God Must Be Crazy

Just when I think I’ve got God all worked out, he goes and does something I never saw coming. First I thought we’d be taking in one kid, and the last time I posted it was two. Yesterday, we were called and told there was a 12 year-old boy who needed a place too, but I still thought we’d only take two. We were told that the 9 year-old girl would be relatively easy to place – there was even a family that said they could take in the girl but not the boy because of the room situation in their house.

But now I find myself with 3 new kids.

Alaypa (อะเลผะ) is 12, though he’s still in second grade (that happens in the villages sometimes). He is now sharing a room with Matt. Lutiya (ลูติยะ) is 9 and in first grade. She is sharing a room with Sandra.

The language barrier is difficult. I’m still struggling very much with how to handle devotions and worship and Bible teaching. But I realize even as I write this that it’s not as bad as I was feeling a couple hours ago. I mean, I can’t communicate the things I want to, but I can communicate what I need. I guess I’ll have to relearn a lesson I learned a long time ago about how to love with time instead of words.

It’s our first day with all of them, so things are still kind of awkward here, but I think it’ll get more comfortable with time. And Pan, helpful as she was already, has become surprisingly familiar in her attitude towards us now that these two are here. Maybe it’s because she knows us a little and is no longer the odd-girl out. Maybe it’s because she is no longer the only pure Thai speaker. Whatever the reason, I’m encouraged to see it.

We also feel somewhat stressed, but a lot of that will be relieved when the Thai kids start school next week and as we learn to enlist the older ones’ help in things. Even in writing this I can see now that things are better than I feel like they are. Even so, we could use your prayer now more than ever. We just made a leap that I thought would surely be impossible, and I’m still trying to decide if God is crazy or if we are.