6 Months In~

Hi dear friends and family,

First we would like to apologize and appreciate your grace with our delay in our monthly update. <3 That is honestly on me because it is definitely my turn and I kept on putting it off to be honest. Anywho, I will try to be more consistent. It’s hard when I have so much to catch y’all up on, and sometimes getting started is the most daunting part, but I can already tell it is going to be super fun to write this update and share all the things. 

Praise God we have been here in Thailand for six months already! Gosh that FLEW by and also it feels so slow because I think in many ways we are becoming different people (for better haha). God has been so kind and gracious and has kept us in the palm of his hand the whole time. Though there are certainly difficulties in moving to a new country where you have no friends and don’t speak the language and start work in an industry you really do not know (lol), it is so so evident that God has called us here. I am currently writing this from my rooftop watching the sunset next to a pomelo tree and there is a really strong breeze which is making the humidity bearable and even quite pleasant. :) Even right now, I just feel so much contentment in our call to be here. Here are a few updates and ways we are growing and experiencing deep peace: 

1. Alek and I feel like our marriage is on some sort of fast track incubator where we are just really learning how to be united, be one, and love each other as we serve others. It is truly the coolest season to learn some of these important forever lessons about family and marriage. We have been super duper blessed that our marriage pastor from Reality has been blessing us by spending time counseling us recently and walking with us and teaching us as we learn to stand by each other as we go through a different season in our marriage, and having people walk with us, even from home, so many thousands of miles away, has just helped us to feel so confident that God is truly with us and for us. This one verse has been a verse that has stood out for me in the Word ever since I was a teenager. It is actually one of the first ways that God spoke to me. He gave it to me through like four different people and means in one week when I was 15. Insane. Romans 8:31. If our God is for us, who can be against us. Recently, this verse has come up a good bit again, and I am reminded that God is faithful, and if he is for us, then no one can stop us. So, as we fight this good fight in this new city, we are learning to love God, love each other, and love our neighbors, here and back home. Which brings me to my next update…

2. In this season, our neighbor has meant so many different things, our neighbors at work being one for sure, and our neighboring countries especially is a huge part of our call right now — Cambodian and Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand alongside Thai workers are those we are called to love and serve as we pursue justice for them alongside our coworkers. Alek and I are so grateful that we are not just pushing paper but are actually able to serve IJM in really wonderful and interesting ways. Just this last week felt like a culmination of our time here. For starters, Alek has been helping our team on a really interesting and incredible intervention where we are partnering with the department of employment to establish and support their ‘safe reporting channel’ where migrant workers can call in and report problems - anything from minor documentation issues to major forced labor and labor trafficking cases. Alek has been supporting IJM’s work in ensuring we support this project, inform migrant workers of this channel (many don’t know their rights at all so there is that gap IJM is helping out on too), capture data, and improve the process. He co-hosted a workshop this week on human centered design where he helped our team to assess the progress of the project and determine how we should improve our activities to ensure a successful implementation. I had the privilege of sitting in on his workshop and watching him present to our whole office. It is insane that he has only been here for six months and is able to serve and help lead these huge projects. I felt so proud of him and I know he is blessing the team with his incredible capacity and work ethic. Just later this last week, I also ran point on a really special event where I helped to facilitate a journalist engagement workshop for our team with Thai journalists. This was IJM Thailand’s first journalist engagement event, and I am so proud to say it went well. We had almost 20 journalists join us, and we had engaging group activities, call to actions for them, and such good educational content; our team members are just really the most impressive people and led an incredible session - so compelling, relatable, interesting, and I could tell that the session went really well. Praise the Lord. This is was hosted with the hopes that Thai journalists, with their powerful voices and influence, raise awareness alongside us for the issues that matter most. We also both got to join the IJM team at the 3rd Annual Modern Slavery Conference - very exciting! It was a yearly meetup of Asia Pacific governments, NGOs, and survivors- some of the top leadership in Thailand was there. IJM Thailand country director Andrew Wasuwongse shared, and IJM also shared some survivor stories- it was encouraging to see IJMs work building trust with the Thai government coming to fruition, giving us the platform to share our mission with the country’s Deputy Attorney General and Human Trafficking Police General in attendance.  So, I guess that’s just a wee bit on how we are growing in our workplace and feeling super content with our call. It’s especially sweet on weeks like these.

3. We are also learning to trust God in every step of the journey. We went on another visa run in February and were able to spend time with my family (the best time!!!) but we got stuck in Japan (I know, boohoo lol) which forced us to just really trust God’s call and timing on whether we would be let back into Thailand. Ultimately, we only were delayed a few days, but it just brought us to trust God because we certainly had no control over the embassy’s decisions on our visa approval. I will put some Japan pics below because it was so beautiful, so yum, and refreshingly freezing. Hilarious though, we really really do not have the right clothes for Japan, so after my parents left, we were stubborn and didnt think we needed to buy any clothes, so were just low key cold for a full week haha. 

4. I have joined the prayer team at my church which has been AWESOME :) <3 so life giving and growing for me and a bit scary actually but it is just amazing how when I put myself in spaces where I want to grow, I tend to meet people that just really inspire me. I also joined a Bible study on friendship because of a girl I met during an opportunity I had to pray over her, and that first of all is just so epic how I ended up there, and it truly is a beautiful study - really the thing I just didnt know I needed. To learn what friendship is and how to be a good friend to others. UM SO COOL. Alek has been a part of the business ministry which is so perfect for him, and he is just still really leaning into his teaching gift and every time he shares a devotional during IJM prayer time, it is a blessing because it is so natural for him to share so beautifully. He is especially so passionate about sharing on contemplative prayer, and I just really love how he leads our coworkers through it because it really is such a beautiful thing for him to be passionate about. Really, we are just growing a lot in our faith and are being surrounded by people that are really inspiring us. 

5. Alek’s hip injury is still no bueno, with slow improvement. We are learning a lot and it has been hard to deal with from all the way over here. Continued prayers are appreciated for his healing please.

6. Alek has been learning how to cook southeast asian food a lot and it is so epic. Right now he is downstairs cooking larb and I have no doubt it is going to be delish. Bay Area peeps, look out, when we come home, Alek will cook a feast (I will clean lol).

There’s so much more, but that is a pretty solid update I think. We really do miss home, miss our nephew even though we haven’t met him yet, and can’t wait to hug and kiss you all sometime soon. God bless and keep us in your prayers!

A few praise reports — We have received some pretty positive case updates, praise the Lord, one of our coworkers who was battling cancer has had a really successful surgery, and our team at work is just generally doing such amazing amazing work. It is so epic to be surrounded by such beautiful people who are using their professional skills every day to serve so comprehensively - with all their mind, heart, body, and spirit.