Sunday worship
Well, I've just now found a good way to get online here. I don't yet have internet/DSL at my apartment, and every other time I've tried to get online other places to post or send emails, I've run into problems. Yesterday, I went with Bob Johnson and two other men (new teachers who live in my building) to look into getting DSL. That was quite the cultural experience and one from which I think I'm supposed to learn how to be patient and flexible as a missionary! The short end of it was that after 3 hours of going to 3 different stores of the same internet provider at 2 different malls (and lots of waiting in between), I
think what they said is that they'll call us in a week! So it might be a while. In the meantime, I discovered I can get online at school.
The past few days have been so full. Full of running around, shopping, unpacking, visiting old friends and meeting new ones. I'm finding my way around this area a bit better and am beginning to feel more settled in. I still have more shopping and decorating to do before I'll post pictures of my apartment but it's at a liveable point now, which is good because starting tomorrow, I plan to focus on getting my classroom (class
rooms - more on that later!) set up and lesson planning done.
But as the title of this post suggests, I was going to write about this morning's worship with the MTW team. How wonderful it was! We met in the New Community office (where I taught English and did JOY Kids last summer) and Dad and I led music, while other members of the team led prayers and confessions and Dave Veldhorst preached. The team has multiplied since I was here last summer and 8 interns (6 from the U.S. - who are all leaving this week - and 2 Thai men from a seminary in Bangkok) were here this morning, so we really filled up the larger room on the second floor. It was so good seeing and worshipping with them again!
It was also a joy and blessing to sing by Dad's side. Those times, I know, will soon be extremely infrequent. He chose "For You Are Holy" (from Sovereign Grace's
Awesome God kids' CD) as one of the songs to teach the team, and we invited the children there to come up and help lead the echo. Halfway through the song though, I started crying. Image after image went through my mind of this past year -
beautiful images of all the kids at Pinewood during chapel singing (many with their eyes closed and arms uplifted), of my mom worshipping next to her Kindergarten class, of me teaching the chapel singers the harmony part in the choir room. I almost couldn't finish the song. How God has blessed me this past year at Pinewood! And how much I miss my church family there!
At the same time, if possible, I am looking forward to being here this year. I can already tell I'm going to love worshipping with this body of believers (which would make this now the 3rd church I've fallen in love with!). Dave is a excellent preacher, but also clearly has a pastoral heart. And the entire team has been so welcoming and hospitable and kind to me already. Almost all of them have made sure I had their phone numbers and let me know that I can call if I ever run into language questions or need anything. We already eaten with the Henry's twice, and they have been such amazing servants to us. Crystal has told me several times in the last few days that she/they are here to serve us - which is rather unbelieveable to me! She is so humble and servant-hearted. The whole team is, as well as many of the people I've met from the school. I guess that makes sense: that God would call very humble, servant-hearted people to reach this very humble, servant-hearted nation with the gospel. I just wonder what I'm doing here amongst them! I guess God knew that someone as hopelessly selfish as I am would need to be completely immersed in a entire country of
selfless people for me to learn my lesson. Please pray that I would grow to be like Christ as they are.
Thank you again for praying. God continues to uphold, bless and love on me in this transition.
traveling mercies (composed 7/27/06)
Traveling mercies…I remember thinking that was an interesting way to pray the first time I heard someone use that phrase to ask for help in travel. But after my trip and move to Bangkok, it now makes perfect sense. I can truly say that the Lord has been merciful during our travels.
Dad and I arrived safely at my school apartment and new home at around 1:30 a.m. last night (Bangkok time). Our trip went extremely well. When we brought my massive amount of hugely heavy luggage to the Jax airport on Tuesday morning, we were able to quickly rearrange the weight so that I did not have to pay any more than I had expected and was able to check all of it. A few of you prayed for an uneventful trip: that is exactly what God provided. Absolutely no problems with planes, connections, passport/visas, missing flights – nothing. The flight itself amazingly did not seem terribly long (in comparison to my other trips to Asia). Dad and I slept so much, I think, that it went by relatively quickly. We didn’t even have any long lines to wait through at immigration/customs, either in Tokyo or Bangkok. In Tokyo, we didn’t end up having to go through customs at all, like I had in past trips, and since we had a 5+ hour layover, Dad and I asked around as to how to get a train ticket to the nearest town (not Tokyo, which is about an hour and ½ from the airport) and ended up poking around the very charming little city of Narita for a few hours! So we were able to get a taste of Japan as well.
Having Dad travel with me has also been a great blessing. It made the whole trip more pleasant, having someone to talk to, etc. and he has been so selfless, lugging around my hugely heavy luggage. I definitely couldn’t have carried everything on my own.
We were met at the airport by Mrs. Elsie, the Elementary principal and my new boss, and Bob Johnson, teacher at ICS and husband/father of the host family living in my apartment complex. Mrs. Elsie is very warm and motherly and greeted me with a big hug and welcome to Bangkok. Bob was also very kind and giving and has already been very wonderful in helping me get settled in to my apartment.
My apartment is literally right next to the school. I think the apartments are on top of the school’s canteen or something and just beside the school office/Secondary library building. I feel very safe here as it is within the school’s security gate and I am on the 4th (top) floor of the apartment building. It is small-ish, but not as tiny as I expected (smaller than last year’s apartment but larger than my college dorm room) and the one room has been divided into two parts by virtue of a very large wardrobe/closet-type piece of furniture. So there is a living room area right as you walk in the door, with chair, loveseat, entertainment center and coffee table, and then on the other side of the wardrobe are my bed, bedside table, and vanity. The kitchenette (including table and chairs) and bathroom are in the very back. I like the furniture and think with a little work and decorating, it could become homey. For Laurel and Beka and others who were praying for windows and natural light, I have 2 windows! A little, high one in the bathroom and a larger one above the kitchen sink, so I can look outside as I do dishes (it just doesn’t get any cozier than that! Although that window looks out over a parking garage and another apartment complex. Oh well…). The morning sun woke me up today at 6:30, which excites me. : ) I don’t have a porch all to myself, but out the front door there is a wide outdoor walkway (which all the apartments open out to) which includes a sitting area complete with flower boxes! The view that way is great and Mrs. Elsie said that one can see beautiful sunrises out that direction! I will post pictures of everything as soon as I am a little more settled in and it looks like “my” apartment.
All in all, I am very excited about my new little place, and quite eager to unpack, rearrange (much to Dad’s chagrin, I’m sure!) and decorate, as well as explore the surrounding area. (I’m told there are street food vendors just outside the gate, and a convenience store and massage parlor down the street! ; )
I read Psalm 118 before bed last night (this morning!). “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever.” Give thanks with me for God’s answer to our prayers! Certainly the Lord has been good and “merciful” to me!
thank you
Ok. Someone must be praying. No, many someones must be praying. I am far too at peace to be walking this alone. God is working, and I don’t know how or why He does it, but He is working through your prayers. I hardly feel like myself. In one week I will be leaving home and striking out into the very unknown and yet I am not anxious. There have been so many pressing things to get done (still are!) before I leave, and yet the last few days I have not been stressed. Catherine, the disorganized, is putting her life in order; the non-planner and indecisive is thinking ahead and making decisions; the emotional wreck is remaining calm. Even in the midst of packing up my life, going through all the memories of my childhood and teenage years, the remembering has not been painful but rather full of the goodness of God. This time around, it has shown me how obvious His hand on me has been all along and how He has been working His specific plan for me long before I wondered what it was. I really can’t understand how all this is happening – except that perhaps the promise of the daily sufficiency of God is indeed real. My hope in it is proving sure, like a question that’s finally been answered or a long-awaited dream that actually came true.
It’s really quite remarkable how He’s meeting every single need and concern of mine at this time – and how He’s doing it with little to no effort on my part. I really feel like He’s said, “My child, this path is too difficult for you so I am not even going to ask you to walk it: I’ll carry you for this stretch.” And so I have been lifted up into the strong arms of my God where I can effortlessly and calmly watch the scenery around me and where I can better see His beautiful face.
Thank you for praying for me. Please rejoice with me in God’s answer. : )
“Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation. With joy [I] draw water from the wells of salvation...Give thanks to the LORD, call on His name; make known among the nations what He has done, and proclaim that His name is exalted. Sing to the LORD, for He has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world. Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.” Isaiah 12:2-6
the father of the cutest kids ever (Jason)
the mother of the cutest kids ever (Joanna)
mom and dad
meghan and lady
me and my boys
the kids (minus the eldest)
family pictures from Easter
"G" (Gabriel)
Miss Claire
the Gidmeister (Gideon)
Nate-dog (A.K.A Nathaniel) and Aunt Catherine
the cutest kids EVER! (not that I'm biased)
Commissioning
Today has been a mixture of sweetness and sorrow. This weekend I took my last trip down to DeLand before I leave for Thailand, and this morning I was commissioned at my dear church there, Immanuel Presbyterian. Even though I have not regularly attended Immanuel since I lived in DeLand and went to school at Stetson, I still consider Immanuel my second home and visit often enough to make sure that they all don't forget about me. : ) And they love me very much. That was obvious this morning from the number of people that came forward to surround me and pray for me. And, as one of my friends later pointed out, there wasn't one pause from one person to the next during the time of prayer - as soon as one person finished praying, another began. I'll never know exactly why they all love me so much - I certainly have not given anything to the church to even begin to repay all that they've given me. I think it's just in their nature to love, because I'm not the only person they lavished their kindness and hospitality and support on. Every person I've ever talked to who has spent any time at all at Immanuel has come away feeling the same way - loved.
One of the things I love the most about Immanuel, though, is the way they pray - and really, the way they talk, think and
live. They pray, talk, think and live the Word of God. My pastor there does not only speak the Word from the pulpit (although he does preach it faithfully every week) - every conversation I have with him, he quotes Scripture after Scripture to me, all of which seem to address exactly what I am struggling with at the time. But it's not just my pastor who is that way. The elders, teachers, women in the church - the whole congregation! - is permeated with the Scriptures and with a love of the gospel. And I'm finding that is what I most want and need to hear from others, especially at times of difficulty or sadness. I am growing to hate sentimental but meaningless sayings or even words of sympathy. They really don't do me any good. I need to hear something solid, strong, enduring,
real - I need the Word. And they give it to me, in their deep love. Oh, how I love my Immanuel family!
And speaking of needing to hear something strong in times of difficulty, I find that desire has impacted my musical tastes as of late. As I pack and cry or wonder and worry about next year, I've felt a need to hear "strong" music - like full orchestral pieces with the brass section blasting, hymns like "Be Still My Soul" or "O God Beyond All Praising", music that sounds like a rock or the rolling of massive ocean waves. I need to be reminded that God is not like me. That He doesn't move, change, grow weary, get stressed, rush around, or worry. He is so very still and solid in His absolute power and control. That though I am falling apart, He is not. And so I set up camp on this ROCK and I say with confidence that no matter what I face in Thailand, I will
not be shaken.
"Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress, I will not be shaken. My salvation and my honor depend on God; He is my mighty rock, my refuge. Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to Him, for God is our refuge." Psalm 62:5-8
