It's Our Joy

The story. . . Joy is six months old. I have sat down to write this story several times over the past three and a half months since we have been a family of six and have been interrupted. Here is a blip from my journaling.

January 27, 2011: We have had Joy now for one month, and it has been sweet. Every moment of it. I have experienced the Lord moving mountains. I think of the years of waiting and believing God for miracles, and then I look into Joy’s deep brown eyes and I am reminded of God’s ways being much higher than my ways, His timing perfect, and His ways mysterious. And all that the Lord does in the waiting that can only happen as we groan and cry out to Him in prayer. Thankful is an understatement for how we all feel currently. Surreal, humbled, curious about what’s ahead, believing God for more miracles in this process. Humbled by all the prayers of the saints that have walked this road with us as we waited on God for our daughter/baby sister. Thank you for believing with us.

After a few vague emails, on our 17th wedding anniversary we got a phone call asking us if we were willing to adopt sisters. We knew about the baby, but not about the older sister. So we pressed into praying and enjoying our weekend away, dreaming about what God had for our future. After 12 days of agonizing prayer and questions and waiting and wondering and seeking godly counsel, we headed to Pattaya by way of Bangkok. You are probably not familiar with Pattaya, but you may have heard the song, “You’re the God of this City,” written by an Irish band and made popular by Chris Tomlin and Passion. This song was written while the band was worshipping in a bar in Pattaya. In Thailand, this city is known for its night life, drugs, the Russian mafia, and all manner of other things that accompany this type of darkness. While at the same time, there are beautiful elements of Pattaya in all that Redeemer God is doing in that city. Needless to say, we went with mixed emotions not knowing what our time there would mean for our family.

We had come to a place of peace in seeking out how God would unfold the details. The situation was unclear in that the baby was in the care of a Canadian family working with a ministry in the city that ministers to children in the slums. The birth mother desired to have the baby placed in an adoptive home, but the birth mother was incarcerated shortly after abandoning the baby at the hospital because she was in possession of drugs. Supposedly, birth mom didn’t even know that she was pregnant until a few weeks before the baby was born. Doesn’t this sound like a divine set-up for the Lord to come and work? The two year old sister was being passed around the slums living with various friends of the birth mother.

I’d love to tell you the story in person someday with all the God-sized details, but in the meantime, over a 24 hour trip to Pattaya we met with the birth mother, social worker, and others involved with the children and received Joy into our family. Others involved in the case made it clear that the older sister was not able to be adopted. At the meeting at the prison, we had twenty minutes with the birth mother and social worker. There are few times in my life that I have felt such a tangible presence of the Lord as I felt Him physically transform beauty from ashes. The intensity of such brokenness and tender power of the Living God still leaves me speechless and teary. The favor of the Lord with the social worker. . . bringing Joy home to meet her new siblings—Ben’s reserved heart melting with love for Joy, Kate’s uncontainable excitement, and Jak’s tenderness with his new baby sister. Yes, you read that correctly; Jak is taking this protective role of big brother with great maturity and tons of kisses. Isn’t it beautiful the way the Lord creates a family? We also had Brent’s parents here visiting for the holidays, and Joy Janelle was able to meet her Nana, Genelle, whom she is named for, just hours after we were a new family. Isn’t that fun timing of the Lord?

Joy has stolen our hearts. Her smile, coos, giggles. She is now sleeping through the night, and honestly I miss those midnight feedings. I think it is the kindness of the Lord we feel of getting to experience things that we thought we would never get to do again, and there is a sweetness with the Lord that is indescribable. So we are praising God for the diapers, bottles, and learning again how to be parents of an infant as we also beg the Lord to make us wise parents of our growing teenager, preteen and precious kindergartner. We are laughing a lot these days.

So now as we wait for the adoption process to be completed in all the significant meetings and details that will involve, our prayer is that God will part the waters and continue to rescue and deliver, make a way, and fill us with strength and courage. I love the stories of the parting of the Red Sea and the parting of the Jordan River and the extremes that the Lord goes to in order to rescue us from slavery and send us into the land He has for us. Please continue to pray for this adoption process to be completed in Thailand and then in the states, for favor with all government officials, and for our family as we transition.

Happy New Year

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Progress

Our Progress (notice our neighbor in the background and keep praying for Thailand)

The Students are the Ones

December 9, 2010

Lately I have been amazed about the individuals and families that are connected to our school in Chiang Rai.

A week ago we spent two days in a Habitudes leadership curriculum training session with a trainer from Singapore.  Leaders from our school sat alongside the visionaries from the Akha Hilltribe Outreach Foundation.  This is a family from our school who, being Akha themselves, are able to train leaders and take the church to their people throughout Southeast Asia.  Recently the Akha have seen new inroads for churches into their people group located in Vietnam.  While this family pursues the Akha people with passion, they also care deeply about their children and other children in our school receiving this education focused on developing a Biblical World View.

Also, we get the joy of sitting in meetings with a parent who helps in developing our future campus.  This parent recognizes the community impact of the school and directs his efforts to building the future.  However, this effort receives only a portion of his time.  The remainder of his time is dedicated to supporting efforts of peace that will put a broken nation on its feet.  Countries near us are boiling with change and our friends get to see this first hand.  These people we walk with hold up the hands of leaders you and I only hear about on the news.  

This work can definitely humble us at times.  We enjoy fellowship with leaders who send trained nationals into surrounding countries where religion is banned.  These leaders are not seeing a church plant, but churches and movements.  Also our national parents are pretty amazing.  Recently I have talked with parents and learned that they were the ones who brought the Internet to Chiang Rai. 

These connects are fun and inspiring, but lately we have been even more inspired about the incredible opportunity God puts before us in the life of our students.  The following story will help you understand how education in Thailand has a transformational community impact. 

One of our parents has lived in Thailand for many years, and in that time her children have attended school with children from many levels of the Chaing Rai community.  Recently, a Thai lady from the community, momentarily forgetting this parent was a Christian herself, asked our friend if she had heard that two of the CRICS students were now Christian.  This Buddhist parent showed a deep concern that Thai students might be attending our school and turning to the Christian faith.  Truly she has a lot to be concerned about because most, if not all of our students commit their lives to Christ and lead in their social relationships. 

Inspiring? Yes.  But there is much more here, think about it.  These students go home with their faith and enter a place quite foreign to their commitment to Christ.  This lady’s comments testify to the truth that these students enter a community hostile to their belief in Jesus.  Her words remind me of the often unspoken but always present reality that to be a Thai is to be a Buddhist.   

I am left wordless by students who must find the words to explain to parents and friends about Christ’s lordship in their lives.  We also know that more students in Christ’s fellowship will mean more persecution against these students and at times our school.  Please pray that our students will embrace the challenges to their faith, as the young church did.  May they see the beauty in the opportunity of suffering for being a light on a stand.  We know nothing of what it costs them, yet we can pray to the one who does.       

When the Mighty Waters Rise

“Therefore let everyone who is godly pray to you while you may be found; surely when the mighty waters rise, they will not reach him.”  Psalm 32

The rainy season has always caused us to stop and be grateful that Jesus has placed us on high ground.  Recently we have been reminded once again the power of the waters.  Our principal at the school called Monday early with news that all walkways at the school were under water.   In America kids pray for snow days; our kids get rain days.  School was cancelled that day.  The sun drank up the water, allowing the doors to open again for one day.  The swollen rivers and sloppy rice fields laid in wait reminding me of after Thanksgiving dinner bloating.  Monday was kind of a set-up punch really.  The soaked land couldn’t handle the Tuesday/Wednesday deluge.   By mid-day Wednesday we all left school early.  Roads were closed and that evening we were thankful to be home and dry after driving by and through neighbors’ submerged homes. 

The irony is that floods build community much more than they wash the community away.  Our neighbors were out in mass.  Sandbagging, helping redirect water, but mainly fishing and lots of laughing.  Years of rainy seasons dictate that floods are less an emergency and more a good opportunity to fish.   So we talk, we watch them fish and we continue to pray that God will show them the place that the mighty waters can never touch.


I made a short video of the floods and attached it below. Hope ya like it.

Summer's Long Gone

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Once Again

Yeah Joe...You're Loved!

Allen and His Minions

Graduating Pei Chen

After dear friend Joe Hatcher and our nephew Allen Martin visited during the month of May, we were elated to participate in the Family Learning Center graduation ceremony.  Please pray for our graduate Pei Chen (Lily), of our Taiwan contingency, as she continues her studies at Taylor University in Indiana, YEAH Lily.  The next day we were off to the states for two and a half months to visit friends, family, our sending church, and attend a missionary conference.  We feel so humbled by the many ways our stateside partners in this

Chiang Rai work showered love on us.  BIG THANKS!  We appreciate you all.  Thus, we returned to Chiang Rai on August 20 with our emotional, spiritual, and mental tanks full.  We are still asking the Lord for His energy for each day’s physical work.  Orientation at school started a few days later and we are off to the start of another school year.  Oh, and Jak is doin’ great in kindergarten. 

First Video...Wow!

The Spirit of Adoption

Luke 2: 51b says, “And his mother kept and closely and persistently guarded all these things in her heart.” This scripture is describing Mary as she considers, studies, mothers and knows her son, Jesus. I love this passage because it describes, I believe, how much we as mothers spend our time and mental energy. There is a holy place that stores the daily interactions, holy moments, and simple snapshots of life that are far too priceless to try and catch with a video camera and then replay, too splendid to describe with mere words in a journal, too indescribable to try and share with another, and too other -worldly holy to try and capture anywhere but in a celebrated heart of a mother sharing intimate thoughts of her child with Father God.

So I have been asking God about how to deeply implant in my children that they are loved, secure, accepted, adored, beloved, chosen by God. And Jak has been teaching me much. He recently asked Brent, “Where did you get me from?” and then has been telling us at random times that he is not Thai, he’s English. Or on another day stating emphatically that he’s not Thai, he’s Spanish! I try to imagine what it is like to be in his four-year-old mind processing living in a Caucasian family in the country of Thailand, worshiping the God that all those around you deny. Wondering what it is like to overhear all the conversations that go on around you as you pass through the marketplace and people openly question your identity. I try to tell him the “right” answers of his ethnicity, etc. but my simple answers have not satisfied his inborn curiosity.

Last week as he was looking questioningly into my eyes with that desire to know “who am I?” I began to feel God urging me to speak over him truly who he is. Now, we have been doing this since the day he became our son, but there was something different about this question on this particular day as he stood under the doorway of Kate’s room with his chocolate brown eyes searching for the Truth. I looked him directly in the eyes and informed him of his true identity. “You are a mighty man of God.” His mind and body seemed to soak the reality of this truth in differently than in times past. He cocked his little head back and his body seemed to relax while at the same time grow more confident. He told me yesterday, “Mom, ‘I am chosen,’” as Brent has been describing to him.

So another of those forever-branded-in-my-heart moments that I will guard until eternity knowing that God is doing more than I can ask or imagine in the lives of my children. Father God hears our groans as mothers and comes to us, each of us, as we live in the families he designs with such creativity. I am learning about my adoption as his daughter into the family of the living God and my only response is to cry out to him with arms outstretched, “Abba, Father!” “For the Spirit which you have now received is not a spirit of slavery to put you once more in bondage to fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption (the spirit producing sonship) in the bliss of which we cry, ‘Abba, Father! Father!” Romans 8:15

The more I learn about my costly adoption as a daughter of Father God, my ongoing transformation into the likeness of His Son, my Kingdom inheritance, that adoption was not and is not “plan B” for Father God but His divine plan from creation, I am touched again by His unfathomable love. When I think about the fact that adoption is usually from pretty bad situations and how God crossed a HUGE cultural chasm to adopt me, I am humbled and eternally grateful. I am chosen!

Why Do They Fight?

Many of you have seen the news about the Red Shirts (generally the poor and those from the provinces outside of Bangkok) fighting the yellow shirt soldiers (government ruling party) in Bangkok last week. We were there in Thailand's capital when the fighting was at its worst. Sounds scary, but Western tourist (that is the group we get put in of course, we don't have a shirt color...) are the least concern of these "freedom fighters." In fact, it seems that greater effort and concern was placed on welcoming us and serving us by the staff at our hotel during this last week when we were having a small conference in Bangkok with our sister team (Antioch Mission International) from Krabi, Southern Thailand.

Thais are well aware that the world is watching and thinking twice about visiting beautiful Thailand right now. Confounding to think about when you recognize that Thailand's chief source of income is tourism. So why fight when everyone knows that Red Shirts being shot by government backed soldiers in the capital will cause Americans and Europeans to go elsewhere?

The taxi drivers we spoke to, at least the calm ones without three red shirts on, noted that Thailand used to be know for its "brotherhood." The soldiers on TV were genuinely embarrassed to talk about the fact that Thais were fighting, and killing, Thais. Lots of head shaking and hands in the air in frustration.

Last night we were having dinner with a Thai family that we have been blessed with as friends. Leng, the father, made the problem very clear. He reminded me that there are many more people who do not side with the Yellows or the Reds. Yet these people feel helpless as they watch pride and desire for control tear apart Thai society. Unfortunately when the Yellows shut down the airport last year and forced the direction of government their way, the Red leaders responded by garnering support and shutting down busy business centers with demonstrations. These groups are large enough to create chaos, but never noble enough to guarantee peace. A prime opportunity to speak the reality that the peace He gives is not anything like the peace of this world. Thailand will find temporary peaceful solutions, but this prideful, ugly head will keep popping up (just as it did in the 70s, 80s, and so on). We are longing for the peace of Christ to come. A peace that will give hope a voice.

Happy Easter

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Entreprenueral Work

Hi All,

An update on the Penningtons is in order! My father-in-law often tells me that an entrepreneur works to develop value without regard to present resources (Did I get that right Jack?) So, I am going to tell you about some of our entrepreneurial efforts. Working in Northern Thailand as missionaries/teachers pioneering (you might say entrepreneuring) a local missionary/international school, our ultimate desire is to see evangelism happen, churches planted, and people served. Long ago God challenged Julie and me to use our training and experience in the field of education to consider how we evangelize through learning institutions. We have spent our years in Thailand at various Thai universities and schools in order to share Christ with Asian students. Presently the Lord has challenged us to partner with Chiang Rai International Christian School (CRICS) to develop what was a small missionary family home school co-op known as the Family Learning Center (FLC) into a fully registered international school in compliance with Thai government regulations. Julie supervises the elementary program and teaches in the school half days. Our two older children attend the school while our youngest son, Jak, attends a local Thai preschool in the mornings to strengthen his Thai language. We are asking God to give us another child, and are currently waiting on adopting another child through the Thai government system. Recently I spoke to our social worker and she encouraged me that the Thai government is beginning a new program developing connections with private agencies that will assist them in, among other efforts, finding the right little girl for us. She asked me to wait for another month for more information, and she sounded quite positive. Please pray for the connections between these agencies and for our social worker to find our little girl. But enough about us, I really want to tell you about the school…

The potential for community impact through FLC/CRICS motivates all of us who work here. Uniquely exciting about this opportunity is the promise that a teacher can come here with no knowledge of the Thai language, commit to only one or two years of teaching, and still make a life-changing and eternally significant impact. Wow! Many missionaries take years in missions training courses along with language and culture learning before they get the go ahead to enter a community at this level. Yet, our teachers impact the lives of the Northern Thailand community every day in the classroom. How? The impact points are many. We educate students from various cultures who will be future church and community leaders both in Thailand and beyond. We educate children from missionary families and thus facilitate service to the community through the love of Christ in our families’ various missions. We introduce Christ to our Thai students; many have accepted Jesus as their Lord and are influencing their families. And of course Jesus is always working and impacting this community in new ways that surprise all of us. 



All of this is wonderful. However, we cannot continue our efforts to serve the servants and leaders of this community unless we have great teachers. This is our primary challenge, and this is where your church community may have a role in Northern Thailand. What possibilities exist in your church to help our community impact Northern Thailand, Burma and Laos?

Consider with me some options that would allow church members to be introduced to our community for short-term commitments of a month or two up to long-term commitments of one and two years. Short-term assignments could range from substitute teaching or short courses, athletic camps, library projects, science fairs and outreach trips with the students.

For long-term commitments, we are specifically looking for two types of teachers (Really, any skilled teacher is desired, but these are two areas that work really well.) First, might your church community encourage young singles or recent college graduates to take a few years and spend it in a place like Thailand? Kind of a "Peace Corp" program out of your local church community. What if young people caught the vision of serving abroad for a stint before they got into their long-term career path? What if your community was dedicated to financially supporting part of an effort like this? (partial funding might be best, challenging new graduates to grow through fund raising efforts). This could have profound implications for your church's mission program and the overall worldview of the church.

As for the second possible type teacher, right now we have some teachers from the Baptist Denomination, International Ministries who have previously taught many years in American public schools and now are spending some of their retired years teaching in Thailand. Could your church be a part of challenging retirees (especially from education fields) to spend some of their retired years making a difference in Thailand? Our retired teacher volunteers routinely comment on how FLC/CRICS is a refreshing place for veteran teachers to use their years of skill and experience in small classrooms with well-behaved students who are highly motivated to learn.
Our school is made up of Nazarenes, Baptist, the Brethren, and Presbyterian churches, as well as many other international Christian missions and groups such as OMF and MUPS. Your Church or denomination could also be a part of this opportunity to make a difference, and I have yet to mention the gospel impact our teachers have on Thailand when the classroom teaching is over for the day.

Of course funds for our project are also necessary. Many churches give generously to help this school serve missionaries, yet financial backing is only a part of how a church could connect with this project. Quite frankly, we want your lives. We want other lovers of Jesus joining in on the blessings and challenges of this work.
Now that I have given you the fire hose of information about this vision and our dreams, what is God saying to you in this? Could we continue this conversation by email or phone?

My email: brent@flcschool.com our school principal’s email: ruth@flcschool.com

Here are some relevant web sites for our school…

FLC/CRICS school web site: http://www.flcschool.com/

FLC/CRICS fund raising web site: http://sites.google.com/site/flcfundraising/

Thanks for reading and considering all this. I appreciate you and your community.
We will be in the states this summer and would love to connect with possible volunteers.

Peace of Christ,

Brent, Julie, Ben, Kate and Jak

Thanks For Praying For Julie

Julie is doing great. Back teaching again (but gingerly). Please check out the photos of recent events by clicking on the play button on the next entry. After that, I have posted three new blog entries. Some thoughts on our "scare" with Julie ending up in hospital (one by me and one by Julie), and a blog about how educating students is sharing Christ. Please read at your leisure, and keep praying for Julie's complete health to return.

Thankful to God for Life

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His Peace in the Hospital

Each year the school gets all the teachers away for an overnight to talk about who we are and where we are going. What a great time to build the most important resources of our school, our people. One of our families from the school runs a small "resort" in the mountains an hour from Chiang Rai, and these cabins are a great setting for retreat and retooling. The afternoon of the retreat brought with it free time and many of us, including Julie, joined in on a waterball game in the pool with splashing and friendly dunking. Following the game Julie noticed a little fatigue. Of course this seemed natural following all the sporting and rough play.

Later that evening as she slept she was awakened by pains in her belly. The pains intensified but seemed to be possible flu or stomach issues. My concern grew as she was hurting and unable to sleep or resolve the issue. The next day she skipped all the activities and remained in bed suffering from “the flu.” That next evening after returning home, she felt warm so we took her temperature, a rare event. I can’t recall that I have ever taken Julie’s temp. She asked me to look on the internet at stomach pains combined with fever. Playing internet doctor is never good, so a call to Julie’s brother, Jackson, a doctor in Waco, seemed the wise route. That phone call sent us packing and off to the local hospital for a check up.

The pain continued and worsened as the night came on. Here we sat in the emergency room with a doctor prodding and telling us it might be a good idea to check in. A few papers were filed and moments later we found ourselves overnighting at Overbrook Hospital. Previous to this experience, our general joking as we pass by this and other hospitals sounds something like, “Don’t wanna go there.” And yet present circumstances demanded that “there” we were.

The night became challenging rather quickly. After talking to the doctor and then processing the doctor’s evaluation through phone calls with my brother in law, it was becoming quite obvious something was really wrong. More pain for Julie. The blood work returned marking out most of the simple problems. Then, more pain, followed by more discussions with Jackson on my mobile.

Here is where it gets really complicated. Walking back and forth from the nurses station with requests for more visits from doctors and surgeons that were not available to me at 2 a.m., somewhere in that hallway I recognized that our American reality of having a CAT scan and a surgeon ready and available at any moment of the night was not a present reality for our situation. With her symptoms, the health care we were used to would have already had her under the knife pulling out her appendix. The health care we had was saying let’s put her on antibiotics and move on this in the morning. We were assured, “We’ll get a CAT scan as soon as possible,” in other words tomorrow morning.

More push from me, more “Let’s do it now.” More surprised looks saying, how are we gonna do this now when it is the middle of the night? Finally, God reminds me that it really is hard to kick against the goads. Jesus made it clear in that room at 2 a.m. that he meant what he said, “My peace I leave with you and I do not give as the world gives.” My response, “So Jesus, you are saying we are gonna have to sit here, this woman in pain from something that could at any point kill her, and we are to trust you?” Kinda a very unAmerican reality, not having any cards to play. A mandatory "Be still." While we don’t want to go back there, during those hours of resting in "Be still," Jesus was close.

My friend Timothy from Zimbabwe taught me a song many years ago called “Jesus, Lover of My Soul.” It recalls that Jesus is the one who keeps us. I sang that song a lot that night. The next six hours would be greater pain and more concerns. His peace would keep us.

On Sunday Nov. 1 at one p.m. they surgically removed Julie’s highly infected appendix. She is alive and recovering and we, by grace, once again recognize that our fragile lives are in His hands.

Here is one more just for interest:

When Sunday morning rolled around, they took us by ambulance to another hospital in town to get the CAT scan because the doctors who could read the CAT scan at our hospital were in Bangkok or having surgery. Grrr. Cost for ambulance ride…$6. Hmm, that might be an interesting piece to add to U.S. healthcare cost discussions.

Julie's Thoughts

So October was the month I had set aside to pray for breakthrough in various areas, “stuck” places. I was feeling like there were many. God had sent a dear friend, Amy Cox, to visit for a week, and His love was evident in dear times spent with Amy. Still believing for more breakthrough before October's end, it’s interesting how the events of the next 5 nights and 4 days in the hospital unfolded. God truly brought the breakthrough. I entered the hospital on October 31st, Halloween, followed by three nights of a Buddhist celebration called Loi Kratong. Loi Kratong is a beautiful and fun holiday to watch, but spiritually disturbing with three days of ceremonial contrition where small lanterns are floated in the rivers to honor the river spirits and beg penitence for human sins against nature. The atmosphere was heavy to say the least. We were in a Christian hospital started by protestant missionaries long ago, yet many sobering talks of religion with the nurses revealed that the nurses and doctors of this Christian hospital were all Buddhist.

As we watched the celebratory fireworks from my hospital window each night, I was reminded of what I had been reading the last few weeks. In October I like to read biographies of men and women of faith in preparation for celebrating All Saints Day, so I was reading again a favorite book, Amma: The Life and Words of Amy Carmichael. Amy was a missionary in India for fifty years rescuing and then mothering children from temple prostitution. She writes, “ India (Thailand can easily be substituted here) has been drugged by the poison of subtle philosophies and by the deadly draughts of degrading superstitions, till she seems beyond the power of all our efforts to awaken and arouse. . . The giant is not awakened? What then is the remedy? . . .We have not given prayer its proper place in the plan of our campaign. . . .The energy of the flesh, of our intellect, of our position, of our very enthusiasm, this has been allowed to usurp, to a lamentable extent, the place of the one power which can rouse immortal souls from the slumber of eternal death—the might of the living God, the energy of the Holy Ghost. “ I truly am thankful for quiet times to pray while confined to the hospital bed.

God brought the breakthrough I had been asking for in “taking every thought captive.” In the many transitions of the last five months, I was feeling tired, spiritually vulnerable in many ways and hearing many lies. As I entered the hospital, I felt God’s urging to be single-minded. I think being in a small, foreign hospital had been one of the things I secretly feared most living here, and I was so comforted every minute by God’s nearness. The endless changing of IVs, the pain, the unknown, the not being able to keep food down or in, etc. Such sweet times recalling scriptures and meditating on Father God’s character brought such peace in the midst of chaos.

Once again, God met me in speaking and understanding Thai in challenging situations. Another breakthrough.

I had been asking God for breakthrough in relationships here as we adjust to new “team” life as our family working in the context of the international school. I feel swallowed up by the love of the community here with caring for our children, bringing meals to our home, prayers, and other random acts of kindness.

Let’s just say that loving “in sickness and in health” went to a much deeper level as it is expected in Thai hospitals that a family member will stay and care for the patient. As you pass some hospital rooms, many family members sleep on the floor as they stay with the patient. So Jak and Brent and I had some intense bonding. My dear husband cleaned me up again and again through all the nightmarish situations. I am humbled by his love. Interesting how God can use the wildest situations to go deeper still in our marriage relationship.

While I was in the hospital, my mom shared with us about my granddaddy. Having recently been moved to a nursing home, he told mom that morning that he had been reciting memorized scripture to himself trying to keep his mind sharp. He is 95. What a great testimony. The truth is, in the middle of the night laying in the hospital bed in deep pain waiting for the morning to come, the one thing that truly "saved" me was was recalling scripture and meditating on the character of God and Savior Jesus. Praying the psalms and the words of our Lord kept me going.

“O keep me, Lord, and deliver me: let me not be ashamed or disappointed, for my trust and my refuge are in You. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for and expect You.” Psalm 25:20-21

A final story of God’s kindness. Julie was taken to have her incision stitched on the third morning in the hospital. It happened that I was taking Jak to school when they took her. She was alone, still in great pain, and couldn’t eat. That morning was difficult. Yet throughout the procedure an older nurse held Julie’s hand, wiped her tears, and then said to her in Thai, “God bless you.” The first believer she met in this Christian hospital, and just when she needed encouragement the most. This nurse angel would not leave her side until the procedure was finished and the orderlies came to get Julie to take her to her room. She laid her hands on Julie and prayed for her. Her final exhortation to Julie in English, “Be strong!”

Education and Thailand

A little while back one of the church planters for Overseas Mission Fellowship visited me in my office. This is a guy who has been here for years and is responsible for many efforts of church planting in Northern Thailand, Laos, Burma, and even southern China. His daughters attend the school. As we discussed some efforts for the school, he encouraged me that what we were doing in our work at the school was planting churches. He explained that for a church planting movement to happen in any area, first you need the area saturated in prayer, and next you need an international school. Hmmm. . . Recently I read about how Korea went from hostile to Christianity to a Christian nation. Joseph Karl Kim, headmaster of Central Christian Academy, writes, “In an environment antagonistic to Christianity, it was the Christian schools that took the gospel to scores of young people and trained them with a biblical worldview. These schools provided the Korean church and the nation with well-trained Christian leaders. Within 25 years of their inception, the Christian schools became the engine of social change and transformation. It is interesting to note that the Christian schools in Korea were flourishing nearly 50 years before such a movement even began in the United States.”

We have had five years of having the great opportunity to educate young people in Thailand and share with them the truth of Christ. What a joy that God would use our skills and experience as educators to build His church in Thailand. As we share Christ with students, teachers, and parents, we are quite aware that education is a powerful tool for God’s kingdom coming to Thailand. May Christ use our education efforts to get His much deserved glory in this place.

Please pray for the Chiang Rai International Christian School to honor Jesus and bring students and families to Christ.

Lots To See Here

Hi all. Many pictures on the Smilebox card below. When you play the card, make sure you click on all the little pics to see them close up. Below the card, I have added a new blog entry: "The Shake Up." This will fill you in on all the new goings on...

Thanks for reading and praying.

Peace of Christ,
Brent, Julie, Ben, Kate and Jak

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The Shake Up

Okay it is time for a serious update on the Penningtons.

When I last blogged, our world was quite different. Between the first of June and the end of July, two quick months, our world kinda did that thing where you "shake up" and "turn over" the glass globe with the little white specks of "snow" swirling around a quaint Pennsylvania countryside village, friendly snowman smiling in the middle. (I know, I know...A snowman analogy in Thailand is pushing it; but, let me break this to you gently, those globes don't have real snow inside. I cracked one open just to see...) The glass knick knack stands on the shelf, snow flecks peacefully gathered in different edges and corners of the village. Then, give it a few shakes and replace it on the shelf, you can almost see friendly snowman's smile crack as he watches everything spin for a while awaiting the "new normal."

Our present "new normal" came after watching our teammates the Tubbs and their life in Thailand get packed into about 20 large bags and boxes for a final return trip to the states. The last week was hard and good. We had a final worship time together that brought tears and groans that seemed unbearable at the time. In it I believe all of us became more ready for them to move on to the exciting "what's next" of God.

The irony of life in Jesus never ceases to amaze. We drove the Tubbs to the airport and, quite literally, as we were saying goodbye, Brent and Ben had to run to the other end of the airport to pick up some new friends who were coming for a few days to consider this area and joining our work here. Many of you have heard that the Lynn family is considering joining us in Chiang Rai but know little of the details about this family. Actually, upon their arrival we knew little about the Lynns as well. It was an honor to receive them and welcome them in order to begin the process of getting to know each other. Right now they are training with a sister church in Waco, Texas called Antioch Community Church. This visit was the initial "Hi" getting to know you process. Over the next few months we will communicate more about the possibilities of this place and this team being a good fit for the Lynn family. We are thankful to Jesus for the possibility and looking forward to seeing what God wants to do in this relationship. You can pray for this process.

After the Lynns left, my brother and his daughter Brently came for a few days on a return trip to Thailand after being away for a year. They played at a few worship gigs and loved on a bunch of people that miss them (including us). Brently blessed us with some of her songs. She is getting quite talented with her guitar (might I brag a moment). Most of you know that Russ pulled a guy out of a flaming car wreck in the states a few weeks ago and burnt his fingers up pretty "hot dogs on a campfire" like. God's gracious healing is on him. He will resume teaching math at Caprock High School again next week and should be able to actually write on the white board. As for me (Brent), I am recovering too; most people are just now realizing how difficult it has been for me to live with a superhero as a brother. It can be stressful at times. All joking aside, the 2 a.m. overseas phone call that they are taking your brother to a burn unit is not really fun, and yet Jesus provided a deep peace at the time.

The week after Russ and Brently visited, we were informed by the interim director (superintendent) at our kids' school, Pete Quesenberry, that he had cancer, lymphoma to be specific. Because of the extremity of his case, he was advised to return to California in order to be close to his family and start the chemotherapy treatment. This was and is quite discouraging to us. The Quesenberry family has been in Thailand, Nepal, and Laos for over 30 years. They are huge supporters and workers for the benefit of the school. Pete has balanced his work as Director of Chiang Rai International Christian School (CRICS) with his work as a veterinarian in a mission that helps hill tribe people in this area. Right now, so many people here are praying for him. Please pray for his healing; he has had some positive signs from doctors in California lately. Doctors are doing more tests before they start any treatment.

Pete had been talking to us for months about Brent taking over his position as director for the school. Pete's qualifications did not meet the requirements for the job exactly, and our process for registration was eventually going to require a director with education qualifications, certification and experience. When he asked, we told him we would pray about this. As I prayed (Brent), I wrote in my journal that I did not have peace to work at the school without God revealing that He was prompting a change in our mission here (my job at the university and our team situation were the two specifics I wrote about at the time). While we knew that the Tubbs' five year commitment was almost completed, I was not aware that they were discerning that their time in Thailand was coming to a close. Neither did I anticipate that a political situation with some administrators at the university would change my job in extreme ways. I was left doing a lot of busy work creating tests and translating, and zero time with the students. Of course, the purpose of the job was to connect with students. Thus, the position was becoming of little value for developing relationships, and all my efforts to develop relationships with Thai and Chinese students were occurring outside of the position.

All of these circumstances converged and challenged Julie and me to pray again about the position as director of the school. In all of this, the Lord made it quite clear that I was to take this leadership role at the school. All of our efforts in church planting have been what we call ministry from within the community and now this continues with CRICS. We now are passionately called to lead this school along with our volunteer teaching of groups of students at the university. Thai and Chinese students have and will continue to come to the Lord in this education context He has called us to. My last official day at Rajabhat University was July 31. With this move, we are freed up to work at building this international school here for the benefit of the community, for the glory of God, and for the expanse of the Church and Christ's kingdom.

Before my final day at the university, we were blessed to have Julie's parents visit and bring a sidekick along. Jack and Ann really encouraged us. We had great fun, and Papa Jack and I even taught an economics class together at Mae Fah Luang University for an accounting teacher Thai friend of ours. He taught about the causes of the present economic crisis, and I helped as his amanuensis (uh...I wrote down the stuff he said and explained some things). Mama Ann loved on Julie and the kids and brought lots of surprises like salsa and cereal.

The sidekick that came along was Jackson, one of the 22 cousins. Each of Ben, Kate and Jak's cousins are a gift of God to us all, and, this time, Jackson was a great representative for them all. Having a cousin here allowed Mama Ann and Papa Jack to throw an official overseas "camp cousins," and give Brent and Julie a couple days without young'ns. On the first of August, we traveled down to Phuket in the south. Mama Ann and Papa Jack got to see more of Thailand, and we all got to enjoy Ben's baptism in the Andaman Sea. The waves were rocking and rolling that day, so Papa Jack tried to hold back the tides as we dunked Ben between swells. If you know Ben, you will recognize that this story is a beautiful metaphor of his nature. The peace of Christ is deep in his character even as the waves rage.

As I write this, I am overwhelmed at all that happened in the last two months. This year will be faith building. In fact, this will be a year of faith and a year of building. Chinese students are learning more of their new treasure in Christ and learning how to build with that treasure here and back home. Thai students are learning to think differently about religion and how to build disciples. The Chiang Rai International School (CRICS) will be built and developed into an excellent place for students to grow academically in a community that honors Jesus. For CRICS, the physical structure of a building will be developed this year as God provides for what we need to become legal. He has provided for the land, now we are praying for the classrooms.

Thank you for your prayers and partnership with our work here. We have felt your prayers and encouragement in countless ways over the past two months of transitions.

Please pray for these three things now:
1.) The providence for and development of our mission and specifically the Chiang Rai International Christian School.
2.) Healing for our friend Pete Quesenberry who has lymphoma
3.) Our transition in all of this to have peace and strength as a family. That we would honor Jesus with our lives.