Seeing as it is Thanksgiving day, I figured I would take the time to reflect on this past year(s) and give you 10 things I am thankful for.  Now any good Thanksgiving list could easily be pages long, but I’ll keep it to 10 things.  Mostly because 30% of you reading this probably won’t even make it to #8!

November 2010

1.)  I’m thankful for my wife. There has been plenty of stress, highs, lows, pain, sorrow, agony, irony, anger, and felony-committing rage at times in the past 8 years of us being together.  Oh, and love too…  But still, I absolutely know that my life would fall apart without her there to hold it all together.  Sure, I like to pretend that I could do it on my own if I had to, but truth be told, I’d be in the corner rocking all day without her.  So, Sara, I’m thankful for you!  Your patience with me.  The joy you bring me…  And even the times that you throw your little fits about something that I have done wrong….again.  (You should realize by now that I do some of those things on purpose just to ruffle your feathers…)  <—  Time for marriage counseling?

2.)  I’m thankful for the opportunities that we have had the past few years to live an amazing, adventurous life.  We love Thailand.  We love travel.  We love new foods, new languages, new people…  But being an Indiana boy from the cornfields, I never imagined that I would be living in SE Asia doing what I am doing every day!  This could be the best job ever!  (Some days)

3.)  I’m thankful for my family. Between about being arrested on a few occasions growing up to being a Children’s Pastor, and now a missionary in Thailand, I’ve put them through a lot.  But I know that my family is both one of the most messed up & most unconditional loving group of people I have ever met.  I miss you all and I am sad I can’t be around for all the conversations, laughs and inappropriateness this Thanks-turkey-day…

4.)  I’m thankful for God’s provision. Let the clichés begin, right!  But seriously…  We are in our mid-20′s, and despite having 8 years of private college education, have no debt.  Not only that, but we have never NOT seen a need met…  We’ve seen God raise $50,000+ per year in order for us to be here doing what we do…  And despite the falling value of the US dollar and the hard financial times in the US, we’ve still never NOT seen a need of ours met.  In fact, we continue to see blessings beyond those needs in many areas…

5.)  I’m thankful for friends in the US that despite the 8,000 mile difference, continue to be there for me.  I have friends who Skype with me once a month, friends who comment on our Facebook stories.  I have friends who pray for us and give to us despite having their own young marriages and bills to tend to also.  These friends do more than keep me connected to home.  They also get me through many tough times here on the mission field.

6.)  I’m thankful for friends here in Thailand. Making good Thai friends is no easy task… …and still isn’t…  So I am thankful for the few that I have been able to build.  The language and cultural barrier can sometimes be pretty steep even after a year and a half of language study, but I am thankful that there are a few there for me if I need them.  A Christian Thai family in our neighborhood has all but adopted us into their family and literally help us navigate our new lives in Bangkok every week.  My language teacher (who is less of a teacher and more of a friend) continues to provide good laughs and help when we need it.  While I miss many of my friends back home, I am thankful that God has given us a few friends here to help us day-to-day.  And the number of those friends continue to grow as we get to know new people in our area!

7.)  I’m thankful for the internet. It almost sounds pagan for a missionary to say that, doesn’t it?!  But imagine just a few decades ago missionaries around the world had little-to-no connection with the rest of the world in any timely manner.  Today we have email, Twitter, Facebook, Skype, international calling plans, etc…  All of which help bridge that gap between here and home.  Sometimes it does get in the way, but other times it comes to rescue just when you need it the most.  So, yeah, I’m a big fan of the internet…  Hulu even lets us relax and watch some TV from home when we need to “escape”…

8.)  I’m thankful for our supporters. Just as I am thankful for God’s provision over these past few years, so many of you have been sacrificially giving your finances and time to support us and pray for us.  I never thought that I would be worthy of people’s sacrifices in their own lives.  Yet we have seen churches and individuals from all over the world chose to support us in prayer and finances.  Why?  I don’t know…  I’m thankful that God is bigger than the messed up man that I am.  And in being so, He has called people to support mission work in Thailand… …and specifically us.  Thank you!  But just a reminder, we don’t really deserve it…

9.)  I’m thankful for our new home. Some of you may know and many of you may not know, but our first year in Thailand was a day-to-day struggle…  Nearby clubs, bars and karaokes (which the Thai people love) kept Sara awake every night.  Not only that, but we had some new young neighbors move in about halfway through last year that played Linkin Park from 10 AM until 10 PM (he had no day job)…  Our new home here in Bangkok is nothing but peace… …which we love!  It’s quiet at nights.  People are friendly and willing to have an extended conversation despite our (still) broken Thai…  We just love it here and our monthly rent is within our means…

10.)  I’m thankful for Jesus. There.  I said it.  Maybe now is a good time for another cliché, but we’d have nothing to be thankful for in the long run had Christ not given himself for us.  Friends and family, while great here on earth, would be but nothing but lacking when it comes to eternity…  I’ve been in church services on 3 continents and can tell you that Jesus brings it all together…  Worshipers, while singing in different languages and tones, still sing that sweet song for the free gift that they have been given…  And, well let’s be honest, without Christ, I wouldn’t have a job…

I’d be glad to continue this list and tell you about how I’m thankful for my kid sisters.  How I knocked one’s teeth out with a crisp elbow the face when she was 3 or 4 years old.  Or about how I used to drag my other sister around the house by her hair when she was little, but I’ve already lost 30% of you a few paragraphs ago and now seems like a good time to stop vomiting up my thanksgivings in this post…

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

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It’s hard to believe that it has been over three months already that we’ve been in Thailand!  I apologize for not keeping connected with you all better since we’ve been here.  Let me bring you up to date on where we are, what’s been happening and what’s next!

First off, we are finally in our own house.  If you remember, we were living in a youth hostel for the first month and a half or so.  Our new place is small and has it’s own quirks…  but Sara is loving having a kitchen and we’re both loving having internet access… FINALLY!  Language studies have been going well.  In fact, praise God with us that we were able to retain much of what we studied 4 years ago!  Next week we both have exams on Module 4.  It usually takes new students 5 or more months to get to this point.  This last module has been quite difficult actually.  We’ve been learning to read and write in Thai!  It’s been great to finally be able to make sense of signs all around you, but our shopping trips have tripled in length because we often find ourselves staring at packaging in Thai for 5 minutes at a time trying to make sense of it all!

6 days a week we have been studying Thai and it hasn’t always been fun, exciting, etc.  The past month has seen it’s ups and downs.  Our new house has some late-night bars that blare their music until 3 or 4 in the AM.  Sara hasn’t been sleeping the best.  At times she is willing to give up her kitchen and oven for a good night’s sleep in another home.  Seeing as it’s now November, we’ve pretty well missed all of Fall back home… Sara and I’s favorite season.  My brother bought a house and the entire family has been working on getting it remodeled and livable… Something we wish we were part of.  Levi and Michelle (my oldest brother) will be having their child tomorrow and we will be 8,000 miles away.  Being a good student isn’t as easy as it used to be.  Spicy food isn’t always fun.  Neither is 90-100 degree temps everyday.  Sara’s grandparents have been having some serious medical issues…

We’ve really been missing home, the comfort of knowing what to expect, KidStuf, the OBCOG staff, family, friends, reconnecting with you guys who believe in us in person.

At the same time, God’s blessings wash over it all.  We’re excelling in the language learning.  We DID get a home of our own rather than a youth hostel room.  We sang a worship song in Thai (video here:  http://www.vimeo.com/7364518 ) !!!  We’re settling into a new church family in a city about an hour away from the city we are studying Thai in.  The services are all in Thai but there is a great community of young people to connect with!  We’re making some good relationships with people we play badminton with several times a week.  We have a motorbike that we have been able to use for the time being!  With less distractions and new stresses, Sara and I have found much more time to spend just together.  No “work” to get in our way…

God continues to amaze us.  We saw him move some HUGE mountains in getting us here.  And daily we see him move mountains before our eyes.  We know this is what and where He has built us to serve…

A few things I’ll ask you to specifically prayer for:

1. Around Christmas we’ll be taking a few “field trips” to Bangkok to try to find a good fit for us at a church ministry there which we will join once completing our year of language school in this city.  Prayer for wisdom, guidance, and patience.  Aside from the church we will also be looking at housing options.  Pray for this also as we hope to begin having children within the next year.  We’d love to find the perfect place to begin our family!
2. Pray for our remaining time at the language school.  We get the feeling we’ll be here until May or June of next year based on our current pace.  Pray that we are able to continue putting language learning first and that God would provide us some good relationships with Thai people to work through the language together.
3. Pray for our new home.  Some nights Sara sleeps just fine.  Other nights the loud music keeps her up.  Not sleeping really adds to the stress levels around here!  We’re trying to be patient and figure out the most culturally appropriate way to go about tackling the issue and at the same time trying to be patient and wait on God to move yet another mountain for us!
4. The Holiday season is quickly approaching.  Pray for us as we find ourselves so far away from friends and family.  Even little things like thinking about the Christmas Eve services at OBCOG and how we will be missing them can bring tears to our eyes…  Pray also for our families back in the States and they will surely be missing us (I hope?) during the Holidays….

If you’d like to stay more in touch with us, check out our websites:  http://www.two10eleven.com and http://www.unglamorouslove.com

Every Tuesday Sara blogs about something new in Thai food or ways she has found to replicate food from home here in Thailand!  I tend to be a bit more sporadic, but either way, it’s worth checking into!

I want to thank everyone for your prayers for and thoughts about us.  It hasn’t always been easy but God continues to reign after the first 3 months and we look forward to what’s in store in the next 3 years!

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Brook and Sara at O'hare

First off, I will say that we utterly underestimated what was about to take place after returning from Colorado in mid-July.  We enjoyed our time in Colorado getting to know OMF and working through all the details of our partnership with them and our denomination.  At the end of our time with them we were merely 6 1/2 weeks from moving to Thailand…

Those 6 1/2 weeks were a blur at best.  We continued to pile on the support development by traveling to and from Illinois twice a week to share our hearts with churches out there.  We’ve dealt with our car being broken into, having to sell most of our belongings, last minute budget changes, more medical testing, saying ridiculously hard goodbyes to family and loved ones, little sleep and long days.  These have easily been the most stressful times that we’ve ever experienced…

We understood that there was value in the the process…that through all of this we would grow stronger, leap higher, etc, etc, etc…  But it didn’t make it any easier.  As much as we were excited about Thailand, goodbyes were still hard to say.  As much as we feel called to Thailand, I still lost sleep over budget questions and all the details involved in finalizing that process.  But what happened was that God moved in miraculous ways during those stressful weeks.

In just 5 weeks we went from 65 % funded to right at 100 % of our budget being funded — to God be the glory.  In five months He was able to lower my cholesterol level some 70+ points (despite my best efforts during support development traveling to negate God’s work in this area…  I stopped running, ate red meat A LOT, and every pastor’s wife seemed to have a pie or cake they were famous for that we needed to try about 10:30 at night) — to God be the glory.  Since April we have seen more than 500 individuals and churches show interest in our ministry in Thailand — to God be the glory.  In just one week we were able to get a letter from OMF Thailand via Postal Service, apply and receive back our passports with the illusive non-immigrant type-O multi-entry visa (didn’t understand a word of that one?  Trust me…  that’s a big deal and a huge blessing) — to God be the glory.  God brought about great conversations with unsaved family and friends about our ministry and how it’s important to us and our purpose in life.  God blessed with a great afternoon with church family following our commissioning service… knowing you’re loved by so many is such an encouragement.

So, with all that said, we really didn’t accomplish to much of this.  It was truly God’s hand moving the mountains before us and paving the way for His work among the Thai people.  We feel so blessed to be a part of this.  Oh, and we are now living in Thailand.  More to soon follow.

So what’s God been doing in your life lately?