back to the motherland

in international airports you may see life-sized cardboard chinese stewardesses standing a poised pose with beauty and grace in their essence. they make you want to smile and stand up straight even in their cardboardness. china airlines is a lot like a great restaurant menu - the pictures are perfect representations of what you will get. these beautiful chinese stewardesses topped their cardboard doubles. in addition to the asian princesses we got great meals, personal tvs and movies to choose from, AND a trip back to the homeland.

after a night back at the uncle steve guest house, an amazing welcome-home burger, and a trip to the renton library, we found ourselves at the next place any american would want to be after two months away: the greyhound bus station. lined up with what could have been a psych hospital field trip, we boarded -- seattle to des moines, 43 hours, 40 stops. not a great recipe for curing jet lag.

like any good greyhound experience, most of it was in a thin haze of fog. the most memorable moments were during the second night due to a driver who was "a piece of work" (adam's quote, 3 am). she woke us at 2 am for a truck stop breakfast with "awesome" food and coffee. her shrill voice with north dakota accent blasted thorough overly-amplified speakers throughout the bus. "alright, i'm only stoppin' for a few minutes. only enough time for a few drags on a cigarette." she was full of surprises - she waxed on to a captive audience about the story of the five tribes and the white buffalo. and, before her shift was up we gave ear to her plans: take a nice hot shower, sleep in her fluffy queen-sized featherbed, and have a drink. she'd be "thinking of us" as we continued in our plush greyhound accomodations.

what's the capital of thailand?

the quiet, steady rhythm of our bus ride through the night to bangkok was restful and serene. the abrupt stop, lights, and max volume thai pop at 4:45am, marking our arrival, was downright obnoxious. our whole busload was disoriented and delerious, standing on some unknown street in the rain, with a dozen tuk-tuk drivers negotiating "fair" prices to drive us to koh san road, a destination "too far to walk." fortunately, we latched onto a girl who knew the way, and walked the hardly 2 blocks to koh san, finally making our way out of the rain into the only business open at that dark hour - mcdonalds. we regrouped and planned our attack over an egg mcmuffin and bitter coffee. we had penetrated the beautiful chaos that is bangkok.

from our cheap cheap guesthouse, sweety's, we sprung into some of the colorful corners of the city. the weekend market was a dizzying maze of stalls and booths selling everything imaginable. its was a sensory cyclone. my brain was using so much energy trying to process the infinite trinkets, trifles, and t-shirts moving endlessly outward in every direction, that i kept forgetting to walk and would just stand there, circuitry sizzling. i nearly malfunctioned a few times. then tracy found some 10 cent popcicles that helped to numb the senses a bit.

we later connected with jon and kim quinley and a few of their kids at their house in bangkok. they are good friends with the haydn's, some friends from virginia, and have been working with microfinance a host of other community-developing projects in bkk and throughout southern thailand for about 8+ years now. we felt an instant connection with this interesting couple, and spent a long evening sharing stories, exchanging ideas, and giving props to God for all that He's doing in that place. jon and kim are a dynamic model of faith engaged in artful obedience. they are living, laughing pictures of God's grace. we were blessed by their generosity and clear vision.

we floated the rivers, walked the streets, shopped the alley markets, scarfed down dim som, smelled the whole spectrum of the city's olfactory options, denied tuk-tuk and custom-tailored suit offers, ate street cart food, haggled ad nauseum for all manner of gifts, watched some traditional thai dance while eating spicy cuttlefish, melted side by side in an upstairs room under the strong hands (and feet and elbows) of thai masseuses, and experienced the hair-cutting equivalent of a kung fu master performing his magic on tracy's hair. each event is a blog of its own; each a story, by necessity, reduced to a caption, to a phrase. such has been the inevitable fate of most of our adventures afoot: vibrant flowers smashed and squeezed and drained into essential oils - good-smelling but only a liquid fraction of the whole beautiful goodness of the event, flower. in a final phrase, bangkok was ultra-sensory, too big to experience in 3 days, and a place we hope to visit again someday, God willing.

what, phuket?

phuket was the last thing in our plans, but when we heard the word "waves" we reconsidered. then, when we found out our new friends were driving there at just the right time for us, we took this as confirmation that our wave-seeking was a righteous calling. we showed up, plopped at the first guesthouse that was cheap enough, and suited up with great confidence. after all, mark lanker would be utterly disappointed if we were to miss our chance to surf here. when we actually began to size up the waves we found ourselves munching at our knuckles so we walked along the beach until we found some flags that assured us we were less likely to die. we bartered for a 2-hour rental for some boards and hit the water. a half hour into it the clouds started rolling in... ahhh, NOW we see why it's called monsoon season. we weren't about to waste our 2 hours huddled under an umbrella. So, now we can say we "surfed" (or more accurately, repeatedly attempted to surf) through a monsoon. AND, the bodily damage was only minor.

steppin' ahead

By the end of our time in krabi and around, we were feeling ready to put our hands to something other than sunscreen and spring rolls, as good as all that is. we were fortunate to have the haydens, friends from VA, connect us with the quinleys. this couple, in conjunction w/ YWAM, started a program called "step ahead" in the wake of the tsunami. so, we headed that direction 4 hours north on 3 different buses and were dropped off at a random 7-11. We sweatily tromped around in our backpacks until we were offered directions from a motorbiking mama who stopped out of pity for us.

a little background: step ahead was created to help train locals english, computers, and general skills for the hospitality industry. the program also created 4 different preschools for displaced families in the area, providing them with an inexpensive opportunity so parents would be free to work. we were able to work and help with the preschool, the only hindrance being a screaming 2 year old on his first day there, deathly afraid of the "farang", adam. his goatee seems to either greatly interest or freak out the locals.

and, contrary to the belief that my in-home counselling days were left behind in hampton roads, i found myself (with colleague adam) doing just that. 2 different families w/ children in the preschool had just experienced traumatic deaths in the family (murder) and we presented, along with our proficient translator yee-wa, to provide brief support, grief counsel, and education. i spent some time with one of the most beautiful, vibrant 3-year-olds i've encountered (short hair, center in the above photo). after a bit of play therapy i couldn't know how how deeply she's been affected by the loss of her mother, but i sensed a strong resiliency in this brimming, singing, bright child of God. Lord, I do pray for her future!

Our last day there we were asked to talk with a woman employee who was in the midst of marital strife. we were so glad that we had an opportunity to use our "trade" to serve in this ministry!

krabi

we left koh tao under gray skies, bouncing arhythmically over nine foot swells for the first couple of hours. the inside of the boat had all the ingredients necessary for full-participation seasickness: the sweet, dizzying smell of diesel fuel from the engine; the seat-sliding heave and ho of riding swells; and the stomach-turning sights and sounds of passengers putting their clear plastic vomit bags to full and good use - fill 'em up, tie 'em off, and set them on the swaying floor so they can slide and slosh around. the stable boat dock was a welcome sight for our whole green boatload.
for the next two legs of our boat journey to krabi we sat cramped but happy on the outside deck with as many as could find space.
krabi was a city surprisingly short on farang (foreigners), but full to brimming of locals living at their normal, easy pace. one highlight of this area was an emerald colored, fresh water pool about seventy kilometers south of krabi, amidst remote farms and villages. we motorbiked there and hiked about three kilometers through the forest to the source of this crystal pool.
the forest was dense and tropical, with heavy air and a thick, green canopy high above the floor. the spring at the end of the trail was like something from the legend of zelda. in the middle of the brown, sludgy pool was a circle of turquoise water with white sand at the bottom about twenty feet in diameter and eight to ten feet deep. in the very center of the turquoise part the white sand bubbled up steadily, allowing the fresh water to flow into the pond from the spring beneath. it felt like a portal into another world. it brought to mind psalm 36:9, "for with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light." God's Spirit is a living spring, bringing energy and life to what would otherwise be stagnant and bitter; supplying a dead pool with a fresh flowing source; filling us to overflowing with life-giving, life-promoting substance. the Spirit of God is the well-spring of life. we marvelled at the wonder of this place, and at the spiritual reality of which this spring was a persuasive metaphor. we worshipped God, the God of wonders.
another of our preferred krabi features was the loud, bustling night markets, where we experimentally dined at every variety of cart, stall, and bucket available - every colored curry, fish, sprouts, noodles, suspicious meats on skewers, in bags, in leaves...spicy sauce with that? chai. a roy mahk! krabi kept us habby for a good few days.

commitment

travel is good. it opens ones eyes to truth displayed in different forms and gives an appreciation for new and old things both. it is non-committal - you can have a profound conversation or experience with someone you will never hear of again. you can pick up and leave when you get bored or uncomfortable. you can stay no longer than necessary in one place to remain unknown. there is a sense of freedom in this, and it is good in it's place.

flipside: this non-committal lifestyle makes our committal nature emerge to reveal our love of marriage - union based heartily on commitment, hardcore; our love of community - commitment to being a part of something larger than oneself and allowing that self to be known in one place, both consuming and producing; and a love of one God who remains good always, and committing to His goodness, period.

there is a sense of risk in this that surpasses any mountain trek, bungee jump, or romance fling. commitment, it turns out, is quite the adventure.

koh tao: singing praises

"Oh Lord, how many are your works! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your possessions. There is the sea, great and broad, in which are swarms without number, animals both small and great... I will sing to the Lord for as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being." Psalm 104:24-25, 33

It's hard for me to literally sing praise to God while 18 metres under aqua-glowing seas - but the innumerable creatures that inhabit these parts have no problem with it. Sapphire-jeweled sea urchins, perfectly-painted fish of mind blowing variety in saturated color, and creamy-purple coral were just a few members of the choir. Scuba diving has been the best apologetics course I've had.

After floating through canyons that above sea would produce a surge of fear/adrenaline, I slowly and weightlessly floated up towards the sun. Images of the Grand Canyon, powerful Yosemite waterfalls, and dozens of flowers we've stopped to smell in these past months come to my mind -- my mind was already overwhelmed with the abundance in just the state of California -- now this?! "Oh Lord, how varied are your works!!" privileged, we are, to experience God through so many of His works of absolute wonder.