Dear Mom,
These days we are looking forward to (and planning ahead for) a visit from the States. This one is a group of 6, coming from Bend, and they'll be here for two weeks at the end of March.
We're looking forward to hosting them! We're planning to introduce them to our local friends, eat local food together, and show them a glimpse of what Life-in-Vietnam looks like. It's going to be fabulous! I'm sure we'll be blogging about it.
(Other Moms: Want to come? You're out of time to plan a visiting-the-Chases trip this time, because two months from today we'll be home and attending our boys' graduation from George Fox University. However, we hope this isn't our last time in Vietnam, and we'd love to arrange a visit from YOU. Let's plan together!)
Today we're meeting a friend from the old days. She is nervous about having her first baby, later this month, and Aunt Janet is full of helpful advice, website links, and books. This is a country where no books like What to Expect When You're Expecting have been circulating, and it's kinda crazy how much Janet says about being a Mom is coming as news to her. Also we're fingers-crossed for her inner peace and health. And their marriage is a topic of our finger-crossing, too. Lots of good things are possible!
As we were driving to meet her, I realized something about traffic flow. The guests who are coming this month will probably want to rent a motorbike, so I'm thinking about that. I passed a small bus on its right as we drove through through a chaotic intersection, and though I was entirely safe and at-ease, I realized it would feel like a terribly risky thing to a motorbike newbie. At least it would feel risky to a Vietnam-motorbiking newbie!
The safest place for you, when we're crossing an intersection together, is immediately beside me and slightly back. Your front wheel is right next to my rear wheel (if we're flying in Top Gun, you're flying in Wingman position). You may expect me to slow down or even stop as we approach the intersection, but instead we're moving forward because we have the flow and rhythm and it's the right moment. So stay in my "Traffic Shadow" and keep your tire adjacent to mine. By "traffic shadow" I mean that if the traffic is coming from our left, I hope you're on my right, in wingman, and down-stream from me with my motorbike blocking anything coming your way.
When I think of the traffic shadow, and how my bike is casting a shadow of safety for your adjacent bike, I often think of references in the Good Book where the Lord is described as casting a shadow of safety. Here's one: https://www.biblehub.com/psalms/36-7.htm
I'm grateful. I'm grateful to be in His shadow. I'm grateful to live in this place. I'm grateful to be able to host the group that's coming. I'm grateful to be coming home to Bend. I'm grateful to be forming plans to return here to live again, in a rhythm. I'm grateful for the many relationships we have formed in Vietnam and in the USA. I'm grateful for the increasing sense of connections that are forming between these two countries we love.
What are you grateful for? What are you looking forward to? Each time we exchange an email or chat in Signal/WhatsApp, those count as valuable threads linking your house and mine.
Love,
Tim/Janet
PS.
Cooking and Eating together is a favorite pastime for us here.
Learning some basic Vietnamese home-cooking with Thủy:
