Returned Just in Time!

5 days before Rich & our second son's flight was due to depart they received the dreaded call that they had been bumped off their flight.  Fortunately, we were offered another flight.  We did not realise just how fortunate we were until a week later, while in quarantine, when Sydney went into lockdown and international arrival numbers were halved.  We are very thankful to God for his provision as the next available economy flights to Sydney from Thailand are from January 2022!  

It has been great for most of our family to be united again after such an extended period, although we miss our oldest son and he misses us.  Despite the disappointment of Sydney’s lockdowns, our second son has settled well into the rhythm of his new school online. He just wishes he could have a chance to make a start on the guitar he is planning on making in his Industrial Tech Timber class! 

We have begun our final home assignment, which will be completed at the end of this year.  We would love to connect with you, or your small group online, or just via a phone call, until the lockdown in Sydney ends. Please let us know if you’re interested, and send us your number. 

Transitions - Running out ofHhotwater

Since we've been married, we've moved almost 20 times and each time there is a transition process which requires time and effort to get settled again. For example, with our latest house, we have been running out of hotwater. There is a 315L hotwater heater but it doesn't seem enough for 5 of us to have a shower and washing the dishes. We've had a plumber in a few times already now. It seems that we are on an off-peak plan which only heats the water during the night. So if we use all the hotwater during the day we won't have anymore until the next day! I asked the plumber whether we could install the electric hotwater heaters that we've used in Thailand (see photo) in all the houses we've been in. He laughed at me. Doesn't seem like it's an option in Australia. I have seen gas ones through Rinnai but not electric ones as we don't have gas. Now a call to the electricity company to see if we can change our plan so that we can have water heated when needed during the day.

Our moves:-

1. Strathfield

2. SMBC

3. Strathfield

4. Croydon Park(Aidan born - 10 months

5. Enfield

6. Cluney Rd, OMF IHQ -  6 weeks

7. Lopburi - 1 year

8. Lampang - Suksawat

9. Wahroonga - HA 1 (9 months)

10. Lampang - Suksawat

11. Lampang - The Lighthouse

12. Thornleigh - HA 2 (1 year)

13. Lampang - The Lighthouse

14. JOFC - 2 years

15. Chiang Mai - Koolpuntville 7 (8 months)

16. Orchard St: HA 3 (8 months)

17. Chiang Mai - Koolpuntville 7

18. Chiang Mai - Thanawan

19. Eastwood

Go Cho June 2021 - Earlier Return

Rich’s farewell lunch with the OMF North Region 

 

Our March 2021 Go Cho emphasized our need to “hold our future plans lightly, as inevitably there would be twists and turns that we could have never expected.”  This has come to pass, as Rich and Aidan plan to leave Thailand in a few days (God willing).  

A number of different factors led to the decision to apply for a place for Aidan to start in Term 3 in a school in Sydney last month, with his place being confirmed by the end of last month.  

It has been a hectic and stressful time, especially for Rich in organising the sale of cars, motorbike, changing of visas for Luca, flights and packing while still leading the digital media teams and projects (as yet there is no one to take over from Rich).

Aidan is quite sad to be leaving Thailand earlier than expected.  He had a great group of friends and was very much settled here.  This is one of the hardest aspects of missionary life, when you have to move your family around so much.  These transitions are not easy for anyone, but harder as the children grow older and their attachments much stronger.

Luca will remain in Thailand to finish his final year of highschool, starting in August.  Undoubtedly, it will be hard being the only one in our family to remain in Thailand.  We are so thankful for Ross and Eirenee who will be his guardians for at least the next 6 months.

After two weeks of quarantine and a few weeks to settle in, we will begin our final home assignment from August.  We look forward to visiting you at your church, small group or individually and sharing with you of God’s work in Thailand and some fruit of your faithful prayers.

Go Cho April 2021 - God Provides Unexpectedly (Again!)

Weekly meal with Ross & Eirenee

On 29 Nov 2021, a post came up on my (Rich’s) facebook feed. A young couple from the US were moving to Chiang Mai to work with an expat church and to seek God’s plan for their future.  They were seeking to rent a house and a motorbike from the end of December until the end of July.  I don’t know what prompted me as I normally wouldn’t respond to a random post like that.  But we had an empty guest flat so I messaged them offering it to them if they wanted it.  I was surprised when they took up our offer as our flat was pretty small and basic with no kitchen.  
Ross was in the US marines and Eirenee is a dual US / Thai citizen.  They share Aidan’s love for rock climbing and were able to take him “real” rock climbing (as opposed to indoor) at some cliffs in Chiang Mai for the first time.  Since moving into our guest flat, they have been coming over for dinner once a week and have been a real blessing to Rich, Luca and Aidan while our family has been apart.  
They have grown to love Luca and Aidan and didn’t want them to be split apart with two separate families or places when Rich returned to Australia in August.  This was looking likely with it being very difficult for 1 family to take care of  both boys.
After praying about our boy’s situation and their own plans, Ross and Eirenee amazingly offered to extend their stay in Thailand and look after Luca and Aidan until at least January 2022!  We and many of you had been praying for months for someone to look after our boys and God answered our prayers in such an unexpected way.  Praise God!  Having lived next to us all this year and knowing the boys already will make the transition a lot easier when Rich leaves.
With Ross and Eirenee to look after the boys, the next step was finding a house for them all to rent near Luca’s school.  After looking at a few possible houses, we received an offer from one of the members of our church to house sit from July.  The house is directly opposite Luca’s school!   God had answered our prayer again.
Although our family separation was not part of our plans and caused considerable upheaval to our lives, we have experienced God’s grace and love in many unexpected ways which we are so thankful for.

#43 What’s that burning smell? May 2010

We had only arrived back a few days and our first drama.  We used this extension cord for our washing machine.  I didn’t realise that you had to have an appropriately thick cable for something that draws a lot of power like a washing machine.  Fortunately, I was around when I smelled the burning wires and prevented our laundry from going up in smoke.  The things that you never think of when you live in Australia.  Most electrical sockets in Thailand are not “earthed” so I still get a shock whenever I touch my desktop computer.

OMF Thailand Youtube Channel

Please go to our OMF Thailand Youtube channel and hear stories from our missionaries in Thailand. Some of the stories will make you laugh, other will make you cry. You will be encouraged and challenged as you see and hear how God is working in and through the life of our missionaries in Thailand. We are adding a new video each week so subscribe to make sure you don't miss out on any of the new videos.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYRsB-tduXN4EaCt61lGhgQ

#42 Return to Thailand - May 2010

Our first unexpected home assignment of 8 months came to an end and here we were saying goodbye again to our families at the airport.  The main reason for the early home assignment, speech therapy for one of our children, had helped to the point where we could return.  We would still need to continue daily therapy ourselves back in Thailand with help from video calls with the speech therapist in Australia.  So on to our second term in Thailand and the adventures that lay ahead.

Go Cho Mar 2021 - Future Plans Held Lightly

Beginning of our journey 14 years ago

We arrived in Thailand in April 2007, almost 14 years ago for our first term as missionaries, with a toddler 2 years old and a 6 month old baby.  There was a sense of relief - we had finally arrived, but it was mixed with trepidation - what would the future hold?  As we head towards the end of our final term in Thailand, we never could have imagined the journey that God has taken us on.  

One thing we learnt over that time, over and over again, was to hold our future plans lightly, as inevitably there would be twists and turns that we could have never expected.  But God’s faithfulness was the anchor.

At this point, the plan (which we hold lightly) is for Rich to return in early August.  Aidan will remain in Thailand until the end of 2021, and Luca until mid 2022 when he will finish highschool.

Our final home assignment will be for 6 months.  We will take the month of August for Rich to rest and settle back to Australia.  Then from September we will be available to visit and report back to our supporting churches and small groups until the end of January 2022.  Then we will take a period of long service leave for 3 months which will take us up to the end of April 2020.  

After that point, we are not yet sure of the future.  Rich plans to still be involved in Thai digital media and internet evangelism ministry part-time from Australia with short-term trips to Thailand as needed.  Although we will still be affiliated with OMF, we think we will be self-funded in this work rather than continuing to receive financial support from churches or supporters.

We are so thankful to you and our supporting churches for the partnership over more than 15 years.  God has taken us from pioneering church planting, to teaching and discipling at the James O Fraser Centre, to mission leadership and digital media and internet evangelism ministries.  It has been quite a journey, full of joy and pain, laughter and tears.  It certainly has been a refining process where we’ve been confronted with the depths of our sinfulness and inadequacies, but enabled to experience God in unexpected and wonderful ways.  We approach the end of our time in Thailand, weary but profoundly thankful to God and to all of you.

Go Cho Feb 2021 - Attachment & Detachment

Whether it’s an urban legend or not I’m unsure, but we’ve been told that missionaries used to leave their home countries with a coffin packed as this was how they were likely to come home.  There was little issue of having to detach from your home country as communication was limited to letters which took months to send and receive.    How things have changed from that era of missions.

Today, missionaries face the opposite challenge with social media allowing us to connect with our family, friends and supporters back home in a way that was not possible even 14 years ago when we first left for Thailand.  The problem can be that missionaries remain attached to their relationships back home so it may be more difficult to establish significant attachments in the countries they serve in.

Missionaries are not immune to the dangers of social media or Netflix addiction, but may be more prone to stumbling in this area as an escape from the additional pressures and stresses of missionary life.  Following family and friends lives on social media can lead to discouragement, being reminded of special events which you are missing out on, which increases homesickness. One effect, however, that Lisa has noticed is understanding that this world is really not our home; also that Jesus understands loneliness and isolation too, and is working to bring us full fellowship with others, and with God. 

Missionaries also face the challenge of how to best use social and digital media effectively in evangelism and discipleship, if they are using it at all.  Unfortunately, there are as yet, very few missionaries involved in this field.  

At our OMF leadership meetings last week, Rich shared the vision of one day using Facebook advertising to target possible seekers in the neighbourhood surrounding a local church.  But we pondered whether there was an ethical dilemma when Facebook has been used to manipulate presidential elections and Brexit outcomes, as highlighted in the documentary, “The Great Hack”.

It is not all negative though.  Supporters are given greater insight into missionary life and have greater connection with the missionaries they support.  Prayer can be requested almost instantaneously when an emergency arises.  It has allowed our family to be connected while we are currently apart.

Please pray for us and other missionaries you know in this difficult era in modern day  missions. Pray that God would reign in this area of all of our lives.

#1. Christchurch St Ives, Anglican, Sydney 2007

Commissioning Service at Christchurch St Ives, 2007

I started this series of posts on facebook but I am reposting them on this blog so that it can be accessed on a more permanent basis.

The idea started when I spent a few days sorting out our photos so that I could find images to use for videos that I've been making for my mission agency, OMF Thailand.  Then I had the idea, to make use of all that time spent by making a photo timeline / journey of our missionary journey.  When I started, I had no idea that within a month we'd make the decision for our family to return to Australia.  

So this was the first photo posted on 30 September 2021 on facebook.  It was our commissioning service at Christchurch St Ives. So many memories in the past 13 and half years since that day.

Memorial Service for John Davis

Memorial Service for John Davis at Phayao Bible Seminary

John Davis was an OMF missionary who came to Thailand in the late 1950s from the UK.  He found the land on which the present Phayao Bible Seminary (PBS) and was it's first principal.  John spoke Thai, Northern Thai and some tribal language fluently.  John's influence in establishing PBS and in revivals in North Thailand have left a lasting impact on the Thai church.  I can't help feeling that we lack the people of the mould of John in missions today.  They are rare.  He was much loved and honored by the Thai brothers and sisters.  As an OMF missionary, I stand of the shoulder of giants, and John was truly one of them.  "Thankyou God for this good and faithful servant."

OMF Thailand Conference 2019

This year, the North region organized the annual missionary conference for OMF Thailand (each of the 5 regions takes turns so we only need to do it once every 5 years).  Unfortunately, with the number of our missionaries in the North declining by more than half over the last 3 years and most of the remaining missionaries on home assignment, we were down to just 3 who would actually be at conference (including myself and my wife!).  Praise God that so many people from other regions helped.  It was great example of partnership in action, which was the theme of the conference.

There appeared to be a fierce spiritual battle before the conference with the main conference speaker’s family and one of workshop presenters affected with various difficulties and illnesses.  1 and half hours before the first session the main amp died and with 5 minutes to go the connection between the computer and the data projector failed and refused to reconnect.  We asked for prayer on the facebook prayer event which we had set up for the conference.  Praise God that both the amp and connection were restored in time for the first session.  We only lost the connect between the computer and data project in the final 5 minutes of the first session when it was time for announcements.  One of the privileges of running conference is that you see the ways in which God answers prayer.

We are thankful to God for the great children’s and youth program volunteers who came from Australia, Singapore, the Netherlands, Brazil, the United States, South Africa and Switzerland .  He answered prayer in this area too.  Early February, things were looking bleak with only one volunteer confirmed to help at conference when we need at least 15.  Then the idea came to post a video on facebook calling for volunteers which really raised the profile of the need and started the flow of inquiries.  In the end with had 24 volunteers and we even had to turn people away!

Conference is an important time, especially for those missionaries living in remote places to be refreshed, trained and encouraged.  For many missionary children, it is the highlight of their year. We are so thankful to God’s for all that he did through this year’s conference.

Worst Air Pollution in the World

Every year around this time, Chiang Mai, the city where we live experiences an increase in air pollution due to the burning of fields by farmers in North Thailand and surrounding countries.  Chiang Mai is surrounded by mountains and the air pollution is trapped in the city.  We have lived in Chiang Mai for 3 years now and this is the third burning season we've experienced and undoubtedly the worst.  The most commonly used measure for air pollution is the PM2.5 which is the air particle matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers.  These particles are dangerous because they are so small that they get lodged deep in your lungs and perhaps even into your blood.  The World Health Organisation (WHO) guideline is to keep the PM2.5 under 25. A PM2.5 reading over 50 is considered unhealthy.  Levels over 250 are considered hazardous to your health.  Chiang Mai has had days of PM2.5 over 400 in past weeks, being the worst polluted city in the world. 

When the levels are high you can feel and smell it in the air when you wake up.   Fortunately, none of my family have any breathing issues like asthma.  We also have the money to buy air purifiers which can reduce the air pollution within our house.  We also have bought masks for when we go out.  

We are praying for rain which will help reduce the pollution.  There is noise from those in authority about how they will crack down on the burning but it doesn't seem to ever have any significant impact. 

We are thankful that this is only a issue for about 2-3 months of the year, though I read a report that the period of air pollution has been increasing each year.

The Unstoppable Dr Henry

Dr Henry giving a tract to the waitress serving our table

I am privileged to be in Thailand at a time that Dr Henry is still ministering in Thailand.  Dr Henry is 86 years old and has been serving in Thailand for 53 years.  He was a medical doctor and linguist and has been involved in medical work, church planting and Bible teaching.  He was one of the founders of Bangkok Bible Seminary (BBS) and currently teaches at Chiang Mai Theological Seminary.  I would say without doubt that he is most respected missionary in Thailand today.  

For 40 years he has been going to a park in Chiang Mai on Sunday afternoon to hand out tracts.  Last week at our lunch after our monthly prayer meeting, he was handing out tracts to the waiting staff at the resturant.  He did this the last time I was at a resturant with him.  I don't usually give out many tracts, but Dr Henry inspired me and I've had the opportunity to hand out several tracts this week.

Dr Henry's most well known saying is "No Bible, No Breakfast" and he has been following this motto for over 50 years.  I would say that his commitment to God's word and his disciplined life has been one of the reasons why he has been able to last in ministry so long.

Missionaries these days are so different to those like Dr Henry.  

This year's Immigration Experience

Line outside immigration early in the morning

One of the cultural experiences of living in Thailand is renewing your visa.  The process is different depending on where you are in Thailand.  Our personal experience has been in Bangkok and now in Chiang Mai, the two biggest immigration departments.  In Chiang Mai, the student, teacher, education, religious and elite card visas are put in one group with Retirement and medical in another group. 

Unfortunately, the students make up the biggest group and we are in that group as our visa falls under religious.  This means that our line is the longest.  The immigration department only processes a certain number of visas per day and if the queue is too long, then you have to come and line up again the next day.  So, if you want to be certain that you will be seen that day then you need to line up very early. 

How early is the uncertainty.  You just never know who will turn up on any given day.  If you are unlucky, you could have 30 students from one institution turn up just before you.  That could mean at least 2-3 hours extra wait or could mean missing out on a ticket for that day.  Some people have been known to line up the night before at 11pm which is at least an 8 hour wait as they start handing out the tickets at around 7am. 

Last week a colleague went in and lined up at 4am in the morning.  He was given ticket number 66 and was seen at 3:30pm and arrived back home at 5pm.  I set the alarm for 3:30am, but my body clock woke me up at 3am so I left home by 3:15am and was there by 3:40am. 

I saw a long line people on the sidewalk outside of immigration and wondered what they were doing.  Normally people would line up in the carpark inside the immigration complex.  When I went past them and tried to turn into the immigration carpark the gates were shut and I couldn’t get in.  So I kept on going and did a U turn and parked at the petrol station opposite immigration.  I realised then that the line was on the sidewalk because they gate were still shut.  So I joined the line and there would have been over 70 people in front of me.

Last year they only gave out 60 tickets or so per day so I was a bit concerned.  This was the earliest I’d ever gone in yet, this was furthest back I’ve been in the queue.  Later on I overheard that they would process a 100 tickets per day so that was a little reassuring. 

A Korean family with 3 kids lined up behind me at around 4pm.  I wondered why the mother would bring the kids with her as she could just get the tickets for them.  Eventually, we started talking and as her husband was still working in Korea she didn’t have anyone to look after the children so they had to come with her.   The unbelievable thing was that when I asked them where they lived, they actually live in our street!  We had never seen them before in the year we have been living in our house and they had never seen us.

At around 6am or so the gates were opened and we were allowed into the immigration carpark where we lined up in different groups assigned.  By 7am they were handing out tickets and our ticket numbers were from 80 onwards.  There were probably around another 30 people behind me and they all received tickets.  So, no one missed out today.  I probably could still have come as late as 6:30am and received tickets.  But you just never know.  Maybe next year I’ll risk going in at this late a time and seeing what happens. 

The new aspect of the process this year is the additional the “Happy Queue” system.  On your ticket you have a QR code which you can use the Happy Queue app to scan.  Then the app gives you the number of tickets remaining ahead of you and the prediction of when it will be your turn to be seen.   This is a fantastic because I could safely go home after collecting my tickets for my family and return later in the day. 

As I write this blog piece it is 10:53am and there are still 19 tickets remaining before us.  The prediction is for 12:27pm.  I know that the lunch break is between 12:00-1pm.  So it looks like that we will be seen after 1:30pm at least.  I suspect that it will be later than that.  Our friend’s predication last week was for 2:30pm but he wasn’t seen until 3:30pm.  I just hope we are finished by 4:30pm (the official closing time) as our son has his piano lesson at 5:15pm.

Although some people complain about the system and having to wait on the streets in the early hours of the morning etc, if we all get our visas renewed and are allowed to stay in Thailand for another year, I won’t be complaining.  This is just how things are done here and the sooner you accept it, the happier you will be.