January 2016

Dear Friends,

This will most likely be my last update from Thailand.  We leave for America next week!  Today we are having freakish weather.  It is like a wonderful rainy fall day.  Rani and I went to a coffee shop this morning and she had her first hot cocoa ever.  We sat outside even though it was cold and misty just soaking in the loveliness of it all.  Here is a picture.    Rani has already gotten her first coat and is getting ready for her first plane ride.  I am excited about all the firsts.

But mixed up in all the “firsts” are a lot of” lasts” too as I say goodbye to this beautiful and horrible country that has been my home, my love, my hate, my despair and my frustration and, in a lot of ways, the place of my redemption.  So much of who I am now was formed here and God used it to make me what He needs me to be.   It was here I became a mom and a teacher and these things I hope I will continue to be for the rest of my life.

               The hardest “lasts” are saying goodbye not to a place but to so many people who I have loved and who have loved me back.  Especially, the children I have watched grow up.  There are at least 7 of them coming to see us off at the airport.  We will especially miss our dear girl Saa who is going off to university to become a fabulous English teacher.  It is good that in all these “lasts” with her she is having some “firsts” of her own. 

We took her and her cousin BeeBee to their university.  We chose a dorm for them that is more expensive but where they will be housed with international students so they can continue to use their English.  We went this weekend to buy her first pair of high heels because the universities in this country require freshmen girls to wear black high heeled pumps.  I thought nothing in Thailand could surprise me anymore but that one did.  She had never been in a shoe shop before where you had to ask for your size so she kept trying on the one shoe that was out and saying oh it doesn’t fit and putting it back till I was ready to strangle her!  It was a very difficult concept for her to grasp.  So she got some “comfortable” high heels that she can’t really walk in but she has them. 

               The two university girls also got computers.  Saa is so excited about hers that even after having it for a week, she still replaces the dust cover over the keyboard every time she is finished typing.   It is very silly but also cute how much she loves it. 

               We have also had some wonderful news from the children’s home in Mae Chaem.  They had 14 children become Christians and were baptized.  Some of them we had had for a few years.  One child had their whole family come to Christ.  The focus of the home has changed, as the Thai staff have made it their own.  It has gone from being a home that trains up Christian children to be leaders to becoming focused on evangelism through the children first, then their families and eventually entire villages.  This is the vision of the pastor that we work with and the home is now under his leadership as we have stepped back more and more from the home.  It is the way it should be, with Thai pastors and workers ministering to their own people.  I think it is a good goal for every missionary to become absolutely and totally irrelevant to the work except for prayer and friendship.  That is where we are now with our homes.

Sometimes, when it has been hard for me to let go, God reminds me that the children’s home was never mine to begin with.  It was always His.  The way we started was so miraculous and while we were building the children’s homes it seemed like miracles happened almost daily.  God was so faithful and He always will be. 

So we leave next week, Wednesday, February 3^rd. Rani is coming with us to attend school as I mentioned before.  She is very excited and has been studying very hard to get ready for high school in America.  She has become a book worm of the highest order.  She plowed through the Hunger Games but it took her months but I gave her a more realistic fiction book and she fell in love.  She read it in a week, and the next one I gave her she read in a few days and now it is getting difficult to keep her in books.  I took her to the book store and she put her arms around an entire shelf of books and said I want to read all of these.  She has turned into….well….. ME!  I totally relate to the obsession. It is good to get her to America where English books are cheaper!  But nothing could be better for her English.  

We just ask prayer for us as we transition.  Pray for her that she will have no trouble getting into the country.  Even though she has a visa, I believe letting her in the US is at the discretion of the passport control officer.  Please pray for her too as she adjusts to American life and starts school.  I know it will be a challenge for her but she is one of the hardest working, most determined people I know.  Pray for Gavin and I as we look for jobs.  My teaching certificate is from Minnesota and not worth much in Arkansas.  They don’t recognize ESL as a valid, stand-alone license.   It is disappointing since I studied in graduate school for 3 years to get it and I love teaching so much, it hardly seems like work to me though, of course, it is ridiculously hard work.

Thank you to all those who have supported us over all these years.   We will continue to support the three girls through college and the Nohbo (refugee) children’s home for one more year.   You are all very loved and appreciated. 

Love,

Candace (and Gavin, Rani and Saa)