While the exact reason is still vague, today there was a 5K race that went right down the road in front of Juniper Tree and then back up the beach on the other side of the road. The team here set up tables with water and muffins for the runners. Although my unofficial role was photographer I couldn't resist handing out water and probably bouncing around a little more than my knee appreciated but... I'm here so if it slows me down a little it was worth it.
In addition to teams that seemed to represent companies, social groups, and families (?), there were at least two young ladies dressed as brides which none of us quite understood, but it definitely added to the fun. There was a very VERY wide range of ages and competitiveness, and just a lovely cross section of peope all heading in the same direction, and who can complain about that?
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Sunday morning several of the foreigners staying at Juniper Tree walked to a local Baptist Church. Since Juniper Tree serves a truly international community, most of our group this morning were German, but they all speak English. There was also a Canadian couple who are staying nearby. The pastor (Thai) and his wife (Filipino) also speak English and were happy to make the service bilingual for us. Interestingly (to me anyway), we sang an old missionary hymn, To The Regions Beyond. It's funny how music stays with you buried in a very special part of your brain. I remember singing this hymn growing up, and although I probably haven't sung it in more than 50 years, every word was there just waiting to be sung again. I wasn't sure if I knew it from growing up in the C&MA church or from my grandparents' Baptist church. It turns out it may have been both, but the hymn was written by A.B. Simpson (1843-1919), founder of the C&MA, so it's no surprise that I knew it. Opportunities to worship with believers from all over the world is something I truly love, appreciate, and miss. It highlights how much we have in common compared to differences of language, culture, and even denonimation. In fact, I doubt any of us are Baptist but it doesn't matter at all, and you realize that very quickly when you are in a country without a church on every corner. And even in a small country church on the other side of the world, I was able to connect again with my earliest roots in the church and reflect on the words that impacted the trajectory of my life... "To the regions beyond I must go, I must go..." Something new from my visit here in 2017 is that there is a night market on the beach on Saturday nights. It's really a big food court filled with street food. It's bright and colorful and noisy -- there is also live music all night. Sadly for me, it is also VERY SPICY so not many options to actually try the food, and with my knee still a bit wobbly I viewed the fun from the porch of the Juniper Tree. I hope before I leave I will feel stable enough walking on the sand to venture into the stalls and soak up more of the atmosphere. I will leave the hot chilies and fried insects for braver souls.
Truly one of the greatest treasures and delights of being in Thailand is the sweet, soft, delicate, perfect mango. Surprisingly (and sadly) mango was not served at any of our meals the first week I was here. I could not resist asking the kitchen staff WHY????? Okay, I didn't actually say it like that, but perhaps the desperation showed in my face? I learned that the staff try to use as much produce that they grow onsite both for cost and quality (no chemicals) reasons. Makes great sense and demonstrates good stewardship, but....mango? It turns out that the mangoes were just about ready to pick, and I was invited to come help. Yes, please!!! So I have been here for 3 days now, and if the next 3 weeks go this fast I will be saying goodbye before I know it. For the most part I have been resting, napping, getting to know people, and napping. Oh, did I say napping? I am really tired but have not been plagued with the 3am wake up that often accompanies jetlag, so I am thankful for that. On Thursday I met with the JT (Juniper Tree) managers to discuss my assignments and learn more about their vision for JT and how i can help. Good stuff! Today I spent time talking to and observing the kitchen staff. One of my projects is to provide recommendations on how to make the kitchen work better for the staff and ensure compliance with health and safety standards. The ladies in the kitchen have been so friendly and seem interested to hear my ideas (once I have some!) as well as willing to express their opinions. There will be some challenges, but I look forward to learning a lot and working with them. Of course, it hasn't been all work. I have enjoyed spending time in the pool in the morning. In the water I can walk without a limp for the first time in two months, and am hopeful that this therapy will lead to big improvements on land, too. But the beach is my real happy place, and I am truly thankful for such a beautiful office. It was definitely a long day(s) of travel, but I am happy to say all went well. I whisked through check in -- no line, how did that happen? -- and security thanks to pre-check and Ivy my wheelchair assistant. I know, I know, a wheelchair was really overkill, but not knowing how far I had to walk to the gate, it was nice to have. I was not a total slug because when my flight was delayed two and a half hours I made a trip to the restroom and to the food court for some dinner. Thankfully i had a five hour layover in Istanbul so was in no danger of missing my connection. In Istanbul i was again met by a wheel chair attendant...with a difference! These are electric and the attendant rides on the back. Carryon luggage can fit on the chair, and larger pieces are towed behind. Those were the coolest wheel chairs! Sadly my ride was just up the jet way. After that I was herded on to an electric cart (twice actually) for the very long trip through the Istanbul Airport to my connecting gate. That is one huge airport so I was very thankful for the assistance. This was not the kind of cart I used but thought it was cute. Just nine more hours of flying time to Bangkok! The flights were fine, legroom was tight, the food was meh, but I am a picky eater so ymmv. I slept an hour here and there and was happy when we arrived early. I did find the camera that showed the ground pretty interesting as well as the prayer timer for the Muslim passengers. My wheelchair assistant in Bangkok got me through immigration with no waiting, retrieved my luggage, took me to an ATM, found my driver, AND wheeled me through the parking garage to the car. Another very big airport so all that walking would have taken me forever. Very thankful for the help! Four hours later, including a potty and lunch stop at McDonalds, I arrived at Juniper Tree. Bad photos of some sights on the way from the airport.
In about 36 hours I will be arriving at The Juniper Tree Dolphin Bay. This is a place of rest and refreshment for Christian workers in Asia, and perhaps just a little glimpse of heaven. Kristen and I went to Dolphin Bay in 2017 (and its sister center in Chiang Mai in 2019 and 2020), and it has held a special place in our hearts ever since. It isn't fancy but it is clean, comfortable, and a place of incredible blessing for missionaries needing a brief time of respite. Having communal meals prepared three times a day definitely seemed like heaven to me! About six months ago I received a message from Juniper Tree indicating their need for several short-term volunteers to help them with their facility and program. See if you can figure out which opportunity I volunteered for. Okay, that probably didn't take long! I sent an email expressing my interest along with my resume and was invited to come to Dolphin Bay to serve for three weeks in March. My projects range from updating the guest book to organizing the laundry room and kitchen to creating job descriptions and making some process improvements. Sounds exciting, right? Well, it does to me! I couldn't be any more thrilled to use my natural abilities, skills, and experience to give back to a place that was a blessing to us as well as to make it an even better experience for the many wonderful people who come through there every year.
I should be able to access the internet while I am gone, so check back when you can, and I will try (TRY) to post photos and updates. In the meantime, please pray for safe and smooth travel, good health, and time management to complete as many tasks as possible in the short time I am there. Time to throw the last few things in the suitcase and get ready to go! Blessings, Donna PS - Some photos from our previous visit. I know I am not alone in saying that the last few years have been anything but predictable. On March 9, 2020, Kristen and I left Hengyang, China for a two month visit to the US. We expected to watch Marissa walk across a stage with a college diploma and Kristen get her first look at several potential colleges. Of course, neither of those things happened, and two months turned into three and a half years of multiple moves through temporary housing before landing in long-term missionary housing last year. I was able to attend weekly Zoom meetings with our China team and send out the monthly sponsor reports on the children. Not a day went by that the young people that I worked with were not on my mind and in my heart. I spent much time reading and attending virtual classes and conferences to find new ways to meet their needs, always looking forward to when I could return and continue the work. All the while waiting and wondering when we could go home. We now know that answer...tonight we start the journey back, flying into Hong Kong and then taking the high speed train to Hengyang on Wednesday. At last. I will sleep in my own bed; Kristen will hug her stuffed animals. We don't really know what to expect except that things will be different. Shops that we frequented have moved, some have closed. Our apartment is the same, but our things have been moved around to accommodate another volunteer living there for several months. Some of our belongings have been donated or sold. The cupboards will be bare. The one thing we did not expect was that just one month after China opened again in March, the central government would make the decision to close our program in Hengyang and return the care of the 160 children and young adults to the state welfare center. It has taken me four months to write those words here because... I.just.can't. And now? What's next? I don't know. And if you know me even a little you probably know how hard those words are for me to say. I will be honest and say that right now I am just putting one foot in front of the other. Kristen and I are thrilled that we get to go home, even if it appears that it isn't really our home anymore. We will sort and pack and focus on making the most of each day visiting the people and places we have missed so much. I expect I will cry and maybe rant a bit at the unfairness of it all. And through it all I will hang on to hope. I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that God has a plan in this; that he is more than capable of bringing beauty from ashes. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and He will direct your paths. I Peter 3:5,6 The title of this website, Seek Ye First, has been a reminder through good times and hard times and especially as I set out on this crazy journey to bring life and hope to children and young people without families of their own that my job is to follow the Lord's leading and leave the rest to him. I appreciate your prayers and good thoughts as we travel and see where this next chapter leads. Donna and Kristen Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things will be added unto you. Matthew 6:33 Just a few bullets to keep you up to date:
Donna One clue that your international trip may not be going according to plan? If the airport hotel you booked to stay at the night before a very early flight is padlocked when you arrive to check in. Yes, that’s how our trip started one year ago today. As the old adage goes…if I had known then what I know now… But I didn’t, and no one can say what would have happened if we had stayed in China. I have played those “what if” games a few times, but every time I come back to the time spent in prayer when flights seemed impossible, and the amazing way that everything fell in place overnight. We may not have gotten to watch Marissa receive her college diploma, and Kristen and I didn’t get to visit colleges from California to North Carolina… or anywhere actually… but I do believe we are where we are supposed to be, even if I don’t understand why, and that God’s provision has been evident every step of the way…even when we were padlocked out of our hotel. So what has happened? We started our “visit” uneventfully but very enjoyably in Wellington, FL. We spent two weeks in quarantine (nothing like quarantine in China – trust me), taking our temperature twice a day and calling it in to the local health department every few days. We also took quiet (distanced) walks soaking up sunshine and palm trees, did homework in the pool and learned how to order groceries online and use GrubHub to savor the foods we had missed. After the quarantine was over it was evident that this was not going to be a typical visit, so our next two weeks were a repeat of the first two. Now that was certainly nothing to complain about (have I ever mentioned how much I love sunshine and palm trees?) but sadly, we didn’t visit with all of our very dear friends from our ten years living in Jupiter, and we didn’t go to the beach. (Have I mentioned how much I love the beach?) Then it was time to move on to Chicago to see the bigs and the grands…hooray! Once again we quarantined for two weeks. Did we have to? Well, no one was telling us to, but after airports and a flight it seemed the right thing to do to protect those around us. Thankfully we didn’t get sick, and soon we were able to visit with the people we love. For the next several months we lived in a small basement apartment just a few blocks from Ryan and Laura, my three grandchildren, and Marissa, too. Not only would a short walk allow us to spend time with all of them, the home we were staying in had a sweet little backyard with a covered deck – and wifi – where I could enjoy the warm weather and work on my China projects. It was a good summer. It was a hard summer. It was a summer of uncertainty, but it was also a time for seeing family, practicing Chinese online, updating and streamlining our sponsor reports, completing online classes and attending Zoom conferences on childhood trauma, meeting several times a week with our China team (I don’t know how we would have weathered this without Zoom!), and bingewatching old TV shows from my childhood. I am especially thankful for time spent with Lindsay when she came to town for a long weekend, for a couple of weeks driving to and from work with Marissa as she gained confidence with her new driving skills, and for playing Sleeping Queens, Rummikub and farm games on my phone with Maggie and William. Our living situation changed again mid-October when Kristen and I moved into a slightly larger apartment in Glen Ellyn, about a 40 minute drive from where Ryan lives. We are so fortunate to have been able to make a reservation for just over seven months in an apartment home for missionaries home on leave. Like the basement apartment, this apartment is also one bedroom, so Kristen and I traded so that she could now have the bedroom with more privacy and study space. (In the basement apartment I had the bedroom, and she slept on a foam mattress on the floor…in the kitchen.) The change of venue has come with more space, but has also meant that we are too far from family to see them frequently. The virus situation also made me more careful about isolating and limiting exposure, so near or far our family visits were limited. Despite the many precautions, Marissa was able to come for Thanksgiving and spend the long weekend with us. We had fun cooking a very large turkey breast, eating and playing games. Meanwhile Lindsay was carefully isolating for two weeks alone in her dorm room at Calvin University. Kristen and I took a road trip to Grand Rapids to pick her up (OUT OF THE HOUSE!!!) to spend almost two weeks with us at Christmas. It was fun to visit her dorm and see where she lives as well as enjoy the laughter and silliness that always ensues with Lindsay in the house – or car. We took advantage of having a car for a few days by tracking down a very small Christmas tree – a real one! Since we couldn’t find a stand to fit it Lindsay devised on from a half cinderblock, some cut up Amazon boxes and a milk jug. That girl has talent! We decorated Christmas cards, and despite some moaning and groaning it was both fun and successful. We also decorated some ornaments for the tree, which was way less fun and not so pretty. Amazon to the rescue – we bought a few inexpensive ornaments and used some fairy lights sent to us by our China team. We baked our traditional cookies, which we shared through a cookie exchange with some neighbors in our building and sent home with Ryan and Laura when we traded gifts– outdoors and masked – a few days before Christmas. It’s always a bit amazing to me, and it shouldn’t be after so many years, that no matter where we are or what the circumstances, Christmas comes and it is magical and sweet. So much about this holiday was not the way we wanted, but in the end it was perfect. Baked ham, sweet potatoes, stuffing and peppermint ice cream didn’t hurt. In January and February Kristen and I stayed home and watched the snow pile up outside. These were some of the hardest months since it was impossible for me to go outside for walks since my winter clothes are still in Hengyang. I was counting down the days until the temperature would climb into the 40s and I could stretch my legs again. Thankfully those days are here! It was apparent almost immediately after we arrived in the US that covid was not going to be tackled in the US the way it had been in China and that things were far worse than I had imagined. Very shortly afterward China closed its borders and going back was no longer even an option. Whether being optimistic or in denial, I thought that things would improve and borders would open by the end of the summer, about five months away. Of course the opposite was true, and as the devastation of the virus spread like wildfire through the US I knew that China would not be opening to Americans in 2020…but surely by the end of the year. Or not. At this point it is unclear when China will open to any except a few essential workers, and sadly I don’t qualify for that designation. I won’t pretend that I don’t miss my home, my bed, my clothes, all the creature comforts that make a place – even one that has its own challenges – home. Even more I miss our China team, the teachers I have worked side by side with for the last three years and especially every young person who has brightened my day, tested my patience, hugged me really tight, laughed at my Chinese, and fogave me for being less than they need. Through all of this and whatever is ahead, God has been so faithful in providing contentment, work to do, a roof over our heads and food on the table. The basement apartment was free while the missionary apartment is not, and I am so thankful for the way God has provided for us through our community of supporters. Life in the USA, even with our very simple stay-at-home life and no car, is more expensive and our needs have been met one by one. We are truly blessed. |
About This BlogPart documentary, part family chronicle and part personal reflection as I try to sort through the ups and downs, the joys, heartaches and surprises of our life and work as we follow the path that God has set for us here in China! Prayer RequestsKristen to continue to adjust to college life and find good friends.
Donna for safety and provision while traveling and serving in Thailand. Archives
April 2024
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