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Church / Life
A couple of days before the House Blessing we kicked off one week of continuous worship and prayer at the building, wanting to keep the door open to neighbors 24 hours a day for that first week (recognizing our neighborhood is a 24 hour community), and also desiring to keep our hearts focused on God and open to whatever new things He might be planning, even in the midst of much activity.
Early during that week of 24/7 prayer one woman with a normal job (not from the neighborhood) came with a friend to ECB’s monthly homeless outreach (which happened to be the day before the big event), then came to the event, then came by the building to ask about donating some clothes. The next day she stopped in again, and hung out with one of our Thai YWAM friends, who encouraged her to stick around for the worship time that night, where eventually she asked to share with the group, expressing that she wanted to know a bit more about Jesus, and inviting the group to pray for her. As we prayed with her, we were so blessed to see an “unexpected neighbor” encounter a deeper taste of the freedom that Jesus wants to bring.
Also during that 24/7 prayer time one of our teammates was sitting downstairs with the door open to the street talking to God about the tension between wanting to be welcoming to the noisy, busy, energetic children who live around us, while also wanting things to be a bit quieter. (There are 4 kids in particular who’d be like to be here ALL THE TIME - one of whom we’d never even seen until the building opened up). Later that day our teammate found a prayer, written up and placed in our prayer bucket, by one 8yr old neighbor child who’s mom sells BBQ pork and sticky rice on our corner: “Dear God, please help me to be a good student, to learn well in school, and to know more about you Jesus.” We have all been encouraged that we simply don’t have eyes to see what God is actually doing until He shows us!
Since late February, we have been meeting for what we are loosely calling “Rak Teh Church” on Sunday afternoons. Someone usually prepares a story from Scripture to teach and talk about together, and we have a simple song or two, with some snacks to share. In addition to our team, usually a handful of grown-up neighbors and several children join us each week (only the kids have been there EVERY week – and thanks to our new teammate Ling they now have some “Sunday School” as well!). We are so encouraged to see neighbors choosing to come and interact with God through His word, speaking out more and more each time, and acknowledging together that God is good.
Daily life connected to the neighborhood has also been blessed by having a space accessible to the street. Dinner outside at our new sidewalk “dining room” table is never boring – one especially memorable evening involved buying an “extra” salt fish only to find our family playing musical benches with 7 “extra” neighbors (several of whom are often around on Sunday nights) and teammates. As a family with four small kids trying to do active street outreach all-together is a bit daunting – but we CAN all sit at the table in front of our house, and share food as our neighbors come to us.
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Family Update
For our family this past season has been about as whirl-windish as could imagine:
January 20 – We finally get keys to the new building, painting!
January 21 – Kashmira’s water broke 12 hours before we intended to move!
January 22 – Baby Rinnan Joined Us!
January 23 – Iven’s mom arrived for a visit!
January 26 – Move Day! (First time in a new home in 7 years)!
Whew. Pause. Regroup. Help the kids with their 3-Day-Long School Performances. Grandma Visit. Set Up House. Adjust to Having 4 kids. Get Ready For Major Event. Whew! Ok… Then…
February 20 – We begin a week of (almost) continuous prayer, 24/7.
February 22 – Big House Opening Event! Unexpected Neighbors start responding to Jesus!
February - March - April - May - "Oh, we really do need to write that newsletter, golly just seems like we can't find the time in the midst of family, neighbors, visitors, Jesus, life, and work!"
In other words things have been really crazy! But our spirits are full, encouraged, peaceful (usually) and it has been a lot fun.
In our third floor family apartment our three “biggers” love having their own “kid room” and as we predicted are making good use of our oversized hallway for running, car racing and giant lego tower building. This long and skinny little home (twice the size of our former home) is such a gift to us, and we are thanking God regularly even for the crazy colors (mostly pink, purple, grey and blue walls, with red floors throughout!)
Izayla turned five last month after which we overheard her saying mostly to herself, “Four year olds talk a lot – five year olds talk even more!” One neat thing about Izayla’s development is that now, two years into Thai preschool and with plenty of opportunities to play with Thai neighbor kids, she is nearly as confident in Thai as in English. This means she is quick to talk the ear off of any and every unsuspecting taxi-driver who gets stuck in a car with our family! She is a lot of fun!
Elian continues to be a quick-thinking, quick-running, tender-hearted boy. As far as he is concerned, if some place is worth going to, it is definitely worth running to get there. He got to be a lego in his school performance (we didn’t really understand or believe what he was telling us until the dress rehearsal)!
Kyin is still a bit slow on the talking side of communicating, but has every other part of it down pat. His contagious smile and delight in everything keep us all light-hearted. His, “Noooooo” and his “Yeeeaaaaaahhhh!” are absolutely hilarious too!
Rinnan is as gracious as they come, especially in the area of sleep. He is soft and googly and everything you could hope for in a three month old. We sure are excited to be with him day by day and night by night as he grows into his place as the newest little guy in our family!
Yesterday we returned from a week of slowing down at the beach during our kids “summer break” and tonight Iven and Kyin (who’s still a lap kid for not very many more weeks!) will take a whirlwind trip to America for his sister’s college graduation while Kashmira’s mom comes to visit the rest of the family here in Thailand.
Thank you for your continued faithfulness in prayer and support as our family and team continue seeking to walk in the way of Jesus here in Bangkok’s old city of Phra Nakorn! We are so blessed by each and every one of you! May the Lord bless and keep you this very day!
All grace and peace,
Kashmira, Iven, Izayla, Elian, Kyin and Rinnan Hauptman
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