And, honestly, it’s been a really good change of pace.  You know, some days have just been language learning in the past year… even some entire weeks.  But it’s nice now to have other things on the to-do list.

I’m in the middle of said to-do list now with much more to finish up before the day ends here in Thailand, but I was just reflecting on the blessing that it can be to just be busy sometimes.  I like feeling productive (and sometimes even like feeling unproductive on certain days), but this has been a nice change of pace for me.

So, I’ll leave you with a HOT picture of my wife and I!

November, 2010.

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Anyways, despite being the Lazy Photographer for quite some time now, I’ve decided to get back on the wagon.  If nothing else, I know it is something I will enjoy at the time, even if I don’t feel like that particular day.  Recently I’ve had friends give me a hard time about how I should shoot more often.

So, let me introduce to you my new series, Foto Friday.  This will be similar to Sara‘s well known weekly food series Tasty Tuesday, only I’ll try to make it a point to get out, shoot photos, and post them up here.  Sometimes they will be photos having to do specifically with Thailand and Thai culture while other times they may just be something I happen across or an idea for a photo that I want to produce.  Either way, I’ll post it up here.  I’d like to commit to doing this every week, but we all know how good I am at making blog commitments and FAILING!  So, I’ll start with at least once a month on Friday, and as I remember how the ride the photography horse I’m attempting to climb back onto, hopefully they’ll be more often.

Today I start.  I finished up my Thai lessons this morning, grabbed my camera and motorbike, and went in search for something to point and click at.  It was nearly noon (which is the WORST time to take photos) and flippin’ hot out.  I went to a local Buddhist temple but everyone but me was smart enough to be inside during that part of the day.  So, I continued driving until I came to a street corner that had some decent flowering bushes and trees.  I spent about 20 minutes fighting the breeze as I rocked my Macro lens, getting sun burnt all the while.  I shot probably 60 different photos and in the end only kept about 3 of them.

Yep.  Here is today’s first edition of Foto Friday from this Lazy Photographer…

Click the image above to be taken to Flickr to see the other images I uploaded today!

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Ever since moving into our new place my hands look like this and hurt after just 5 min shower. Anyone know why? http://twitpic.com/2f8hh7

August 16, 2010 1:03 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@two10eleven

Brook Sarver

Old Man hands?

I recently posted the Twitter / Facebook message above in hopes to find an answer to an issue I’ve been having since moving into our new place here in Bangkok.  I literally spend 5 minutes in the shower or helping do the dishes and my hands wind up looking like I just swam a triathlon in January…

I really don’t know what is going on.  Could it be this country boy’s reaction to Bangkok’s Chlorinated water?  An allergy of some sort?  Fungal infection?  Leprosy?

I’m not ruling out any possibilities at this point.  Still, I thought it best to post up on my blog in case some SE Asian, missionary doctor happens to come across this blog and save my hands’ lives….

Oh, and it hurts when it turns this way.  Not a sharp pain, but an aching pain as if to say “Ouch!  It hurts when my skins folds up on itself into deep crevasses and pretends it is those little Silica Gel packets in the toe of your new pair of shoes you just bought!”…

…Yeah, I may have issues…

Any thoughts?

There are a few things lately that really miss from home.  The first two months here have gone by amazingly fast and we are loving most of it.

I took some time to edit a few photos that I had taken back in June when we were in Colorado.  As many of you know, photography is a great stress reliever for me.  Sadly, we were/ are so busy I hadn’t had a chance to even pull the photos off of the camera until now!

I like these images on top of that mountain in Colorado.  I like them because I remember how beautiful it was.  I like them because I remember how stinkin’ cold it was at the very top.  I like them because they remind me of a shared experience I had with my wife (I mean, come on, coming from Indiana Sara and I haven’t spent a whole lot of time on mountain tops!).  I like them because I remember how little I felt standing in those trees as the bold, cold wind surrounded us.

I like these images for many reasons.  I also miss home from time-to-time when I see photos from times past and even those happening now.  I have sisters who are at their Homecoming football games of their Senior year in High School.  I have a brother about to his first child with his new wife who also just bought their first house.  I have a father who has season tickets to Purdue football and faithfully goes and cheers them on despite having now lost 5 games in a row!  (Boiler Up!)

Just as we have a lot going on day in and day out here in Thailand, we miss the things we are missing from home.  I miss that cold breeze form the mountain top…  I miss thinking creatively about our Christmas services at Olive Branch…  I miss Fall with family and friends…  And most days I miss knowing what to expect for that day…

God has done some amazing things in our lives to get us to this point!  I mean, come on, we’re 6,000 miles from home and working on learning a language that doesn’t have a western script alphabet!  That’s crazy!

There are these days though where hot apple cider, casseroles, being chilled to the bone, family, friends, and knowing what to expect for tomorrow sounds like the best vacation in the world!

I guess we really do underestimate what we have until it is gone…

Brook and Sara rock Bang Saen

Four years ago we served at a church in Bang Saen, a city that we have grown to love.  It’s a small university town that is MUCH quieter than Bangkok or other large cities.

When we showed up in Thailand this time, we scheduled it so that we could go down to Bang Saen for a few days to get un-jet-lagged and relax before jumping into our coming lives of language learning and cultural adjustment.  Only this time, we brought friends…

We met Jason and April Ruggles through some online connections a sometime in January or February of this year.  They were living in Fort Wayne and were about to depart to Thailand to serve as missionaries in Bangkok with their denomination.  We grabbed some Thai food in Fort Wayne with them and quickly they became great friends with like-minded hearts.  We liked that.

They’ve been working in Bangkok for nearly 3 months and for the past few days have opened their apartment to us for us to stay with them.  It’s been great fun and a great way to transition into life again in Thailand.

Soon enough (i.e. tomorrow) we’ll be in Bangkok and Lopburi beginning  our Language and Cultural Learning assignment for the next 8-10+ months.  Pray for us as we get started.  The Thai language is not easy to grasp and not something you pick up over night.  Pray for Jason and April as they continue to serve in one of the largest cities in Southeast Asia and on one of the largest universities in the world, Ramkhamhaeng University.

We appreciate all of your prayers and thoughts.  Thanks for being a part of our world and God’s plan for us!

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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?

Philippians 2:10-11 “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord…”

...face muscles...

The reality of us being only 3 1/2 weeks away from moving our lives overseas indefinitely is beating us over the head lately.  Sara‘s been packing up dishes, we’ve been getting our vehicles ready to sell, last week I cleaned the garage up and organized my tools to sell, etc.  We’re enjoying wrapping up a lot of our loose ends lately.  Cleaning a gargage is always a good feeling, right?!  And we’re PUMPED to finally have Thailand in sight, but it hasn’t all been easy.

We’ve had to say goodbyes to good friends who moved overseas themselves over a month ago.  We’ve said our goodbyes to our only child (read dog), Lilly.  And over the next few weeks the goodbyes will get harder and more constant.  But the good Lord will provide the strength in our weaknesses…

So life has been bittersweet lately.  What’s been the flavor of your life in the past few months?

arguments aren't that simple

More on that later tonight or tomorrow, but for now I’ll boast a bit on some old photography work I did while in Thailand. You may have seen this photo before. It’s made it onto purchased prints a few times, it’s a book cover for a Polish psychology book (my first ever image used for a book cover) and now it’s been showcased again on the Digital Photography School website in their latest article: 10 More Tips for Stunning Portrait Photography.

It’s really quite a good article. Go check it out… Also, why is it that it had to snow as soon as we hit Indiana on our drive home from our Caribbean vacation?