A week in the life...

In a recent newsletter, I offered to answer questions about living overseas that anyone would like to ask. The question most often received was, "What does a normal week look like?"
The answer to that question is, "There is no normal week."
Every week is astoundingly different. (Is that even a word?!?)
This city is a juxtaposition in itself with areas of both impoverishment and extreme wealth.
There are people who are highly educated and those who have never been to school because necessity led them to begin work very early in their life. There are people who were born and raised in this culture and then many who are transplants from other countries (especially other Asian countries.)
Different backgrounds, different ideologies, different problems, different demands - we face all these polarities in the people who live here, yet our job is to work with them all.
That's why each week (each day sometimes) we find ourselves in completely different situations.
There is, however, an overall pattern that has figured into our lives that I will attempt to share through pictures to show our friends at home what "normal" looks like in this amazing and beautiful city.


The one constant so far in our time here has been where we live.
We love our apartment and are very thankful that we are able to live here into our second year of being in this place. As this city has opened up to the outside world, prices have increased considerably. Most of the expats we know living here have to move every year, because rent prices are doubling and tripling in places. Our apartment building is one of the largest in the city and is situated above a small "mall" with shopping and restaurants and a department store. We have made many friends with the people who come to work here everyday, and they are often are best source of information and news.

The other constant in our lives has been language learning which is something we do absolutely every single day.
We happen to have the best teachers who are both challenging and compassionate. We enjoy class time with them even though it's so difficult.
Most of our language classes are held inside our apartment, but my favorite classes are the ones where we go to our teacher's house. I love being in her community and getting to know the people who live near her.

Every Sunday we go to a local "gathering place" and three weeks out of four, it's a local language service we attend.
We don't understand most of what's said throughout the meeting because the speakers use a very formal form of the language, but it is a great opportunity for us to connect with local brothers and sisters.
The local language meeting places do not have air con, but they have fans throughout the building.

About once a month, we visit the international meeting place where everything is spoken in English so that we can get refilled and refueled for Father's service. Our children also need the camaraderie with believers their age who are encouragers and accountability partners in the midst of their predominantly non-believing environment.



Each week, we have a group of people who meet at our house for English language learning and Good Book study. This group has become family to us and we look forward to being with these funny, energetic and devoted friends.

We usually spend a fair amount of time each week, out and exploring various parts of our city. We enjoy learning about the habits and culture of the people this way. There are areas of great beauty and serenity in the midst of this bustling city.

We also inevitably spend a lot of time sitting in our car in traffic.

Sometimes we get to do special programs involving teaching or sharing. We love making new friends!

We often visit local tea shops.

And we even enjoy eating the local food - especially when it's homemade.

Sometimes we get to meet other foreigners who come to talk about the best ways to reach our city and how to provide programs to benefit the people living here. Sometimes we get to meet those people in nice restaurants which is always a treat. But the best part is making connections with people we might not have otherwise met in the States.

Of course everyday we get to spend time in the Word which is the most important thing that we do.

But the most fun part of being here is the quality time we get to spend together as a family.

What more could we ask for?

Many years ago, Father put this city on our hearts. We didn't know of the blessings that awaited us here.
Each week is often full of ups and downs, but the love we feel for the people here and the desire to do His work is what drives us. Then it's the joy of family and friends and other followers in faith that amplifies our endearment, making this place feel more and more like home.

Don't you want to come visit?
Our door is always open. Come join us!

What is love?

by Zoë Johnson

What is love?
Is it eating chocolate doves
or gazing up at the stars above?
Is is caring for others
or talking to our mothers
or is our life just filled with star-crossed lovers?
Is a friendship real?
Are our secrets really sealed?
Is it pulling out a ring
and bowing on one knee
or can love just be a happy family?
A relationship is a test
where you have to try your best.
Where a friendship is true
you can always be you.
You feel like a melody 
without any jealousy.
You have trust 
and it never fades to dust.
A relationship is rainbows and butterflies
or even dark blue skies
but that's what love is
as the nights go by.


Zoë had a school assignment to write about a kind of relationship or characteristics of a relationship. Ever the rapper at heart, she wrote a poem to describe her thoughts.

A puzzling concept

A few years ago, I bought a puzzle at a flea market. My family has always enjoyed doing jigsaw puzzles together, as it ends up being a good time for talking and laughing, reminiscing and planning while we pour over the pieces looking for just the right one to fit in an empty spot.
This particular puzzle that I bought was unusual in that it didn’t have a picture to use as a reference of what the puzzle should look like when complete. It was just 1000 random pieces jumbled in a bag.
When we got the puzzle home, we cleared off the cardboard table and started by finding all the outside edges. Eventually, we had the outline complete and slowly, piece by piece, a beautiful picture began to emerge.

Living in this country, some days are filled with frustration, friction and fatigue. Some days we question why we are even here.
But then we have days that feel like the puzzle pieces of our lives are coming together, and it’s a beautiful picture that the Great Artist is rendering.

How do you describe a heart that feels full?
How do you describe the warmth that comes from feeling the Father’s love shine down on you?
How do you describe the sensation of ultimate peace that washes over you when you are right where you are supposed to be?

As our family attempts to assimilate into this unique culture, I continually find myself feeling more and more at home. While skyping with some friends, I recently even described one of the local villages as reminding me of our beloved small town in Mississippi – a feat that could only come from Father changing my vision and my outlook.
After all, the homes of this village are mostly bamboo structures with little electricity or running water, but it’s the people who make the community what it is. From a second-story patio, I view two old friends cross paths at a nearby street corner where they stop to converse, likely sharing the latest neighborhood gossip.
A group of boys have begun an early morning game of “chin-lone” ball and their shouts of laughter penetrate above the din of buses and car horns.
A young mother dressed in her Sunday-best descends from a full bus with a small child in tow as she heads toward a local market. I imagine her shopping for the food her family will need for the week while teaching her young daughter how to navigate the chore that will inevitably become her responsibility.
It’s busy and sometimes noisy, but there’s a sense of routine that rises above the disorder. There’s a calm in the midst of the chaos that is somewhat predictable and comforting. The sounds become soothing and I find myself longing to sit in the shadow of the shelter it provides.

It was in this tranquil state of mind that we arrived at church on Sunday. It’s a local-language church and I was prepared to sit through the service while not understanding most of what was said.
There was a congregational reading and the lady next to me handed me a book and pointed to where we were. I can read the words of the circular script we’re learning (or at least sound them out) although I don’t usually know what they mean. Then we sang some hymns out of the old Baptist songbook translated into this language that I have memorized and could, thereby, participate.
I didn’t feel so out of place.
During the offering, a lady’s choir gathered at the front to perform. When they started singing, for a minute, I thought I was miraculously understanding their language when I realized they were singing in English.
“I come to the garden alone while the dew is still on the roses.”
As they began to sing, I recognized the song I’ve sung with my parents and my grandparents around the piano on countless occasions.
The song evoked such emotions that I felt as if my family were gathered around me and I realized right then that my picture-puzzle-life was complete.
In that moment, all the pieces fit perfectly together.
I can’t exactly explain how close I felt to Heaven at that point.
Here we are in this crazy, foreign place in a completely alien environment, but everything was just right.
It wasn’t because of the house we live in or the car we drive. It wasn’t because of the food we had eaten or all the material effects I possess.
It was just knowing and understanding that Father is real in my life; that He loves me and has placed me here for whatever reason He sees fit. It was recognizing that I am completely in His care and that He provides in abundance of my needs before I even know what those needs are.
He is so good.

I need moments like these.
Sure enough, dark days will inevitably come, but when they do I can look back to these moments and have the perseverance to hold the course.
The fun part is that the puzzle picture of our lives keeps changing and adjusting and reshaping – it’s never the same.
Just as long as I let Him be the artist, I know it will be a masterpiece. Not because of anything I’ve done or added, but because He puts all the pieces together.

“But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.” – Isaiah 64:8

Sick overseas is a sad story

No one likes to be sick.
But in America, if you’re a little under the weather, you can run down to your local pharmacy and pick up some over-the-counter medicine to help you deal with the symptoms.
If you’re a little more sick, you make an appointment to see your family doctor who knows all your history, your allergies, your habits, etc. That doctor will run his diagnostics and determine the best course of action to fight whatever infection or problem you may have. You go home; you take your medicine; you feel better. Not to mention you have no doubts about your doctor’s knowledge because you know that your doctor has attended years and years of university and medical training.
Overseas, it just doesn’t work the same way.
All the medicine you could want to buy here is over-the-counter. There are no prescriptions. You want antibiotics, anxiety medication, pain medication? Just find it on the shelf at the store and purchase it. The problem is, most of it is out of date or fake. Not to mention that I don’t know how many milligrams of any supposed medication my nine year old is supposed to take or the rest of us for that matter. I’ve always been told by doctors and pharmacists in-the-know that self-medicating is just asking for bigger problems.
So why not just ask a local doctor you say?
Well, there is one Australian doctor in this city of five million people who keeps an office for those sick and in need of his services. However, there’s not a whole lot he can do. He basically can tell you if what you have is serious enough to warrant a trip to Bangkok. His usual response to sicknesses our family has faced is, “Just take two Tylenol and let it run its course.” Good thing we have a stash of Tylenol sent to us from friends and family in the States cause it’s the one medicine you can’t buy here ironically.
There is an emergency clinic that has a couple of Western-trained doctors on staff. The key is getting to see the one that speaks English. I went there once when I was “near-death sick” and they at least gave me a shot and an IV drip before sending me home. (See ‘Sick and Saved’ from June 2012)
The closest and best doctors/clinic/hospital is in the next country over and it’s just not feasible to fly there to see a doctor when your sick, not to mention, who wants to deal with airports and fly on a plane when you’re feverish and in pain?
There is actually a new and nice hospital close to where we live. We went there once on a weekend when one of our kids was dealing with a high fever. The chief resident doctor came to help us because he spoke the best English, and although he seemed very smart and nice, he’s not Western-trained. (It’s amazing how some of the local superstitions work their way into medical treatments here.)
 
Because of this our family policy has become, “Just don’t get sick!” But the inevitable will happen, of course.
Little Mia had been feeling a little under the weather the last couple weeks. She was coming home from school with a headache everyday and then she developed a little cough. I assumed it was because of the weather we’ve been enduring lately with temperatures around 100 – 102 degrees everyday. Especially with frequent power outages leaving us with no air conditioning, it just takes the body a little while to adjust. And then since Mia is so small and thin, she always seems to be the one that gets sick. (Not to mention that she’s so active and touches everything she sees no matter how many times I tell her to keep her hands to herself. She just can’t help it.)
Then after she had been sick a couple days she had a really bad nosebleed that lasted around 45 minutes. It kinda scared me although I tried not to let her know it.
I tried to do everything I could think of to help her. I made sure she was drinking lots of water, eating well and getting all her vitamins. CJ got her some cough medicine and cough drops, but she just didn’t ever get better.
Then the vomiting started. Ugh.
 
In the past, my mom had been my go-to-resource for medical questions and just general advice. She worked in a hospital my whole life and she knows it all. So she’s the best one to ask when I don’t know what to do.
The problem is my mother is on the other side of the globe and when it’s morning here, it’s night there and vice versa.
I sent my mom a text message to ask her to log onto Skype so that I could ask her what she thought was wrong with Mia. But then our power went out, which meant no internet.
Naturally.
 
To make a long story shorter, ultimately I was able to get an appointment with the Australian doctor on Monday morning. As we drove to his office, I was so thankful that we had a car with air conditioning. I couldn’t imagine the hour-long ride to the doctor in the blazing sun with no air con, yet that’s what most people in this city endure.
The doctor said Mia was almost finished with a virus that had been going around. He gave her an antibiotic to wipe out the rest of it and she was all better in no time.
 
There are a couple revelations I discovered in this process. One is that even though the healthcare/insurance industry has been under scrutiny the last few years in America, we still have some of the best medical doctors and offices in the world.  Everytime you walk into your doctor’s office, say a prayer of thanksgiving. Everytime you get a prescription filled by your local pharmacist, say a prayer of thanksgiving. They are benefits that many people around the world never experience. I am so thankful that I was born in America.
 
The second revelation is no matter how far away I am, I still need my mom so much and I’m so thankful for the technology that allows me to stay in touch with her and my dad.  Aside from my spouse, they will always be the first people I want to talk to when I need help or advice or encouragement. I am so thankful for such amazing parents.
 
Being sick is no fun, but it definitely makes you thankful in so many ways.