Itsara

I try to update at least once a week, but as you all know I’m not always able to. This time it’s because my parents are here visiting us. It’s really good to see them, and to hear about all the changes coming in their lives, and to share with them our lives (including some major changes which I’m sure will find their way to the blog sooner or later… I know you love it when I do that).

It’s really fun for me to see Chiang Mai through fresh eyes again as we take them around to the various markets, tourist attractions, and of course to Im Jai. It’s double-fun because they’re sort of seeing the world for the first time. They recently got off a trip they made to Mexico (the real Mexico, not TJ) in which they felt God strongly calling them to live there, to retire there, to continue their ministry there. So it’s fun watching them go through realizations (or in many cases, merely confirmation of old suspicions) about how America is different from the rest of the world.

We’ve talked about the idea that America may be the only different country, where as before I might have assumed that all countries were like America with a few exceptions. Now that I write it, it sounds like a stupid assumption to make, but I made it. I’d be willing to bet we’ve all made it. We just don’t realize it until we go to another country and say, “Why are they doing things like that?” My parents noticed that many of the differences they saw in Mexico are the same here, which surprised them precisely because of this assumption. Things such as safety being given a lower priority compared to practicality and cost. Or relationships being given a higher priority than schedule or Getting Things Done.

Not all of the differences are bad. America does some good things really well. For example, I think America is one of the few countries where everyone assumes that you are American and that you speak English, regardless of what you look like (in most countries, if you look like I do people assume you are a foreigner and don’t speak the language, and they treat you accordingly). America is very friendly in that sense, unless you don’t speak English of course in which case America could be worse.

Ah, see, no matter how hard I try I can’t get away from seeing the bad things. I’m a born and raised cynic. I’ll drop it. Just wanted to let you know what was going on. And there are some very exciting things on the horizon, not the least of which is that we (everyone at Im Jai) will all be moving to the new site in less than a month. Stay tuned.