trust

  We've had a rough go the past few weeks:

• Extra bouts of illness and trips to the hospital.
• Air pollution this month: face masks, cancelling PE/Recess, cough drops by the kilo, and hacking around town is the new norm. 
• A friend back in the US was killed in a car accident. We've had to grieve this huge loss while being so far away.
• Our fridge decided to freeze all our food for a few week (a repair man convinced it to stop.)
•   Living in a foreign country catches up to us and we get so tired.

You have your list too; the tough things, the way life goes sometimes without making a lick of sense. In the midst of this, we choose to trust. We take the time to pray for everything and anything, because we know God wants to hear it all. He wants us dependent on Him. So we consciously make the decision each day, each minute, each second, to trust in Him.

He has proven himself faithful, and even in the midst of the smoke (literally here) we see the sun burst through.

Surely God is my help.  The Lord is the one who sustains me.

Psalm 54:4  

Thanks for the prayers and encouragement,

The Stew Fam

Ministry Day 2013

We sang, we prayed, we listened to challenging messages from Monday through Thursday of Spiritual Emphasis Week at GIS. Then came Friday, the culminating event--app time! All the middle and high school students deployed to various orphanages, schools, and nursing homes across Chiang Mai to spread the love of Jesus.
My group, 25 students from the 10th grade and my sister Evangeline, loaded into songtaews (the truck/buses of Thailand) and bumpd our way to Hope House--a home and school that serves 50-60 orphaned children from various hill tribes. Hope House is run by the parents of one of George's classmates.
We spent the school day with this radiant bunch of kids--leading them in crafts, songs, games, and activities. As is often the case, most of my students commented, "We came to be a blessing but left feeling more blessed and thankful ourselves."
It was a privilege to play a small part in the amazing work the Lord is doing at Hope House, not to mention to see teenagers engaging in acts of love.

For more info on Hope House: http://www.projectsforasia.com/hope-house-childrens-home-thailand/

Thanks for reading!!!

Happy Chinese New Year!!!

Not every day you see a dragon in the store!!!  Happy Chinese New Year, from Thailand!

Happy New Year!!!

Since we last blogged, it feels like we've slipped into survival mode. We spent the Christmas holiday sick--pneumonia, stomach flu, colds, fevers. Perhaps we're still getting accustomed to a new set of germs. We recovered just in time to jump into a new school year. The weather is pleasant right now; it gets as cool as 55 degrees Fahrenheit at night, then back up into the 90s during the day. The rice farmers have begun burning their fields, so the air is getting a bit thick. Unfortunately, the smoke fills up our valley and just hangs around. Occasional winds and rain showers have been a welcome blessing.

At GIS, we are busy and time is flying! Finn celebrated his 100th day of school last week and we suddenly realized this school year is over half over. Tim has been pretty swamped with work--getting used to a new school and new curriculum--but it is a great place, and he receives a lot of support.

Jill continues to navigate her way around, getting the needs for life here, practicing her Thai  and keeping up with the kids,as well as spending time getting to know new friends and neighbors.

Here's a few pics covering the last couple months. Thanks for viewing!!!

Nice cool nights!

Jill experienced a big tire blowout on a busy road.  Thankfully, everything worked out and a good Samaritan stopped to help and only charged $10. 

The Mickey of Chiang Mai?

Juniper takes on Mount Pad Thai.

The kids were pretty good about hanging out while we were sick.

Happy New Year!  A gift from our good friends, candy and new plates!

This picture sums up our Christmas break.

Finn getting repeated shots for pneumonia.  Not the Christmas gift he was hoping for. He is doing tons better and declared, "I feel like a new man!"

Juniper turned 2! 

In the middle of running around the neighborhood catching critters and playing with friends.

High School Chapel at GIS! Scattered here and there are Tim's students.

All Lit Up

The Holiday:  Loy Kratong

This is such a pretty holiday!  With hundreds of lanterns floating in the sky, candles and incense floating on homemade flower boats down the river, fireworks lighting the sky and candles around the perimeter of each yard. LIGHT is important to this holiday.

A fountain of flames to rid the yard of evil spirits.

Interesting advice on a box of mini M-80s.

We learned that each flower boat in the river is symbolic of a prayer of forgiveness and worship to Buddha, and each candle on the property is keeping the evil spirits away from the dark corners.  The lanterns are released into the air along with the evil thoughts, and the fireworks are to scare away evil spirits.

Juni modeling traditional Northern Thai costume.

The floating flower boat made by our neighbors.

Ornate decorations around the neighborhoods. 

Finn holding the lantern, and getting ready to light the wax.

George keeping it steady and his face from burning until it's ready to float up.

Off it goes...adding to the hundreds already up and flying away.

The next day, these are all over the city!

We enjoyed learning about this new holiday with our neighbors.  We said our own prayers to the Spirit we don't have to fear, the One who has been invited into our lives and the dark corners of our hearts.  The Spirit we love to serve.  The Spirit we can call Friend, Father and King.

Top 12 of 2012

We just realized we've had Tim in the ER on our blog for quite some time...he got bettah! (Monty Python accent.) His face and neck have healed up and his stomach is settling down too. Thanks for your prayers and concern.

We live with basically three seasons year round; all of them are HOT!  It's hard to tell when the holidays are approaching.  There are no big sales, no inflated turkeys, no snow globes.  Yet Thanksgiving is this week, and it's time to start searching for the flavors of home and paying quadruple the price...but it's worth it.  Once a year. 

In honor of the holiday, here are:

12 Things We're Thankful For in 2012 

 (in no particular order)

1.  You--the readers, the encouragers, the supporters.

2.  "Fish and reptiles."  -George

3.  The wonders of creation all around us. 

4.   Two sets of parental units who have been and continue to be great role models.

5.  "My brother and sister."  -Finn

6.  Freely given and richly lavished Salvation.

7.  The privilege to live in Thailand to share the gift mentioned in  #6.

8.  "Rice!"  -Juniper

9.   Mercies that are new every morning.  

10.  "Clothes dryer, indoor plumbing, rat poison."  -Jill

11.  Caring neighbors & superb friends in each country we have lived in.

12.  "Spicy Thai food, antacids, more spicy Thai food."  -Tim

"Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good! 

His faithful love endures forever." 

Psalm 136:1

Things That Go THUD In The Night

THUD.

I thought I had heard just about every sound in the middle of the night...but this one, this THUD, was a new one.  It was the sound of a face hitting the tile in the bathroom.  I flew out of bed and found Stew, face down, with blood beginning to puddle on the floor from somewhere on his head.  

 It was the culmination of two weeks of not feeling well, and followed by some herbal tea to help it out.  The THUD was him passing out from the intense abdominal pain. Needless to say, I was a little freaked out.

We have amazing neighbors and coworkers who came to help us, Stew got in the ER right away, bottom line was that he was lucky and needed lots of medicine but no stitches. Luck?  No way.  God.  He protected Stew from what could have been a very nasty fall.  But even if Stew would have more injuries...we serve a God who is still good, even during the rough times.