November 2017 Update: Defining Family

Lately, I have been thinking about the concept of family. Simpson and I grew up in very different families. We are both of Chinese ethnicity but our families did many things differently. I grew up in a loud, in your face, shout-across-the-house type of home. Simpson did not, his family members are much more reserved. When Simpson first met my family he thought everyone was mad at each other only to discover that the volume level was normal for us.

Simpson came to know our family through my older brother. At Thanksgiving and Christmas, my father would make these huge meals and my brother would invite Simpson and a bunch of guys over for these holidays. They all became a part of our loud Chinese family.

After we got married and over the years we have found ourselves adopted into various other families. In previous updates we shared a bit about our former work family and our church family that we left in Hawaii. We’ve had friends adopt us into their families as well.

Thanksgiving and Christmas is a natural time to reflect on family… but for me my recent reflection was triggered by a beautiful image at ZOE that I had the privilege of seeing. We were in Friday night worship and, during the sharing time, I looked around the room and saw a scene so tender and beautiful. I saw a mother holding a child in her lap … a father tenderly rubbing a boy’s back and then there was another child nestled next to and under the arm of their parent. Watching this, you would never know that these children are not biologically born to these parents. The love in the room was palatable.

The children who come to us at ZOE are brought into a family–each child becomes a part of a family. They have siblings. They are cared for, encouraged, taught, and mentored. They are showered with love even though this is not the family they were born into. They have been rescued from horrible situations or they have come to us because they were in danger of being trafficked. Our Thai parents are amazing …they simply love, completely and without reservation. Their love is so unconditional and their advocacy for these children is absolute. In this loving, safe environment these children can heal and be restored to have a hope and a future. Here more than ever before I can see that family is not just the one we are born into. It is a beautiful reflection of how God has loved us and adopted us as His own.

Even as we are surrounded by our loving ZOE family, we do miss you all dearly. We have had some hard days just missing the conversations and connection times with dear friends.
But God is so very good and gracious and we have been able to see Him working in so many wonderful ways.

Early in November, we were blessed to attend a marriage seminar with other missionaries in Chiang Mai. We came away with so much and are excited by the insights we gained into our own relationship. We are thankful for the sponsors of this seminar who graced us beyond measure by what we learned as well as their fellowship and ministry to us.

We continue to study Thai three times a week, and learning this new language has helped me become a better teacher of English here at ZOE. It’s been such a joy and a gift to teach English classes and to tutor others one-on-one.

We send our love, care & virtual hugs! Please continue to let us know how we can be praying for you.