J+D in Chiang Mai: Keeping Pace with God

Dear family and friends,

Have you ever run on a treadmill?

I (Daniel) used to finish off my workout sessions at the gym with an intensive run on the treadmill. Each time I did so, I tried to push myself to go faster. One too many times, I set the speed of the treadmill so fast that I almost flew off the moment I stepped on it!

Eventually, I realised it wasn’t a good idea to set the speed too high right from the start. Instead, I should set a slower speed, jog for some distance, and only then ramp up when I’ve gathered enough rhythm and momentum.

The first six months in Chiang Mai has felt quite similar for us. There’s a part of us that is raring to go and begin the work at full speed. And there are plenty of needs here that continually tug at our hearts.

Yet when we increase the speed on the treadmill of our lives, we realise that the pace is not quite right for us. We find ourselves out of breath, wondering why our stamina seems so weak.

Time and again, God reminds us that He has made all things beautiful in its time (Ecclesiastes 3:11). There is a season for all things, and we’re still figuring out our pacing alongside God in this particular one.

We have been sharing our thoughts and reflections more regularly on Instagram recently. If you’re interested in our journey, you can follow our account here: @jayndeee!

MCA typically runs their mission conference in March every year. It is a week-long affair, kicking off with MCA’s Exco meeting, the conference proper, and finally three back-to-back days of training for the pastors and missionaries.

We didn’t know what to expect as it was our first time attending this conference. It turned out to be extremely exhausting – we both fell sick towards the end of the week – yet a really eye-opening and inspiring experience for us. We were thankful to get to know the other pastors and missionaries across Thailand, and see how God is slowly but surely extending His hand across this nation over the years.

We also had the opportunity to present a potential project, on behalf of the self-sustainability committee, at MCA’s Exco meeting. The reception to the concept was encouraging, and we pray that the committee will be able to build on it in the years to come.

Since we moved to Chiang Mai, we’ve had to travel back and forth between different places as our house wasn’t ready for us to fully move in yet. In early April, that moment finally arrived, and we’ve since been busy cleaning up the house, getting the things that we need, and making it feel more like a place we can truly call our home.

We realised for ourselves how important having a space to rest is, and are truly thankful for God’s provision!

At the same time, it’s crazy how we’ve already been able to host our friends and their stories in this space. Over just two weeks, four groups of friends (mostly unplanned) have come and joined us for meals and we’ve been able to share lives with one another unhurriedly.

We also took this opportunity to get to know our neighbors by making and distributing some desserts (mango sago!). One of them came back to visit us with a huge bag of tarts! The hospitality of the Thais never fails to surprise us.

Around this time, the hot and hazy season hit Chiang Mai in full force. We were so grateful to have a comfortable house – with air purifiers and air conditioning – to take refuge in. God always provides exactly what we need, when we need it. Yet, our hearts break for the Thais who have to continue going outdoors to labor. We pray that God will look after their needs as well.

Having our own house meant that we could continue to have our Thai language lessons in the comfort of our home. But with everything that has been happening around us, it has been challenging to keep the routine of doing our homework and revisions on days in between lessons.

I (Daniel) have also been struggling with my new “identity”. There was a point in the past few months where I was feeling very disheartened with my inability to communicate with the locals. Upon reflection, I realised that over the years I had built a reliance on my identity as a strong communicator in the English language. Without it, it felt like I had I had no worth. I felt like a child!

But then I remembered how the disciples questioned Jesus in the Bible (Matthew 19:13): “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

And His response (italics mine):

Children are precious to their parents not because they can offer anything of value. In fact, children need to rely on their parents for everything! They are valuable simply because they are their parents’ children.

Are we able to see our worth simply as a child of God?

When we were invited by the pastors of our church to share our story with the congregation, we decided to do it fully in Thai. Both of us spent an entire week working on the script so that we would be able to communicate our vision clearly and accurately! We were certainly nervous (especially Daniel) but the encouragement from our fellow church members during and after service lifted a huge weight off of us.

We pray that we will become so confident in our identity as children of God that we can, as Paul did in 2 Corinthians 12:9, boast gladly about our weaknesses:

Over the past five months, we have had many chats and discussions with the pastors and members of NYMC, and gotten to know them and their needs better. Even as countless ideas came up, we really wanted to do only what God is calling us to do. Rather than drive our ideas to respond to whatever need arises, we are learning to count on God to begin any work He wants.

We identify strongly with our pastor’s vision of building a strong worship team. To him, the worship team is an extension of the pastoral staff, as fellow ministers serving God and his people weekly. We couldn’t agree more!

This is why we have decided to focus our efforts on strengthening the worship team and supporting its leaders. So far, we have formed a core team together with the leaders, and are sorting out roles, responsibilities, and ministry structure with them.

We also started serving with the team during Easter service, and we will be continuing to play the bass and keyboard respectively, as well as helping out with the sound and media.

English Class

When some of our church members knew that we would be serving in their midst, they were excited at the prospect of being able to learn and improve their English with us. For us, however, we were not as excited. For me (Jan), having taught English regularly the last time we were in Chiang Mai, I found that I really did not enjoy it (yes, very unmissionary-like 😂). I struggled to come up with useful and engaging lesson plans and found that the fruit was often slow-growing.

Yet, as some members approached us more seriously at the start of April, we saw it as an opportunity to spend time with them and meet them where they are. This renewed perspective has enabled me (Jan) to hold more loosely the need for a solid curriculum or the outcome. While I still desire for our members to be able to hold a simple conversation in English eventually, the joy of being able to serve them in this manner and walk with them is enough.

We’re thankful for the short break that we had over the Songkran (Thai New Year) holiday, especially since the coming months look to be quite busy indeed.

At the end of April, two of our friends from SKMC will be visiting us for close to two weeks. One of the key ministries we will all be supporting is a local worship conference called People of Praise, which is held annually. People of Praise was conceived by small group of local pastors passionate about worship in 2023, with a mission to “raise and send Christ’s people to live a life of praise to God everyday.”

This year, the conference will include training for different roles in the worship team, as well as a “battle of the bands” type of competition. Some of our worship team members from NYMC will be attending this, and we will also be sending a full band to compete!

After that, we will be heading back to Singapore in May/June to attend SKMC’s church camp, as well as our official commissioning as missionaries. We are also in the midst of planning for different groups of people from Singapore who will be coming down to serve with us here from June till August.