moving to Thailand: First day in Chiang Mai

>/script>moving to Thailand: First day in Chiang Mai

moving to Thailand: First orphanage visit

First Orphanage visit

I woke up early on our second day in Chiang Mai to pray about the day ahead. I was excited because today I would be visiting the first of three orphanages I had arranged to visit.

This first one was run by an Australian couple who had felt called to Thailand three years previously.
Tracey came by my hotel and I gave her a few bags of books, art supplies and soft toys which I had brought over from Scotland. She received them gratefully and said they were just what they had been needing. I felt quite emotional as we pulled up outside an attractive house with a mountain behind it. It was the same shape as the mountains in the picture God had given me and my heart missed a beat when I saw it. Nevertheless I knew it wasn't THE house because there was only one solitary mountain. However I felt strongly in my heart that I was  meant to be there.

The children came out to greet us - eight little treasures, rescued out of darkness, age from 9 months to 6 years. They were adorable and I couldn't believe how well behaved they were. The orphanage house was so clean and tidy, I made a mental note that I wanted my future orphanage home to be this clean. The helpers were doing a fantastic job both with the kids and in the house.

We had lunch and a long chat. Tracey and David encouraged me to follow God's leading if I was sure about it and said they knew God would provide for me if I was stepping out in faith to follow His call.
I felt encouraged and looked forward to my next orphanage visit two days later.

However the next day was going to be a special day for Josh because I had planned a trip to the orchid and butterfly farm just outside Chiang Mai. For me it was special too but I was careful to intersperse day trips and holiday activities with more "grown up" things like orphanage or school visits, or generally checking out daily life and facilities in Chiang Mai. I wanted Josh to be fully involved with the orphanage idea from an early age so that it didn't feel strange to him when we finally moved to Thailand but equally I was remembering that he was only 7 years old and needed to have some fun with his mum. I didn't want him growing up feeling resentful of God's call on my life. I've seen this happen at times in other families and wanted to safe-guard the special relationship we had.

It was a lovely day out and well worth the time but I must admit I spent most of the taxi ride there and back gazing out of the window, searching for that house in front of mountains,like the one in my vision.

Useful conversation at the checkout

I didn't realise at the time that God was setting up a God Appointment for me. I love those things -they are so amazingly spot on in timing and relevance in my life- you know when God is clearly in charge of arranging for people to meet each other at a certain spot-on moment for a great reason. My articles in Triond -Miraculous provision in Switzerland and God's provision give more examples of God at work arranging things for my benefit.
I asked the American lady if she lived in Chiang Mai and how she liked it there. She said she liked it fine and I explained that I was planning to move there. She offered to send me a weekly email with adverts for all kinds of useful things such as houses for rent, church meetings and conferences, cars and furniture for sale, jobs etc. I trustingly gave her my email address.Now that was 2 years ago and she has been faithfully sending this to me every week. Even though I'm not there yet I've made some really useful contacts about jobs, accomodations, Thai lessons to name but a few and I feel almost part of the community already.It was no coincidence that God set up this contact for me on my first day in Chiang Mai.

First day in Chiang Mai

After a rather challenging journey with a delayed flight from Edinburgh to Heathrow and then a missed flight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, we finally arrived at our hotel at 10 pm. We were so hungry we spent 400baht (about £8) buying snacks from the snack machine in the foyer.

I could hardly contain my excitement as our taxi whizzed us through the very busy streets of Chiang Mai. At last I was in Thailand, the country I'd not been able to stop thinking about for 2 and a half years.

Everything about the place was enchanting. The lizards scurrying along the hotel walls, the crickets singing noisily in the darkness, dogs barking, smells of Thai cuisine wafting on the gentle breeze.

On our first day we decided to go for our first trip on a tuktuk - a little carriage attached to a moped type thing which chug chugs along emitting all sorts of nasty smelling pollution into the already heavily polluted air of Chiang Mai. Choking on fumes from the tuktuk in front did not spoil my sheer delight at the adventure I was on.

Anyway I consoled myself that at least it was nothing as bad as the pollution in Bangkok.

As we veered sharply round a corner Josh and I, clinging to the sides for dear life, both said in unison "This is fun!" I was so relieved that my child was enjoying the adventure as much as I was.

We stopped first at the market, and were completely in awe of what we saw there - puppies for sale in baskets - apparently people buy them to breed and eat !!!!!!!!!! (made me want to adopt them all.) Live fish in pails of water waiting for a buyer to take them home and cook them, a huge variety of various types and quality of fruit and veg. The pungent air and the strange mixture of odours made me happy to get back out into the sunshine.

Next we headed for Tesco Lotus as I longed to see what kind of "normality" there would be for us when we eventually moved there. I was surprised and impressed at the quality and cleanliness of the shopping mall where Tesco Lotus is situated. There's a KFC, a pancake parlour, a McDonalds and a fantastic food court with a huge variety of very cheap Thai dishes on sale.

I was waiting in the queue at the checkout when I heard the lady in front of me speak with an American accent.

More about this conversation in tomorrow's blog.

Being called to Thailand

Hi

This is my first ever blog so I hope you'll bear with me. I want to blog about my move to Thailand which should be happening in a few months but first let me set the scene.

I'll explain first of all that I'm a Christian and I believe in God and about praying about every detail of my life. WWWWWAIt!!!!!!!!! Don't leave all you non-Christians! This will not be a preachy blog, just an honest account of what has happened in the last 4 and a half years and about my ongoing preparations for moving to Thailand with my 9 year old son Joshua and my two labradors, Skye and Summer age 18 and 8 months. I think (and hope) you'll find it very interesting even if we don't see eye to eye on the faith side of things. I just thought I should explain that at the beginning so that some of the things I say will make sense.

Four and a half years ago when I was doing a missionary training course in USA I felt strongly in my heart that God wanted me to go to Thailand and I really didn't want to hear about it. I was terrified of the thought of going to Thailand particularly with my son who was only 5 at the time.

To cut a long story short, I tried to run away from the call of God on my life, just like Jonah did (and he ended up in a whale's stomach!-yeuch!)for 2 long years. After 2 years of running away by ignoring it, even though the thought never went away, I finally surrendered my own materialistic, selfish plans to God and realised I would never be happy or satisfied unless I followed my destiny - or in Christian terms, unless I obeyed God's call on my life.

Finally in January 2008 I phoned a friend in USA and told her I was going to Thailand in April to check it out. She wasn't at all surprised and immediately put me in touch with a pastor in Chiang Mai, in the North, which was exactly the town I felt drawn to. God had given me a picture two years previously of me standing in front of a Thai styled house with mountains behind and so I had always known I'd be going North to the mountainous areas.

I will continue the story of my first visit to Chiang Mai in tomorrow's blog.

take care!