Thailand?

I am one who believes God is always trying to get our attention. Most of life is just paying attention.

Yesterday, our staff went out to lunch at CafeWest in Fullerton, a great little place in downtown. After we finished our meal, we moseyed to the back of the cafe where they have an eclectic mix of art, a rack of women's vintage clothing, and a single bookshelf of used books, which patrons can help themselves to (like "on-loan" forever). To my surprise, I saw Lonely Planet's Thailand. (I happened to be at AAA just the weekend before, looking for a something on Thailand to no avail). But this was my lucky day. So I lifted it, legally.

The backstory is that just a few weeks before, I had received an e-mail out the blue that Becky Mann wanted to meet with me. I had heard about her, her husband Mike, and their wonderful and important work in Chiang Mai as American Baptist missionaries. Mike and I had corresponded briefly two years before as I inquired about their ministry, particularly their clean water projects, but had lost communication. Then to my surprise, Becky had instructions from Mike to hunt me down while she was back visiting in SoCal.

We sat down at Starbucks and I learned about the Mann's work with Burmese refugees in Thailand, near the mountainous hills in Chiang Mai. Firstly, the Mann's teach the Burmese how to farm their land with coffee beans, which they sell direct to Starbucks in a FairTrade exchange. Secondly, the Mann's help whole villages access clean water by setting up projects, often with the aid of teams from the States, who pay for the materials and dig the trenches from the water source to the villages. Finally, the Mann's discovered that the Burmese would often send their children into the city with the promise of work, only to never see their children again, victims of human trafficking. So the Mann's began building schools in the villages so that the children could stay and get an education. The hope is that as the children graduate, the Mann's will scholarship further study at the University if these students will return to their villages to teach at least two years.

I left that meeting amazed and inspired.

During our conversation, I had been invited to come and see their work as part of a scouting trip, having in mind the possibility of taking a team(s) over from Epic at some point.

Ever since, I have been in prayer about going, even sending out feelers to some of my friends to see if there is any interest in going with me.

And then I saw the book.