This one ensures no dull moments

Tree houses are better for quarantine

Happy Earth Day!  We planted fruit trees in our yard.

Greetings from Thailand!

I cannot remember any event in my lifetime that has had such a complete, global impact. 
Usually, we feel like we live in two separate worlds, our American world and then our Thai world.

They are often so different, and so distant, it often seems like they exist independently of each other.
But suddenly those two worlds have come crashing together.

Like so many of you, we are reading all sorts of news, shocked the rising number of sick people and the strangely quiet streets.

We also have terrible air pollution this time of year, so our two kids are going slightly crazy being confined to the house for so long.  (Their parents aren't doing much better).

But so far our children and staff at Faithful Heart, and my family are all healthy and doing well.

We decided to close our office two weeks ago, when the government asked that all nonessential businesses close.  Our staff has been working from home as much as possible.

We have also started partnering with local churches and community members to provide food to families struggling from losing their employment.
 (If you would like to help, just ask and I can direct you where to give).

Ezra watches Mo Willems on youtube and did his best drawing to date

Evening walks help us keep our sanity

Our sweet Swedish friends finalized their adoption of this beautiful little girl!

As this virus spread all over the world, all I keep thinking is how much we are all the same. 

A pandemic has that unique ability to reveal the smallness of our differences, and the largeness of what we have in common. 

I was talking to a woman today at our local market, and I asked her how she was doing.  She told me everything was so strange, everyone was so afraid.  She didn't know what to do, but she had to work to feed her family. 

I decided to double my order and dropped food off at our foster family's home down the road. 

What this woman was feeling, was exactly what I was feeling.  It was exactly what our relatives and friends in America were feeling. 

It is important for us to see how we are similar, so we can empathize with each other, even when we don't understand each other. 

There is a together-ness that comes from times like this, and it is a gift. 

Don't mind these moments at all

We have a new family member, meet Rubble the guinea pig

I saw this online and tried it with the kids, simulated Disney roller coaster---the kids hated it,

Two things have strengthened my hope during these strange days. 
The first, is seeing that humanity is a glorious, wonderful thing. 

Yes, we do terrible things to each other.
Yes, we are erratic and irresponsible at times. 

Still, we all are the crowning achievement of the greatest Creator of all time. 

I stand in awe before the Rocky Mountains, but I also stand in awe of the woman in a headscarf cooking me food in the Borsang market. 

Both were made by God and both have something about God to reveal to me.  

The earth is my home, and humans are my family. 
Our together-ness is a wonderful gift.

Audrey had a birthday!

I was very proud that I was able to get a DQ ice cream cake!

She loves the water!

The second thing that has strengthened my hope is our separate-ness. 

America was sometimes referred to as a melting pot. 
But I think there is a better analogy. 
America is more like a painting than a melting pot. 

When you mix all the colors together, you get an ugly brown blob.
When you allow the colors to mix and mingle, and yet remain distinct, you have beauty and art. 

I have been thinking about a quote from Blaise Pascal:

“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

Zat Rana explains:

" According to Pascal, we fear the silence of existence, we dread boredom and instead choose aimless distraction, and we can’t help but run from the problems of our emotions into the false comforts of the mind.  The issue at the root, essentially, is that we never learn the art of solitude."

There is a glory in our tgoether-ness, but there is also a glory in our separate-ness. 
We need each other, and we need to learn to be alone. 

Precisely because we will be unable to love each other well, so long as we are incapable of being alone. 
(We all know someone who uses others to meet their own emotional needs). 

Right now, we all have a first class opportunity to learn the art of solitude--the ability to sit quietly in a room alone and be content. 

Some friends got a guinea pig too

Easter eggs!

Audrey's birthday request was an outdoor shower,  I have to admit, we use it a lot and love it!

Imagine getting into your car, and driving rapidly but not knowing where you are going or why.

Imagine getting building materials and tools and learning the skills to use them, and then working hard all day to build, but not knowing what it is you are building. 

Imagine campaigning and advertising and speaking to large groups for a cause, but you don't know what it is. 

This is how most of us live our lives most of the time. 
All our fervent activity becomes a distraction. 
And then the distraction becomes the central focus. 

When this happens, we are 'getting by' or 'getting through,' but what we are not doing is embracing life. 

Life becomes something we endure, not embrace and enjoy.  

There is together-ness, but no separateness.  And we need both. 

Covid-19 gives us the opportunity to look hard at our lives.  To ask why, and where, and what for. 

It is an opportunity to grow closer to each other, and learn to be alone---and perhaps as we do that, we will come to heal some of our many, human problems. 

The healing of the world will only come through the healing of individuals.  

I finally finished making a bed for my friend who got married.  Now for stain and lacquer!

Social distancing is nice

Just an adorable little girl collecting Easter eggs.

I will leave you with some words from Jesus, knew the art of solitude and the art of loving others:

“You have heard it said, ‘Love your neighbor' [people like you] and hate your enemy [people who are not like you].  But I say, love your enemies! [the people who hate you] Pray for those who hurt you!  In that way, you will be acting as true children of God your Father.  For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.  If you love only those who love you, what good is that?.. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else?" 


(Matthew 5:43-47)

May we be different, may we be the healing of the world, together. 
May God give you peace and hope for these days, and the days ahead. 

Lots of love from Thailand,

Matt, Audrey, Ezra, and little Squishy (Sienna)