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We are a family of New Zealanders based in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Kevin manages the development of multi-media materials for an organisation established to expand the Kingdom of God, utilising business as a platform for sharing the Gospel.
Due to our working in some sensitive areas we are unable to publish some details of our ministry.
Please do not reproduce any of this newsletter without our permission. Thanks. |
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| Tweety Men |
I remember well, with a smile and a grimace, backing my car out of my parents' property. Why? Well you may ask…
My father would ALWAYS be standing behind me, directing me, wordlessly – yet with something about him, something about his mere presence, causing me to be nervous, causing me to drive stupidly!
Then, we arrive in Thailand , land of smiles – AND land of men in uniforms with whistles standing behind your car – doing what? Oh yes… directing you out of the car park. These guys not only stand there wordlessly directing you – they tweet at you the whole time as well!
The years of fearing crashing into something my dad valued tied my stomach into knots as these ‘tweety men' stood behind my car and tweeted their whistles at me while frantically waving their hands at me in a way I thought I would NEVER understand.
BUT – after visiting a friend each week for a year I am now free. Free? Yes! Free to obey, free to relax while being ‘directed', free to park anywhere. (No more driving around town looking for an ‘easy' park!) By carefully paying attention to these guys (who would NOT go away and leave me ‘to it') I can now park confidently. They really know what they are doing – it's their job – all I had to do was trust them… just like I really only ever needed to trust my dad. |
| A Small Blessing |
Down near a town called Mae Sot, on the border with Myanmar, there’s a refugee camp with close to one hundred thousand Karen who have fled their homeland. The people are there because their homes and farms have been burned by the army in Myanmar, who have very harsh policies towards some of the minority hill tribe peoples.
Friends of ours visit there from time to time as their ministry involves helping improve these people’s lives. They help with housing and water projects, new farming initiatives (to help build businesses to bring money into the camp) and with general health needs.
On a recent visit our friends met a lady who wanted her photograph taken. She explained it was to send to her husband who had been framed in a drug case and wrongfully imprisoned. Unfortunately the photograph was in need of some doctoring to enhance it and improve the image quality. My friend had been attempting to do this when I suggested he send it to me as I could do it for him more easily.
The lady was thrilled to receive the prints and looked quizzically at the images for some time. It turns out she had never seen a photograph of herself before and was most puzzled at the background I had added.
As our life here continues we are finding more and more ways to bless those that are less fortunate than us. I would love to be in a position to help free this poor lady’s husband, but I am not. However, I’m sure he will find comfort having a photograph of his wife close by him. And we can continue to pray for God to move and set him free. |
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