Pre-Move Reflections

So the race is on. That is, the race to spend time with as many friends in Chiang Mai as possible before Andrey leaves on Wednesday and I leave a week later. The past few days have been full of breakfast meetings, lunch meetings, coffee meetings, and dinner gatherings, with the rest of the time packed full of activities related to moving. We off-loaded a huge amount of unwanted stuff at a community yard sale yesterday. The movers are scheduled to come on Tuesday to pack up and send our stuff. There's a 'For Sale' sign in the window of our truck.
Needless to say, we're tired. We're tired but we're not slowing down. We're not wasting time. Not while we are here with so many people we love. We are taking advantage of every moment in Chiang Mai, which we also have grown to love and appreciate.
Andrey and I were reflecting on our time here this morning. We remember moving here 2 years and 9 months ago when it was difficult to leave our precious community in Seattle. We remember how difficult it was to start over, to adjust to a new culture in a new place with a new language, not knowing anyone, and not having much to do (outside of Andrey's demanding job). We compare this to our life here now, which is and has been for some time, so full of quality, meaningful friendships; rewarding work (for both of us); and the familiarity with Thai language, culture & food. Chiang Mai has become home. God has blessed us and given us more than we ever expected. Our experience of community here has been a true highlight of our life together so far. The uniqueness of being in a foreign place with others experiencing the same things resulted in deep and meaningful relationships forming more quickly than usual. These friendships have been a surprise to us. Our closest friends here are people we could call on for anything, absolutely anything, and they'd be happy to show up and help without any hesitation. Who just "finds" friendships like that? No one does. You can't just create friendships like these. They either happen or they don't.
For us it is evidence of God's love, provision, and blessing for us. It is his reward for following his leading and stepping into something uncertain and difficult. It is his reward for trusting him.
We don't feel worthy of such wonderful blessings and rewards. Moving to Thailand wasn't as hard as it sounds. Moving here felt right. As we chose to walk into the path that became apparent, God's grace led us. His peace comforted us. He went with us. When it was difficult we were comforted by the knowing that God prepared this for us and had asked us to go. Therefore it would work out.
Never did we expect to learn so much, to be stretched so much, to change so much, and be blessed so much. I would not change this experience for anything.
Soon we will move into the next adventure. We are again sad to be leaving a community we love. We once again wonder what kind of work I will get to do. We wonder if we will find meaningul, life-giving friendships. We wonder if we'll find a good church community. We wonder if we'll be able to connect with the local culture and assimilate into it in some way even though we will always stick out at least physically.
And then we remember how Chiang Mai has become home; how I found incredibly rewarding work to do that matched my skills and gifts perfectly; how we became part of a community here and enjoyed truly life-giving (& fun!) relationships with some of the most amazing people; and how God has blessed us richly - more than we ever imagined.