I struggle staying motivated to keep on blogging but I did want to send a short update and ask you to be praying. Please continue to pray for my mother, we are so thankful that her cancer is responding to treatment and she is persevering on in this battle. Please pray for Ethan and I as we travel tonight back to America to be with Mom through her 4th and 5th treatments, while Dad returns to help with the annual Joe's Boot Shop Calf-Roping event. We leave at 0100 and we are flying through London this time, that is a first! Usually we fly through Japan but with all the recovery going on there I assume they have rerouted some of the flights? No matter, it's still over 24 hours on a plane and Ethan really dreads it, please pray for him specifically that he can trust in God when he feels fearful. Also pray for Mark, Dustin and Nathan as we will again be apart for a month. Thanks so much.
This morning our devotional was from 2 Corinthians1:3-4. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God."
It was such great timing! I talked with the boys that this specifically addresses some of the 'why's' that I am going to help Mom again. God wants us to help and comfort others with the same comfort that we've been shown. I reminded the boys of how Mom comforted/helped/supported/loved us through the waiting on their arrival-helping rearrange our house so that I could camp out in the dining room while on bedrest, the cooking she did for us during that time, the helping to prepare the nursery for their arrival. Then after their births, how many weeks she stayed with us, taking the late night feedings, helping me cope with three, little, premies at home...I thought about the time she came to LA the Christmas after Abbie died, how she decorated my whole house for Christmas because I just didn't have the energy or the desire to even think about Christmas. The list could just go on and on. I'm so thankful for her and all the times she has comforted me, I pray that I can be able to support her through this cancer ordeal in a manner that would bring praise to the Father of mercies.
I did want to share about my morning bike ride. Usually, I'm out by 0600 every day riding my bike to a nearby park, I make 5 or 6 loops around the park, use some of the work-out equipment and then head back. But on occasion I head the opposite direction and ride through the countryside of Thailand. Which, by the way, is quickly disappearing around us. I CAN NOT believe how much building and tearing down of trees...that has been done in the last 3 years around us:( Anyway today being my last day to enjoy Thailand before being gone a month I took the more scenic, authentic route.
I really can't explain to you how much I love living here. The quiet of the countryside, seeing the beautiful sunrise coming across the hills and palm trees. The farmers out tending to their tapioca fields. The lady filling up her water jugs from the spicket behind her home. The people sleeping in their hammocks. A man working in his green, luscious garden.
This morning I passed a monk in his golden orange robe making his merit rounds. I've told you before that monks depend totally on the morning walks for their daily food and do not eat after lunch? The Thai ladies waiting at their gates with their food offerings of rice, squatting in reverence. I'm reminded once again to pray for the Thai people who so wholeheartedly believe that they can 'earn' the right to be reincarnated to a better life. I spend my ride praying for each of these devoted ladies that they can somehow meet the One who has already done all the work for them, that they would know they could never 'earn' their way to eternal life, that the truth of the gospel can be made known here in Thailand.
I'm thankful that I get to live here, well, I could do with a lot less dogs!!! This morning I had to get off my bike three times to put the bike between me and the dogs while I pick up a rock to pelt them with. Usually if you just make the motion of bending down they run the other way, this morning was especially challenging. I glad I will be in the states but will be glad to 'glup Thailand' too!
