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Thailand for Jesus- May 2020
Important Update Dear friends,
We pray this letter finds you well, and in good spirits after stay at home orders and quarantining over the last months. It's crazy all that has transpired in the nations. We are putting our trust and hope in God.
The Loss of My Mother
We left off the last newsletter, telling you that my (Clinton) mom was in a bad car accident on January 29th. Because I was in the US mobilizing prayer for the Buddhist world, I was able to be with her within hours of her accident. She was in ICU for many days, where i sat with her day and night. They moved her on to a rehab facility, where we thought she would be for 90 days. The plan was for me to come back to the US and bring her back to Thailand with me to live. In just four days after returning to Thailand, I received a phone call that she was in a coma and I needed to return immediately.
I rushed back to the US and was with her for 3 weeks. The doctor said that she had Global Ischemia, which meant that most of her brain was dead.
On March 7, at 12:57am my mom went home to be with Jesus. It was 12:41am and I said to her, "Mom, I am going to close my eyes for a minute." Sixteen minutes later I heard the nurse in the room. I looked up and said, “She’s gone right." The nurse responded, "Yes, she’s gone." I closed her eyes, kissed her head.
Friends, this has been the hardest 2 months of my life. My mother, who loved me through my wild years, who slept in her car at the beach on spring breaks and summer weekends just to keep an eye on me and be close, my mother who worked two jobs to take care of me and my brother, my mother who loved my wife like a daughter, and loved my children with every fiber of her being, my mother who visited us 6 times in Thailand.......the last time in 2018, when she could barely walk, so we could attend a team leader conference, my kind, gentle, loving mother who was more like Jesus than anyone I know, is gone. It's been a heart crushing season for us. It's taken me this long to be able to put it on paper. I'm sorry for leaving all of you guessing these last months.
Pray for us as we walk through this season of grieving.
Where are we now?
Ten days after Clinton landed in Thailand, we received a message from the American Embassy stating that all American citizens wanting to return to the US should do it immediately, or risk the chance of being stuck in country indefinitely as all the boarders were closing due to the COVID crisis.
After talking with our leadership we decided to go ahead and go back to the states for Clinton to tie up all the loose ends with his mother's estate. We didn't want to be locked out of the US for an extensive amount of time knowing all the responsibilities he has here.
So we put on our masks, boarded a plan and headed home.
FUTURE PLANS
Our return tickets to Thailand are for July 1. We are praying that we will be able to go back to on this date. Once we land, we will have to do a 14 mandatory quarantine, and then move our things to Chiang Mai. The boys will start school on August 6th. Of course, all of these plans are subject to change as God is in control and there's so much uncertainty right now for everyone. We will keep you updated.
Important Update Dear friends,
We pray this letter finds you well, and in good spirits after stay at home orders and quarantining over the last months. It's crazy all that has transpired in the nations. We are putting our trust and hope in God.
The Loss of My Mother
We left off the last newsletter, telling you that my (Clinton) mom was in a bad car accident on January 29th. Because I was in the US mobilizing prayer for the Buddhist world, I was able to be with her within hours of her accident. She was in ICU for many days, where i sat with her day and night. They moved her on to a rehab facility, where we thought she would be for 90 days. The plan was for me to come back to the US and bring her back to Thailand with me to live. In just four days after returning to Thailand, I received a phone call that she was in a coma and I needed to return immediately.
I rushed back to the US and was with her for 3 weeks. The doctor said that she had Global Ischemia, which meant that most of her brain was dead.
On March 7, at 12:57am my mom went home to be with Jesus. It was 12:41am and I said to her, "Mom, I am going to close my eyes for a minute." Sixteen minutes later I heard the nurse in the room. I looked up and said, “She’s gone right." The nurse responded, "Yes, she’s gone." I closed her eyes, kissed her head.
Friends, this has been the hardest 2 months of my life. My mother, who loved me through my wild years, who slept in her car at the beach on spring breaks and summer weekends just to keep an eye on me and be close, my mother who worked two jobs to take care of me and my brother, my mother who loved my wife like a daughter, and loved my children with every fiber of her being, my mother who visited us 6 times in Thailand.......the last time in 2018, when she could barely walk, so we could attend a team leader conference, my kind, gentle, loving mother who was more like Jesus than anyone I know, is gone. It's been a heart crushing season for us. It's taken me this long to be able to put it on paper. I'm sorry for leaving all of you guessing these last months.
Pray for us as we walk through this season of grieving.
Where are we now?
Ten days after Clinton landed in Thailand, we received a message from the American Embassy stating that all American citizens wanting to return to the US should do it immediately, or risk the chance of being stuck in country indefinitely as all the boarders were closing due to the COVID crisis.
After talking with our leadership we decided to go ahead and go back to the states for Clinton to tie up all the loose ends with his mother's estate. We didn't want to be locked out of the US for an extensive amount of time knowing all the responsibilities he has here.
So we put on our masks, boarded a plan and headed home.
FUTURE PLANS
Our return tickets to Thailand are for July 1. We are praying that we will be able to go back to on this date. Once we land, we will have to do a 14 mandatory quarantine, and then move our things to Chiang Mai. The boys will start school on August 6th. Of course, all of these plans are subject to change as God is in control and there's so much uncertainty right now for everyone. We will keep you updated.
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