that.

We were with Chris Bowman and half his family all day as we ventured up into Phang-Nga to see Jan and the kids again.

Wow. What a great, encouraging day. Pics tomorrow? I think so.

Spinning Plates and Furrowed Brows

This is a bit of a 'debrief' posting just so you know...

Hoping to come out here relationally, we established ourselves with the local church and a few other folks before we came this time. This has been both a blessing and a curse, the details of which I could go into on a personal basis.

Our time in Thailand has for sure had its ups and downs, but overall it has felt a bit chaotic and not-as-we-expected. That is not always a bad thing; in fact, it is often a good thing. But this trip has possibly tipped the scales in the opposite direction as far as this goes.

I think we hoped for too much. We hoped to set a sustainable rhythm of life that included working, volunteering, hosting others, serving/learning in the local church, resting, and reading. Our first two weeks established that we would not be setting up any such rhythm. So we opted for flexibility. But such flexibility left us floundering in some ways.

Then, once no longer sick, we left the country for an excursion that perhaps wet our appetite for something that was not to be found in the Thailand we have known thus far. Now we are back and in our last week and we want to make up for all the lost time in all of the above areas (work, volunteering, resting, etc...).

What do you do with disappointment when you feel that you have done the best you could do? We came here to build relationships, bless people, and expand awareness of the needs of our neighbors across the world. I guess we have done that in small ways, but damn, don't I long for some great project to have been completed in our name! There is my ego again.

I don't know if qualifiable results is an American ideal or just a human one, but it has had its stranglehold on me for the last part of this trip... for me and for the others of us that are/were here in Thailand. Wanting to be a good host, I wanted for people to feel as though they made a difference. They did. And those here still are... but again, the small things don't always seem to measure up to any one giant thing.

Not sure where this post is going, but I felt like it was a necessary sidenote to keep everyone in the loop. I don't feel as though this trip was a waste or was misguided and who knows what will happen during our final week here with Heath and Rhianon and Lisa... and I guess that is where this post is going: please pray for our remaining time here.

We have sustained a good relationship and built repoire with Jan (whose fence we helped rebuild back in March) and she has allowed us into her sphere of influence with some orphans. Yesterday was spent kicking a soccer ball and playing on the swingset and teaching Thai and English.

We also would love to figure out how to communicate with our groundskeepers here at the house. They have been so kind to us and we would love to bless them in some way.

We feel a burden for the churches we are working with out here. There are so many remnants of some of the worst parts of American XNity out here... but we cannot seem to navigate our way through this, whether it be to confront or avoid. God help us.

Ben and Chara are home now and I am sure might post some reflections soon... so make sure you check it out.

Who am I to understand your ways, O Lord?
But who am I just to sit here and do nothing at all?
When I'm of you and they're of me
This creation-wide family
God help us
Try to open our eyes

Chiang Dao, Day 3 and more...

Woke up at 4am because of the roosters. And then it's like they were on a sleep alarm every 30 minutes following. Awful sleep really.

We hiked another hour and a half and then came to the crest where we met the main road and, more importantly, met a truck that would carry us back to our starting point.

Here we are at the end of the hike...


We did an elephant ride next. Please do not ever do these... no matter how well they say the treat the animals. We'll tell more later. Here is Ben getting in touch with his jungle-self...


And finally after a long day, the motorbus back to the train station...


Caught an overnight train. Then dropped Ben and Chara off at Bangkok airport and went looking for Heath and Rhianon. 2 hours and 3 times across a 3-terminal airport later, we found em...


Flew with them back to Phuket. More to come...

Chiang Dao, Day 2

Our second day in Chiang Dao.


Our wonderful guides were Sam and John. Sam is a Lisu villager who happens to be Christian. John is Chinese (near the Tibetan region), but married a Lisu wife. He is Buddhist. It's incredible to see the harmony they seemed to share.

What a day of hiking, good food, and good (albeit limited) conversation.

The mud/clay was gnarly. Seriously...


A cave we tried out...


John made chopsticks and plates out of raw bamboo... a bamboo tree he cut down himself. Wow. Sheer talent...


Beautiful bamboo all around...


Minutes after lunch we heard the rain in the distance, seconds later it was on us.

And we finally arrived after a beautiful day of hiking through the monsoon rain to a Karen village. Here is our abode...


And a night of Rummy with John and Sam before bed...


All in all, a good, tiring day.

Chiang Dao, Day 1

Plenty of pics...

So, Monday Ben and Chara and Holly and I took a plane from Phuket to Bangkok and then caught an overnight train to Chiang Mai (12 hours northwest of Bangkok) where we were picked up by a minibus and taken to Chiang Dao (just 1 1/2 hours north of Chiang Mai).

Sounds like a lot. It was.

We arrived a few hours late (because the trains run on Thai time) to meet our guide and begin our excursion.

Wait, let me back up: About a month ago, we booked a 3-day excursion in Northern Thailand where we stay with 2 different hill tribes and hike through remote jungles, caves, and waterfalls. Chara's idea...good stuff.

So, we arrived just in time to grab some amazing egg sandwiches and head off to meet our first guide, Alope-eh. Took us to a cave. Spooky. The girls got a few hundred meters in and stopped there. Ben and I and Alope-eh continued on crawling on all fours at times. Beautiful, spooky, trippy. Holly was pissed that I left her and Chara in a dark cave with bats. That's fair.

After lunch, we met up with Ta-ta. Cool kid. 25. A wife and a kid and a house of his own. A Lisu guy. The Lisu are one of a few different hilltribes of this area. He took us to a cool waterfall. He taught us some Thai and we taught him some English. It was a fun trip. Chara fell in the water. Ha!



Ta-ta took us to our village we were to stay at that night. A Lisu village where we stayed in Elema's guest house. Nice. Mosquito nets. Wooden floors and GI JOE sleeping bags. Yes!

Nice dinner and then some Lisu moonshine and some cards. Wonderful people. Incredible view. Seriously. It looked like we were looking out on the Peruvian Andes. Not sure that I got a picture that really captures it. Perhaps Ben has one...

And we met Sam. Sam would be one of our two guides for the next day and a half. He was an incredible individual. Here is him with his home-made bagpipes.

We're back.

And Heath and Rhianon are with us. And Ben and Chara are on a plane back to the States. We have tons of photos and stories to share so please be patient.

Talk soon...

Off to Chiang Mai

Not much time, but wanted to tell you we are back from Phi Phi Island and we are heading to Bangkok this morning to then take a train to Chiang Mai and then take a bus to Chiang Do. From there we will trek across the mountains of northern Thailand for 3 days. Wow. Seems unreal.

Then we meet Heath and Rhianon in Bangkok to come back to Phuket. Lisa arrives here just a couple days later.

It's been a great trip with lots to think on. Encouragement and discouragement woven together.

On Adopting a Village

So, we are in Phi-Phi right now. Holly got sick yesterday. I'll let her tell the story in her own words. Today is the sabbath for volunteers on the island. Working on a video for HI PHI PHI though. Today was a mini-vacation for us. This trip (in our non-sick days anyway) has felt like part relief-work-trip, part-vacation, and part-learning/unlearning/critiquing, part-relationship-deveolpment. Wow.

Today we scuba-ed. All of us but Holly. She read. Good times. I am getting certified here in Phi-Phi. Wasn't planning on it, but alas, here we are.

So, the day before we left to come to Phi-Phi was an incredible day. One of the best days here in Thailand.

Pastors Sujit and Chatchuwan showed us to a village in the Phang-Nga province. Their churches seem to have a heart for the Sea Gypsy people. That's where they took us... to another Sea Gypsy village. Beautiful.

We got a glimpse of some needs there, prayed for people, and committed to come back and assess needs more fully and give money and support. We are thinking about adopting the village all together. Meeting all the financial needs we can and then try to visit when we can. Much of the need is for repairs of fishing boats and motorbikes, but some will be small grants for new businesses. When I say business, I mean like a barbershop for the village. We are exploring what it would/will look like to request that this money be used for the bettering of the village, not just the individual. Pastor Sujit says that will come once they come to know Jesus. I think they can come to know Jesus by learning to share... and that is the Kingdom as I see it. Preach about it later. Teach them to live it first... that's what I say anyways.

Found out that I will be preaching Sunday night. That'll be good. I'm just gonna rip off a Doug Pagitt sermon I really like. That's fine though, as it contains many scriptures and thoughts that have been actively brewing in my mind for some time.

Tomorrow is more of a work day and some scuba as well. Then back to Phuket Sunday for church (and to preach). Then Monday we leave for Chiang Mai. We will then meet Heath and Rhianon in Bangkok the morning of the 8th. Lots to do once they and Lisa are here. Lots to do.

Continue to pray for our health please. And for more opportunity. And for our family back home in the States.

More stories soon. Cheers!