Prayer and Deep Breaths (and one short day at a time)

You all are probably wondering if we are still alive or not.  We are alive that’s for sure!  We have never experienced time going so fast.  Another day, another week, another month……please, please clocks, sun, moon and earth, slow down!!!  So much to do, so little time.  My oldest son just informed me that there are only 19 days left in the school year.  Can I scream now?  I will give you a glimpse of what our past few months have been like.

First, Ryan and I sat down to make our “to do list” and the list alone took us 2 hours to write out.  I then made up a giant poster board size calendar with all we have to do, need to do, appointments, schedules, track meet dates, dinner dates, etc.  We have been squeezing in appointments such as dermatologist, eye exams, physical exams, dental checkups, etc.  We figure now is the time to get all these things done since we are not sure when we will be back in the states.  The orthodontist seems hopeful that Tyler will get his braces off before we go.

In exactly 24 DAYS we will be leaving Salida.  This means that we have to finish EVERYTHING in less than a month.  Can I scream again?  I will give you a quick glimpse of our schedule so you will know where we will be when.

LAST DAY OF SCHOOL: May 24^th

FLY TO CALIFORNIA: May 25^th

-          In CA. we will be going to my cousins wedding, visiting family including Rebecca’s grandma who is 94, and speaking at my grandma’s church in hopes to raise more support.

GET BACK HOME JUNE 2^nd

-          Wrap everything up and say goodbye to our family and friends

DRIVE TO MONUMENT, CO FOR TRAINING AT “MISSIONARY TRAINING INTERNATIONAL” : June 10th

-          This is an intensive 5 week course teaching us about language and cross cultural living.

FLY TO ALASKA: July 12^th

-          Visit family and attend Rebecca’s 20 year high school reunion.

-          Speak at Rebecca’s church, where she grew up to raise more support.

LEAVE ALASKA: July 23^rd

LAYOVER IN L.A.

FLY TO HONG KONG

ARRIVE CHIANG MAI, THAILAND: July 25^th

Our support is coming along.  We have not had a paycheck since the end of March and that seems so strange (and very, very scary!!).  We are at about 30% of our monthly amount needed.  I know we have told some of you a different % having been raised.  But, after paying for the 5 week Missionary training course with Missionary Training International in Monument, CO. (www.mti.org) and other unexpected expenses, we have temporarily been set back.  The MTI training was not on our radar as we were thinking about so many other important things.  But while in Thailand and since we have come home we have had three veteran missionaries tell us that the training at MTI should be mandatory.    A big thanks to Frontier Labourers for Christ and two of our friends and family for picking up a large portion of the MTI bill.  We couldn’t be doing this without you!  We cannot thank you enough for supporting us!  Wow, what a humbling process!  God has taught us so much through this process!  This is a team effort, that is for sure.

We were having a conversation with some wonderful friends recently who have been a HUGE support through all this.  New friends who felt God’s calling to support us financially and through prayer.  They have been a true God send and are setting an example as to how we should be supporting our friends and family in prayer as well.  They reminded us last night that we shouldn’t feel like we are “asking” for money.  Rather, we are asking people to partner together with us through prayer and financial support to accomplish this work that we have no doubt God has called us to.  Not everyone has been called to do this type of work, we are all a part of the body of Christ and all have a different purpose.  We understand that these are hard economic times.  We have personally felt it in our business for the past 8 years.  This is why we cannot rely on our business to fund our support.  Aaron and Amy Dobson could not be partners currently unless we backed out entirely from our salaries.   “Pressure” will not be our style but instead we ask you to prayerfully consider if God is calling you to be a part of His work in Thailand.  No gift is too small.  We have currently reached the 30% mark of our first year goals.

Here are a few scenarios to consider that would complete our financial goals:

90 supporters @ $30.00 a month (a dollar a day)

54 supporters @ $50.00 a month

135 supporters @ 20.00 a month

We are still on the search for someone to rent our home that we have lived in and raised our kids in for the past 13 years!  I’m sure most of you can identify if you thought about leaving your home to total strangers.  We have poured a lot of blood, sweat,  and tears into our home over the past thirteen years.  When we moved in it was a 960 square foot house that was built in 1967.  Over the years we have added on bedrooms, bathrooms, decking, a yard and just over a year ago finished a kitchen re-model.  Ryan and I personally did a lot of the work including, but not limited to drywall, insulation, painting, landscaping, decking, flooring, etc.  God is showing us that this physical home is a material possession and will not last forever.  We cannot take our home to heaven with us.  I’m sure when we see our new home in heaven we will be thankful we could not take this earthly home with us.  So, we have had two people look at the home and have had several responses from Craig’s list.  We have a couple from Denver coming out this weekend to look and are very hopeful that they will like the home and the area.  Please keep the rental of our home in your prayers.

We hope our next post will be sooner than this last one took us to write.  When you start to wonder if we are still around just know that we are diligently working toward our departure date.    Please allow us the privilege to pray for you too!  We would be honored to add you to our daily prayer list!  Please keep us informed of your lives.

Taking a deep breath and praying a lot, until next time……

Taking the plunge……..

It’s seems so crazy, but it’s true.  In less than a week we will no longer be receiving a salary from our business!  What??!  That’s what I keep thinking and saying! YIKES!  This is a little unnerving since we’ve been in a holding pattern for the last 13 years in the same business.  In order to pay our new business partners at the Country Bounty and get them started we are having to step out of our pay.  We wish the economy was such that we would be able to support both us and Aaron & Amy but that just isn’t realistic.

Okay, here are the hard facts:  We have raised a total of 30% of what is needed for the entire year.  That means we have 70% to go still!  We’re going to be totally honest, that scares us to death.  BUT, we  have to keep reminding ourselves, God is in control and has brought us this far!!!  After all the ways we’ve seen God work in the last four months we should have no worry at all.  But yes, we are still human and subject to worry the moment we take our eyes off the saviour. It’s hard to ask for money!  It’s not fun to ask for money!  And we never thought we would be doing this!  Where does your support go you might wonder?  Let us give you the main points that our three year work will entail:

-Managing the KLC (Conference/Retreat/Training center)

    *Setting up systems/controls that will ensure smooth operation of the center

    *Training Thai staff to do specific tasks

    *Building relationships with the greater Chiang Mai Community

    *Further development of the KLC to make it more marketable to other organizations

    *Assist the staff of FLC in further development of remote tribal village ministry.

If we look at all these tasks and the fact that we still have to learn basic Thai Language to become effective, it is going to take every bit of these three years to get all the tasks accomplished.  Here is what we hope to achieve:

IF WE ACCOMPLISH THE ABOVE TASKS, MANY MINISTRIES SUCH AS THE “BAREFOOT DOCTORS” WILL BE BLESSED BY THE USE OF THE KLC, AND AS WE RENT THE FACILITY TO OTHER ORGANIZATIONS, WE WILL BECOME LESS DEPENDENT UPON DONATIONS AND FUNDRAISING TO SUPPORT THE OPERATIONS AND FUNCTIONS OF FRONTIER LABOURERS FOR CHRIST.  AS THE KALNIN LEADERSHIP CENTER BEGINS TO GENERATE REVENUE, THERE WILL BE MORE FUNDS TO SUPPORT FLC’S  MINISTRIES SUCH AS BAREFOOT DOCTORS, THE ABUNDANT LIFE CENTER (ORCHID BLOOMS), AND MANY OTHERS.

Please consider and pray how you can support our new work in Thailand.  If you are feeling led to support financially it is very easy to do and is tax deductible.  There are two different ways.  If you want to support by credit card or debit card you can go online to www.frontierlabourers.org and click on the button that says, “donate.”  It will be on the right side of your screen and is gold in color. The second page will say, “donate now”  click on that.  Then after you enter how much you want to donate, if it is a one time gift or a monthly gift you will click on the drop down next to the words, “donation fund”.  Under that click on “evangelist” and in the box next to that it will say, “Evang/Miss/Proj” in that spot you will type, “Ryan Stowell”.  It really is easier than I just made it sound, I promise.  If you would rather support by check you can mail it to:  FLC   P.O. Box 630382, Highlands Ranch, CO. 80163.  Please put Ryan and Rebecca Stowell in the memo line.  Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions regarding any of this!
Of course the biggest support you can give is through prayer!  We will truly need it.  If you are praying for us, please send us a note now and then via email, facebook or on the blog.  It would be so encouraging to us!

Thank you so much in advance!  We are so blessed to have friends and family like you.  Please do not hesitate to tell us how we can pray for YOU!   If you have any thoughts of going on a short-term mission trip or organizing a short-term mission trip, please let us know so we can work with you!  For example, this week we began forming a plan with Valor Christian School in Denver how to bring students to the KLC to have an “eye opening” cross-cultural experience through exposure to tribal village projects and even attending Buddhist monasteries to dialogue with monks to gain an understanding of a different world view.

Grace to you all!

Ryan, Rebecca, Tyler, and Caleb Stowell

Going Home but the Journey is Just Beginning!

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Sunday Morning we went to “The Gathering” which is a church that meets in a room in a multi-level shopping center in the heart of Chiang Mai.  The message was spoken by a man who had been a missionary in Indonesia for many years.  His message seemed to be delivered directly to us by the Holy Spirit.  After the first five minutes he set his notes aside and never looked at them again as he delivered one of the most passionate, “from the heart” messages we’ve ever heard.  Here’s the overall idea of what he said:

-In our human state we are constantly seeking comfort or seeking to avoid discomfort.

-The plight of the Christian is the same regardless of your race, culture, country, language, or color.  We all will experience depression, disillusionment, and despair.

-Rather than seeking instant rescue as we always want, are we willing to trust that this is where God wants us?  Isn’t it when we are in these places that we are most humble, teachable, and ready to listen?

-The early church made the painful decision to follow Christ daily in life or death.

-The place of pain is the place of growth.

-It’s all about Christ and His glory, and we are his glory-bearers.

After church we went to see a house that some friends of Terry and Nancy want to rent out for 6 months to a year.  We have been struggling what to do about housing as we originally were going to stay on the KLC property.  There were a few things that bothered us about staying out there.  First, there are three families currently living in that house.  We felt a little odd making them move out so we, their new bosses could move in.  Not such a great start as the boss!  Secondly, it is a 45-55 min. drive from the school we want to send the boys to.  Doing that drive 4 times a day is just too much!  So when Terry told us about this house it seemed like the perfect fit!  It comes fully furnished, dishes and all.  It also comes with their car and all utilities pooled into one bill that the landlord brings to us to pay to her.  No trying to figure all that out.  And they have two mountain bikes they want to sell that will fit the boys and his mountain bike that Ryan can just borrow while we live in the house!  Oh, and the best part?  The house is one block from the school!  When you walk out the front door you can see the school!  For the first time ever the boys can walk or ride their bike to school!  The six months in this house will give us a chance to get a feel for the area, start learning the language and culture, learn to drive in an insane driving environment, and look for a house closer to the KLC that we want to settle in.  It couldn’t be more ideal!

Sunday night Ryan and I hit the night market in old Chiang Mai which was great fun!  On Sundays the different tribes bring in their handy crafts.  Our favorites were the bowls, salad tongs and such that were made out of mango wood.  We had a pad thai omelet for dinner from a street vendor and Ryan found some grilled corn on the cob.  Made sure it was high temped!  We walked and shopped for hours in awe of how it went on and on and at how many people are there shopping.  There are also dozens of street performers doing different musical or dancing acts.  My favorite was a four blind-man band who all sat in a row in the middle of the street like they were facing forward in the same toboggan.  The drummer used a five gallon bucket for his bass drum and it actually sounded great!  We then got a tuk tuk to take us home.  Rebecca asked him how much he had been drinking (as he had been sitting next to some beer bottles with his friend) and he assured us he was good to drive.   Thank God we made it back without any crashes!

Monday we went back out to the KLC, had more meetings with the staff there, emptied our suitcases into storage boxes, went out to ALC and spoke with Lopa about expanding and building new dorms for the children and then came home for our last night in Chiang Mai.

We start our long journey home late tonight (3-6) and are really looking forward to seeing our boys!  We miss them so much.  We are also looking forward to seeing my parents who are in our home taking care of everything there.  We are so thankful for all our family and friends who have helped us out during this process.  Dad and Mom Stowell, Dad and Mom Sexton, Valerie & Brent Sites, Susan & Don Thayer, Susie & Seth Richardson, Ron & Judy Dobson,  Aaron and Amy Dobson, Terry & Nancy Todd, Shannon Stowell, Claude & Margaret Dean, JP Ferraro, Mary Lois & Paul Ferraro, and Barry Todd.  We want to sincerely thank all of you who have offered prayers and support as we have committed to this ministry to the people of the Golden Triangle.  We love you all and want you to know we feel a great responsibility to be good stewards with your support!!!!  This is a team effort and we feel so blessed!

We are excited to be sharing all about our trip and the journey that is just beginning on March 18th at Salida First Baptist Church.  We will share at both services: 9:00 am and 10:45 am.  We hope to see you there!

Grand Opening

It was a beautiful morning and we were all rushing around making finishing touches here and there. Ryan was making finishing touches on the bathrooms in the main part of the center as they were in really bad shape. We discovered that bathrooms here are usually not tended to quite the same as those in America!

Meanwhile I was having a helium crisis as I was in charge on the helium balloons. The balloon man finished about 1/4 of the balloons I had given him and then quit. I could not figure out why he was stopping and Changbay, who was translating for me was not quite sure either. Finally we concluded that he must have had a leak in the tank? When we explained through a translator that he would not get the full payment unless he accomplished what he agreed to do he found a way to get it done.            

The grand opening celebration was well attended. There were probably about 300 tribal Burmese from the Ahka, Lahu, Rawang, and Karin tribes. They proudly wore their native ceremonial dress and even sang hymns and other songs in their tribal tongue. We were among 20-25 westerners. We were certainly the minority. It was great to observe how this ministry has been blessed over the last 30+ years. Beverley gave the history of her ministry with FLC.

The highlight for me was passing out some balloons to the kids. They were so cute and very excited to get a balloon to play with. Ryan told them they had to say their name before they got a balloon. A few understood and passed the message on. They would say in English, my name is __. One of the girls there has had her eye on me since we first saw her at church two weeks ago. Each time we have seen each other she will smile at me and come over and give me a shy hug. She is one of the “Orchid Bloom” kids who lives on the ALC property. My heart has melted!

The celebrations went on and on, lasting much longer than that of an American grand opening. A huge cultural difference that will be hard to get use to is all the talking that goes on during gatherings like this! We first noticed it at the Thai church. The kids talk and even the adults. If you have something to say to your neighbor during the sermon you just say it. Not even in a whispering manner. So during the grand opening while people were speaking it was quite loud in the auditorium. It must be hard to focus on your speech while so many people are talking.

After the grand opening we went back home with Uncle Terry and Aunt Nancy. They have blessed us in so many ways!  They have housed us, shuttled us, counseled us, dined with us, entertained us, and even let us use their scooter!   We were able to get a wonderful and much needed nights rest after the grand opening.

Blisters

We have had a busy three days getting ready for the grand opening of the KLC.  We have done everything from sweeping, painting, plumbing, planting, shopping, landscaping, and cleaning.  We are both sore (Ryan has blisters) and tired.  But it’s a good sore and tired.

Tonight is the graduation ceremony for the Barefoot Doctors.  We are excited to see how that goes.  Tomorrow morning is the grand opening where the Governor of Chiang Mai will arrive and cut the ribbon for the KLC.  After that time people will be able to tour the facility and then we will have a fabulous Thai lunch.  After lunch the different tribes will celebrate by performing their native tribal dances.

Brain overload

The past three days have consisted of meeting our new boss, employees, attending meetings that have ranged from 9 to 10 hours each day.  The things we have learned, discussed, worked out, talked through, brainstormed and come up with have our heads spinning.  Just trying to learn the names of our new employees has our head spinning!  For example: Sarep Pung, which name is his first, which is his last or do you say both names together?  Then to remember his face and his job.  Wow.  More names we have learned: Nangsar, Dundanya, Salika, Atung, Adang, Ato, Pang and Jung.  The people here are wonderful!  We already love them.  They have big hearts, big smiles and are genuinely happy.   In the meeting today we met with all the staff of KLC, heard their names, what their job descriptions are, where they are from and learned about their families.  Many of them were from the Rawang tribal people of northern Burma.  There were also others from the Akha Tribe, and one from the Yao tribe.  In the leadership meeting we talked about the future vision of the KLC, job descriptions, and the grand opening of the KLC this weekend.

We also heard from a man who would like to start a Bible school  for the tribal people of Burma on the KLC property.  Please pray for this man and his family.  His name is Jim.  His son Paul got into a serious motorcycle accident involving a Thai police officer a few weeks ago.  The officer, who wasn’t wearing a helmet, and was on a motorcycle, hit Paul’s motorcycle.  After a week on life support, the police officer has died.  The officer was officially brain dead when arriving at the hospital.  They decided to put him on life support anyway and did two brain surgeries.  All of this and the funeral costs, approx. $40 thousand USD are going to be put on Paul and his family.  It’s a long and complicated story but Paul cannot leave the country until after the court hearing.  He will most likely be charged with involuntary manslaughter and may have to do jail time.  Seems like an obvious spiritual attack on the Arnold family.  Please pray that the judge will listen to Paul’s side of the story and show mercy so that the work and lives of the Arnolds may go on.

Church on Sunday was a new experience!  We went to the local church called the Beulah church that is the Thai supporting church for FLC.  The service is in Thai but because there were a lot of westerners on this day we had a translator.  There was also a translator who was translating Thai into Burmese.  They also sang some songs in English.  It was very moving singing songs and worshiping God with people on the other side of the globe.   The kids from the ALC sang some songs for us.  They were so cute and our hearts went out to them and the lives they live.  Again, we were reminded how very “rich” our lives are in America in more ways than one.

To sum up our past three days, we are thrilled about what Frontier Labourers for Christ has done, is doing, and has the potential of doing!  As Ryan puts it, the Kalnin Leadership Center is a gem in the rough.  Our work will now be to study this gem and decide as a team how we should cut it in such a way so as to maximize its potential!

We’re not in Kansas Anymore!

We have been in Thailand for just over a week now and realize, we are not in Kansas anymore! (Colorado in our case) The sights, sounds, language, driving, smells, dwellings, customs, religions, foods, stores, parking, products, vegetation, etc. make it feel like we are on a different planet! The temperatures here are getting up into the 90s and down into the 60s. Early morning and late evenings feel good. The smoke in the valley is overwhelming. We hiked to the top of a hill today and could hardly see anything because of the pollution. Sometimes it smells like someone is having a camp fire in our back yard and the smell fills the house. When out and about we will see people with surgical face masks on to protect their lungs. At one of the schools we toured they told us that the kids do less physical activities during this time. I guess this is pretty typical of this time of year. I hear it does clear up and you can see the mountains surrounding the city.

Yesterday we went to the store and were looking for lotion. The only lotion I could find was labeled “whitening”. I am assuming that this lotion does something to the skin to make it look more fair. Isn’t that funny, we use lotion to make our skin look tan and they use lotion to look white.

The plants and vegetation here are amazing! It’s like living in a greenhouse. And this I would know since I grew up in the greenhouse business. The most stunning to me is the orchids that are everywhere! Orchids in the states are very expensive and exotic; an orchid plant in the states may be between $20 and $50. At the market I saw a beautiful orchid for only $5! In the wild the orchid grows on the bark of trees and does not need soil to grow in. I have seen the landscaping here done in that fashion with people placing the orchids on the palm trees in their front yards. The colors, shapes, sizes and fragrance of the flowers remind me how truly creative our God is.

The news here is told in more ways than radio or tv. Every day (not sure how many times) someone drives a truck through the neighborhood with a loud speaker shouting out the current news. Of course we can’t tell if it is local news, national news or both as we don’t speak the language.

The market is the biggest of culture shock! Both of us love meandering through the aisles and isles of fresh produce, trinkets, raw meat, prepared dishes and plants. There are things that they grow and eat here that we never knew existed. Hardly anyone in the market speaks English so yesterday when we came across a young girl who spoke English we were thrilled. How we knew that she spoke English was because she came over and pointed and said, “yellow zucchini”. Ryan has learned a few phrases in Thai and told her, “you speak very good English” in the Thai language. Then she started to rattle off in Thai and so he had to say, “I do not know the Thai language.” After that she asked us if we liked passion fruit. I had never had it but Ryan had in his travels to Papua New Guinea and told her, yes very much! She showed us a bag and we decided to buy it. Then she said, “do you like spinach?” We said yes and she tried to sell us some. She was a good sales lady. While wandering through the market the things that stood out were the produce we had never seen before, fresh pepper on a stem, HUGE ginger roots, large garlic clumps, the large bowl of live frogs, the tub of chicken feet & eggs, and something that looked like ant larva. Yes, ant larva!!!! That’s all we can figure it was as some of them were moving and some looked like they were hatching. Eewwww! The market would never pass the health inspection in America! There were fish and meats of all kinds not chilled and not on ice and there were flies everywhere. We are excited however to pick out some of the fresh mushrooms, ginger, leeks, Thai basil and other fresh produce and make a delicious stir fry (at high temps)! We will let you know how that turns out.

The noises are from another planet! I can’t even explain them to you but I will do my best. The day is filled with birds of all kinds, cicadas, frogs, crickets and other insects. There are chirps, groans, songs, clicks, peeps, croaks and moans. The night is filled with a new sound all of it’s own. A lot of these sounds must be frogs, but most of the time you wonder what in the world is making that sound?! It can over take the night and make your head swim.

ศูนย์ชีวิตที่ครบบริบูรณ์ (Abundant Life Center)

Rice, it's what's for dinner....and lunch....and breakfast.

This is Lopa, the man with the big heart. He and his wife run the ALC.

These pictures are all from the ALC which I talked about in my post a few days ago.

The Barefoot Doctors

This gallery contains 5 photos.

A DAY OF LEARNING

Ryan and I in front of the boys “dorm” at the ALC.  The girls “dorm” is about the same size and they squeeze about 18 girls into that small space!  The roof is bamboo, so when it rains the kids get wet.  We asked how much they thought it would cost to put a metal roof on and they said around $200 USD.

                                                                                                                                                        2/20/12

Today was a day that answered a lot of questions for us and opened our eyes to the extreme poverty in the area.  I am excited to share about our day with you, it will be a day we will never forget.

We started by going to the FLC which was a 30 min. drive from where we are staying with Ryan’s Uncle and Aunt.  We were met by Jung, whom we will be working closely with for the next three years.  He gave us a tour of the facility, rooms, kitchen, Stiles house and grounds.  We were able to see the barefoot doctors in their classroom setting and meet the dean of the school and several of the leaders/doctors.  There are 26 native doctors from Burma in the program, 18 men and 8 women.  We had lunch with them in the cafeteria which consisted of short ribs, soup, rice, spicy stuff :)  and some greens we were unfamiliar with.  It was delicious.  A good part of the afternoon was spent brainstorming with Jung about the buildings, property, who we can rent to and what attractions are in the area that people would be interested in going to.

The last half of the day was spent touring FLC’s neighboring property where Lopa, a Thai man, and his wife run a facility called the Abundant Life Center.  This is a place that takes in kids from villages where the parents can no longer afford to “keep” them.  In most cases like this, without intervention, the kids will be sent to monastery’s (boys) to live with buddhist monks and the girls are sometimes sent into prostitution.  Lopa and his wife provide a small bamboo shelter, food and schooling for the kids who range in ages 7 to 20.  They try to be self-sustaining as much as possible.  They raise chickens, pigs and cows and grow quite a bit of their own food.  Donations of rice are sent to them every once in a while.  Talk about poverty!  The roofs over the kids “dorms” are bamboo and when it rains while the kids are sleeping they all run into Lopa’s house.  Yes, all 24  of them!  But this means all their blankets, clothes, books, etc. get soaked and I can’t imagine how long it takes for these items to dry out during the rainy season!  Sponsorship of these kids is possible through the frontier website @ www.frontierlabourers.org click on “orchid blooms”.  $30.00 a month feeds, shelters and sends these kids to school.  Without this program these kids would have no education and would end up in unfortunate life altering circumstances.  The goal of Lopa’s ministry is to introduce the hope and new abundant life of trusting in Christ as Lord.   Another goal is that the children will learn good work ethics and be able to work a job to support them and their families.  We were unable to meet the kids as they were in school while we were touring the area.  We hope to go back and see them soon!