Our last trip was full of good time with good people in one of the most international places I've ever been. Literally only about 12% of the people living in this country are citizens, the rest all being guest workers from countries all over the world. No wonder this country has one of the world's busiest international airports. Staying at a guest house for a few days near the airport, we saw planes flying over us every two minutes for most of the day and heard them for most of the night. (Planes headed to and from North America tend to arrive here after most of us go to bed local time and take off between 12 midnight and 3am! That's one reason it was handy to stay a few days ten minutes from the airport.)
Today we leave again for another very international place--perhaps more international ministry workers gather in Thailand over the course of a year than in any other country. It's a bit mind boggling. Thailand offers low cost hosting, easy or no visitors visas, air routes in every direction, and relative proximity to the world's most concentrated people zones. We'll spend some time there with a few people who are gathering for a consultation on counseling in the Chinese world, then we'll travel north to visit friends in one of those cities in the southwestern part of a country about the same size as the US geographically, but with 4 or 5 times as many people. Like the US's southwest, this province is home to many minority people groups, the official count is 53, I think!
In many ways, we're finding that spring is the best travel season for us, which also makes it challenging to know how much to travel and where to go. "Fall" is shorter than "spring" in most people's practical calendars, split by the winter holidays, which in the US are mainly Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year. "Summer" for internationals these days is that time when school schedules allow for maximal travel, and internationals do travel, as well as welcome visitors who are coming to them. So spring for us this year will include three international trips.
With this kind of schedule, recovery and sleep management are really important. So far we've been able to stay healthy. Staying asleep through the night--not so easy! Staying in sync with each other--also not so easy. (And I've been caught sleeping when I should have been awake too!)
Getting good sleep has much in common with other challenges, physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. (Don't most challenges ultimately touch all four, even if they wave the flag of one or two?) For instance, ...
1) Without [sleep], life pretty much falls apart.
2) [Sleep] requires balance, you can't do it all the time, but you can't live without it.
3) [Sleep] affects not only us, but everyone around us, but we can't do it for each other.
4) Everyone has their own ideas about how much [sleep] is enough, how it is best to do it, and what will help you address [sleep] problems.
5) The word says the Master gives [sleep] to those he loves.
If sleep isn't a challenge for you, what else might be your challenge? If you put that in the above list instead of [sleep], do the 5 points make sense? What would you add (or take away) from this list of 5? (We'd love to hear from you!)
Yours in him who keeps us,
Steve and Laura
PS If you've read this far, I can't resist telling a jet lag story.... An experienced speaker came out to Taiwan from the US and the first night told us he never had any problem with jet lag. I asked if he'd traveled a lot and he said, oh yes, he'd traveled all over the US and also made several trips to South America. Being the "good" hosts, we said nothing at the time, but have laughed since as we remember his disappearances on the second and third evenings. I can definitely identify with having been confident and confidently mistaken, especially when dealing with unfamiliar things. [For lo, jet lag is a problem for people who cross many time zones quickly, and it's effects often catch up with you after a couple days...]
Steve and Laura Spinella
street: 1930 Springcrest Rd, CO Springs 80920
mail: 9685 Otero Ave, Colorado Springs, CO 80920
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