Dear A,
I think you'll recognize most of these people, but there are newbies among us.
Vietnam Chases
Dear A,
I think you'll recognize most of these people, but there are newbies among us.
Dear A,
It's still June, and we don't leave the states for three more months (Mid-Sept), but already I'm in the mode of counting lasts. "This is the last time I'll buy dishwasher pods at Costco" or "I've already worn this coat for the last time--I can pack it away for 18 months"...
Not very exciting as an update. Thanks for tuning in and linking with us as Janet and I head ourselves into the move to Vietnam.
~Tim
(PS. The TRUE YOU weekend was a success. One strategy I really appreciated was that they focused on "unearthing" or "discovering" elements of a person's God-given identity. There was also time, and lots of it, set aside for tuning in to God's gentle voice to hear who He says I am. But more than that there was the sense that we are archeologists carefully brushing compacted sand away from precious things buried inside. It was good, healing, forward-facing. I'd like to offer a weekend like that sometime, as a facilitator!)
Hi A,
I feel ... pretty crummy. Not physically, I mean, but crazy-grumpy. One of those "I hate everything and everyone" times.Janet is nice enough about it. She says that it's all the soul things getting ready to get dealt with at a 3-day identity retreat/intensive I'm heading to in Portland tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it ... about as much as people look forward to having the handyman come to demo out a sink that's had a hidden drip going for about 8 years and the wood is all gross and basically decayed to blackened pulp, and then the guys fix the leak and dry it all out and rebuild with new white pine and put in fluffy insulation and patch it all up again. You feel better afterwards, but the mucking out the gross part is the thing that's got me triggered. Bah.
So. Not feeling great right now.
~Tim
Dear A,
We think often about going to Vietnam these days. I wonder what sort of house or apartment we'll be renting, I wonder who our time will be invested in, I wonder how we'll use our house in Bend during the seven months we'll be abroad.
On the weekend Janet and I watched a show and I cooked popcorn using an unusual-for-us chili oil. For several years we've been using Lao Gan Ma chili oil to season our popcorn, and we prefer popcorn to be deliciously spicy.
The bottle was nearly used up from making noodle dishes, so I swished 1/4 cup of avocado oil in the jar and sizzled our popcorn in it, just to see how it would taste. And ... wow. I don't know how much of the flavor is special because it's JUST THAT GOOD, or maybe it tastes like Vietnam to me and I'm responding to the nostalgia. But wow. We have enough jars (3) to get us through to September, and I expect we'll be bringing more of this local (it's specific to our region of Vietnam) chili paste home with us. Let us know if you want a jar of it--so good!
~Tim
Dear A,
So, I was ready to write to you about our chili oil, and I'd already taken the pictures and been mentally composing the letter ... and then today Seth Godin sent out an email that I thought particularly apropos.
In his post, he recommends against speaking to a crowd. In my case, that's EXACTLY what I'm doing when I chose you to write to. I'm still going to write about chili oil, but tomorrow.
Love,
Tim
PS. It's been an exciting couple of weeks since I posted on Facebook about returning to live in Vietnam. Former students have been reaching out to me and getting reconnected. It's what we hoped would happen, and it's happening sooner than it might have. Super gratified that one of the girls that we made a good connection with 10 years ago (but whom we haven't seen or heard from in the interim) has reached out and is looking forward to reconnecting.
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Dear Friend,
I don't think we see each other on Facebook. Actually I know that's true because I seldom post anything and equally seldom read about the lives of my friends. (I do actively use FB Messenger, by the way, and I'd be glad to be your FB friend for that purpose.)
Anyhow, I did post something at www.facebook.com/timchase.impact yesterday and I thought you'd want to see it:
This photo represents two milestones.
First, it's our anniversary. Thirty years ago we gathered in a church in Tulsa with our Lord and 240 family and friends to create together a new entity: a marriage. Today the three of us (Tim, Janet, and our Marriage) are healthy and optimistic about the future.