We’re all pretty excited to update our blog with the following information!

We have made a decision about our family’s future.  When we left for Thailand 6 months ago, we made a one-year commitment to Imagine Thailand.  We were unsure whether we would come back to Canada or stay in Thailand once the year ended.   That decision has now been made.

drum roll, please………..

At the end of July 2010, we will move back to West Kelowna and take up the position of Campus Pastors at Emmanuel’s Peachland Campus.  At the same time, we will continue to work with Imagine Thailand as Canada-based volunteers.  To be more specific, we will work with Emmanuel Church 50% of the time and for Imagine Thailand 50% of the time.  We are working through the details of this arrangement with Pastor Derrick Hamre of Emmanuel Church and with Peter and Cavelle Dove – executive directors of Imagine Thailand.

To make a short story long, we waited until January to begin to seriously think about what we would do once our one-year adventure ended.   We purposely ignored the question in our first four months in Thailand in order to settle in and work without distraction.  But we knew we had to decide eventually.  And so, at the beginning of the new year, all 6 of us took significant time to think about the future.  For one week, we spent a portion of each day thinking and praying about what to do.  When the week ended, Irislee and I interviewed each of our children, Irislee and I shared our own feelings with each other, and then we put the puzzle pieces together.  To our dismay, the puzzle pieces didn’t fit.  The decision wasn’t unanimous.  We spent additional time weighing out different options and talking with Pastor Derrick and the Dove’s.  Without speaking with each other, both Derrick and Peter suggested the same option to us–a 50/50 split.  The moment we learned that this was a possibility for us, we knew it was the right decision.  In fact, as Irislee and I went back over our notes, we realized that all of the comments and ideas fit neatly into this specific solution!

The dual role offers many exciting opportunities.  Pastor Derrick’s keynote address at the beginning of January was inspirational and we want to be a part of Emmanuel’s plans for the future.   There is so much potential!  At the same time, creating awareness of Imagine Thailand’s work, raising money for projects, and taking teams from Canada to volunteer in Thailand gives us the opportunity to carry on what we began in Mae Sot this year.  Now we are praying for someone to come live in Mae Sot to take on the day-to-day responsibilities here.

Please continue to stay in tune to what is happening at Imagine Thailand.  Even though we are coming back home in four and a half months, we are not winding down.  In fact, our project load is increasing.  We will continue to keep you informed about significant events.  Next week we begin the third of our three main projects:  The Life Book Project.  We’ll give you the thrilling details in our next blog…

See You Soon!

PS.  Oh yes…on a side note.  After a desperate search, we finally found a website that showed the Canada-USA Gold Medal Game.  Isaac and I woke up at 3:00am to watch Canada win in overtime.  Even though we dragged ourselves through the next day, it was so worth it!