The words “depart for America” are scribbled out in dark, black ink on our kitchen calendar. A summer furlough seems a small casualty but still a loss among this season of COVID. And so, life goes on, here in Bangkok, as in the rest of our rapidly shrinking world.
Back in late January, the night before Chloe and I flew out to KL, Malaysia for a conference, I asked John to google “Corona Virus.” The conference would have about 3,000+ Chinese people and news was just beginning to escalate about a virus from Wuhan. I figured I’d guard my thoughts from phrases and statistics and just let my husband determine if the travel would be safe. And so we went. In hindsight, I thank God for protection and health, especially considering Chloe (no doubt) shared toys and whatever else in the childcare.
As the numbers of COVID cases rose, Bangkok fell like a domino with the rest of the world in shutting down schools, malls (a BIG deal here) and other businesses, temples, churches, etc. as well as the design firm John works for. After the initial shock subsided, we did what people do, we adapted.
For me personally, there’s a lot of silver lining that comes with shelter in place, social distancing and newfound space to reflect and consider mortality. I’ve found this to be true also among our neighbors and church family in Bangkok. A friend from our church once shared with me about her staunch Taoist parents. She’d gone on a visit to a mausoleum with her father. The annual ritual was to honor their ancestors with incense, chanting and intercession for their souls. She described the scene as chaotic and desperate. However, she was able to direct her father’s attention to the stark contrast of the other half of the mausoleum, where Christians are laid to rest. There, it was quiet, still, even peaceful. She pointed to Christ in that moment, bearing witness to her father about His finished, redemptive work and the peace that she’s come to know by His grace. Now since fear and uncertainty have raged with the pandemic, she told me that for the first time her parents have really listened and asked questions about their daughter’s peculiar faith. What’s more, her fiance has felt more comfortable to join in online attendance of Grace City Bangkok (GCB).
Recently, we met with our GCB small group. My friend was sharing about God’s work in her life during COVID. She grew up in a small town far from Bangkok. By God’s grace, she did an exchange program her Junior year of high school, lived with a pastor and his family in Lubbock, TX and converted from Buddhism to Christianity in that time. She married a Texan and though they lived in the suburbs of Lubbock for some years, she never shook the burden of knowing her sisters and parents back in Thailand had next to no knowledge of Christ, much less, a personal reference for what it means to love Jesus. And so a decade later, she and her husband moved their young, growing family back to BKK. When news of COVID spread, they retreated with their 3 kids from their small apartment in the city, back to her childhood home…a sort of family compound in rural Thailand. She shared with our group that through the tension of close quarters and the impending pandemic, she experienced some long prayed for reconciliation with her sisters and parents. In her characteristically calm and gracious way, she told us about how her Father had paid her the extremely rare compliment. In short, he was struck by her marriage and their parenting in a way that can only be explained in light of a daughters’ prayer for her father to see “something different;” something different in their family dynamic because they are grounded in God’s grace. My friend naturally parlayed the compliment to point to the grace of God she knows as His child.
Finally, The ThaiBowles, my family and I, make our home here in BKK as a hybrid role with Mission to the World and a local (“premiere”!) design/branding agency. In other words, we took the Perspectives Class, raised our hands and done uprooted our lives in America to be a part of the world gospel movement. We do this largely through church planting, full time work with the design agency and well, normal life in community as we would have in say, Orlando, FL. After 5 years of working side by side, and many invitations, John’s co-worker had just begun showing up in the GCB lobby. It seems his fiancée decided she wants to attend Grace City for “convenience.” She identifies as Christian, he does not. It should be noted that they have asked John to officiate their wedding in December. (No, he’s not ordained, but this is Thailand! This is our life now.) So that was very exciting, and then with COVID, things moved online. It’s always a small thrill to see his personal logo (“JD”) show up in the matrix of Zoom attendees.
This is nothing new, God is at work despite ourselves. Though we often live our lives under a false pretense of predictability, and calculated expectations, it takes a pandemic to remind us that the veil between life and death is thin. And I’m thankful for that weight.
Julie is originally from Atlanta and part of her heart is still in Decatur. She’s married to John and they have two kids, Jonah (8) and Chloe (4). They’ve been in Thailand for 5 years. She’s a lifelong learner & lover of The Gospel and culture. In addition to the endlessly interesting backdrop of Bangkok, sparks of life for her include: Spotify, live shows, reading, yoga, riding bikes with Chloe and mostly: porch sitting and drinking with John.
Our own stories are powerful, and even more so once shared. As Fred Rogers put it, "never underestimate the impact that your mere existence can have on another human being."
Here with Voices, you'll have the chance to read stories from various members of our church family, each chronicling what it feels and looks like now that so many things have changed. If you’d like to comment or learn more about this series, you can reach out to us at hello@lakebaldwinchurch.com.