JUNE 2015
H O W T O P R AY • Pray for time time back at home. I would like to refocus on why I chose to go to Thailand, spend quality time with my family, have healthy and restful rhythms, and prepare to rejoin my team in Bangkok in January, 2016. • Pray for my church in Bangkok and my previous mentees as they continue to minister to Potong, my community, during the time that I am in the States. • Pray for my season of transition and transplantation. It takes a significant amount of time and energy to root yourself in a new place. In addition, pray that my roots will more importantly be fixed on the only sure foundation, God.
Hi Family and Friends, Aloha from Hawai’i! I have been back home for about a month and a half, and I am so grateful for it! After my first two years in Bangkok, Thailand, I have a scheduled five months back in the United States with friends and family. During this time, I am reconnecting, resting, and reflecting on my first few years abroad. I have plans to return to Bangkok a few days into the New Year. As a part of my reflection season, I got to retreat with a family up in Tacoma, Washington. God blessed me hugely during this time, and I am excited to share with you some of my reflections while weeding on a farm! I’ve had some good time to meet up with friends, and I’ve cooked a lot of Thai food! Before I left Bangkok, my Thai mom taught me how to cook a few dishes, and it was fun seeing how much spice my friends and family could handle. But as I’ve thought about how I want to use these few months before going back to Bangkok, I really want to be grounded and centered. I want to refocus on why I do what I do in Thailand. That is, I want to fall more and more in love with the God who so loves us. I want to have good rhythms, live healthily, and rest well. I want to soak up every moment with my family and my two adorable nieces. And I want to prepare myself to rejoin my team in Thailand well. So I would appreciate your prayers over these few months I have left at home. Pray that it would be full of joy, rest, and my ability to see the beauty of God. I pray the same for you in whatever season you find yourself! In His arms,
It had been a while since I had last worked with soil like this. I looked down at my fingernails, and the dirt lodged there felt foreign and nostalgic at the same time. It was a warm midsummer day in Tacoma, and I was weeding through a squash patch. I had been back in the States for but a few weeks, and I was visiting a family on staff with Servant Partners that opened their house to help me process my first two years in Thailand. That day, I found myself in silent retreat on a nearby farm. It’s always amazing what time, space, and silence can do for you. Transitions can be so full of busyness, anticipation, and even anxiety, and I was feeling them all. But as I slowly weeded that plot, I found myself weeding out some of those burdens as well. I began to be a little more present. I began to be a little more at peace.
That afternoon, the owner of the farm asked if I wanted to plant a tree for him. He had a few apple saplings waiting to be put into the ground, and he had already picked out a spot. Amused, I agreed. I began to clear the spot he pointed out. Then I dug a good sized hole and got the sapling ready for it’s big move. I covered the rootball with soil and proceeded to soak it with water. But I knew it was far from over. That little tree’s transition had only just begun. Soon it would undergo transplant shock; it would lose some leaves, and it would need to put extra energy into recovering damaged roots and putting down new ones. At some point, it might even need a trim back so that it can focus it’s energy on regrowing it’s roots. As I thought about all these things I had learned about trees in college, I heard a little voice say, “Pray for it.” God was asking me to pray for this little tree. So I did. I prayed that this tree would take root, that it would thrive. I prayed that it would know that it has a good gardener who would take care of it. Even though it would undergo shock, and it would be at least a few years before it put out any good fruit, I prayed that it would be patient. And then I realized, God was having me pray for myself.
These first two years in Thailand were, yes, full of joys. But they were also challenging as heck. They were full of unexpected changes, cross cultural miscommunications, language frustrations, confused direction, and—at times— loneliness. But during that little farm retreat, I thought back on the promise that God had given me long before I made the big move to Thailand, an invitation to take root and flourish. But just like any young tree transplant, I would first endure shock in my new environment. But trees were not made for pots but were made to thrive in a bed of deep earth. I too, needed to focus my energy on putting down deep roots. But during these past two years, that invitation to take root and flourish became clearer. I have come to see that God was not necessarily calling me to put down roots in Thailand per se, nor in this particular team, or in a certain geographical place. All the transitions and changes I’ve experienced these past two years have made it very clear that temporal things and relationships can’t be our bed of soil, our foundation. In stead, God was calling me to put down deep roots in the firm foundation that is himself. In Jeremiah 17:7-8, God beautifully reveals to his people: But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit. It is that trust in the Lord and our confidence in him that leads to stability and abundant life. But in the same vein as this metaphor, it can take a significant amount of time to grow into this type of tree, rooted in God. I am grateful for these past two years, the obvious uprooting that I’ve experienced, and the way that it has brought me to see that God is indeed our one firm foundation. As we go through various transitions and the accompanying shock, may we be patient with ourselves, and may we find security and stability in the One who never changes and never fails.
POTONG: A CHANGING COMMUNITY Over the past two years, I had the opportunity to partner with two of my teammates, Suzy and Kaew, and with the community council of Potong to work on a few community development projects. Specifically, the community wanted to have a community center and a local fire fighting system. We helped connect the council to additional partners to make their plans financially possible. But beyond the logistics of these projects, our team aimed at developing people: the council members themselves. We talked about topics like teamwork, communication, and financial accountability. As a final element to our partnership over the past two years, I set out to interview three of our council members about the story of how the community grew over the past two years. I invite you down the streets of Potong to hear the story of this community from it’s founding residents and how God used this partnership to renew its leaders’ sense of hope. Link: https://vimeo.com/141104121 Password: Thailand
COOKING WITH BA SU During my time living in Potong, one family took me in as their own. They fed me quite regularly, took me on trips back to their home in the country, and even taught me a few things. Ba Su, my Thai mother, is a master chef. She cooks several kinds of curry every morning and sells them to neighbors out of her street-side convenience store/kitchen. So I asked if I could document her own take on a popular Thai dish called tom kha gai, a coconut chicken soup that’s milky, spicy, and sour. Here is a photographic recipe of Ba Su making tom kha gai at home. She uses a few ingredients that might be difficult to find, but over all, it’s a pretty simple dish! I hope you have the opportunity to try it out. You can find a bunch of actual, measured recipes out on the interwebs, but these photos and approximations were closer the the actual way she cooks and teaches. Enjoy! Link: http://issuu.com/killapuma/docs/cooking_with_ba_su
In my last update, I introduced you to P’Kung, a woman living in my community in Bangkok,Thailand. She was diagnosed with colon cancer and underwent surgery and treatment just before I left for the States. Prior to her operation, I had the opportunity to pray for her health and to share of God’s love for her. She was moved by the love she felt as I and a few of my teammates visited her, prayed for her, and brought her food. But as she went in for an aggressive surgery with a long healing timeline, I felt discouraged. As I visited and prayed for her, I felt so encouraged that God would work powerfully in her life. Why didn’t God heal her? Why wouldn’t God show his power and love for her in this situation? A few weeks later, I left for home. This past month, I was able to video chat with my neighbors, and P’Kung came on screen. She was no longer the frail, sickly woman I last saw. She was vibrant, joking, and putting weight back on her bones. As I thought on how far she has come in the past two months, things did not work out as I had expected, but I can say that God has been good to her, and I pray that she will know the God who loves her so.
KYLE'S CONTACT INFO: Phone: +66-090-979-8187 Email: kyle.apuna@gmail.com Blog: rootandflourish.wordpress.com Mailing Address: Thai Peace Foundation 3750/9 Ladprao Soi 146/1 Khlongchan, Bangkapi, Bangkok Thailand 10240