Somethings our way...15th April

Some things our way…april 15th ‘07

A lot has happened of late. I’ve been struggling to put pen to paper and feeling a bit overwhelmed with everything. But first let me say that "Ian loves Cc". It's written in the sand of Oz, Sing, and Laos. It's written in my heart and on God's heart. He made the two ONE!!! Just needed to say that...

On the home front things are into a reasonable routine. Kids and parents know what to do now- we get up; go to our schools (Pattana; ARDA and Candlelight Language); come home, play, eat and sleep. Kids are enjoying school, making good friends and playing sport.

I sometimes hear from teachers that Sarah or Seth are not treating each other right. Sarah can bully Seth. Seth can irritate Sarah. The other day Seth was in trouble with the teacher because he was running in the library. Sarah dobbed him in and she seemed ‘happy’. We told Sarah that ‘dobbing’ on her brother is not right. We would like it if she can talk things out with Seth. She doesn't need to ‘tell on Seth’. If something is small, and a teacher has sorted it out, they can work things out together at school.

Sarah has been enjoying learning under her teacher Katherine (Aussie lady form Melbourne). Katharine’s approach is creative and project base. The routine and exam orientation of Singapore schools has been good for Sarah in some ways. Clear goals and examinations keep the pressure on students. But we noticed that under such a system, Sarah would very quickly put herself down if she’s wasn’t doing well. Sarah would often call herself names like ‘I’m dumb’, ‘I can’t do anything’; ‘I can’t even pass’

(left...Sarah with the Filipino Ambassador...Sarah won a trophy at an sports event. The Ambassador is a 'full on family member" loving HIM with a wonderful Spirit!)

The teaching here seems to fit Sarah’s learning preference. Sarah will initiate work by herself and likes to lead. Currently she’s writing a little book of stories and doing a project on ‘insulin’ with her friend Sompune. We really thank God for this because it will help us as we move into a home schooling curriculum at the end of next year. That’s the plan at the moment. Cecilia’s quite excited about home schooling.

Mr Diligence has been making impressions too. Seth worked through part of his lunch hour the other day to get something finished. I can’t ever remember doing that in primary school, high school, uni!!!! Seth’s class was ‘supposed’ to get something done before they went to lunch. But the class went to lunch anyway. Seth ate lunch but went back early, to the empty classroom and finished his work. The teacher saw his diligence and rewarded him with an extra long break I the afternoon. Seth was quite tickled about!! Sarah would have gone crazy!! A break by ‘herself’!!! What’s fun about that!!!!

Seth has a few good mates now and he loves sport. We play basketball twice a week, once with the school team and once with the HOPE center kids. We just brought badminton net and hang it in our front yard. After dinner the other night I said, lets play Seth and he said, ‘love ya dad’!!! That puffed me up!

Shane’s temper has finally cooled off a bit. For awhile there she didn’t want to have much to do with me and quickly became angry at almost anything I suggested or did. She’d wake up grumpy and she could stay that way for hours. Ok, ok, I can get that way too…a bit moody. But I’m growing out of it!! (still trying lah).

She had us all worried in the mornings, ‘Was it going to be the grumpy face brown bear or happy, placid penguin feet?’ The difference between both animals was a peaceful co-operative child or a screaming, kicking anger filled grump! On grumpy face mornings she wouldn’t make it to school and she came to language school with us, where she’d behave like penguin.

So it seems that this phase has ‘blown’ away or was ‘prayed away’, and we’re now seeing more of happy feet!! Shanae has some good little friends at school. She gets on with nicely with all her teachers- teacher ‘Unjue’, ‘Passi’, ‘Pong’ and teacher ‘Pizza’ (that’s Shanae’s best pronunciation…hee). Shanae’s main teacher, Unjue, just flew back to India because he father died suddenly. Shanae remembers her in prayer every night. It is so encouraging to hear and listen to a child’s faith. Praise the Lord for that.

Family members coming and going

I’m realising that one of the Lord’s greatest gifts to us here is the community around us. Of course the coffee plunger is refreshing and sometimes easier to be around. But this being true some of the times, family members gathered in one place, out of different nations worldwide, are a most precious gift.

Deep connection with some people is almost immediate. For others you need time and distance, but the connection is recognised. It’s a bit like being at a wedding celebration where the bride and groom have family and friends from ‘overseas’. These ‘overseas’ people have come a great distance and paid a large price to join the celebration of your mutual friends. You feel some sense of special connection with people who have paid a large price to join in the celebration. Normally these people are specially mentioned and we acknowledge them and say ‘good on ya’.

Now picture this, a room of 150 people who like you, have left homes, jobs, families and countries to join you in celebrating one person’s life overseas. You ask each one why they came and they will same the same thing: I came to love the Lord with all my heart, with my entire mind, with most of my resources and with all my soul.

The German pastor Bonheoffer reminds us that these gathered ones, where ever they gather, are a ‘divine reality’ not a ‘physical reality’. In other words, it is ‘divinely real’ all the time, but not happening at all times!!

Because these people are gathered out of different tribes worldwide, it’s perhaps the most complete expression of family life that we have this side of eternity. Okie, okie…think I’m loosing myself here.

I’m not romantising Christian community. No community is romantic. In Acts 4 there’s a thumbing, vibrant Christian community gathered. They ‘raise their voices together in prayer to God…and share their possessions’ because their heart and mind are all for one and one for all. But then in Acts 5 members of this same community lied to each other, pretended to be loving and good, but we’re ‘pretending’ and wanted personal praise and applause. So the Holy Spirit killed them on the spot. They dropped dead in a heap, on the ground. A nicer way to put this would be to say ‘God took them home’.

Where am I going with this????
Well when our family new members leave it is difficult for all concerned, especially when it’s the ones that you get immediately ‘tight’ with. We’ve only been here for a little over three months and some of our friends are leaving. We’re saying goodbye to friends, and so are our kids. Sarah got especially thick with Mary-Kate, a beautiful fun loving girl. Much like Sarah…always looking for fun and wanting to be the leader.

So we’ll have to have a sleep over before she goes, or should we? Arrrrrrrrr. So that’s a little struggle, God’s people, often on the move. Nobody lives for the other, we all live for Him. When we first arrived I noticed that some people would ask ‘how long are you staying?’ I think they were checking us out to see if the energy and friendship energy was going to be well spent. Someone said, ‘oh, so you’ll be staying for 6 years, then you can be my friend’. I kinda understand a little better where they are coming from now.

Girls heading to Bangkok

I’ve collaborated with two other fathers to send our wives off to Bangkok for a mother’s day present. We colluded on desires, times and dates…only to discover that our beloved wives were actually planning a trip themselves!!!

Their desires- Bangkok
Time: mother’s day weekend

This development sort of took the ‘we did it for you’ out of it!!! Okie, so they are going anyway, whether ‘father’s like it or not’. Ha..not really. But I did have to tell Cecilia because she couldn’t understand why I wasn’t very supportive of the idea of her heading off with the gals. I kept giving her reasons why she shouldn’t go. But she had some real good come-backs. In the end, I spilled my guts, ‘I love you so much I want you to go to Bangkok and spend all our spare cash on me and the kids!!!’ She understood my recalcitrant spirit.

They’re going on the 2nd weekend of June (now after Mother’s day!). I’m working out with the dads a few things…like sleep-overs, videos and pizza nights. We’re cashing in on the collective family thing.

ARDA: Hope Center Basketball
Seth and I are enjoying our time with the ‘Hope Center basketball’. Seth is starting to say a few words, just a few. He’s my demo man when I want to show a new skill off. He loves helping out this way. I asked him why doesn’t he talk more and he said, ‘if I speak Lao then they say lots to me and I can’t understand, so I just say a little bit’. ‘Yeah, me too mate…but let’s try a new word each week?’ ‘Ok dad…’

Each week there is a Lao Hope Center staff who helps us. They help me with the Lao instructions, but I’m trying to speak with what Lao I have learned.

The kids just come down for some fun. I’m trying to explain that the vision is to ‘make you into a team’. I can’t say that in Lao. I don’t want to just ‘have fun’ with the basketball. I want to build discipline, character, healthy bodies and have fun. At the moment the sport is rather new to Lao kids and competition isn’t really a part of Lao culture, as it is in Oz. I don’t want to push then into that whole sport culture thing, but the character, discipline, fun thing is a good thing.

I’ve told some of the older boys they can’t come unless they begin with us and stay till the end (9.30-11.00). The older boys play street soccer for a while and some then try to push their way into basketball training…disturbing the training mostly. They’re ok, but it’s not what I think we want. We can’t build a team without a sense of vision and purpose. I know this will take time to communicate; I’m willing to walk with them on this.

Because most of the kids come from the neighborhoods, they don’t have money for ‘shoes’. They play in bare feet. All of them come from poor families and ‘basketball shoes’ wouldn’t be high up there on the ‘needs’ list. I wonder whether I should buy them some shoes, is it ok? Or will people come because they want ‘shoes’!!! Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…don’t know.

For now, we’ll keep showing up and keep casting the vision, and do what we can with the help of HIS MIGHTY SPIRIT!!!!