on the house – Page 5

thanksgiving.

November 25, 2017 by Stephen & Kelli Spurlock Filed Under: kelli, on the house Leave a Comment

For Thanksgiving this year, we gathered around tables outside, lit by candlelight and mosquito coils and Christmas lights, with twenty or so friends from around Mae Sot. We had collectively attempted a variety of dishes from scratch and sans some ingredients, just as we do each and every holiday that comes along.

I made Stephen’s grandmother’s famous rolls so it tasted like home to him and smelled like it to me. I wore a bandage from yet another eventfully unpleasant week of medical issues. We went for a walk, scaring off street dogs the whole way and talking about what we were thankful for and what we were celebrating this week. It was our weekly celebration, after all.

Home and holidays are becoming so vague.

As friends packed up extras to go, there was still so, so very much leftover. But I couldn’t see it thrown out, not serving breakfast to fifty malnourished kids every day. So we packed it up, stored it in our oven for a few hours, and then reheated everything at 6am.

The kids got to take their pick for breakfast, trying sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, stuffing, turkey bone & skin & tendon (what you and I would determine “meat” had been eaten!), and watermelon!

They loved it. Thida loved it. She would encourage them to try something new, and take whatever leftovers they denied! We had a second feast, right alongside the sunrise.

The Flour & Flower ladies arrived to bake bread that morning, but we have rules about the breakfast food being for the malnourished kids, not the adults. However, we often share the leftovers on Friday, so I heard them checking in periodically, disappointed, Are the kids eating it all? Oh, it’s nearly gone…

There were still leftovers (!!!) though that were then packed back into the fridge a bit longer. Around noon, when the ladies finished bread baking, I re-heated everything in the ovens again, while they cleaned up. I made it look like it was for Stephen & I’s lunch, not mentioning anything to them and setting up a little table out of sight around the corner.

And then we surprised them with a little feast for us to have together. And while the stuffing didn’t taste amazing the third time around, and Stephen assured them if you heat the mashed potatoes through (oops!) they taste much better…it was a hit. They each took home a full plate of extras to their husbands.

I love how this community teaches us more and more of home and holiday. So that while it wasn’t a typical holiday and certainly didn’t come in an easy week, we gave thanks together!

rejoice with me!

June 18, 2017 by Stephen & Kelli Spurlock Filed Under: house church, housewares, kelli, on the house 3 Comments

Since we returned to Mae Sot, it’s been a dark season. I’m not sure I can even put my finger on it, or words to it, except to say that I’ve wanted to move back more than ever before. I’ve questioned if anything is coming of this; if it is worth the heartache and challenges. If it is worth the mountain that constantly seems to lie in front of us.

While we were stateside, one of the ideas gnawing on me was this: I don’t just want to do good here. Good is, well, it’s innately good; but it’s so temporary. Take Flour & Flowers: I love it. It kills me every week, but I love it. I love that I can see the women learning new skills, building their confidence, and seeing their families better off. There are clear successes and clear results, which is unique in this work, and rewarding.

However, if we’re honest, it’s so minimal. They are still paperless; they are still poor. They are only slightly more comfortable and stable; and what happens when we go? Or people stop buying bread & flowers? It feels like you are working so hard for, well, a Band-Aid. A temporary relief of pain, while we’re all still stirring around in the same pot of brokenness.

{I told you this was a dark season, and I am wrestling with my own dark season. But I promise this post ends in great rejoicing. Get excited, and don’t give up on me!}

So I’ve been praying through this: how do we communicate hope in Christ? And how do we even continue to walk in it, broken situation after broken situation?

I’ve been praying through many prayers, wrestling through many questions, and crying many tears. Because I just feel like God hasn’t said to leave yet, but sometimes I’m not sure why we stay.

But this past week we have had some beautiful news.

And I’m simply going to report it in the order it came in, because really, where do you start? Apparently beginnings & conclusions aren’t my speciality. I’m just in for the long, long road in the middle.

First, two years ago in July 2015, we loaned a young couple a large sum of money. It was around $700, to help them pay off a loan they had taken with a loan shark & had a horrible interest rate–30% monthly if I recall correctly. Their plan to pay it off was to split up, with her moving to Burma pregnant & him staying behind to work it off. We offered a plan for them to pay it off in four months to us interest-free.

Two years later, it’s quite clear four months didn’t happen! After the first few $60 payments, they bailed for awhile. We then asked them to give her Flour & Flowers salary each week, about $9. And in $9 increments, for well over a year, they paid off the entire loan last week.

{Insert all the shock and awe and pride you can imagine.}

And then it gets even better: she told us last week that they now want to save with us! She’s going to continue giving us the $9 per week to save for their family!

{Internet writing is not equipped to express the emotions needed for this post, and even more is yet to come!}

And in another success story: Mwei Mwei is attending a sewing training here in town at a Christian organization, and she is loving it. We’ve “hired” her to do this training, and in just a couple weeks she’ll be sewing at our house five days a week. This will keep her with her family, out of a Bangkok job, and she’ll be able to study one hour a day.

She’s confident & smiling now; she’s excelling as a seamstress. Her mom tells me every week that she is so happy, and we couldn’t be happier.

I read a [horribly depressing] article this week on Al Jazeera about the loan business and prostitution that is all over Burma now. It talked about those at risk–taking loans, often from neighbors and friends, at ridiculous interest rates and ending up in endless debt. It talked about how many people are turning to prostitution to pay debts and survive. It talked about the young girls, dropping out of school at 13, and taking jobs for the family–sometimes in factories and sometimes in prostitution, but either way leaving them vulnerable for such situations in the future.

But while I read this, these weren’t vague stories: these were my best friends.

While I didn’t love the messy conversations about money or the ridiculousness of keeping track of $9 per week; while I don’t love hiring a 15-year-old and it isn’t easy to line up tutoring for her every day–it’s all worth it.

Because it’s keeping them from much worse, and it’s investing in dear, dear friends.

And now, the true jaw-dropper, friends.

For a long time, we’ve been attending church every week with one family–a couple with three boys–and then a whole lot of kids. We recently added a grandmother and a young girl with mental disabilities. And we always, always have lots of kids.

We’ve been inviting friends and telling them about our faith for years in the best language we can muster, and really, it’s been evident evangelism isn’t our gifting. We’re planters and waterers in this community. But this family going with us: they are evangelizers. And so are our pastor & his wife.

And as of this week, six people from around our community are in a baptism class, and they’ll be baptized this Saturday at the local reservoir!

I don’t even begin to have the words or descriptions for this. One of them is our sweet little Yaminoo, who we’ve loved for so many years and prayed so many prayers for. And her dad–I don’t have the words.

All I know is that faith, hope, and love remain. All I know is that even if they are stirred in the pot of brokenness forever on this earth, faith, hope, and love will set their lives apart. All I know is that “he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me!'” (Luke 15:6,9)

Rejoice with us, friends. Because this is all worth something.

So if our adoption falls to pieces, or our social skills, or even our sanity: if we have jumped in this pot of brokenness with them and can only come home with more disorders and messes than we can ever deal with, it was all worth it. Because faith, hope, and love will remain.

Rejoice with us!

accentuate.

June 13, 2017 by Stephen & Kelli Spurlock Filed Under: kelli, on the house, onehouse, photos, playhouse 1 Comment

Some seasons it becomes vitally important that you accentuate the positives. And that is precisely this post: when I can’t find the words for all the situations around us, we’ll just accentuate the positives.

We made it to Bangkok last week, and overall had a good trip. We drove there so we could make a trip to Ikea (!!), which is a lot of good things in one sentence! We had a car that made it all the way to Bangkok and back with no problems (thanks, Hagelbergs!); Stephen also rocked Bangkok traffic for a week, which is quite an accomplishment. And we went to Ikea!

And one of the hotels we stayed in had the elevators covered in denim fabric?! It wasn’t a win. We stood in the middle so we didn’t touch the sides! 😂

We successfully completed our adoption course with about thirty other couples from around the world.

That’s us: we’re PAPs! That is, Prospective Adoptive Parents. I don’t know if they use this reference worldwide, but I would think any countries that use Pap smears wouldn’t. Just a personal opinion.

And since we’re accentuating the positives, I’ll just say that we finished the course!

Then we headed just outside of the city to visit our Burmese friends working in local factories. In short: Musana moved back to live with her mom, step-dad, & sister at the end of last year. While we were in America, her grandmother & cousin, Zen Yaw, moved there, too, to join the whole family.

The good part? The family is all together. Zen Yaw is reunited with his mom & dad, who he hasn’t lived with since he was an infant. Musana is with her family, and they are all in the apartment building. The grandmother has less responsibility, and they are overall doing better–the adults have jobs and are paid minimum wage; the apartments have running water and real walls; they are eating better.

The bad part? It’s pretty far from our street in Mae Sot, and we’re sad about that! They also aren’t able to go to school where they are, and there aren’t many kids to play with.

But, we got to spend two days with them, and that was lovely. Zen Yaw remembered us and warmed up to us quickly; it was so fun to have him curl up into our laps. He also is doing really well for the amount of trauma he’s experienced in his 4 years.

They really are both doing so well emotionally, and they light up just having someone to play with. We played Chutes & Ladders, practiced some English workbooks, played games on our phones, and chatted with the adults. We try to bring them some toys, too, that are more long-lasting: dolls she can play with repeatedly; crafts they can do; English workbooks; a punching bag for Zen Yaw! And Stephen loaded up some videos onto a flash drive, so they can learn some English and listen to Bible stories, which they were oh-so-excited about.

As sad as it was to see them for such a short time, I can’t minimize the miracle it is to be able to see them after they’ve moved hours away. And we are truly glad to see them doing well and be able to reconnect with them often and continue to love on them any way we can.

And, because we drove, we wanted to find a place nearer to them to stay. We usually take a couple hours of train rides & taxis out to their house from the city. This time we found a resort about twenty minutes from them and decided to give it a try.

It was a WIN. It was set on 70 acres along the river, with beautiful paths and a lovely swimming pool.

They had three restaurants there, with food prepared from their on-site organic gardens. They also make soaps, teas, and other products organically right on their property, which was pretty great.

We got to go paddle boating out on the lake!

And now we’re back to Mae Sot, settled into our great new house and community space! We are loving it. Playhouse has gone so well in the afternoons, with kids coming from all over the neighborhood, and often parents, too.

We’re seeing moms coming with their young toddlers, sitting to play with them, read to them, and teach them. This is what we always hoped and envisioned, and it’s working!

I did attempt to teach Guess Who in Burmese, which was a bit of a disaster. Oh, well!

This week also held International Milk Day–who knew that was a thing?! It really just means milk was on sale and seemed a good treat for the kiddos!

This weekend, we braved a Bingo night! The first week we got back from America, Nyein Nyein asked when we’d have Bingo. (Nyein Nyein is an adult–one of the moms who bakes bread every Friday!😂) We recently have had a number of expatriates move back and leave us with some donations for the community. Since they are difficult to distribute evenly and fairly, Bingo is a great way to make it a fun community event and less of a stampede 😀 And we had SO much! In the photo below, the entire corner behind me was stuffed with clothes, shoes, bags, household items, toys, and other treasures.

And since this is all about accentuating the positive, I won’t dwell on the woman that grabbed a pile of things at the end and ran out the door…😳😡😕😡😣😡

Ultimately, it was chaotic and fun and everybody loved it. We’ll do it again in another six months when our bravery has returned!

And, while the photo below is pathetic, it was a fun part of the week! Stephen is working on pieces of his OneHouse album and had a friend record some vocals and keys this week. It’s exciting to see projects moving forward, even if slowly.

So, here’s to accentuating the positives! Makes for easier blog-writing 😀

birthday.

April 30, 2017 by Stephen & Kelli Spurlock Filed Under: kelli, on the house, photos Leave a Comment

My birthday fell just two days after we landed in Mae Sot, so we decided to do a little shindig to see lots of folks! We initially planned to have a meal for everyone and have the neighbors help, but when we came home to no water, we needed a new plan. We simplified it down to cake!

I made fourteen batches of the “depression cake” recipe, in strawberry, vanilla & chocolate. Thankfully, I had lots of help 😀

Inspired by the controversial Starbucks unicorn drink all over social media, I added extra pink into the strawberry, plus made bright purple icing, and topped it all with sprinkles. I figured the neighbors would love it! And they did.

We also got to play a few rounds of Sorry while the cakes baked! It’s so good to be back 😍

😂😂😂😂

Some of the girls were all dressed up for the party!

six days.

April 29, 2017 by Stephen & Kelli Spurlock Filed Under: house calls, housewares, kelli, on the house 2 Comments

In the last six days, we:

Met with our caseworker in Bangkok
Visited Musana & her family, our neighbor friends who moved to Bangkok
Flew to Mae Sot, arriving in the middle of Playhouse and a full house of kiddos
Met a few new faces
Made seventeen batches of birthday cake, for two neighbor kiddos & my own birthday
Had a birthday party!
Returned to Flour & Flowers, made deliveries around town
Learned of three neighbor families that moved away while we were gone
Learned who lost jobs, who lost homes; where the new places were
Learned of two cancer diagnoses
One was fatal within days–one death, one funeral
Another is in Yangon awaiting surgery

I don’t wonder at all why this town makes me tired.

another epic christmas: part 3.

January 2, 2017 by Stephen & Kelli Spurlock Filed Under: housewares, kelli, on the house, onehouse, photos, stephen 2 Comments

{Whew, part 1 & 2 were all in one day. Epic might not be a strong enough word!}

On Friday, 23 December, we had our usual Flour & Flowers day. We did make it a little extra-epic by adding a special cinnamon roll week, so that customers could order cinnamon rolls to have Christmas Eve or Christmas morning with their families. This was a HUGE hit, and we sold 24 pans of cinnamon rolls with cream cheese icing!

We also gave out Christmas cookies to all of our customers that week to say thank you for their kindness and support.

And then it was just a huge week all around! We baked from 6am to 1:30pm, and then came back together about 2:30 to load up the car. We also had some special Christmas gifts for the Flour & Flower ladies.

For the bakers, we had some coordinating aprons made for them. For the woman who delivers flowers, we bought her a new bag. It was quite similar to her favorite, but in a nice leather and much higher quality. She was thrilled, and loaded it up right then to take with us.

And then we snapped a photo of all of us. So thankful we get to continue building relationships with all these women & help each of their families.

On Christmas Eve, amidst packing more and more presents, we also had OneHouse worship that evening. This month we met out at a friend’s house for a candlelight service in the rice fields. It was beautiful with just starlight and candlelight.

We let some of the neighbors come along, and we had the carols & Scriptures available in English, Burmese & Thai. {So much work for Stephen! He’s got some amazing projects going with worship music in multiple languages. It’s slow-going and usually in the background of medical emergencies and chaos, but it’s incredible. It’s so unifying to hear the same song sung in many languages.}

The kids did so well and made us proud. They sang along as best they could, and sang so loudly when we got to Hark! The Herald Angels Sing and Joy to the World, which they had sung for their parents on Thursday.

We also had zero fire emergencies in our crew, which is notable! I was holding Zen Yaw, and trying to help him keep his candle upright and lit. When the wind would blow, I’d use my hand to protect his flame. After a few times, he learned what I was doing and he’d do the same for my candle. So adorable. 😍 He’s been doing so good recently at sitting through church, and comes with us usually. Most every day he comes by the house and asks if we’re going to church today. Honestly, I think it’s because he knows he’ll be held for a couple of hours, but I’m okay with that!

For Christmas Day, we celebrated on our own for most of the morning.

We had a number of gifts from the community to open, which included:

A shirt (Smile Star), perfume (or cologne? It’s hard to say), a blue fuzzy scrunchi, a school notebook, and two handmade scarves (with yarn we’d been giving out in the community). I also feel like you need a close up of the description on the perfume/cologne:

Tempting, eh? 😂

I was also given a beautiful sarong, too, but it was already worn and in the wash!

For the afternoon and evening on Christmas, we went to the Fetter’s house, who graciously let us pretend to be a part of their family! Their two oldest girls are visiting from university over the holidays, and it was just so fun to have their whole family together again, and us pretending to be a part of it!

We also got to put Stephen’s new selfie-stick to good use! #coolestgadgetever

It was a quiet Christmas with no hospital visits, only a few wounds to change or bandage, and overall, fairly peaceful. That was a huge gift.

And that is precisely why we decided to give out gifts on the 26th. It is a bit overwhelming to hand out gifts to over 300 people, and that is also why we don’t have many photos of this. Once you come out with bags in hand, it’s herds and crowds and chaos.

But we survived another year!

And gifts this year were so much fun. It gets more and more fun each year as we know people better. We were brave enough to buy clothes and shoes this year, feeling like we could even guess sizes pretty well.

Six years in, I also realized why I like Christmas gifts in the community so much: it’s one chance to give so freely, and no one asks again. For so much of the year we are surrounded by poverty: kids without shoes, clothes with gaping holes, kids playing with broken toys. We watch our neighbors join us for church in clothes that no longer fit: I saw one man with us wearing pants that were well past fitting–he just had them open in the front, tied with a belt/string, and then pulled his shirt down over it. I see our neighbors embarrassed when they aren’t dressed as well as others. I see kids off to school barefoot.

And yet every decision has to be weighed–if I give them a new shirt, how many more will come? If we buy him shoes, how many more will we need?

But Christmas is different. For the neighbors, it’s this crazy American holiday where people give gifts! Its the one day we get away with just giving ridiculously.

“Ridiculously”–We usually have a budget of 100 baht per person, or $3. This year, I sent Stephen a text from the market: Is our budget still 100/person? I think it should be 200…All the good stuff is expensive. To which he replied, Yes to 250 per person!

So we were a little more flexible for our closest friends this year. Each person got a loose budget of a couple hundred baht, plus soap, toothbrushes, and toothpaste. For the families we don’t know well, we have “family presents”– a nice blanket, baby powder, soap, toothpaste, & toothbrushes. We found some incredible deals this year, which made it so fun. We found some football jerseys for just $1 each, and kids’ fleece pants for just 80 cents! I found women’s sarongs for just $2! We found some footballs for about $5, so we gave those to a few of the older boys, particularly after watching them play football in the street with a shoe and a bowl over the past few weeks. We found stuffed animals, simple jewelry, small purses, and superhero figurines for the kids; watches, shoes, and longyis for the men; sarongs, shirts, and shoes for the women.

We also included special gifts for the youth that have been joining us at church each week–we got the girls new dresses and the boys button-up shirts. For the three families that don’t have electricity, we got them rechargeable lanterns, and let them know they can send them with their kids to recharge them at our house while the kids play in the afternoon.

Like I said, Christmas is such a great opportunity to fill the needs you’ve been seeing for months, and you finally get to try to alleviate them, if even for a moment.

This year, we packed up all the gifts at a friend’s house down the road, where we “rented” their guest room for the month. It gave us a secret place to wrap presents and store them, which was beyond helpful!

On the 26th, we loaded up the car for one “area” of the neighborhood at a time. Our car would look like this:

We’d deliver them all, and then re-fill! It took about 5 carloads and three hours.

It was so fun to see the kids delighted–trying on new clothes, oohing and aahing over each new item they pulled out of their bag. Two of the kids came by the house later and I asked if they were happy, to which the older girl said, No, I’m VERY happy! 😍

Here’s ZuZu in her new kitty cat pants, and Win Moe in her cozy little outfit (with ears!).

And then we headed out of town! It can get a little crazy, so we had things packed up to camp and left for a few days in the mountains. It was very cold and we were very tired, so we spent three days mostly sleeping and reading. Here we are very happy and rested, but perhaps still sleeping a little.

You’d think that by the 31st “Christmas” would be be coming to close, but not yet. This part of the world just loves celebrations. Part 4 still to come 😀

another epic christmas: part 2.

January 2, 2017 by Stephen & Kelli Spurlock Filed Under: kelli, on the house, photos, stephen 1 Comment

On Thursday evening, we had a community Christmas, starting with a skit from the kids!

We had practiced Joy to the World & Hark! The Herald Angels Sing in Burmese the day before during Open House, but we only practiced the skit that day. It was utter chaos, but thankfully we had the help of a translator, as “shepherds” and “wisemen” aren’t really in my Burmese vernacular.

We had four kids each reading a part of the Christmas story from the Bible, all in literary Burmese. They were so brave to read it right into a microphone! We picked some of the best students for these roles.

Mary was pretty easy to choose, as sweet Yaminoo always has her new baby brother on her shoulder. Since he doesn’t let any one else hold him, they made the perfect little Jesus & Mary duo. (After which the kids are still calling him Jesus!)

From there we assigned out as many parts as we could, and after one run-through, we handed out costumes!

The kids loved the costumes, and I think it made it feel real for them. As the parents all gathered outside of our gate at 6pm, all the kids suddenly felt nervous and got stage-fright! It was so cute to see them take it seriously and feel like it was so “official.”

We opened up the gate to the largest crowd we’ve ever had for Christmas!

The kids did a great job, reading and following along, making the parents laugh and keeping their attention. Stephen led us in Hark! The Herald Angels Sing while the angels were visiting the shepherds, and then we all sang Joy to the World at the end. The whole skit was probably my favorite part of Christmas this year.

We followed this with a few words of why we celebrate Christmas, why we live here, and how much we love Jesus and all of them. It was getting quite dark by this point, though!

And then we went for the meal. It’s always crazy, and this year didn’t disappoint. There was even a brawl between a few intoxicated men, so it’s never dull. Thankfully, we saved the kids from the stampede, and we had more than enough food for everyone. So I guess we’ll call that a win?

The whole community helped to clean up everything and left the house swept and mopped, which is so kind. It was a pretty amazing group effort, but I’m pretty sure we still fell asleep by 9:30pm!

another epic christmas: part 1.

January 2, 2017 by Stephen & Kelli Spurlock Filed Under: kelli, on the house, photos, stephen 1 Comment

We can’t really find a way to make our neighborhood Christmas less epic. There is just something about it being three or four hundred people that just inevitably makes it an epic undertaking!

This year was great, though–it felt even more like a group effort; like we were throwing a party together rather than two of us hosting three hundred people.

We kicked off Christmas week with a Bingo night, which was a huge hit. I’m telling you, crowds will come for miles to play Bingo–and they did! I ended up calling from the table, and Stephen & I had to take turns because we kept losing our voices shouting the numbers!

On Thursday, we started at the market at 7am. Thida & I went after food for 300 people. For just $225, we managed to provide for 400 people in the end! We bought 40 kilos of noodles–40 kilos of dry noodles.

Which, once you start to boil them, turns into a whole, whole lot of noodles.

They then added in a whole host of chopped veggies and chicken.

I was so proud that Thida bought so many veggies to mix in! This is probably the most well-balanced meal we’ve ever served, as well as fulfilling for everyone. And it served 400 people!

They then boiled over 300 eggs for extra protein.

While all this was being chopped, boiled, and stir-fried outside, we had more going on inside.

First, we had the Flour & Flower ladies making cookies as thank you gifts for our customers. We made four batches of snickerdoodles and four batches of gingerbread cut-outs.

These all were packaged up for the next day, when we’d include them with bread & flower deliveries.

We also had San Aye sewing, because it was a Thursday.

And we had hosts of kids playing outside. And posing for jumping photos!

Then we had some kids inside, playing with their youngest siblings and the Flour & Flower babies. Here each eleven-year-old had their own babe that they were rocking and singing to sleep! 😍

Then the food prep moved it’s way inside, where the noodles were packaged into individual containers and put into bags. In addition to noodles, each person received a hard-boiled egg, a few pieces of fruit, and a small bag of cookies. We had all these packaged and in piles around the house, so that they could be handed out that evening.

Around 3pm, Stephen and I slipped away to have lunch before the chaos truly started. Sometimes we go through life looking as though we have a newborn. Really, we just have a big community!

{Part 2 of our epic Christmas in this lovely community to come.}

christmas preparations.

December 13, 2016 by Stephen & Kelli Spurlock Filed Under: kelli, on the house, photos Leave a Comment

Christmas preparations are underway, even if in our own better-late-than-never pace. We put up our tree, which is just beautiful in the window.

It welcomes kids waiting for the bus to hang on the window bars and peer in at the ornaments. Inside, they aren’t permitted to touch it, but they will spend long, long pauses sitting and staring–adults and kids alike.

A few weeks ago we learned that Lay Tah Oo’s family was moving to a new house again, a little further from us. The day before the move, he came up to me and whispered, “Do you still get Christmas presents if you live far away?”

Melted. I assured him that he just needed to make sure we knew where the house was and we’d be sure to deliver!

Last week at church, I asked the kids what they were hoping to get from their Christmas gift exchange at school. On different days each grade will have an exchange–not all on the same day, or it’s too much for parents’ budgets–and each child brings a gift worth about 50 cents or a dollar. To avoid spending some of that money on wrapping, they come to our house early in the morning and ask for my pro-wrapping skills of their presents. I’m locally famous for this. (And shuffling Uno cards using a “bridge.” It’s the little things that will take you to fame.)

When I asked the kids, they all hoped for a stuffed animal. All of them: a group of seven or so! The twelve-year-old girl, the seven-year-old boy. I looked up stuffed animals in Google images and we scrolled through: the teddy bears with the most popular, with dogs and cats in a close second.

The next week I asked what they thought their parents might like. I’ve shamelessly decided if we’re going to be getting this epic number of gifts to wrap and distribute, we might as well be getting what people need and want! Most of the kids were unsure, but thought a sarong or longyi would be wanted. Zwe Ne Na said he had no idea what his parents would want, but he wants a BALL! We’ll see what we can do about that 😉

And here it comes! The lists are being gathered this week, determining how many hundreds of gifts are to be organized. We’re borrowing a spare room at a friends house to store and wrap these hundreds of gifts–between the bread & flower business, the sewing project twice a week, and four afternoons filled with kiddos, we’re just plumb out of space!

Let the festivities begin!

a good day.

December 12, 2016 by Stephen & Kelli Spurlock Filed Under: house church, kelli, on the house, photos Leave a Comment

I’ve been running out of words recently. Even now, I’m not sure how to describe why I’ve been so out of words.

But yesterday–yesterday was a good day. And in so many more words than necessary, I’m going to attempt to capture the richness of it.

It was a Sunday. Stephen & I started the day out at the market, buying some special things for a family. It’s one our favorite families, really: a mom & dad, a girl of 11, a little boy of 7, and a new little son at 6 months.

We’ve known them since we moved here, when the little girl was six and the little boy was in her care, learning to walk. I can’t count the pictures we have with them or the stories: when we broke her finger, when we accidentally dumped oil on her head in the kitchen, the hours of Memory on the floor.

Gosh, I love those kids.

Recently, it’s been a rough season for the family. We hear rumors and stories, but ultimately, we know that they have moved into a rougher house: less of hut, if that’s a term? I also know the kids have been hungry, asking for food more than usual; following me into the kitchen. Out of the norm, we’ve been having snacks during Open House in an attempt to sneak them some additional food. Sometimes it’s worth feeding twenty so you can really feed two.

So, yesterday, we went out on a shopping trip for them. We bought them some new clothes–new pants to replace the young girl’s threadbare leggings; new t-shirts and shorts; warm jackets and hats for each family member. We bought two blankets for the cold nights, and a 40-kilo bag of rice.

We also managed to find some soccer jerseys in the market for $1 each, so we bought a huge bag for some Christmas presents.

We came back home to Skype my family in the States, where they’re all standing on the same ground this holiday season.

The kids from this family we outside just as we finished, so we told them we had some deliveries for their family. We explained that we worried about them being too cold in their new house, so “the Church” bought them some things. “The church?” the little boy asked. “Wow!”

So to many of you–thanks for being The Church. Wow!

We drove through newly-harvested rice paddies to deliver it all to their new place, tucked back in the field. We bounced over the bumps while they sat on the rice bag and giggled, resisting the urge to open their bags.

On our way back, we passed a little girl walking in the street by herself. She was three at best, and walking to…nowhere in particular. I jumped out of the car and asked where she was going. She said it was to her mom, so I grabbed her hand and started walking with her in the direction she pointed. By the time we got there, she realized she wasn’t sure where she was or where she was going. Where is your mom? Over there. Where is your dad? Over there. On his bicycle. My brother is at school. In the end, we were coming up with a plan as her dad bicycled back with her brother and a chicken. He scooped her up and took her home, not without some impressive skill of managing two children and a live chicken on a child-sized bicycle.

Oh, and a number of CDs on the wheels!

We then worked around the house a bit, visiting a pregnant women, chatting with San Aye about the new sewing project starting tomorrow, and delivering medicine to a boy who’d been in a motorcycle accident. We played with Zen Yaw: I played a fishing game we made up a few days ago and Stephen threw him in the air while he giggled with glee.

The church car came to pick up kids for Sunday school. Yaminoo came out in her newly purchased clothes, which fit her perfectly. One of the girls told her how pretty she looked as she climbed in the truck; her face glowed.

We managed to squeeze in thirteen kids from our community with thirteen other friends, twenty six of us in a pickup truck. Zen Yaw came along without his grandmother, which hasn’t happened since Musana, his primary caregiver left for Bangkok two months ago. He trusts us again, and that is more epic than I have words for.

In children’s church, we memorized a verse in Luke and sang a song about Christmas being all for Jesus. Zen Yaw fell asleep on me, and Stephen came to pick us all up–13 kids & two adults in our amazing new car.

Stephen & I went to swim laps in the freezing water, then put on our best Burmese clothes for church–I wore a red sarong and he wore our “church polo,” that is just more Burmese than I could ever describe to you.

We took seven teenagers with us to church, plus Zen Yaw, who wanted to come again. He came without his grandmother again, and she got a few more hours to rest from her exhausting life. He agreed not to cry, and did spectacularly. He munched on his chips, smiled when I sang Hallelujah in his ear, and loved getting cuddles for a couple hours from Stephen & I. The kids sat beautifully in church, working together to find the passages in Matthew & Luke. Oh, and memorizing the maps in the back of the Bibles.

While we waited for dinner to be served, the kids climbed on the couch and giggled together. Three girls came over to get hugs; they are all so hungry for affection. They come right up, lift my arm on their shoulders, and give the tightest hugs you can imagine.

They all ate their weight in rice and pork and potatoes, including Zen Yaw. We chatted with the pastors and made a plan for them to help with our community Christmas in a couple weeks. We also made plans for a worship & prayer night that is apparently at our house this Thursday: but that’s another story for another day.

The kids piled back in the car and giggled all the way home. They roll the windows down and sing songs. We took them each to their homes, passing Yaminoo’s family on the way. We helped them all pile into the car with their rice bag full of fish and some other fragrant packages. We left the windows down as we drove back through the rice paddies to drop them all off at home, with the kids in all their new clothes.

And in so many words, it was a good day.