A bit of a slower day

 

We were able to spend a bit of time at Naomi House (info about it below - check out the links!)

Today ended up being a bit of a slower day.

We stayed in our apartment until 12:15 today waking slowly, eating slowly, starting to pack slowly, catching some hockey highlights--GO COUGARS GO!!!--and trying to help James find some medicine for his sore tummy and diarrhea (found some, so now we'll see if it works...needless to say, I understand the extreme end of being sick in Thailand!) I think the slowness of the day was a blessing; we will have a long and full day tomorrow, so moving at a slower pace today was much appreciated.

Cynthia came by at 12:15 to take us to Naomi House which we learned about last year as we started looking into Multiply's ministries in Thailand. Naomi House has gone through some changes in the past few years as they have had an amazing opportunity to partner with some companies and become their direct sewing house (such as Adorn in the US), but they still have Siriwan and many of the same girls from the website and the videos there. It was one of the places that Juliet wanted to go see as she found the story of girls seeking asylum as refugees and needing support coming out of really bad situations moving.

After Naomi House we went back to Cynthia's and had a bite of pizza (yes...pizza...and very good thin crust pizza actually!) before hanging out for the afternoon and eventually meeting other Multiply Missionaries, Sarah and Ozz Fast Kumrod (Ozz was sick at home with the littlest child). Sarah was actually part of Team 2000 that came to Thailand 24 years ago (along with Dave & Louise Sinclair Peters and others). It was really nice to be able to spend time with Sarah and her 3 oldest boys and hear about their lives, ministry, and put faces to names :)

One thing that has struck me is that although there are so many missionary organizations and people here--and no, they do NOT know each other lol--it has been in almost every instance that once you start talking to someone they ask a variation of the question, "So - are you here because you're exploring mission work?" The answer we give is an honest one: we want to be open. Lindsay and I have often felt like it's a matter of time before we go into vocational ministry. We have seriously prayed about this over the years in context of camp ministry and church ministry, but we've never felt that specific calling. Don't get me wrong: we fully believe that everyone is called into ministry (Matthew 28:19-20 - Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age). We also believe that the call into vocational ministry is a specific calling - that is the one we are open to and waiting on. It has been really neat to see what it can look like here in Thailand and we're very thankful for the opportunity we have had to spend the past number of days with Cynthia and here about what God is doing in her context. On Wednesday we will have a chance to start our time with Dave & Louise and we are equally excited - bring it on!