Milizlinx

About that surprise move to Bangkok...

We have been in Manila for a year now, and have enjoyed getting to know and working with the Area staff here. Manila is the main office for our organization in Asia, but the Area has been working to establish a presence in Bangkok. Bangkok is especially strategic because it is the headquarters of key multilateral partners such as UNICEF, UNESCO, and SEAMEO. Also, Area personnel,including our boss, travel more often through Bangkok than Manila because of its central location.  With these strategic goals in mind, we have been asked to move to Bangkok, as our executive assistant job is location-neutral now that we have completed the Manila-specific tasks assigned to us in this first year. After some prayer and consideration, we have set June 15 as the target date for our move. Our position, title, and responsibilities have not changed; only our location.

Since Thailand has not been an easy place for us to be in the past, Mommy's immediate "sure, why not?" response to the request was a surprise even to her - just one of a number of signs that this is God's plan for us at this time.  Grace and Jasmin have taken the idea of a move in stride.  Grace especially has been asking on and off for the last few months, "When is God going to ask us to go somewhere else?", so I don't think this was a surprise to her at all :o) She is now constantly asking Mommy, "how do you say this in Thai?" so we spend a few minutes every day on YouTube learning a word or two of Thai. Since we have chosen a Thai preschool for them for the first year, this is a good development!

Mommy was looking forward to beginning homeschooling with them this year, but an extra year of preschool will give them Thai and hopefully a network of friends.  This school is part of an outreach to children in a nearby slum (a paying school to fund the outreach activities) run by a local church.  We are all happy to find a Thai Christian school. While we were there visiting schools, both Grace and Jasmin kept telling us, "We don't want to go to a school where they worship other gods."!

Now we wait and pray for visas to come in time for us to move.  Since the girls' new school (Rainbowland) starts May 18th, the sooner we can go the better.