The House Collective

new teachers!

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We are beyond thankful to introduce three new teachers to our little collective!

We’ve been working quite a bit with Sara, who manages Sojourn Studios and helps to employ and love on three ladies in our neighborhood every week. Her husband, Jason, also stepped in and managed Schoolhouse while we were away at the end of 2018.

This year, Jason asked about an opportunity to get involved in the community with his kids. They have a daughter and son, ages ten and eight, so it seemed the perfect opportunity for them to both teach and get to know their peers. Thus, a new Schoolhouse class started, with three new teachers in the neighborhood!

It’s pretty great how things sometimes (occasionally?) just work out: this group is stellar. This particular age group is committed to come to things, and we know them very well. They were so excited to be invited to a special English class, where they wear name tags. Siblings aren’t able to come along nor sit at the door watching.

{That’s one of our goals with schoolhouse. We want each age group and individual to get focused, age-appropriate teaching. Our toddler class is only for those under 5, so that older kids can’t shout out the answers. Our English lessons can only be attended by the one student learning–no siblings, no one staring over their shoulders, and no whispering the answers in Burmese through the window.}

We have really enjoyed seeing the kids learn and look forward to the class every week. I like hearing them practice their new words and dialogues on the porch:
What is your name?
My name is Kyaw Gee.
Kyaw Gee. How do you spell that?
….(long pause, followed by Burmese: I don’t have my name tag! How do you spell it?)

They are learning the responsibility of coming on time, on their own, with their name tag. They are also able to learn from their peers, and then play a great game of tag afterward.

We love having new faces to help. We’re so thankful when others are willing to get to know our friends, too!

a little less crazy.

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Perhaps it was last Saturday, when we got a call that a husband and father of five in our community had passed away at the hospital. Or perhaps it was the next five hours of trying to find his wife, who doesn’t have a phone, to tell her.

Perhaps it was last Sunday, after I’d talked for a few hours with a crying friend, convincing her of her worth, telling her we loved her, and giving her a key to our home to use if her husband hit her that evening.

Perhaps it was when I cried to Stephen that night about how little I could do about anything: about her life, about our adoption, about our community, in limited Burmese. Perhaps when I said I was tired of always having my hands tied.

Perhaps it was Monday morning, when a woman came into our house with fresh bruises covered in thanaka. Perhaps it was when she said her mother-in-law told her not to come to our house for protection.

I’m not sure where the breaking point was exactly, when Stephen said, “I think we might need something different for our Sabbath this week. Just a little more space.” It was pretty quickly after that when we got in the car.

The way the cookie crumbled that week (oh my, was it crumbling) we could manage three days away if we put a few delay-able things on hold. So we did.

We drove two hours to a little town we visited five years ago. It’s an ancient capital of Thailand, Sukhothai, famous for the ancient ruins from as far back as the thirteenth century.

We checked in to a hotel pretty late on Monday, and woke up pretty sick on Tuesday morning. The mold wasn’t too hard to find in the air conditioner.

We went to ask if they could either give us a new room or clean it, and–surprise!–they upgraded us! Pretty significantly, too. We found ourselves in an absolutely beautiful private villa. 🙌🏻

And then we just spent a few days resting. It’s a beautiful town to bicycle through, so we did quite a bit of that. We also had a lovely pool to enjoy and new foods to try.

And this: deep fried som tum. Som tum is a popular Thai dish, and we happened to have this deep-fried version of it five years ago when we visited. When we returned to Mae Sot, we asked around for it at restaurants with no luck. Not even that they just didn’t have it, but ridiculous stares as though we’d just asked to eat moon dirt. Perhaps it wasn’t available here, but only a different region of Thailand? Perhaps we were saying it incorrectly in Thai? So we asked a few Thai friends from different regions around the country, who all said they had never heard of it.

It’s things like this that make you begin to question your sanity: Did I really eat that? Was it something else? Why has no one ever heard of this?

But alas, we found the same restaurant. It was still on the menu, and it was still amazingly delicious.

And most importantly, I’m a little less crazy.
A few days of rest also made me feel a little less crazy.

So, here’s to that: a little less crazy!

children everywhere.

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There are still children, everywhere, keeping us on our toes.

Toddler Schoolhouse is still fun and hilarious, each and every week. Thida teaches some Burmese and reads them a story; I teach them some English. We sing songs, and we eat together.

Kyaw Gee is doing absolutely amazing at guitar, particularly as an eleven-year-old! It was a rough start: very passionate in his playing, he broke a few strings and we thought he might break a few guitars by the end. And it was just loud.



But now he’s doing so well! Stephen’s working on teaching him a few songs he might be able to play at church, and he continues to take a lesson with Stephen every week.

Thida is still amazing. In this photo she’s reviewing the Christmas story with her granddaughter.




We have a new Flour & Flowers baby, and she and I spend most of our Fridays like this. 😍

christmas pajamas.

by Filed Under: kelli, on the house, photos 1 Comment

Every year or two I have a favorite carol: a verse or a line; something that sticks out to me, tangibly enough to grasp and ache for.

This year, it’s one of the lesser-sung verses of Joy to the World.

No more let sin and sorrows grow
Nor thorns infest the ground
He comes to make his blessings flow
Far as the curse is found
Far as the curse is found
Far as, far as the curse is found 

As we left for our camping trip on Christmas morning, we drove by Zwe in his new Christmas pajamas. 

I find pajamas nearly every year for the youngest kids. There is a shop that has them—fuzzy, fleece pajamas, often in Christmas patterns, for about a $1 a pair. I can’t pass up that deal, particularly in the coldest months of the year when the littles need all the warm clothes they can for their bamboo homes. 

Really, our neighbors don’t wear pajamas. Did you know pajamas are a thing of development? I didn’t, or at least I’m not sure I would have identified it that way until we moved here. Wearing them seems to be just another thing to wash by hand; another hassle and thus unnecessary. I’m not sure; I could be wrong. I do know that explaining pajamas to our neighbors for English class has been next to impossible. It isn’t a thing in their world.

The kids just wear them as an outfit. But I buy them anyway. 

I think in my mind, it’s like a prayer for them: a hope that someday they’ll have Christmas pajamas. That someday, they’ll celebrate Christmas as a family, and they’ll live a life where they open up a new pair of pajamas on Christmas Eve.

In just one picture of our community, even a beautiful one like this, there is so much story for us. We know the stories these families hold, at least in the past eight years. We know when Zwe got here to Mae Sot, when he moved in with his grandparents and cousins. We remember picking him up across town with a small bag of things, an infant then.

All the families, all the stories: they all carry loss. Some more than others, but all of them carry the curse, the brokenness of sin and sorrows. 

And yet, for this community in particular, we are hoping for His blessings to flow through. We are hoping for HIs goodness to stretch as far as the curse in found in every household, every family, and every story. We hope for Christmas to be celebrated, for families to be whole, and perhaps someday for there to be Christmas pajamas waiting under a tree.

our christmas 2018.

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In addition to all the community traditions, we still managed to squeeze in a few of our own personal traditions!

We swim laps regularly at a local hotel where we have a membership to use their pool. This year, they built the biggest gingerbread house I think I’ve ever seen! I was super impressed at their detail, and just the monstrosity of it. So impressed, in fact, I told friends they should stop by and see it with their daughter. Stephen didn’t think it was quite amazing enough to recommend others to “visit,” but he did agree to take a selfie with me!

After delivering presents on Christmas Eve, we went home to make our traditional foods: Stephen’s family rolls, scalloped corn & stuffing, sweet potatoes, truffles, egg nog. (I cheated and served a rotisserie chicken from these store.)


We had a lovely meal {very} late on Christmas Eve–after passing out hundreds of presents, making all of our traditional foods, and packing for our annual Christmas camping trip!–and enjoyed sitting around the tree with a Christmas book.

Early Christmas morning we finished gathering things into the car and headed out to a new campground. It was absolutely beautiful, and a very relaxing way to spend Christmas and New Years.

We had friends join us in the middle for a couple days, which provided fun company and they captured some great photos. Thanks to Jason Harvel; all the spectacular photos are his

And now we’re back, ready for 2019!


the collective christmas 2018: three.

by Filed Under: house church, kelli, on the house, photos 2 Comments

After our Christmas meal on Friday, we spent all day Saturday helping to make OneHouse Live :: Christmas Carols happen that evening. I didn’t snap any photos, but it was beautiful. Stephen did an incredible job and had a number of carols, all in a collection of local languages. He had singers for English, Burmese, Karen, & Thai; and it was lovely to hear as we gathered around candles. Some of our community teenagers came to join, Pyint Soe ran sound as Stephen led, and it was just beautiful. 

Sunday welcomed in our church Christmas: hundreds of people, five loads of people from our community. Music and dancing, the Gospel, a meal, and a raffle! It’s an event, to say the least. 

A few favorite moments: Stephen being a proud community dad, going to the front to take photos of the kids’ dancing. And the kids seeing him, beaming with pride, and missing a few steps.

One of the sweetest husbands in our community came along and was sitting just in front of his wife and I. I love that she kept having him lean forward so she could straighten his shirt. The woman next to him, who we didn’t know, had a hard time with the raffle. Perhaps she didn’t quite get it; perhaps she couldn’t read her numbers? I’m not sure. Either way, every time a number was called, she’d lean over and ask him if that was hers. He’d politely say no, repeat her number to her, and smile. Every time. This is through hundreds of plastic bins, fans, blankets, a rice cooker, bicycles: so many raffle numbers. So many times. He kept smiling, friendly as ever, and I was shaking with laughter behind them. 

Some of our neighbors won in the raffle. And Stephen won a fan! 

In the midst of all these Christmas activities, we spend our days at the market, secretly trying to buy hundreds of gifts. We sneak them into the house and fill our side with piles of gifts and wrapping paper. 


This year was the best yet for gifts, too. It gets easier the more we know the kids; and the more we accept the discrepancies. We are getting better at abandoning fairness for friendship—who we know best and where the deepest relationships are, we get them better gifts that suit them. We do know them and know what they’d like; that’s a part of friendship! For those we might know by name or perhaps from a medical emergency, we find a more generic gift. Sometimes unfairness is hard to embrace, but it makes the gift giving much more fun.

For those families we know really need more, we give more. We use Christmas to provide extra to the families that are struggling the most, giving them new toothbrushes, toothpaste and soap, warm and new clothes for the constantly growing kids; and making sure the parents, too, have enough to wear.

This year, we did blankets for all the families. Previously we’ve given toiletries: toothbrushes, toothpaste, laundry detergent, soap. But in many ways our community has stabilized. We still included these things for some of the families we know really need them, but every family received a blanket.  

Some families received just a blanket. The families we know well–a little over a hundred–each received a bag of gifts with their blanket. Inside was a gift or collection of gifts for each individual.

There were many highlights this year. First, we didn’t “forget” anyone (people we don’t really know, but they “know” us) or have kids (again, from a few streets over; they’ve heard of us) come to the door begging for gifts. That’s a big, big win.

And then there were just perfect little moments. When we gave San Aye her family’s blanket, she smiled broadly and said she’d told Mway Mway that’s what she hoped for this year because she really needed one. 

When we went out to a group of families that live in the field behind our house, the kids came running out to the car. Really, they just know our car (it’s pretty loud, and they can see it coming on the road) and always come running to say hi. But when they saw the presents: the biggest smiles. And Lin Tet Oo came in for a big hug.  

In one house, they said thank you for the gifts, and we started walking away. Just around the house we heard paper rip open and a four-year-old girl squeal, “A new shirt! A new SHIRT! It’s beautiful!” 

At Thida’s house, the boys were comparing their shooter marbles and talking about how they’d play together. Kyaw Gee immediately got started on his off-brand Lego set, and Yedi gushed over her “Y” necklace—a friendship set with her best friend, Yaminoo, having the same one.

It’s uncommon to open gifts in front of people, so the older girls took their gifts with a thank you, and then slowly, subtly make their way into the house while the younger kids open their gifts at the outside sitting area.  But then adorably, just a few minutes later, the older girls come running out smiling, holding up their treasures with huge smiles and thank yous!  It was really fun to see them love them and feel like we really did a good job finding things they’ll love. 

It should be noted that with all the late night wrapping, early morning wrapping, and lots of coffee in between—plus my giddy joy at their liking all the gifts!—I nearly fell off the bridge returning from Thida’s house! It was really close—scarily close—and would have left me with a number of broken bones on Christmas Eve. So we’ll just note that as the Christmas miracle 2018!

Really, this Christmas felt pretty miraculous. It went so smoothly, and had very few lows. It can be hard to host an epic Christmas, in a poorer community, with friends and acquaintances alike.  It can be a lot for us and wear us out. But per the season, God was really gracious to us. He’s been gracious, despite some really challenging things lofted our way. We’re thankful for the miracles he’s sent our way, too.

the collective christmas 2018: two.

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Our meal this year was the most Burmese yet: we did it birthday style, like a birthday party for Jesus! We had mohingya, per community request:a traditional fish soup with noodles, often served at birthdays, and one of Thida’s specialities. She’s famous for hers, and it’s the best I’ve personally ever had. (I actually like hers, and I haven’t had any other I truly enjoy. That will be more understandable as you see what is put in it.)

We went to the market on Thursday to purchase 30 kilos of fish, one kilo of fish paste, a box of fish sauce, 100 kilos of noodles, ten kilos of green beans, quite a few kilos of onions and garlic, five kilos of cilantro, five banana stalks, five kilos of limes…lemongrass, turmeric, curry, salt, MSG (you can’t win at everything!)….and six bags of fried bean chips.

That evening, they started a pot of whole fish, all the fish paste, and lots of spices. That boiled in our yard for a few hours, then was set aside until morning.

The next morning we started before seven.

The fish were peeled or whatever was needed to get the meat out, which was all put into the woks.

We chopped banana stalks, boiled them in the sauce/liquid from the fish, and then added into the woks.

We chopped onions, adding half into the woks and leaving half as toppings. We chopped garlic, adding half to the woks and frying up half as toppings.

We chopped lemongrass, and added a whole lot of it into the woks. We chopped cilantro, another greenery (I couldn’t sort out what it was despite multiple conversations and dictionaries), limes, and green beans, all set aside as toppings.

Chili was cooked to be added later as a topping, and the pans it was cooked in are still making everything in them very, very spicy—a week later!

The woks were stirred together, adding water and more spices and sauces. It simmered for three to four hours.

We picked up the noodles, made and cooked fresh in the market, that afternoon. Each bowl is filled with noodles and sprinkled with pieces of fried bean chips, then set at a place at the tables. Here, a person can add their choice of mohingya: adding their own soup, adding any combo of crispy chips, green beans, cilantro, unknown greenery, chili, fish sauce, limes, onions, and garlic. Stephen and I prefer less liquid; the whole community prefers a lot. He searches for good pieces of fish; I love the banana stalks and onions. We both snuck inside to get more crispy chip pieces. I love adding lots of green beans and a bit of lime; Stephen adds chili. 

This is what a good bowl looks like to our neighbors. (Ours look pretty different.)

As we set up tables and chairs, they started in Burmese tradition: kids & lesser-friends tables outside; then adult & important-persons tables inside. This is one of my least favorite traditions: the dividing out of VIPs, serving them more and better and whatnot. I had discussed this with Thdia before, so as they made plans together, I reminded her and explained to everyone else: we wanted everyone together. We loved everyone equally, so we’d all eat equally. We wanted all the tables on the same “level” and with the same service. Thida remembered, explained that this was important to us, and we went with it. Overall, this was a success; but I will say they just couldn’t resist when our church came—VIPs in their mind—and they pulled out our ceramic bowls from the kitchen. They were forced to sit on the same playing field, but they just couldn’t serve them in plastic!    

We started serving at three o’clock in the afternoon, as the first kids returned from school. For Burmese birthday parties, you set out a few tables to serve at, and people come to eat, stepping into a free spot. Once finished, you clear out for someone else. We had tables and chairs for about thirty, but easily served near five hundred. I honestly have no idea.

There were a few things I loved about this years meal. First, it felt really Burmese: we had balloons to decorate, music—a shuffle of English Christmas music and Burmese pop—blaring from a speaker, people in and out everywhere. We had no fights or stampedes or food hoarding.

We served our church, who all came to join and prayed for our community. 

Most of our dearest friends came initially, from three to four; then word spread to all around. By six, many of those we know best were still around for the party, and we had so much food still. By the end, our dearest friends ate three to four times! We still ended up inviting a nearby children’s home to come eat—another twenty to forty?—and ultimately sent home extras in the community at 8pm!

Thida and I were in the kitchen around five, when we hadn’t even finished one wok of soup. She exclaimed how excited she was we hadn’t run out yet, and said, “God is blessing it!” She seems to see Jesus more clearly than I do sometimes.

Later that evening as we cleaned, she said it just never ran out: they’d serve bowl after bowl, hundreds of people would come, and the wok would have the same amount in it. I told her a summary of the fish and loaves of bread, and how it never ran out and they had extras, even feeding thousands. We said it felt the same. It was a really beautiful conversation. 

And for me, significant in this way: years ago, when we first started working in this community, we always marveled at how much it felt like we were living out the gospels. It was almost word for word, which was both encouraging, but also sometimes made decisions easier: we knew which way to go, we could see how God was in it. The past year or two, at some point or pattern I can’t identify, we faced so many decisions I just wasn’t sure about. Things felt so grey at times, where we weren’t sure where God was in it or how to give him glory or how to handle a predicament. At this point, and a few others in the past week or so, God was gracious to give us conversations or moments of clarity, confirmation; moments of grace.

This year, I loved the meal, the feel of the evening, the success of it. I love that people ate to their full. I love that we saw Jesus in it. I love that we also saw ourselves, just encompassed in this community: it was a Burmese party in all ways, but it was us, too. It’s weird how that happens slowly, until you realize suddenly, as if it just fell upon you. But you also like what you’ve found.

Please note: Nearly all photos in this blog are credited to Mway Mway. I realized after uploading them all that I forgot her watermark, so I’m going to give her credit here for very nearly all of these.

the collective christmas 2018: one.

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It was our best Christmas yet, in so many ways.  

Do I say that every year? I hope so. Mostly, I think we’re just learning more and more each year; learning what to expect, learning Burmese culture, learning our best friends, learning ourselves. 

I’ll start with my favorite photo this year: just a day after we returned. I was meeting with Thida to create our Christmas plan–we certainly needed her help! And the kids wandered in to find our Christmas tree, which we’d just set up the night before. As the best tree on the block, and it draws quite a lot of awe!

We started the festivities with a movie night. On Sunday night–just a couple days after getting back into town!–we pulled out the projector, opened up some cookie tins, and blared Home Alone in our yard. We didn’t have a Burmese translation or subtitles, so we’d just shout a translation over the parts that seemed confusing. 🤷🏼‍♀️ Either way, slap-stick humor is funny in all languages.

It was the best kickoff we could have imagined! Hearing the adults and kids alike laughing their hearts out was amazing. 

My two favorite moments: About twenty seconds in, as the thief is in the house entryway, pretending to be a police officer, Thida says to those around her, “I don’t think he’s a real cop! I think he’s faking!”
Yeah, you’re going to get this just fine. ☺️

Then, Kevin uses the trick repeatedly of playing the movie in the background to scare off people at the door, “I’ll give you to the count of ten to get your ugly, yella, no-good keister off my property before I pump your guts full of lead…Keep the change ya filthy animal!” Same trick; repeatedly, folks. And they all laughed their heads off every. single. time. I loved it. 

We even had guests join us in the street. Look closely and you’ll see a grown man sitting in a stroller he pulled up as a chair. We know how to throw a party!

On Tuesday we had storytime after school. Thida read the Christmas story from the Jesus Storybook Bible, and we crafted our own nativities.

It was chaotic and lovely! The kids left with nativities and fruit.

There are reasons we don’t use glue often, though. There was also a nativity glued to our motorbike seat, and a few on our inside walls. Glue stick works better than you’d think. 🤦🏼‍♀️

The next day we sang a few carols in Burmese and played games, including a disaster of Bingo. That was the low point and I might be permanently finished with the game…but “pass the present” and a few other simple games were a big hit! Either way, beyond the singing, it was far too chaotic for photos. We all survived!

And then we were off to the market to kick off our Collective Christmas Meal!

surreal, but nice: seven.

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And while in France, we felt we just couldn’t pass up Paris! We headed to the city just a few days before our flight, so we could bunk up in a tiny little AirBnB flat and enjoy all the classic tourist activities and the Parisian streets in between.

Of course, the Louvre. Having been deprived of regular museum visits for nearly a decade now, I absolutely loved this. We were there when it opened, stayed until it closed, and loved it.

They had a special room–can’t remember the name now!–but they had pieces you could touch. It was pretty full with kids on field trips, since it was of course the easiest place for the teachers to manage! But there was also a man with his wife. The man was blind, and his wife described the pieces as he felt them. And this was perhaps one of my favorite moments.

And the Eiffel Tower. (With my husband who graciously takes photos with me using apps I’ve learned about from our neighbors!) I honestly expected this to be a bit of a disappointment and was pleasantly surprised. It was incredible and beautiful to see.

Notre Dame was stunning. We we warned for the lines, but arrived early enough to walk right in. It was lovely to see, but even more lovely to sit.

My favorite statue inside of Notre Dame was this one. It was donated by a Christian organization in China, in honor of a martyred Chinese Christian. It’s a statue of Jesus, with a Anglo-Saxon boy to one side and a Asian boy on the other. I love it for many reasons, some probably more obvious than others.

Just around the corner from Notre Dame was the very best bookstore I’ve ever been to. Since we already had a carry-on full of books, we sadly bought none. But I loved our afternoon there enough that it deserves a photo!

And the Sacre-Coeur.

We also showed up here earlier than most (perhaps we’re a bit morning folks, used to 5:30am breakfast service!), and caught part of the early morning mass. We loved it.

And, the flagship Apple store in Paris, which just opened in November. We visited that, too.

While I can’t say I get too excited about Apple store visits, this was a stunning building they renovated. It was four or five floors and really beautifully restored.

Christmas markets were set up all over Paris, so we trekked through those for most of our dinners and enjoyed all the classics: pretzels and raclette and hot chocolate and macaroons and other things we don’t know the names of. So much good cheese!

For a once-in-a-lifetime trip we never guessed 2018 would hold, it was far more incredible than we could have imagined! Surreal, but nice.

surreal, but nice: six.

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And then we had the opportunity to experience France–which was followed by a chaotic community Christmas, hence the long pause between posts! But France was incredible. Surreal, but incredibly, amazingly nice.

I mentioned briefly before, but will say again: Restored & Renewed Ministry, Sherry, Graham & Heather, their kids–the whole crew welcomed us in with such kindness. Warmth, grace, love. All the good things in the world: they filled their little French countryside home with them and then welcomed us and others to come on in.

I doubt I’ll ever have the words to thank them or describe it to you, but I can show you the surreal photos. It was just as surreal as it seems.

Here we are in front of the lovely chateau.


In this lovely little village.

This is where we went for walks and runs, sometimes freezing and shivering, surrounded by beautiful countryside.


This is where we sat by the fire, read books, did puzzles, and played games.
This is where we celebrated a beautiful Thanksgiving.

It’s funny the things that can make anywhere feel like home. For me, party mix. (And Jif peanut butter is probably on that list, too.)

They also took us on adventures, to beautiful cities like Troyes. And to have delicious, liquified Lindt hot chocolate. (Best ever.)

And to Doremy, Joan of Arc’s hometown! And her cathedral. So many beautiful cathedrals.

And to Strasbourg, in the loveliest day! My family is from the Alsace-Lorraine region, and of my immediate family, I was the first to go visit! It was so fun to see the culture and history, and to feel a connection to it.

We were also there for the first weekend of Christmas markets, and got to visit the traditional Strasbourg Christmas Market! All the heart eyes. 😍