Christmas 2017

This year...has been a challenging year for many, ourselves included. We have worked at strengthening our supports - seeking community, finding a new church, enjoying our apartment, focusing on what is important - but even this has been hard at times. Recently I heard someone talking about how moments of grace and hope can often be found in the wilderness. She encouraged us to look for signs of hope noting that often those that most embody hopefulness in the wilderness have several things in common:

1. They have fully accepted that they are in the wilderness - even if they don't like it. They are not going to spend one more ounce of energy railing that the wilderness exists but rather they simply ask where God is in the midst and how am I supposed to live?

2. They are able to speak the hardest truth in a way that everyone can hear - not just appealing to either side - See Bryan Stevenson, Shane Claiborne and others.

3. They have tapped into something that sustains them - they keep following, looking, reminding all of us that this is not the end of the story.

I admit I have spent much of this year, not being able to do #1 even while I hold to #3 that what we see around us is not the end of the story. May it be so. 

This year our card has a few moments and reminders of hope, of breath, of peace and goodness - all things we long for as we wait and anticipate. 

Merry Christmas!

Duncan and Andrea

Bangladesh X 2

Work has taken me to Dhaka, Bangladesh twice this year, first in April and then in August. Highlights were meeting wonderful colleagues and making new friends. Due to security restrictions I wasn't able to see much between the hotels I stayed and the office I worked but here are a few snapshots of the two trips.

Each trip begins with a long Emirates A380 flight.

Iranian mountains

Dusty Dubai...

...in contrast with flooded Bangladesh in August

Dhaka (a small portion of this massive city)

Views in Dhaka

Where I would like to live if I lived in Dhaka!

Duncan

CR Philippines

For the past couple years I have been involved with a community of adult third culture kids (ATCK's) who all attended a Chefoo School or lived in some sort of dorm/boarding home/ hostel run by OMF, the organization most of our parents worked for in South East Asia. We call this community Chefoo Reconsidered - and it is just that - a reconsidering, a re-looking and examining our childhood experiences. Most of us were sent to boarding school as young as age five. Older generations often experienced several years in between seeing their parents as they were sent back to their passport countries at age twelve or so for secondary school. All of these, as you can imagine might have a profound life long effect on someone. It's with the hope of reconnecting and finding healing where needed and remembering amazing adventures we shared together as well as deep deep pain that we keep gathering. We have had two gatherings at the last Chefoo School in Malaysia that closed in 2001. I wrote about that experience last year here. We also have had gatherings in the US, the UK and Australia. One of the most amazing things about these gatherings is the age range. At our most recent gathering, we had those who were close to 80 and the youngest who was 26. Our shared experience truly spans generations and such a gift!

At some point I began to volunteer on a planning committee for a different kind of CR experience in the Philippines in July. All the previous CR gathering have been held at a retreat center or the original school, but the challenge in planning a return to the Philippines was that there was a Chefoo or OMF boarding facility in at least three places. Long story short, we decided to go to all of these places on a bus tour that turned out to be even more special than I think anyone anticipated. I won't share individual stories as they are not mine to share, but I want to post some of my favorite photos and experiences. I shared more on facebook but if for some reason you didn't catch them there, I hope you enjoy.

Our starting point was the Kabayan Hotel in Manila where we departed for Baguio for two days followed by our return to Manila with a stop at Faith Academy on our way south to Calapan, ending at Puerto Galera.

Manila waterfront...every city has a wheel!

Yummy Filipino food

The first of many gatherings...

Our wheels for the week

Room to spread out

Stories could be told using the mic and PA system

The group at a former home

Former boarding home transformed into a beautiful B&B

Some things don't change in the Philippines...

Delicious mangoes

Myanmar (Burma) and Thailand Highlights

The Wilson's wandered a great deal last year and got just a little behind on their travel posts, so we are happy to be able to share highlights and recommendations (because giving all the details would take too long) from our most recent trip last month to Myanmar and Thailand. Of course we wouldn't go to Myanmar without first stopping in Thailand. Using Delta miles we flew on Korean Air directly to Chiang Mai from Seoul, and discovered Thailand STILL has not figured out how to speed up their immigration entry process. After a short night, we took the familiar 30 minute flight from Chiang Mai to Maehongson, now flown by Bangkok Air in addition to Kan Air - both highly recommended. I posted a little more detail of our time in Maehongson on facebook but here are a few people and places I am especially fond of.

Fields, mountains and river in Patyng - my back yard growing up...

Fields, mountains and river in Patyng

Andrea and Doi

Andrea and Lee walking out to the orchards in Napajat

Ninae and Wi at Maesagert

Golf, Nam Waan and Ba Youie - Patyng

We had 5 wonderful days in Napajat and Patyng, seeing friends in both places. Then it was back to Chiang Mai and after a couple hour wait in the lovely Bangkok Air lounge, a direct flight to Mandalay.

Mandalay as a city was honestly a bit disappointing. As one of our guide books describes it, "spurred by massive Chinese investment in recent years, modern Mandalay is one of Southeast Asia's boom cities and a far cry from the low-rise, slow-paced, bicycle-powered backwater it was." In literature and history, Mandalay has somewhat of a mystique about it, but today, the actual city is just not that attractive. There are cultural and historical gems hidden in and about it that represent remnants of the four former royal capitals and some of these are definitely worth seeing. We had scheduled 3 days/4 nights but if doing it again, two days would be enough.

The highlight of our time in Mandalay was hiring a car and driver for the day who took us to three of these former royal capitals - Amanapura, Inwa/Ava and Sagaing for the princely sum of $40! The highlight of the day for me was on the island of Inwa, walking into Bagaya Monastery, a 200 year old teak monastery with massive teak floor boards and posts (267 to be precise, the tallest measuring 60 feet, one having a circumference of 9 feet). There was something so evocative about it, reminding me somehow of our former house in Dorpae where I lived during elementary school. It is also a lawsuit waiting to happen with nails protruding and gaps in the floors to slip through!

Ferry to Inwa

Quite the year...

If you were wondering if we created a card this past year (something we have done for the past 8 years)...we did, but time ran out and it didn't get posted for Christmas/New Year. Between Andrea and I, we traveled to 15 countries this past year but only two of them together. Our travel was the main takeaway from this past year, and there is much we are learning as a result. It was quite the year. A few travel highlights are captured in the two versions of our card below. We are happy to report that today we are embarking on a journey together for our "get out of the freezing cold winter" escape. Stay tuned. Here's to another year. #plantflowers