I can’t possibly express to you what amazing evangelists our children are. They are completely disarming to the roughest of characters. I can approach people I would naturally be afraid of and pull the cover off of our baby’s face as he peacefully sleeps in his front pack and invariably watch hardened faces warm and smile and want to talk. It’s truly amazing how God has spoken and ordained our kids for this work – to them it is just play, and our home. As a family it is true that our work time is less “efficient” than it was before we had little people – it’s hard to get anything administrative (like keeping our inbox from exploding, staying on top of our finances, and for that matter writing newsletters) ever done, and team meetings and prayer time are often quite a bit noisier than is ideal. That said, in our stated most important of ministry goals – loving God and loving neighbor – our children’s presence truly serves to make us so much more effective than we could ever be without them.

As we cross this five-year anniversary of being here in Thailand we think back to nearly three years ago when God first so clearly spoke to us about wanting to give us children. Our initial oh-so-wise response to God was, “No, you don’t understand – You called us here to start a ministry. We can’t do that with kids. It just wouldn’t work.” Now I can look back and see how the presence of our children has solidified our role in the community and though God has redirected our focus some since we initially came, this current vision of loving “the least of these” here in our neighborhood is such a perfect pairing with our strengths and gifts as a family. Our children are just as called to this ministry as we are and any sort of an “inheritance” we may receive in heaven will be theirs as well.

So now that we have TWO adorable little people in our family, we have double the fun to share in photos! Here’s Sept, Oct and Nov picture albums:

2011-09 Two Kids!!!

2011-10 Two Kids!!

2011-11 Two Kids!!

Before we had kids we would spend usually two nights a week out on “the loop”, the name we have given to the 2-block figure-eight area that free-lancing young men wait for customers late at night. Since Izayla was born close to two years ago God has shifted our focus from the men specifically to our local neighborhood as a community, which of course includes the young men involved in prostitution but also women and our homeless neighbors. As time has gone by our daughter has needed more of a schedule and bedtime routine and now with two kids it is incredibly difficult for us to take any “late night shifts” like we used to on a regular basis. Going out to work at 10 pm with little people that are usually heading to bed by 8 o’clock just doesn’t work out so well. All of that to say, our late-night work life has been mostly in hibernation for the past year. Sometimes we feel troubled by this and at the same time we know it is a reality we have to face and limitations we need to be willing to work with. We have confidence that those streets and the men that are out on them late at night are part of our calling and inheritance here, but during this season we need to focus our energies mostly on other parts of our community. That said, I have a strong impression from the Lord that any little bit of time that we are able to squeeze in some time on the Loop is a sweet offering to the Lord and in a funny way our personal parents-of-young-children widow’s mite.

Last week one of our teammates was able to come over and sit with Izayla after she was asleep, giving us an opportunity to take Elian out in a front pack (he’s still entirely portable and for that matter never knew he left his bed or was out at all, wonderful sleeper that he is…sometimes…) for his first Loop outreach shift.

We started out on the circle and both felt very quiet and at peace. It was one of those evenings where we could really feel God’s presence with us. I love late night outreach – we both really do. No one is out on the streets except us, men waiting for customers, and the occasional teenage gangsters on motorcycles looking to make trouble. The view really is stunning, circumnavigating the Grand Palace.

There were lots of guys out on the first section, but nobody seemed interested in engaging, which was just fine with us, we’ve learned by now that it isn’t about how many conversations you have but about having the right conversations at the right times. Walking along, quietly praying and humming a worship song we were startled to hear a clear voice call from the shadows in English, “Hey, where have you guys been?”

It was a young man we first met probably almost three years ago and immediately recognized. But his shout out to us was completely bizarre for several reasons. First of all it was in English – virtually all of our conversations on the streets are in Thai and we don’t remember this man ever revealing he was fluent in and comfortable with English. Even more bizarre, though, was his apparent complete shift in posture towards us.

A little history – the first time we talked with this man he was somewhat forthcoming, sharing that he was a college student at a nearby university and a little about his life. After that we saw him most nights we were out, over the course of the last 3 years, and pretty much every night he was completely cold and closed with us – would nod his head, but wouldn’t even return our greetings. I think we kind of weirded him out, and the truth is we are pretty weird. I can say with confidence that we are still the only foreign couple who walk these streets late at night, talking and praying with young men who are “working”.

Anyhow, we greeted him joyfully, introduced Elian (who was strapped to Iven’s chest), and caught up on each of our lives a bit. After a few minutes of friendly conversation he motioned to a waiting car and explained he had a customer. As he was turning to leave, Iven called out, “Hey, before you go, I want to tell you that the God who made the world made you and He loves you so much and is so delighted with you no matter what.” He paused and considered that. “Really?” “Yes, its true.” The man thanked us and got into the waiting car with some other guys.

Iven and I sat there quietly and then Iven explained to me that as we were heading out that night God had really put that particular guy on his heart and he had been praying for him all evening. Before we saw him God had given Iven that particular phrase to pass on to him. It was a beautiful moment, and we both felt Jesus so near to us on that street that night, and in the conversation and prayers. It is such a privilege to be part of His body here on these streets.

Everyone knows us (especially our daughter Izayla Talae) and is watching us…and we have many roles, we are known as the foreigners who live on the third floor above the Isaan food shop, as the parents of “little sister” Talae, as people who pray and seek to do good deeds among our neighbors, and as friends of crazy people.

That last one is probably our favorite role in the community. Very often we will be engaged in conversation with one of our neighbors – usually homeless and also often looking for customers, sometimes physically or mentally disabled, or both, and someone we don’t really know will approach us and try to get in between us and the woman or man we are talking with to whisper in broken English, “She’s crazy. You shouldn’t talk with her.” We invariably respond politely, “Yes, she is our friend. We have known her a long time”, at which point they look at us like we ourselves are crazy and walk away shaking their head.

Izayla with some deaf friends from the streets!

Just this morning I (Kashmira) was out with the kids chatting with a man who was not from the neighborhood who was asking about our children while Izayla was calling “mama! Mama!” and pulling on me to come join her to say hello to a homeless man with a head injury whom we have known for years. The “normal” man she was talking with tried to helpfully explain that that man was a beggar and I said, “yes, he’s our friend. She wants to go say hello to him.” He repeated that the man was a beggar and looked confused by my response, all while Izayla pulled me to the side of our homeless friend, proceeded to offer him a piece of treasured ice from her cup and sat down next to him on the street.

Meanwhile another older homeless man who we don’t know asked permission to take a picture of Izayla and pulled out an old style (haven’t seen one of these in years) regular film camera, pulled her onto his lap and the two of them gave big broad smiles to my  “click” of the camera.

We are delighted to announce the birth of our son, Elian Sila, born Wednesday night, August 24, 2011 at 11:12 PM.

Labor and birth were uneventful in the best of ways – 7 hours long, delivered naturally and drug-free in a birthing pool. In between contractions Kashmira even heard herself saying, “I’m having fun”, which is just plain weird, but we are grateful. Arriving 10 days past his due date, our little guy was 3.42 kilos / 7.5 lbs and 51 cm / 20 in. (His big sister was 9 days late and 3.4 kilos).

A few weeks before discovering that we were pregnant Kashmira woke up in the middle of the night with the name Elian (เอลเลียน– eh-lee-an) in her head, wondering, “Could I be pregnant with a little boy?”  Elian is a Hebrew name, meaning “the Lord is my God.” Sila (ศิลา-sea-laa) is a Thai name, meaning “Rock”.

A great big thank you goes out to our team mates Pat and Sam Sarvis for giving Izayla the time of her life while mom and dad were busy at the hospital – she had so much fun, didn’t really want to come home!

We’re having a great time getting to know our newest little family member, and watching a whole new side of Izayla emerge as she explores what it means to be a big sister. She is especially excited to tell us that he has eyes, to softly pet his head like a dog, and each time she wakes up from a nap she eagerly asks for “momma, daddy and baby” so we’re guessing that she’s realized he’s a part of the family already!

Thank you so much for your friendship, prayers and support on this most delightful journey!

All grace and peace,
Iven, Kashmira, Izayla and Elian

“…Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” –Matthew 25:40

“Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.’” –Matthew 19:14

I’ve been finding myself drawn towards and praying for the disabled people in our community more and more lately. We just returned from six weeks in America a few days ago and have been venturing out, as our jet lag allows, reconnecting with people we know and missed.

On our first full afternoon back the three of us went out to a particularly seedy little street in our neighborhood where we have several friends. I saw a woman we know, “Jack”, who is a few years younger than me and is disabled – unable to speak and with compromised motor functions. She lives on that corner with her mom in a makeshift “squat” (temporary tiny street home) on the sidewalk. I have seen her mother yelling at her abusively and am pretty certain she is being “rented out” by her mom as well. I walked through the small group of hustling women clustered nearby her to say hello and greet her by name, which brought forth one of her beautiful smiles. Immediately a woman I don’t know stepped in front of me very distressed and tried to explain in English that this girl can’t speak and doesn’t understand and essentially that I shouldn’t waste my time. I responded in Thai that we are friends and I have known her for a long time now. Before I could return my attention to Jack, a drunk Thai man standing there broke in, also in halting English, to proposition me, pointing towards the slum/brothel we were standing in front of. Keep in mind I was holding my toddler, have a very visibly pregnant belly and my husband was standing behind me. I politely declined and went back to trying to communicate with Jack, which was pretty impossible at this point. The man turned to Iven to ask him if he was interested in any of the ladies there. As we walked away we both were feeling absolutely gross; Iven summed up the essence of our sadness, “We were trying to say hello to our friend Jack, and we were essentially told that she wasn’t even human and that hurts, as it should.”

Yesterday afternoon Izayla and I were out together and bumped in to a man I would like to say we know well, given his limitations. It is true I don’t know his name and he doesn’t know ours, but we are friends. He is deaf and fairly severely physically disabled, rendering his limbs and face contorted enough that though he is able to walk with a severe limp, it is impossible to ignore his deformities and no one would ever describe him as a classically “attractive” person. He saw us walking up and rushed over with a giant smile on his grossly twisted face. I am unable to communicate to him why it has been so long since he saw us or where we went, but we do as best we can with smiles and rudimentary hand gestures. He is our friend, we are his, and he knows it.

I pray for these friends often, and I woke up early this morning with Jack heavy on my heart. Neighbors like these have so little value or identity ascribed to them – so little hope of life becoming better. I know that many disabled people in the States experience similar stigmatization and prejudice, but I think it is all the much more so here on our streets, in this Buddhist context where people believe you very much deserve whatever difficulties you were dealt.

It has been a number of years since I have read anything by Henri Nouwen, but I was reflecting this morning on his depth of insight into the Kingdom of God, and intimacy with Jesus. He spent years of his life living in community with disabled adults. I expect there were probably critics who said he was wasting his brilliant theological mind and gifts of communication by spending so much of his time with disabled people who had such limited abilities in the traditional sense. I know God didn’t see it that way.

What does hope look for for these neighbors of ours? For the dozens of homeless deaf people in our community, so many of whom were thrown out by their parents and never received an education or even learned sign language? Though theoretically disabled people in Thailand are entitled to truly free medical care and a meager-but-something $15 a month to live on, so many of them were never registered at birth (thus not being able to prove they are Thai citizens) or have their registrations in some other province and are unable to receive any benefits.

It is pretty hopeless in the worldly sense. We believe God can and may very well choose to heal our neighbors from physical and mental disabilities, and we continuously pray that He does so. Even withstanding that, though, I do think that Scripture tells us clearly that there are special gifts given to those who are thrown away by their communities. Jesus speaks boldly about his identifying personally with people who have no worldly value. Their physical lives are so much more painful and sorrowful than was God’s original desire and intention when He created them, but I think they are privy to an intimacy and sweetness with Jesus that you and I “normal” people will never know. I see the twisted but unquenchable smile of the man we greeted yesterday and I wonder what love letters Jesus has read to him in his dreams. I greet Jack on the street as she is surrounded by other women available for “sale”, am disgusted by the fact that she truly has no ability to get out of that situation, and I know that Jesus is so very near to her in that place of pain and deep injustice. I trust our good God to be faithful in their lives even more than in my own family, but I don’t know that any of us will ever be able to see that on this side of heaven.

We just returned from a lovely six weeks in America. Thanks to our little Izayla we ended up having a much slower pace this time around than we often have experienced on previous visits. Time with family, friends, churches and supporters was delightful and never long enough. A first for us was that both Iven and Kashmira made the time to sneak away on personal retreats while there, time that was truly well spent. A big thank you to everyone who hosted us, prayed for us, fed us, turned up for events, or simply loves us – it was a joy reconnecting with so many of you. Click on the below slide-show to see some pictures from our trip Stateside:

From America 2011

Disclaimer: We usually aren’t a big fan of doing things with short-term teams… we prefer long-term relationship based ministry which is pretty much impossible to do with a group of foreigners who don’t speak Thai that are only dropping in for a day or two…  Ok, so that’s our disclaimer.

A few months ago we were contacted by Yonnie from Iris Ministries (birthed out of Heidi and Rolland Baker’s work in Mozambique) about working with a short-term team Iris was bringing to Thailand to work with a number of different ministries, and maybe could they work with us to host a block party in our neighborhood? Iris has a reputation for seeing God show up in very tangible ways as they pray for people to be healed, and we thought it sounded like a pretty neat opportunity.

So, we started asking our neighbors about how to throw a block party here and got hooked up with the Grandfather (Godfather?) of Sanam Luang – a delightful, shady, imp of a man who told us exactly what we needed to do, how much we should pay him to make the food happen, and how many people would actually be interested in God if we threw a party (he said 10% – which it turns out is pretty accurate!)

So… After paying Grandfather for his time and effort and the food (unknowingly he asked for exactly what Iris decided to give), and changing the location, menu, and program from our initial plans (learn to listen to your neighbors Iven and Kashmira!)  approximately 300 people came to our “Block Party” this past Saturday (thanks in part to Grandfather’s deciding to print up his own flyers inviting people to the party). We ran out of food but the 250+ who got to eat said it was delicious. The Iris Ministries team shared some great dramas and led games, Baan Jai Diaow Ministry helped pass out invitations in the neighborhood and were treasured extra hands during the event, and and our wonderful friend P’ Noi brought an inspiring message about The Great Banquet (very appropriate in this context, considering that many of the neighbors who came to the party are homeless people who were gathered around eating together).  Lots of people experienced some physical healing through prayer ministry, and several made professions of faith. About 250 small gifts and invitations to the Monday night gathering were handed out and all around it was a fun time for everyone that participated.

Thank you Yonnie and Iris – we’re so glad we decided to say yes to your team! Y’all rock! And yes, our neighbors did feel loved by you guys, even if you were only here for a little while! Thank you P’ Boy and BJD – couldn’t have done it without you! Thank you P’ Noi – you are amazing! Thank you Grandfather – you throw a great party!

Check out our friend Nok’s write-up on the event, and especially some of his stellar photos.

And perhaps even more exciting… On the following Monday, a core group of about 15 people with another 15 stragglers joined us in one of the only grassy corners of our neighborhood to sit on mats, play a game, hear about God’s Father heart of love for us all, and pray for each other. It was a very sweet and special time and we are hopeful that though it may take on many incarnations yet that this is the beginning of our local church here within our community. In the picture below Sam is sharing with the group:

So, disclaimers aside, we had a heck of a block party – a great time with a short-term team – and new and exciting things are happening in our neighborhood!

Hi Friends,

More pictures of our darling daughter…

See our Block Party Post for More Info… These are just a couple of other little stories that don’t quiet fit elsewhere…

Food: At first we were thinking about something small, maybe 50 people, then we talked to Iris and they said they imagined something a little larger, then we talked to the Grandfather of Sanam Luang (a community elder who seems to have his hands in everything – especially parties!) and he said we needed to prepare for 250 – a feast, chicken drumsticks, special eggs, stir-fried pork, rice, water – no problem – mats, a sound-system, games, location – no problem, he’d take care of it!  All we needed to do was get him the cash and a sign, saying that the Christians and the people of the neighborhood were throwing a party together and he’d ensure a success! (In the 30 minutes we sat with him talking details, no less than 20 people stopped by to give him gifts and say hello). When we later asked our landlord about him she said, “Ohh… your working with the Gangster… you will have a very good party!”

Invitations: Grandfather told us to make a sign, and invitations would be good too. He said we needed to write that “Rak Teh in partnership with the people of Sanam Luang (the neighborhood) are throwing a party for fun and unity. It will have games, food, prizes and a gift for free.” So the day before the party, together with the Iris team, we put together 250 hand-made invitations. Ribbons and roses went to the women who were working on our streets, more manly cards for the men who are homeless.

While handing out invitations one working woman in her 40s whom we had just met asked Kashmira incredulously, “Can someone like me who has a job like this really be welcome?” It was a beautiful opportunity to respond wholeheartedly, “Yes, of course, this party is for you. We are Christians and we know that Jesus has a special invitation and love for people who have hard lives like yours and who other people look down on.” She said she’d come, and even though we didn’t’ see her at the party the next day it was clear that she was struck by our response – so different than what she had experienced before.

Later that day Iven got a call from our local Grandfather – he’d printed up another 200 flyers and was handing them out – he wanted our party to be a success!

Games: Grandfather also told us we needed to have some good old fashioned Thai games – like musical chairs and balloon stomping. And we needed prizes. Like money! When it actually came time to party he led us in a rousing good time of game playing and yes, made us give away prizes too. Our team provided some really cool Thai Christian Issan Worship music that is in the style of upcountry party music, that said, “Come, come on lets dance, sing and praise” but the Grandfather’s helpers kept changing it out for Thai pop… it was pretty funny actually. The balloon popping game was a kick, and it was all together a good time!