Yes, this is May 2012 and yes, the title is correct - this is the 2011 photo collection. Some people might think it is too late for me to post my annual best photo of the year contest but I don't think that, and it's my blog so that's that. Vote for your favorite or just marvel at these fantastic kids but either way leave a comment.
Our lives reflect it. ..... If we forget this, we might stop meeting with Jesus, we forget to pray or listen to God and we stop expecting God to meet us. And the downward spiral continues to decend from there.
I was at Church planting congress for the last 3 days, from all the worskshops, plenary speakers and conversations with fellow sojourners I came away with something simple yet powerful.
We have to live the reality that God is really alive. Do I live like God is alive?
Do you know God is living? What happens in your life when you live the reality?
Re:Call Day 1 Church Planting Congress 2011 Skye Jethani -We grow spiritually when we are uncomfortable. - Fear cripples imagination. - Jesus, simply Jesus. Spend some time with him so your eyes can be opened to see the world the way he does. Without controlling fear.
Ahhhh... Sundays. I look forward to Sunday's. In the morning I go to church to see my friends and fellow church goers, to worship God with my family, to hear my husband preach and to see the youth in my Sunday school department. I love it. I love Sunday afternoon's too because I can take a nap and rest(without guilt of being lazy) and do something different than all other days in the week. Sundays just seem so perfect to be restful on. It's my rest day, my sabbath day.
Last Sunday I decided not to take a rest, I felt the work load for the week was big and I had high expectations for us to get this renovation done, we're so close to being done. After church I worked on house work and renovations. I cleaned and sorted all afternoon and I paid for it in exhaustion all week. Ya it was busy, that's why I should have rested. I think I see why God designed a rest day for us, we need it. Ben and I both got worn out and overwhelmed.
Lesson learned - Take a sabbath day and rest on it.
I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength. Phil 4:12-13
Meditating on this verse
-fed and plenty are about life when all is good, it's not just about enough food and material items. It's about the people surrounding you that love you and the energy, emotions and confidence to do may things.
- need, hungry and want are not just about the lack of food and items. This is about all the holes and valleys in life, the loss of loved ones, the energy drain of illness or age, the lemons of life.
No matter what the situation is, the secret code to access contentment is found only in acknowledging that God gives the strength for any and all of life. When we forget that, we look inward and find we are weak and focus on what we can't do. Look at God and see his strength and you will be content, you'll be capable of things you never thought you could do.
What happens when you get old? Do you feel it? Do you feel it the moment it happens? Is there a moment when you say "a minute ago I was young and now, in this minute I am old?" When does it happen?
I was wounded in my confidence a few years ago and I did not recover quickly. I felt hurt and defeated and it lived as an under current in my life for a long time, even into today. It's really why I stopped blogging weekly so long ago. I doubted my place in the blogging world. As a kid I would have been over it the next day, as an adult I was set back. I'm disappointed that I was so affected I wanted to let it roll off more easily I wanted to not care. But I did. Maybe it's big people big problems or maybe - I got old.
Is old inevitable? Is old a date in the future ... or in the past. Some might say it's a process. Be careful --- Don't confuse old with age Age is the inevitable second by second journey we all live Old is a choice maybe?
When I look back over the last few years I see I acted old in the whole deal, I did not choose to be like a child. I can blog when I feel free like a child, I can't blog when I feel old. Young is willing to be vulnerable and take risks, old is fearful and concerned about the can'ts and the worry that respectable people don't let others know too much about what's going on inside and certainly do not air their dirty laundry.Old is a thing that happens when young is no longer practiced.I don't want to be old.
What is up with you people? -Begging me to blog..... I think you like me better than I like myself....... it's been sooo long, you think I still have stuff left to say? ..... I think you beleive in me more than I beleive in myself. What would I say if I started to blog again and where would I get the time? (Are these pathetic excuses or what.).... It's been so long(did I say that already), I sold packaged of my day to other activities by now and I am no longer the loaf-around-the-house-girl who once had time to blog weekly ......really that was me? I had time for that?..... I made time for it....I enjoyed writting. I could do it again ...I want to.... I want to want to. Could I really do it? ...hmmm .. It inspires me that you like me and that you want me to write. It makes me think I can do it again....I can make time again to do it. Thanks for the confidence. Thanks for the kick in the pants.
Well I think it was more difficult for people to choose this year because there were more votes all over the place but the one that had the most votes was not a surprise to me..... July - A little bit of heaven down here The picture is taken on the top of my parents property, the top of their mountain, it has such an amazing view, as you can see from the picture. I remember standing, looking out over this view, seeing, no city, no people, no pollution, no rush, just peace and stillness, it was all in comparison to the city Yangon we had just been in.
The days have slipped by and life is moving through 2011 at a rapid pace. I have had the best of 2010 photo post on my mind for more than a month now and tonight it has been accomplished! Yeah! My part is done, now your part begins. If you like the fun, vote for your favorite photo of 2010. I put more photos in this year... I had a hard time deciding. I hope you enjoy .... January - New Years resolution - Learning to fly!
March - Escape to a space that's all your own.
April(1) - Go fly a Kite!
April(2) - Ariel got fabric, an idea and sewing lessons from Mom for her birthday... she loved it.
May - Stop to smell the flowers.
June(1) - The way to be happy is to make someone happy.
June(2) - Sun and sand in Thailand
July(1) - Cookin' with grampa.
July(2) - A dollar a row.
July (3) - A little heaven down here.
August - YEEEHAA! Cowgirls have birthdays too ya know.
September - Pembina hills plus paint equals inspiration
October - Pippi and Mr. Nilsson
November - Come with me and you'll be in a world of pure imagination
Sorry to those that are getting impatient for more pictures and stories from our Asia trip - I have a few more I want to share, I just have to take the time to write them and post them. I have many things I have enjoyed doing now that I am home; visiting with friends, surfing the Internet, cooking, baking, painting with the girls, letting them have friends over, swimming lessons.... But now have a story a rewrite from my journal, I am going to write A-day-in-a-refugee-camp-for-the-Klassen-family-from-Cindy's-perspective
- Woke up to the sound of singing -5:30 I think - I check that my mosquito net has stayed tucked in - yes it has - I see Joelle is awake too - There is someone talking below us, they are getting ready to go out in their truck - Joelle and I have to go to the washroom ( it is to the left and down a few stairs) - We remember to grab a fist full of tp on the way down. No toilet paper in the bathrooms plus you can't flush the toilet paper, so we have to carry it to the garbage can. (Now that is gross!) - I think of how happy I am to have sitting toilets instead of the usual squat toilets you see in Asia, a real luxury in a refugee camp I am sure. - We get back to out beds, tuck in our nets and hope to sleep a little more - I listen to the Bible on my Ipod. Revelations and Psalms. -About 6:30 we are all up and milling around the hut. Most of the time we spend gazing down out of our hut at the activity happening below - I make the beds and fold the nets up for the day. - The students from the Bible school that bring us our meal see that we are awake so they bring us a noodle dish for breakfast. - We try to eat the noodle breakfast but it's just not normal to us. - We force Joelle to eat 5 more noodles - 7:30( maybe) we see a group of boys below spinning their tops on the ground so we watch them - We get out some foam/plastic toy airplanes that we brought along and we sling them out the window in their direction. They seem pleased and shoot them back at us. The planes go up and down, up and down and then get stuck in the trees but the boys get them out no problem. - Dr. Simon( who we have been waiting for, for 2 days) came out of the Bible school building and called us over to visit. - He asks Ben to share in Chapel tomorrow, and possibly share in a class or two today - At 8:30 we go to chapel, upon arrival we are taken to sit on the stage facing the students beside those leading and preaching in the chapel. - A dog that looks a lot like Zeke's-Miniature-refugee-self with a tail walks in and meandered though the people. No one seemed to notice him, except for me of course. - A Karen man preaches for 30-40 minutes - The girls sat pretty good. I kept thinking of how amazing our girls really are for being displayed like this, they only need a few reminders to sit decently and not pick on themselves(something they seem to do a lot these days when bored) they are such great girls. - At the end of the chapel Ben introduces us. - Dr Simon has changed his mind he has now asked Ben to teach all day. - I got hooked up with a computer -yeah! - I use the Internet to send a few emails - good but frustrating on a mac - The girls do origami and Ben prepares for the day of teaching - A large bug has been found on the stairs going down to the bathroom. Ariel saw it first and came calmly saying to was a tarantula, Ben went to look, he then called me over for an opinion on it's identity. I looked at it and said "it's probably a large cockroach." but in my mind I though spider for sure. We sprayed the uncertain bug with raid to be sure it was dead. - Someone came to get Ben and he went down the hill to teach - It is hot enough to take a cold bucket shower. The water sometimes runs out early in the afternoon, if it doesn't rain, so it is a good time to go anyway. I go down the stairs (past the dead ???) to the shower room that is just for us to use. I spray the room with raid first so the mosquitoes won't bite me. My neck tenses up from the first dump of water but after a few more buckets I can easily relax. To be clean and cool feels nice. -On the way back up I identify that the dead insect is in fact a large spider -probably a tarantula - (about 10 am) I wash all our dirty cloths by hand in the sink and hang them out to dry on the clothes line we have brought along - I take a picture of Ben teaching.
- About noon Ben returns from his class and lays down for a nap while we wait for lunch to arrive - The girls are still doing origami and creating toys with sticks and duct tape
- Waiting....hungry. - (12:30 about) lunch has arrived, it is a large spread, again, of spicy meat and bean sauces, and Ariel's favorite soup that she likes to mix with her rice. - As we finish lunch a young man showed up at our door. We invite him in. We talk about life here for him - he is in his 4th year at the bible school and he plans to help the people along the border regions when he graduates. He has lived here without his parents since he was 12. He tells us about how he became a christian here at the camp and wants to go back to Burma to tell his Buddhist family about Jesus. - at about 1:00 another student shows up to get Ben for teaching again, he also invites me. - I go for a while to watch Ben, of course he is doing a great job. - Ariel came to get me, a woman has arrived at our hut and wants to take their picture. I walk back to the hut and the woman is talking to the girls in Karen, smiling at them and patting and stroking them. We find out her name is Mumu, she is 66 and has 8 children. She give the girls some home made rice crackers and I take the picture she requested. The girls graciously eat the crackers. She kisses the girls and hugs them and then says a blessing over them. She was so cute -old lady cute. The girls can't wait to tell Ben about Mumu. - Some time in the afternoon I return to Ben's class, while I am there I ask the students questions about their future plans. They all plan on ministry but they say it is all what the Lord wills. One that stood out to me was "I want to be world leader in Peace." - I left the class and found some boys playing Chinlo below our hut, something I had wanted to learn ever since I heard about the game. Ariel comes down and we learn Chinlo together. Other children joined in, though we can't speak the same language, we understand each other. I could see that they were thrilled to teach us. (Its got some similarities to hackysack) - Ariel's turn for a cold bucket shower, she won't go in without me. - It is so hot today, I wish it would rain and cool this place. - A lady named Esther comes to visit. We talk for while about her 3 older sons, her past and present life. It is interesting and moving. - Our friend Winner walks by the hut and I borrow his phone to make some calls to make arrangements to leave the camp tomorrow. - Ben comes back at about 4 o'clock so we decided to go to the orphan home with our paint supplies and balloons - I was sure I knew the way to the orphan home from when we went last time - We get lost. - Amazingly(God's leading I am sure) we happen across our new friend Winner, who showed us the correct way to go - At the home Ben makes balloon animals and I give the children the art supplies and start them painting. The kids were reserved and shy to begin with but they don't take long and they open up with smiles and interact with us. - Before we leave we pray with the children and for their future. - We arrive back at our hut and supper has already been set on the table with a big net over it to protect it from the bugs. Among the food there are some strange things this time, a small oval shaped veggie, with a hard shell and seeds inside - tastes awful! ( I spat it out) There is also an unidentifiable meat ..hhhmmm? ... but it tastes good. - The water has run out by now but there is enough in the large tub we filled for Joelle and Seraya to shower. - A lady who works at the bible school stops by for a visit. - Not sure what time it is but by now the sun has gone down and it is dark out. - Ben reads to the kids while I do some writing. - We keep the light on only until the gathering bugs drive us crazy. - I put the nets down and spray inside them in case something has found it's way in throughout the day. - It is time to sleep, we all climb into our own beds with nets and tuck them in under our mattress'. Ben sleeps closest to the door and I sleep on the other side of the girls. Normally I enjoy this time of day- time to sleep but I can't say I enjoy it here in the Jungle, sleeping this far away form Ben on a hard mattress and pillow. I hope sleep comes quick. - End of a day in a refugee camp bible school with the Karen in Thailand
*the next morning when we woke-up the "thought to be dead unofficially identified spider" was mysteriously gone*
Ariel felt sick last night, we prayed for God to heal her, and he did. By the time we needed to leave for the children's home she was feeling a lot better, good enough that we felt we could continue with the day. Praise God. We went to a market on the way. The amount of things to buy was overwhelming, and we were harassed to buy many things and some we bought - 2 fans and collection of note cards, 3 dresses and some shoes.( of course we had to get shoes) Then we went for lunch to an Indian restaurant, we had to spoon feed the girls so they'd actually eat. Ben and I loved the food. After "full" bellies we drove a long way to get to the children's home. As we drove the city turned into villages, and then to farm land between villages, with a little jungle here and there as well. Rice fields went by, lots of dogs(108 according to the girls count), goats and shacks selling everything from crackers to clay pots. Lots of jeeps stacked with people or bamboo or bags of rice passing by. We drove on and on. Joelle and Seraya chatted the whole way. Ariel slept. We drove and drove some more. My sense of time was way off and I thought we had been driving way too long I was sure we were lost. Though I was kept entertained by the people I saw and the new environment plus the girls did so great with the long hot drive.(very hot and humid) They(the girls) didn't complain at all. Maybe the fact that they didn't have to wear seat belts helped them enjoy the ride. Soon Ton, our driver, slowed down, he drove more unsure of where he was going. Eventually he stopped to ask for directions(something I thought he was never going to do, and should have done an hour ago). We had driven too far. So we went back quite a way and after a few more wrong turns we made it to the road we needed to take to get to the home. By now it was pouring rain(as it usually did in the afternoon there) and the children were all coming home from school. We could see some waving at us from their "school bus" I was sure it was the kids from the home. So here we were stopped at this road, honestly I thought "if we go down that road we'll get stuck for sure". The driver was unsure too it took him a long time to decide to drive down that road. He drove cautiously, it was full of water filled potholes and was very rocky, almost like a river bed. he stopped to ask for more directions and the rain was still pouring down...... (not going into detail but I really had to go to the the bathroom right about here :$, Ben and the kids had a good howl at my expense) ..... Our driver found the place. We walked down a muddy path to the home. It was so beautiful and the kids were very excited to see us. We met them all (8) and tried to remember their names. We sang songs for them and they sang for us. We played games and talked about what they like. Then we did puzzles and drawing in their sketchbooks that we brought for them. At the end we prayed and it was time for us to go. Our driver was waiting for us by the main road so we walked out to meet him. It was very crazy driving home as it got dark, we won't do that again. Praise God we made it home alive.
For the protection of the children we are not posting pictures of their faces on the internet so the few photos I show are either not showing their face or of random shots of people and places along the way. If you want to see some great photos of the kids I can email you(in which case you'll have to send me a message) or you will have a chance to see some in church.
Eating Indian food for lunch at the Nila Birani Shop some houses along the way
The muddy road just before we got to the home Puzzling with the children
On the first day we were in Yangon we took a look around the city and we stopped at this Buddist temple. The Swedagon Pagoda, it is a very famous place in Burma. The pagoda is completely covered in Gold. it is a place of great respect so when i showed up in a sleeveless shirt I was given a shawl to borrow as I walked through the many shrines. Also everyone has to take their shoes off at the entrance.
An interesting thing for a me as I saw buddism in action was how they care for the animals. They have many offering areas in the temple and even along any street in the city where people can offer food to animals and they come to eat. When I saw this offering bowl I thought how even when they don't know it they worship God by feeding his creation, but I wish they knew the one they worship.They also bring flowers to lay before their idolsAs we were leaving the pagoda it was raining really heavy and this little boy was taking a shower. I tried to talk to and befriend his mother who was sitting near by nursing her baby, but she was very shy of me and so were her other children. She appeared to be very poor.
We are home -finally - after two months of being gone from our home. The regular things I always took for granted are special now, like I have my own washer and dryer, I can cook anything I want and go into my fridge and eat anything I wish, I feel so free. Isn't that funny how the most common things can be so special after traveling. This morning I was reflecting with God, on how he brought us on this adventure and has now brought us back home to these simple pleasures. All glory to God for all that has happened. Two months ago we left on an adventure, not knowing all the details or the lessons we'd learn, but trusting God would lead with his spirit in the plans we had made, and he was faithful. Today I thank God so much for all that he lead us to and I give him all the glory for our safe return and the adventure we had in the past two months. I stand amazed with God. Join me in this praise to God.
just to note - We just came out of 10 days in the mountains, which has very slow Internet so I could not add more stories of out time in Burma and Thailand. But they will come soon.
.jpg)
The picture is taken on the top of my parents property, the top of their mountain, it has such an amazing view, as you can see from the picture. I remember standing, looking out over this view, seeing, no city, no people, no pollution, no rush, just peace and stillness, it was all in comparison to the city Yangon we had just been in. 
January - New Years resolution - Learning to fly!
March - Escape to a space that's all your own.
April(1) - Go fly a Kite!
April(2) - Ariel got fabric, an idea and sewing lessons from Mom for her birthday... she loved it.
May - Stop to smell the flowers.
June(1) - The way to be happy is to make someone happy.
June(2) - Sun and sand in Thailand
July(1) - Cookin' with grampa.
July(2) - A dollar a row.
July (3) - A little heaven down here.
August - YEEEHAA! Cowgirls have birthdays too ya know.
September - Pembina hills plus paint equals inspiration
October - Pippi and Mr. Nilsson
November - Come with me and you'll be in a world of pure imagination
December - Patience is the key.
Chapel time at the Bible School. Singing of course.
The children in the orphanage Painting.
The Children singing.
We were there on ration day, which means that UN trucks bring in their needed food and supplies. This truck load was coal for cooking.
The view from our hut looking out. A few steps down and then it goes up the hill.
Our hut at at the refugee camp.
The mountains one has to cross to get back to Burma.
They also bring flowers to lay before their idols
As we were leaving the pagoda it was raining really heavy and this little boy was taking a shower. I tried to talk to and befriend his mother who was sitting near by nursing her baby, but she was very shy of me and so were her other children. She appeared to be very poor.
