the spurlock house

the community experiment.

April 19, 2015 by Stephen & Kelli Spurlock Filed Under: kelli, photos Leave a Comment

While we were stateside, some new neighbors moved in. Kelvin & Laura–or “Kelavin” and “Laawla” according to the kids–are Canadians that moved to Mae Sot as a couple last August, after marrying in July. Kelvin has been in different areas around Thailand for nearly four years, and Laura is new to this continent.

And they are a pretty lovely couple. {You can see their website here and read a recent blog that Laura wrote. I have read and re-read it, as I mourn the ants & heat and pray once again for God to make this beautiful.}

We met them shortly after they arrived and became friends, I think from Stephen & I telling each other, “We should hang out with them; I think we’ll be friends,” while they were telling each other the same thing.

We were all right! We became friends last year and then, in the way God works, they decided to move next door to us in February.

{In the above duplex, our house is on the right and Kelvin & Laura’s in on the left.}

And it has become a community experiment.

Stephen and I have been in a community experiment for years, really. Our entire lives as we currently know them started over a football game in the street and a few Memory games on our porch. And it has grown into one community experiment after another: in medical emergencies; in floods; on sick days and birthdays; at funerals and weddings; in going to school and sharing meals; in sharing games and space; in learning new trades and skills and languages; in sorting through trash and discovering new treasures. It has been a very interesting community experiment between a young American couple and a community of Burmese families.

Then it expanded with two new foreigners on the block. They have different perspectives and fresh ideas. They are new faces and additional hands! They speak our language and are learning new ones with us.

I was a little nervous. It seemed…vulnerable. I really love this community around us. What if they loved Laura & Kelvin more? What if they were better at this than I was? What if we didn’t really get along?

It was a bit of a journey for me stateside as I prayed through this. As I prayed through the fact that we had prayed for this: for people to join us! For friendships and community with other foreigners; for help in our community.

And God answered!

We are still learning. We are just taking a step or two at time and talking things through. We are experimenting with different aspects of living life together: we are sharing meals and sharing vehicles. We are sharing a washing machine and printer and internet; even a new power tool we both needed! We are helping each other out and checking in on each other.

Sometimes it feels like college, when we pass a fresh baked loaf of bread over the wall or walk next door for a movie night. When I fell sick this week, Laura sent over soup and popsicles and nail polish.

When our microwave broke and they had an extra, they left one on our counter as a present, allowing us to give ours away to another neighbor.

What a great little community circle.

It is still an experiment, and we aren’t really sure where it will go. But we aren’t really sure about that for a lot of things in the community around us! It’s been really fun, and we’re really thankful they are here. They came|arrived|were sent at just the right time, because our God is so good!

hot, hot, hot.

April 18, 2015 by Stephen & Kelli Spurlock Filed Under: kelli Leave a Comment

It’s hot season for us: the middle of summer, in a whole new definition of the word.

To give you a taste, I’ll say this: the heat index was 108 degrees Fahrenheit at 5pm last night, and yesterday I reached a new record of showering four times.

It is indescribably hot.

And in our constant whining|empathizing with one another, we have come to three conclusions:

We can determine how hot it is by how many times Stephen forgets to finish his sentences in lieu of ending with, “Gah! It’s so HOT!” Currently this happening about twice a day. For example: “So I was thinking that we should…Gah! It is so HOT!”

We feel like it’s an accomplishment to survive another hot season. It is like it is a test of our will to live here, and each year, when it’s over, it’s like we’ve bought ourselves another “set” of seasons. We’ve passed for the year, I suppose. I don’t know; it doesn’t really make sense. We just determined we both feel that same feeling of having actually accomplished something, just by surviving the heat.

We have decided it will be weird to move away from here someday and just never know this level of heat ever again. How will we reminisce upon it? We imagined ourselves remembering it, but realized that a) once you are out of it, you actually can’t remember it or fathom that level of discomfort–I have this problem every time I go back to the States and try to purchase clothing for the weather here! You just can’t imagine being this unbearably hot when you aren’t. It feels impossible. Really, it felt impossible even today when I sat in it. And b) it will be weird to walk away from such a drastic climate and then just not experience it again. What if we just don’t have to handle this kind of heat ever again {after this unknown, theoretical day in the future when we move back to the US}?

As much as we like our lives here, I will blatantly dream of a day when I sweat only during exercise. And on a high note, we should be just about a month away from surviving our FIFTH hot season here and earning ourselves another rainy season!

cooking with chaos.

April 18, 2015 by Stephen & Kelli Spurlock Filed Under: kelli, photos, playhouse Leave a Comment

Yesterday afternoon was rich in many ways, and they all have names and faces and personalities.

It started with making bread for dinner with friends tonight.

While the bread rose, I decided I’d make granola bars, too. And maybe blueberry muffins? They sounded good.

Then a few kids joined. They came first with puzzles, sprawling on the kitchen floor while I cooked. They proudly posed with a finished puzzle, and then they all dropped it in excitement to come see the photo…and they were back to square one.

Later an older sister joined, who really loves cooking with me. We took off with the muffins.

The littlest wanted a train track set up, so we put that between the washer and oven with a few warnings of “hot, hot” and “don’t touch.”

Kids came and went, mixing and sharing jobs and toys, as we chopped vegetables and made pumpkin salsa. We made granola bars, while I explained what peanut butter was–they thought it was chocolate– and showed them how to chop peanuts in the blender. We tried chocolate chips–well received, of course–and I stopped them from sticking the granola bar spoon into the salsa.

Lay Tah Oo & Jor Gee asked if they could practice writing their alphabet, which I cheered over and obliged! They sprawled out on the floor to trace dotted letters.

We played a game that practices colors; one they absolutely love. I practiced my Burmese colors yet again and continued to stir the salsa.

The loved the hand blender as they pureed the salsa. I later cleaned blueberry muffin batter and salsa off the back wall from the hand blender experiments.

While we stirred granola bars, the kids admired photos on the wall. They noted Stephen and I being younger and newly married. They mumbled something about Jesus, and finally said something along the lines of Stephen and I and Jesus. I told them that we did love Jesus, but I was a little confused. They kept pointing to our smiles in the pictures, so I thought maybe the words for Jesus and…something else…were similar?

After some attempted dialogue, I determined that they think Stephen looks like Jesus! So adorable. They talked about their “Jesus books” and how Stephen & Jesus’ beards are the same. It was pretty adorable. And kind of made me want to give them a picture of an Asian Jesus.

They were very impressed with the cupcake liners and asked if they could each have one to take home. Honestly, I bought them in bulk about two years ago–some three hundred of them for $4?–and they are horrible. They are cheaply made, tearing when you try to peel them off and sticking to whatever you put in them. {Read: I should have known better.} Seeing their excitement over something I have been trying to use up for years, I started handing out muffin cups by the dozens.

By the end they had “washed” a number of dishes to help. They tried the sugar-topped blueberry muffins and gave raving reviews while they learned “blooo-berrrry” and gave the salsa a few disgusted faces as they headed out the door.

About an hour later, I was showered and ready for our guests to come. Yedi called me outside, where she had prepared a “spread” from the day’s compost, arranged conveniently in muffin cups.

She explained, in these words exactly: “Kelli…cook…Yedi…eye…Yedi…cook…same same!” So she watched me, and then made the same thing 🙂

This is beautiful place. These are such beautiful children and families. Some days I just don’t want to forgot how much joy they bring me in the simplest summer afternoon of cooking.

as of late: highs & lows.

April 16, 2015 by Stephen & Kelli Spurlock Filed Under: housewares, kelli, photos, playhouse Leave a Comment

The world of social media overwhelms me. I have been reminded recently that I can put out there what I choose, and that is all you see.

I want to be honest; I want it to be a true picture of me and of our lives here.
But I also want you to still believe in us, to still hope with us.

So the days when I don’t believe in myself or when I feel hope wearing thin, I don’t know how to present an honest picture. How do I really paint a picture of our day to day?

Well, I don’t. I remain silent while I determine how to hope again, how to be honest, and how to put our lives into words.

So here are some highs and lows—mostly highs I want to remember!—as we try to get ourselves back into sync with chaos. It isn’t the whole picture, but it is a glimpse into the community around us.

_________________

High: This little buddy comes every day to get our recycling and will stay to color, do a puzzle, or play a game if there’s time. He has also picked up some of my habits, and now blows me a kiss and yells, “Bye, buddy!” to me as he leaves. It can pretty much melt my heart any day.

High: It is always fun to have kids come to your door to sell you unidentifiable food items from the ground right in front of your door. Thankfully, there are also kids inside of the house, so I can purchase 80 cents worth of “sausages” and then serve them to the guests!

Low: Our little bunny Kayak went to a new owner. He wasn’t doing too well, and it was kind of a sad day.

High: While delivering flowers last week, I asked Daw Ma Oo where she has the best business: in the Burmese day market, the Friday|Saturday night market, or the Sunday night market? She said it was in our car—that is her best business! It was fun to hear that little things can make a difference in someone’s life.

High: After flower deliveries, I went to the tea shop with Daw Ma Oo and her nine-year-old son, David. First, he chastised me for ordering hot tea while it was hot outside and forced me to drink a little of his cold green Fanta. He then told me that my skin was “white, white,” his was “black, black” and his mom’s was “light black.” As I was repeating it to show my understanding, he then decided to let me know he wasn’t really black, and taught me that the speaker next to us was actually black…It was pretty hilarious.

Low: We lost one of the women at the market on Sunday.

High: I did find her eventually. She had a cart hired to take her home (since she couldn’t find us either!), so instead we took the cart to get both of us and all of her purchases— kilos upon kilos of {smelly} fish and {smelly} fish products—back to the car. This cart ride was amazing! It was my favorite market experience yet. You are on the front of a cart attached to a motorbike; the drivers zooms in and out around the market, honking at everyone. It was a great perspective of one of my favorite places in town.

High: We got to attend a birthday party for this beautiful little girl. Both of her parents are in Burma, but the family she lives with threw her a birthday party, and she was pretty excited to have us there. It was sweet.

High: At the market on Sunday, some of the girls bought Stephen and I visors. We came across a man selling visors for just 30 cents, and they were excited. It looks like they are actually from a hat factory around here that made some mistakes…so a worker saw an episode of Saved By The Bell and realized they just cut them off and made them into visors!? Mine has an off-center “K” on it.

High: It was Songkran this week—Thailand’s country-wide water fight! We had a great time on Monday morning out with the kids and community; throwing water and laughing in our newly acquired visors.

Low: While attempting to get a teenager soaked, said teenager ducked and Stephen smacked an elderly woman in the face with water. Whoops! This is actually even more rude in the culture here, but would probably be rude anywhere. He felt horrible…

Low: After just Monday morning of playing in the water, I was down for the count and spent the rest of Songkran sick in bed.

High: I got to listen to Stephen shouting with the kids from my bedroom. So cute.

So now we’re here: I’m on the up and up, and we’ve survived another Songkran.
I can’t always determine how to present the whole picture, but I can show you the things that keep us going while we pray for more joys, more hope, and more stories of His goodness!

a little less messy.

March 23, 2015 by Stephen & Kelli Spurlock Filed Under: house calls, kelli Leave a Comment

I read this post yesterday; or maybe the day before? Jet lag is still very real.

I really liked his insight and application of the woman at the well. And what I really, really appreciated was this:

I’ve always wanted to believe that after the Samaritan woman met Jesus, she was instantaneously emotionally neat and clean—she would bear none of the emotional and spiritual scars of the life she had lived up to that point. I find no evidence in psychology textbooks or the Bible to support this case. She was messy when Jesus met her, and likely only somewhat less messy as he left. When we truly engage her, we commit to unconditional love.

Every once in a while, I come across something like this that keeps me going in what we do. Most of the people we encounter day after day, the relationships we are building day after day: the visible changes are minimal. We are holding on to the hope that we might have the impact of a piano teacher or that things might be just a little bit less messy.

Sometimes even that feels like a ridiculous thing to hope for, let alone significant spiritual, emotional, or physical change.

Either way, this ricocheted through my head last night, as I washed blood out of my neighbor’s hair.

It was another domestic dispute; well, we’re pretty sure it was. We were told to tell the doctors that a roof beam had fallen and hit her, but the room strewn with money and beer cans, the blood smeared on the wall, the husband sitting outside with his head in his hands, and her bruises tell another story.

Either way, we took her to the clinic and they put four stitches into her head while the husband drank another beer outside and spilled it on Stephen.

I don’t actually want to paint him as a villain. He looked genuinely apologetic and saddened; he looked overwhelmed. Perhaps drinking another beer was the only way he knew how to cope with the situation he now found himself in.

As we left the clinic, she still had blood all over her arm, neck, hair, and forehead. She had a patch of hair missing and clotted blood clumped in what remained. Her shirt was blood-stained. I didn’t feel like we could let her go home like this. She just deserved more.

So we brought her inside, and with a little convincing, I got her to put on a sarong and let me help her wash. I watched as warm water and blood ran over her shoulders and down her back; I shampooed her hair and tried to explain conditioner. She was going to need something to untangle the mess that had been left behind.

As she combed, more clumps of cut hair fell out. I overheard Stephen talking to the husband, holding their 3-month-old little girl, and showing him pictures of our family.

I re-bandaged her head, gave her a clean sarong and shirt, and tried to tell her she was always, always welcome to come here with her baby if she felt threatened.

She walked out of our house in too-big clothes with a plastic bag of wet, bloody clothing in her hand.

I cleaned the blood and hair out of the bathroom and comb; washed the sarong and towels we had used.

Watching blood mix with water is moving to me. It reminds me of the cross; blood washing away sin and being made clean. I used bleach, which doesn’t really fit in to the gospel story as easily, but made me feel better.

And really, she was only a little less messy as she left.

She left with her husband and baby to return to a home with blood inside; it might never come off the walls and floor. Her story is still very, very messy.

But isn’t that true of me?

I’ve encountered Jesus, and we’re encountering him day after day. He’s challenging our norms and our expectations. He is showing himself new each day.

And yet I am only a little less messy.

thank you.

March 22, 2015 by Stephen & Kelli Spurlock Filed Under: kelli Leave a Comment

It is very weird to pack up and leave your daily lives for two months. It is a very odd process that requires different ways of thinking and new perspectives. This past trip went really well, and that’s something we don’t always say at the end of these little excursions. They are difficult, but we are learning. As I continue to process, look over pictures with family, re-stock my kitchen, and try to re-adjust to the rat that just crawled past my lunch table, I’m really thankful.

So here are some thank yous I want to send out–perhaps to you, perhaps to another friend, perhaps to the greater Church, and perhaps just into the void.

Thank you for giving to us month after month! It is so incredible to know this, to receive it each month. I would never have chosen it for our lives, but I can see how good God has been in having us walk this road. Thank you for giving so faithfully, even when you might be wanting to send your kids to a different school or purchase those new shoes or move from your apartment into a house or enjoy a dinner out. Being stateside gives us a picture into these sacrifices, and it really makes me want to shout Thank you! from the rooftops.

Thank you to the many people who took time away to greet us; to sit with us, to listen to our stories, and to summarize your own life into a coffee or lunch date.

Thank you to the countless people who treated us to these coffees or lunches or dinners, from the random man we didn’t know at the airport to our parents home-cooked meals. Thank you for blessing us. We never know if our little budget that we live on here will make it in America, and because of you, it did. Thank you.

Thank you to those that that we saw for just one little meal or one little greeting. Thank you for understanding that our lives are crazy.

And to all the people and cities and states we didn’t get to see, thank you for understanding that, too.

Thank you for the many people who were understanding even when we sounded crazy or said something ridiculous.
Thank you to those who shared clothes and houses and cars with us! A special thank you for all the extra blankets and fires. It is humbling to see people be so gracious and generous, and we just want to say thank you.

Thank you to those who made us laugh.

Thank you to the many, many people who came to celebrate my Dad for his epic 60th birthday, sharing kind words and big laughs! I will cherish that evening–and my epic dad!–for the rest of my life.

Thank you for the worship songs in a number of different churches, sometimes over crazy loud speakers with dry ice and other times with just a guitar. Thank you. It was cherished.

Thank you for the gift cards that gave us a date night out, a cup of coffee, a lovely play!, new headphones, and cute little pair of shoes. Thank you.

Thank you for asking us difficult questions and letting us ask difficult questions.

Thank you, Every Nation, for being a great blessing to us! Thank you for enabling us to live here and holding us accountable to what God has called us to.

Thank you for praying for us.

Thank you for advising us. We have so many people that met with us to give encouragement and advice and wisdom. It is still being mulled over and prayed over and put into action.

I am simply reveling. I am so thankful to see God provide, to see His goodness, to remember the conversations and road trips and stories. And so we’re giving thanks!

Thank you.

that was america, baby: three.

March 22, 2015 by Stephen & Kelli Spurlock Filed Under: kelli, photos Leave a Comment

And finally, just a few days before we left, we celebrated my nephew’s 4th birthday. It deserved a post in itself.

Per Drew’s request, his dad made him a plane pizza! About eight more homemade pizzas were made for the rest of us, and they were delicious.

Keri made Drew a pudding & Oreo “dirt cake” in the back of a huge dump truck. Such a great idea that we might have come up with together? Or perhaps I was just next to her and have subconsciously taken some credit for it?

He used a shovel to share with everyone…

…and snag a bonus bite.

While opening presents, his older sister had to explain her lovely present. It was definitely not for opening, but for dancing or super-hero-running, like this:

And that was America in photos, baby!

that was america, baby: two.

March 22, 2015 by Stephen & Kelli Spurlock Filed Under: kelli, photos Leave a Comment

For our last week in the States, we overlapped with my sister & her family while they were back from Uganda. It had been well over three years since we had seen everyone, so there was plenty of fun to be had!

It was really fun to see my nieces & nephews at grandma & grandpa’s house, in many ways living out my childhood at my grandparents, while they played dress up and bingo!

Gee, some kids are so cooperative for photos 🙂

We went out one very, very cold night for a local world fair. I remember laughing a lot and being very truly cold.

The best five-year-old hula hooper I’ve seen!

For the kids’ Christmas presents from us, we took them to a bookshop to each pick out a book. It was a lot of fun, and really pretty interesting to see what books attracted each personality. My favorite was the dictionary.

We also took a trip around downtown Little Rock on the trolley, which I absolutely loved. It’s a fun experience to have the touristy perspective of discovering your hometown.

We also passed Heifer, where they had Burma’s flag flying high! We were super excited.

We also bowled and celebrated some wins!

We were so thankful to even have a couple days to enjoy together!

that was america, baby: one.

March 21, 2015 by Stephen & Kelli Spurlock Filed Under: kelli, photos Leave a Comment

I wanted to post a few last photos to capture all the fun we had stateside!

First, a couple more photos I discovered from the oh-so-beautiful Smoky Mountains.

And our last visit to the Spurlocks in Fayetteville, which included celebrating the twins’ 35th!

There is so much to love about this photo!

I got to hold Fin! At least until her mom came around the corner 🙂

While snowed in, we made up & played the ultimate game of Ticket to Ride, complete with both the Europe & Asia boards and seven people.

sunny-side up.

March 21, 2015 by Stephen & Kelli Spurlock Filed Under: kelli Leave a Comment

Our travels left us a little over-done.

International flights generally board about one hour before departure, so we patiently sat down and our metal cylinder filled with passengers on a completely full flight. We then waited, and waited some more, while occasional announcements were made using words like problems, troubleshooting, and delay.

I kept using words like claustrophobia and Are you serious?! as they turned off the engine for said troubleshooting and sweat began to drip off of hundreds of people.

We waited for an additional TWO HOURS in a fully-loaded aircraft before we took off for an 11-hour flight.

I also de-boarded with my barf bag, which is never a good sign.

But then we landed sunny-side up in Mae Sot!

We were welcomed home to kids running up to the car. We had a whole crowd gathered around while we stood outside and pulled out our set of keys that unlock our bicycles. While organization used to be one of my stronger attributes, it is failing me more and more, and I had packed away the keys that had our house key on it. We then proceeded to open all of our bags on the porch in 100 degree heat while we laughed and explained to our neighbors that we didn’t have our keys! They were at least very intrigued to discover what we bring back with us from America.

We made our rounds about the community and caught up with families and saw how babies have grown. We enjoyed our gifts of soy milk and fish noodles and fried tofu. Per usual, we were told over and over again how fat and white we are after coming back from the States. This time we even received a few fat and beautifuls, so I guess that’s an improvement.

We also had the chance to be welcomed home by our new neighbors, which we are really excited about! While we were away, two great friends of ours, Kelvin & Laura, moved into the house next to us–the other side of our duplex! The goal is for us to be working toward community together–in this Burmese community as well as between us as English-speakers.

We are so absolutely excited about this as it unfolds, and our welcome back was a reminder of why community is such a blessing! We walked into a freshly mopped house–which is more of a blessing than I can say. This means we didn’t have two months worth of dust and dirt, cockroaches, ants, or anything else that would have decided to move in! They also made us dinner for that first night back, so we were able to unpack, enjoy a delicious meal and conversation, and then sleep. Really?

Basically, this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship, in a place where we are already thankful for such beautiful friendships!

God is good, and we are sunny-side up 🙂