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!
