onehouse – Page 2

the collective christmas: 23 december.

January 2, 2018 by Stephen & Kelli Spurlock Filed Under: house church, kelli, on the house, onehouse, photos, stephen Leave a Comment

Saturday was already a full day with OneHouse Carols that evening, so we woke up early (a theme for this holiday season; and our lives?) and headed back out to finish Christmas gifts.

Thankfully we were able to find everyone and had lots of fun. This was probably our most specialized year, and a bit less equal. We really tried to find gifts that fit each person, and a little bit of how well we knew them. It made it so much more fun to purchase, pack, and deliver!

The rest of Saturday was full getting ready for OneHouse that evening. Stephen helped The Reinforcers get the equipment all set up, while I sorted a meal for the band, cookies for the community & visitors, candles all around the house, and last minute gift shopping.

Oh, and I ran to the store and lost the card for my motorbike, so I spent an hour sitting at the security desk to get my motorbike back 🙄

But OneHouse was so lovely and completely worth it. Stephen had half the songs available in both Karen & Burmese, and after a number of issues finding a Burmese singer, our friend NuNu stepped in on Saturday and sang in Burmese!

It was really beautiful. The candles, of course; the Christmas carols. But also the sound of voices singing together. I was surrounded by kids from our neighborhood, as well as mothers, singing together in Burmese. Our church family surrounded us, too, with kid’s voices and British accents; young old. It was really amazing to see everyone singing together, collectively trying to prevent a fire.

One of my favorite moments this Christmas.

Every year a new song resonates with me. (And I write about it apparently! 2012, 2104) This year, as I sat surrounded by some of my neighbors, we sang Go Tell It On The Mountain.

This might be one of my least favorite Christmas songs, partially because it always seems to be sung with a twang. It gives me visions of people on horses and Santa hats; it just doesn’t fit Christmas for me. But, alas, we sang:

Go tell it on the mountain
Over the hills and everywhere
Go tell it on the mountain
That Jesus Christ is born

This is what we had gotten up early every day this week for, and gone to bed late for. This is what we wrapped hundreds of gifts for. This is what we cooked hundreds of meals for. This is what we serve breakfast for every day before school. This is what we bake bread for and deliver flowers for and sew things for. This is what we run sound for and go to church for and study language for. This is what we live in this hot little town for, a million miles away from our families that are cozied up by a fire together. This is what we have hard conversations for and wrestle with our faith for.

This is what just keep trying for.

In that moment, surrounded by women from our community that I love as sisters now, holding a little girl asleep in my arms that I love exponentially, watching my husband do his life so well–it felt worth it in that moment. Like we were doing what we were supposed to do this holiday season: we went, and we told it a million times over bowls of fish soup and story times and Christmas bingo. And ultimately, over mountains chaos, we shouted it.

It doesn’t always feel worth it. But in that moment, it did. And that made it one of my favorite days over this holiday season.

After worshiping together and watching our candles burn to nothing, we shared a collection of cookies our friends had brought with them. Kid were stuffing their hands full and coming back for more, and it was adorable. Everything is adorable by candlelight. (And maybe when they aren’t your kids with the sugar high?)

an epic day.

December 2, 2017 by Stephen & Kelli Spurlock Filed Under: housewares, kelli, onehouse, photos, stephen Leave a Comment

It was a Friday, so we had Flour & Flowers; plus it was the first week of the month with cinnamon rolls. I was up and putting artisan loaves in pans at 5:30am when Nyein Nyein arrived with her little boy, and we got started on bread & cinnamon rolls.

Thida arrived for The Breakfast Club around 6am with her two sons, and they began serving fruit & soy milk to the kids around 6:15am. It was a school sport day, with four teams competing, so the kids were decked out in their team colors as they came for breakfast early—most arriving around 7am. Thida was out of the six kilos of longan fruit before 7:20, so we made do with watermelon, bananas, and apples from our fridge until 8.

Also by 7am, Pyo Pyo & Pwe Pyu Hey joined us for bread & cinnamon roll making. Mwei Mwei came to watch the kids. In all, they baked 22 loaves of bread, rolled out 120 tortillas, and made 173 cinnamon rolls.

Our morning was chaos: four of us baked here while kids ran in and out of the house. Stephen had breakfast with a friend and then went and one of The Reinforcers to deliver the sound system for the evening. He picked up lunch on the way back for all the bakers and us.

They asked about Bingo all day—I had promised we’d play this week but haven’t them the day. They chatted about how we hadn’t decided yet, which I corrected that I had, but just wasn’t telling them! They begged me all day to know.

Flour & Flowers finished baking around 1:30pm. We rested for about thirty minutes, before we had to shower and pack up the bread and load up the flowers.

As they walked out the door I asked if they were free on Sunday evening and might want to play Bingo? It was received with shouts, jumping, and cheers—grown women with children, jumping in our doorway to play Bingo this weekend! It was well worth the game all day 🙂

Because of reports of raids this week, Pyo Pyo didn’t make deliveries with me. I picked up Thida at 3pm instead, as she has legal paperwork. She doesn’t know the Flour & Flowers system, though, so we…made do. It was a lot of explaining and chatting while driving, until my head hurt.

Stephen left the house at 4pm, in a friend’s borrowed car, to take the two Reinforcers to the restaurant in town having a grand opening. They set up the sound system and did sound checks with the band; had dinner together and got started at 6:30pm.

I got back from deliveries about 6pm and did finances with Pyo Pyo, before heading out the door to the concert. I chatted with friends while The Reinforcers had their first paid gig running live sound. They did amazing! I think they exceeded many people’s expectations, both Stephen & the two guys, which is always fun to see. We had people asking about opportunities in the future!

They loaded up the car twice with gear, and we crashed at home around 11pm.

That’s eighteen hours later, spent entirely with the community. In those eighteen hours, eight people from our community had work and earned money for their families. In those eighteen hours, we had good conversations about the adoption system & children’s homes, about what their kids want to be when they get older, about inside jokes, about an absent father, about our weight (of course!), and all about Christmas and Bingo.

It worked, guys.

Flour & Flowers: it worked. It made profit. Four women took home money to their families and still got to see their kids through the day. It was relational. The loaves were beautiful, and every one raved at the concert about how much they love it. It’s a popular business to sell delicious things.

The Breakfast Club: it worked. It fed kids healthy food. It created stability. It was relational. And it will happen every school day this month because Thida is amazing.

The Reinforcers: it worked. It made profit. It kept kids in school. It gave them new skills. It was relational. And it looks like it might grow!

It’s working, and even on the most epic days, it’s worth it!

literacy & learning.

September 4, 2017 by Stephen & Kelli Spurlock Filed Under: house church, kelli, onehouse, photos, playhouse, schoolhouse 1 Comment

Our pastors asked us a few weeks ago about teaching in our community. A few broken conversations later, we had a community meeting, and still a few more conversations after that, we re-arranged the community space for whiteboards and…we have community adult education classes happening!

Our pastor, Ah Tee, and his wife, Pranee, are teaching on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They teach one hour of Burmese literacy, teaching five Burmese women how to read and write in their own language. And then they teach an hour of Thai class. And since the neighbors also requested English, Kelli teaches English for an hour on Wednesday evening.

Guys, this is a community center if I ever saw one.

We are really thankful for the opportunity for the neighbors to learn, and that it doesn’t take much from us! We are so excited to have our pastors and friends in the community with us, helping us sort things and observing and advising.

We also love that they are teaching literacy. We had been working on this for sometime, shortly after we learned that San Aye, who sews with us, can’t read or write. Pyo Pyo, our bread manager, is also limited in her literacy. Both of them are taking the class, and it’s so beautiful to see! There is also a young teenage girl who attends Thai school–and so doesn’t get to learn Burmese–that has joined.

The two sewing ladies have been practicing their alphabet as they sew, reading letters aloud, or spelling words out letter by letter. Thida, while she waits for all the children to come in the morning, has been practicing her Thai letters. They are using new English phrases they learned and testing them out on us!

Meanwhile, Mwei Mwei is our young seamstress that we still want to ensure keeps studying. She is now taking Thai and English classes with the adults in the evening, as well as practicing Burmese reading and writing, learning typing, and learning math with me in the afternoon.

On Tuesday, I helped Mwei Mwei with her typing program until the kids came at 4pm. I then played with the kids in the main area while the literacy class was held in one of the rooms; and Stephen taught The Reinforcers how to solder in the studio. And then we swapped it all around at 6pm for the Thai class to continue.

It’s incredible to see the space used so much and see so many opportunities for our friends! And we love seeing so many opportunities for new skills and languages.

the reinforcers.

August 21, 2017 by Stephen & Kelli Spurlock Filed Under: house church, kelli, onehouse, photos, stephen 1 Comment

Alternate title: What Stephen is calling “The Reinforcers.” I’m just not sold on it yet.

At the beginning of every year, we sit together and talk about what has changed and evolved in the community over the past year, what God has done, and what prayers have been answered. And then we make goals for the next year.

At the beginning of 2017, we specifically prayed and strategized for very little growth–we wanted to deepen relationships, to get better at what we do in the community, specifically to grow in quality and not quantity. We have felt in over our heads for so long, and we just really didn’t want to start anything new.

That has become the running joke of 2017: Let’s “not start anything new.”

Instead, we brought on Mwei Mwei and started a new side of our sewing project. This also involves providing part-time education for her, so I now teach her English & math three days a week. And she wanted two friends to join her on Wednesdays, so we have a little English class in the afternoons.

We started The Breakfast Club, which is an epic undertaking involving new community members being hired into the house, a warehouse full of bulk rice, eggs, and noodles (in addition to the flour and baking goods we buy in bulk!), and the added bonus of waking up by 5:30am Monday to Friday.

We got more involved in our church, with Stephen helping on the worship team and I’m helping with Sunday school. As of Saturday, I’m teaching English to the pastors & elders at our church.

Oh, and The Reinforcers. We just started that last Tuesday.

First, the background: We have previously partnered with Kingdom Mission Fund, who is funding Stephen’s current project with OneHouse. While Stephen continues to work on the recording and translation projects, we have found its coming slower and more challenging than we thought. He keeps trekking ahead, but also felt like God opened up a different door.

Stephen felt like there was an opportunity to begin mentoring two teenage boys, training them on live sound and hopefully computers and recording in the future. His hope was to purchase live sound equipment that could be used for our monthly worship nights, and also be rented out to local non-profits and businesses. He hoped that if the equipment was purchased with the grant, the project could then sustain itself, providing part-time jobs for the boys and teaching new skills. It would also provide new opportunities for churches, non-profits, and other ministries in town. Meanwhile, it gives the boys a part-time job on the evenings and weekends, where they can contribute to their families while attending school–and hopefully keep them there. So many teenagers are pulled out around this age because they are needed for their income, and we always want to prevent that. And as icing on the cake, it provided an opportunity for Stephen to invest in two specific guys. One of them has no father figure in the home. The other has a physically present father that is not the best role model, and his mom is currently battling cancer (our Flower lady, Daw Ma Oo) and has been gone since April.

Pretty amazing project idea, right? Stephen always comes up with the best ideas. I just wish we could do them all.

We applied for an additional Kingdom Missions Fund grant this year and hoped to receive it when we were stateside. Unfortunately, we weren’t chosen this year, which left us in a predicament: we still felt like this was a great project and a genius idea. Upon returning in April, we felt both of the boy’s situations needed it more than ever. But our grant was requesting $4,000–something we just don’t have in any of our budgets.

So we’ve been praying and praying and praying. We have been considering options and re-working the idea. Where was God leading us? Why did he give Stephen this great idea, and why were we both so unsettled? It didn’t feel right to simply close the door, but we also weren’t sure how to make it happen.

Until this month. Our church had a new building open earlier this year, and recently acquired some new instruments and has some new musicians–including the two newly-baptized young men in our community. They have the capacity for a full band, but they are still trying to get in a groove.

We began talking with our church, and we have re-worked the idea for our current situation. For the time being, Stephen is partnering with our church’s worship leader and his good friend, Saw Min Tun. They are going to purchase a few things for the sound system at church that makes it more usable. They are setting up the mixer in the back of the room, and Stephen is going to go ahead and train these two guys to run sound weekly for our church. They will still learn the techniques and it opens the door for additional training. And we are investing some: we are making a few initial purchases as gifts to the church, and then we are “hiring” the two boys each weekend. They will run sound for band practice every Saturday and for church on Sunday, and we’ll pay them each $6.

And we’ll wait. We’ll see if God provides a way to purchase a sound system and open up doors that way, or perhaps He has something else in mind. And for now, it still provides a way to support these families in need through education, new opportunities, and skills.

Stephen is training them one afternoon a week, doing what he loves, and loving getting to spend time with these great kids. And they are ecstatic–they are really beyond excited to learn about sound and music. They are both artistic and very smart. And they’ll be coming to church with us regularly while providing additional income for their families.

Because even when his first great idea doesn’t work, Stephen finds a way 🙂

{If you’re like me, you’ve read all that and you’re still asking: so why “The Reinforcers”? I’m told that live sound is officially called sound reinforcement, so these guys are now The Reinforcers. I think they all just like that it makes them sound like superheroes.}

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 😀

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 😀

celebrating well.

April 2, 2016 by Stephen & Kelli Spurlock Filed Under: house church, kelli, onehouse, photos Leave a Comment

At the beginning of this year, Stephen and I were praying over James 4:13-15, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.'” We created a “goals” list for 2016 which is on our bedroom wall under the title If the Lord wills we will live & do.

Honestly, we set relatively low goals. Most days we are just trying to maintain status quo and love well in this community. And as we watch our families’ lives march on, conquering multiple jobs, selling and buying and building houses, starting business, having (more!) babies…I’ve struggled with my list. It’s small. It’s just living and loving this little community that someday we’ll walk away from, unsure of what seeds have taken root from all the planting and watering.

Even so, we wanted to just vocalize the dreams we feel like God has put before us. And one of the simple goals we set is this: celebrate Easter well, as a couple & as a community.

Honestly, I feel like we’ve really fallen in love with Christmas here. And even fallen into a sync with it. We are able to share the Christmas story each year, we are able to get gifts for hundreds of our dear friends, we have a huge community meal, we have carolers from local churches coming night after night. We had a candlelit carols night and a worship night; we had a Christmas movie night. We had time as a couple. We walked through an Advent together. It felt meaningful, generous, & full.

But Easter–Easter still lacks some flair. I feel like it often gets overlooked somewhat by many of the communities around us. We build up the birth of Christ, but we miss his death and resurrection.

So this year, we set out to celebrate well: between the two of us; in this little neighborhood that surrounds us; and in the expat community of Mae Sot.

In House Church, we have been walking through the Gospels since Christmas, and just shared Jesus’ washing the disciples feet the week before Easter. For Easter week, we had church outside, where we could use a sound system and hopefully keep the kids’ attention & encourage additional ears to listen in. We adapted the idea of Resurrection Eggs into bags for the kids to help open. We had a cup & crackers for the Passover meal, money for the betrayal, flowers for the Garden of Gethsemane, a “whip” (a fake leather belt) and “crown of thorns” (thorny rose stems jumbled together), three nails, a white cloth, stones (pieces of concrete from the yard; we were thinking creatively!); and the last bag was empty, to represent the empty tomb. The kids really enjoyed opening the bags, and since they got to keep what was inside, the little girl who got the money was pretty excited!

We finished with a special snack of sausage & cucumbers for the whole community. After the arrest of Daw Ma Oo last week, her daughter-in-law, San Aye, was nervous to sell at her pork shop. Since she wouldn’t have any business for the week, we asked her to cook sausages for House Church. It was fun to see the community functioning holistically, and despite the fishy smell that filled our house that evening…It felt special, and that was the goal!

On Saturday night, we had our monthly OneHouse worship night for the expat community. We then woke up early Sunday morning and headed out to the local reservoir with a host of fresh-baked cinnamon rolls and coffee. We had invited the expat community to join us for a “sunrise” service at 7:30.

Stephen did such a great job throughout the weekend leading everyone, and it was such a great way to celebrate Easter. We also had our friend John visiting from the US, and he was so kind to come along despite all that we had filled the weekend with!

So while I look at our list, the goals are simple. But I’m so thankful for the opportunity to see the Easter story resounding in our neighborhood.

no place i would rather be.

February 16, 2016 by Stephen & Kelli Spurlock Filed Under: kelli, onehouse Leave a Comment

I was in my room putting on mascara to go while two girls played Memory at the front door. I stopped to listen and called Stephen over; I was pretty sure I knew the song Musana was singing. In attempted English, we heard,

No place I would rather be
No place I would rather be
Than here in your love
Here in your love

We sang this at our last OneHouse worship night two weeks ago, and perhaps a few times before. We don’t have it on iTunes, so she’s only heard it from Stephen.

And she’s learned it! It’s coming to her mind and she’s singing it out.

And as I stood there listening to her, I couldn’t agree more. There’s no place I’d rather be than among the love of Christ in this community.

good, good father.

January 31, 2016 by Stephen & Kelli Spurlock Filed Under: kelli, onehouse Leave a Comment

We had our monthly OneHouse worship night last night.

The very first one I sat down amidst everyone else to sing, but it became clear that wasn’t going to work. Every time since then, I find myself by the door, seated with a large group of kids and some adults, attempting to follow along. Or shouting in Burmese in the middle of a prayer, “Jor GEE! We’re PRAYING!”

Sometimes they are loud and I have to get on to them; sometimes I feel bad for the other expats, because I want to give them space to worship freely and not be watched. Sometimes I feel bad for Stephen if the kids are distracting.

Sometimes I even feel bad for myself, because I just want the space to close my eyes and not be watched myself. I don’t want what they see of me to define what they know of Christ.

But most the time, I love it. I love that they are curious. I love that they get to see us love Jesus any way we know how. I love that they sing along.

Last night, They They sat next to me, asking me over and over, “Where? Where?” When I’d show her, she’d read along and sing–granted, reading was quite a challenge for her, so following along with words and tune is just too much. It wasn’t beautiful to the ears, technically.

But, oh, it was beautiful to the ears. She followed along through the entire hour of worship, singing to each song. The other kids could pick up on the repeated choruses if they were simple enough.

My favorite was Chris Tomlin’s Good, Good Father. They all understood enough of the words–good, father, love, you, me. So they sang along to the chorus:

You’re a good, good Father
It’s who you are, it’s who you are, it’s who you are
And I’m loved by you
It’s who I am, it’s who I am, it’s who I am

Oh, golly, it made my eyes fill with tears. He is a good, good Father. And they have seen some not as good, good fathers. Knowing their stories, knowing their fathers; even hurting for and loving their fathers. Just last Sunday we stopped along the road to help one of these little girls, who was helping her drunken father to get home. We picked up the other little girls’ father at the bus station in November, when he came for a couple days, dropped off her little brother with the grandparents, and then left to return to Bangkok.

But there is a good, good Father. And he does love them, so we sang that loudly together.

countdown to christmas: friday (& saturday, too).

December 27, 2015 by Stephen & Kelli Spurlock Filed Under: kelli, onehouse, photos Leave a Comment

While we meant to get all the presents delivered on Christmas Eve, that didn’t exactly happen. We didn’t finish getting all the presents together until after midnight, so we crawled into bed.

Christmas morning was slow and only interrupted by a burst of kids between 6 and 7 showing up to chatter about if we were awake and when the presents were coming!

We opened our own presents and enjoyed a quiet morning. We exchanged presents with a few friends and then welcomed some friends, Adam & Nunu, over for a small Christmas meal.

After a restful day, we ran around the community from 5pm to 7pm, delivering presents all over, trying to manage the herd of kids overwhelming us. We kept telling them to go back home and we’d get there eventually…this was somewhat received.

It was so fun to deliver presents to so many friends and even get a dance of delight from a little two-year-old. The kids have come around with their new toys all day, wearing new headbands and showing off new little purses. It has been so fun to see their joy.

And last, we rounded out the night with a expat movie night to show Elf over apple cider, egg nog, truffles, and pumpkin pie.

We took on one more activity on Saturday and hosted a OneHouse worship night. It was a lovely rounding out to the holidays, but we’re tired.

So tomorrow, we’re off to the mountains for a few days of camping and quiet!