January 2024
January 2024
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9 (NIV)
Welcome to a brand new year – 2024!! It doesn’t seem like too many years ago, I was young, unmarried, and pregnant ringing in the new millennium, the feared year 2000….Y2K, with friends. I can remember being worried, as many of the rest of you, what that year would bring. Was the world ending? Were the computers going to crash? Were the banks going to shut down (not sure why that one worried me – I was broke as a joke and barely had enough money in the bank to make the payment on my single wide trailer!!) I think what worried me most as a non-believer, though, was where was I going if the world DID end when that clock struck 12?! I’m excited to say, God was already working on my heart way back then and much has changed in 24 years! I no longer carry those same fears!
As a whole, we often make many New Year resolutions … go to the gym, read more, drink more water, stay off the phone, etc., and there is nothing wrong with that at all! The desire to make ourselves a better person is something we should all strive to do everyday. What we often fail to overlook though is the desire to build a stronger relationship with the Lord and to glorify Him in everything we do. That is my goal for 2024 and what I hope to do!
I rang in this new year relaxing in my chair, with most of my kids around, in my sweats and messy hair! This was after putting my husband on a plane early that morning and sending him across the world, into a war-stricken nation to live in the jungle, until I see him again in about six (6) weeks. And you know what? I’m okay with that. I’m not scared, because I know that God is with Garrick every step of this journey he is on and I know that he IS growing his relationship with the Lord and he IS glorifying God everyday. I am also not naïve to think that Garrick is invincible and nothing will happen to him (obviously, with the Malaria scare of 2023!) – I am just confident that I WILL see him again, whether it is on this side of heaven or the other!
As I sit here with my mile long to-do list preparing myself and kids to get on a plane and take that same flight across the world to join Garrick, I pray for all of you reading this. I pray for peace in your lives, I pray for your families, I pray that you know God is there all the time – in the good times and the bad. I pray you find a relationship with Him if you don’t have one and I pray for your relationship to grow if you do have one. But most of all, I pray that THIS is the year that you are able to overcome YOUR fears and anxiety of the unknown!
Please follow along with us on Facebook, Instagram, and our website to see what we’re up to! My newsletter could be 10 pages long if I talked about it all!!!
In His Service,
Kelly Jo Gay
Praises
· The UNIMAGINABLE response I’ve had for donations for the online/resale I started to support our cause – the majority of our plane tickets were purchased through your generous donations of clothing and goods or purchases you have made! Thank you!!
· Garrick’s safe arrival and “settling in” within the village
· Rainy season is over in the jungle, flooding has ceased, and projects can resume
· Tax information sent to accountant before I leave!!!!!
Prayer Requests
· 2024 budget ($25,000 – minimal amount for family of 4 for airfare, housing, etc. for one year) – please join us by becoming monthly donors!!
· Team involvement – come serve with us! (You don’t have to live in the jungle – we have a house in the city!!)
· Help spread the word of our mission – more speaking engagements – I’m filling up our calendar – contact me know if you want us to talk to your group!!!
· Karen (Kah-REN – emphasis on the second syllable!) ethnic group and the clinics used to treat patients after attacks
· Learn to speak Karen language!!! Thai as well!!!
· Logistics of my family/kids coming and going at different times this year (this should probably read “Pray for Kelly because she’s a nervous wreck about it!”)
Needs/Donations
· Yarn (needing to de-stash? I can schedule pick up!!) I crochet stuffed animals, hats, and blankets for people in the refugee camps (IDP – Internally Displaced Person) as well as babies born in the jungle clinic. I also set up at craft/vendor fairs as an income source. OR …. Crochet these things for me – save me some time!!!
· New and/or gently used clothing and household goods that can be used as resale for income
· Retail space that is within our budget (less than $700/month – WAY less!!) Currently operating out of my garage and using Poshmark and Facebook!
How can you help?
1) You can use the Donate above to make monthly donations
2) You can mail a check to the address below
3) You can shop Etsy – Chaos Creations by KJ https://chaoscreationsbykj.etsy.com
4) You can shop Poshmark https://posh.mk/mC5ivTmdOGb and use code KJGAY for 10% off your first order
Suggested Donation Amounts
BRONZE MEMBER $25 per month
SILVER MEMBER $50 per month
GOLD MEMBER $100 per month
ONE TIME GIFT OR OTHER AMOUNT
October 2023
What a wild and crazy ride we’ve had since my last newsletter in June…..
I’ll try to manage a quick recap of everything that has been going on and catch everyone up to speed!
June events:
· Shortly before I had finished typing up the last newsletter, I had the opportunity to speak at the Ladies Tea event at Mt. Eden Christian Church. I was able to share some of our story and what we were doing with many ladies that may have never heard about our mission before. Though I’m usually not a nervous or timid speaker, that one really had me in a tizzy! As a little girl, I attended Mt. Eden Christian and had not seen many of those ladies since I was a child. For whatever reason, that made me SO jittery! Maybe it was the expectation of who I was and what I had become through the years since I had last seen them. Maybe it was just going back to childhood memories and events. Maybe it was because my kids and Garrick’s mom and our niece were there to listen to me speak for the first time. Maybe it was the technical difficulties with my presentation before the evening and my fear of the inability to represent our mission properly. Maybe it was all of this combined and Satan used it all to get in my head. I know I stumbled on my words more than normal and probably rambled on a bit like I am now. However, I had a conversation with God before I went on the stage and I just asked that he use my words to reach someone in the audience and that gave me the reassurance to just do what I’m good at – talk!! I want to again send my gratitude to those ladies for listening to me, loving on me and my family, and especially to Darla Sayre for making it all possible!
· I had another speaking event at Camp Calvary for both Primary Sleepover and First Chance kids in June. These are all kindergarten – third grade age kiddos and they are so much fun to talk to! They really ask a lot of questions and love it when I bring stuff from Thailand and Burma to touch and feel. They like to dress up in traditional Thai and Karen clothing and play with all the trinkets I bring them. The boys especially like the machete, but that is obviously a very supervised show and tell item! These guys are such a blessing to talk to and hang out with. Some of the kids remembered me coming from the year before which was pretty neat. I’d like to give a huge shout out to Matt and Felicia Spaulding who were the deans for that week of camp and asked me to come back for the second year as their mission for the week!
· As a family, we also had a celebration of life for Garrick’s dad, Mike. If you remember, he passed away in January after having been diagnosed with Glioblastoma the previous year. After several months of planning and meals together around the dining room table, everything came together beautifully for the celebration. It was as unique as Mike was and I’m sure he would have loved it.
July Events:
· We spent July trying to get caught up on a lot of stuff around the house. We had some building projects that we finished up, some downed tree branches and other yard work, etc. There were also several things that we had “made do” with until Garrick was able to get home and take care of.
· I spent much of July planning our curriculum for school to start in August – I also realized this was my 14th year homeschooling the kids! In turn, I realized I’m not so young anymore!! Haha! You would think after this many years that I’d have it all under control – I’ll admit that I do not. Do I have a lot of experience? Yes. Can I tell you about tons of curriculum? Yes. Do I learn something new every year that I plan? Yes, yes I do. There is always room for learning new things – no matter what you are doing! Can I do this alone? Absolutely not – the last 14 years have taught me to pray for our schoolyear without ceasing.
· I also spent several hours this month working on crochet projects for upcoming events and special order items that had been requested.
· Vacation. Sweet, glorious vacation! We took off at the end of the month in our “new” old van that we bought for camping and road trips. This was her maiden voyage and though there were lots of little things Garrick had repaired, we left out of town like a couple of naïve teenagers with the faith that the old girl was gonna’ get us back home 10 days later!!! There were a couple of iffy moments, but she took us through seven states and a couple thousand miles and brought us all home safely. However, I do have to throw in that she broke down just a few days after we returned home on a trip home from Louisville and thankfully, it was about a mile from the house! Thank you, Jesus!
August Events:
· The vacation actually carried over into the first week of August (and my birthday!).
· Back to school! We usually try to make a gradual start into school, but we just dove in headfirst this year with the idea that we will have time to take a couple of weeks off when we travel back to Asia.
· August is also when I start to watch the prices of airfare pretty intently. Sadly, all I see is the price increasing every time I look! Waiting and praying for those prices drop so I can snag some tickets!
· Garrick has been in communication with the organization we work with in Thailand and Burma about new ideas and developments in their programs and trying to decide where our next trip takes us. Ruddy has already said he wants to go to the jungle. Perry, based on our previous experience with “Foot Long” the famous Tokay Gecko, has already said she DOES NOT want to go to the jungle! So, who knows!?
· We ended August with a BANG, let me tell you! What we thought was Garrick suffering from the flu, turned into a whole new thing that I pray we don’t have to go through again! After about a week of crazy high fevers, chills, a blood pressure roller coaster, and insane hallucinations, I finally convinced (or rather, “not so gently” persuaded) Garrick that we needed to go to the emergency room. So, after a grueling night of no answers, a ton of IV fluids and a false positive for Mononucleosis (you know, mono – that mostly affects YOUNG adults!), God intervened and gave us a doctor from Indonesia. When he found out that we had been out of the country and Garrick had spent months living in the jungle, he really questioned the mono diagnosis. Having been exposed to diseases uncommon here in the US, this doctor was leaning toward Malaria or Dengue Fever – both of which are found where we serve. So, he admitted him for the night and ordered a Malaria test. The next day, we were blessed to have a doctor from Nigeria who was very familiar with Malaria and was very concerned because she would not be able to get results of the test until several days later. We left the hospital “against medical advice” because we needed to get him to an infectious disease doctor immediately. Once we were at UK, things took a nosedive the next day and got pretty serious very quickly. I won’t go into a lot of detail because it would be a whole book chapter in itself. However, I will tell you first-hand, prayer is a very powerful thing, because that’s all I had to go on for a few hours. And it wasn’t only my prayers, because I had to focus my energy on him and keeping him with me. Garrick had so many of you all praying on his behalf and continuing to pray when I was unable, and I cannot thank you enough. I reached out to a few people and they took it from there. You’ll have to get the details when one of us finally writes a book …. or if you talk to us in person. It was a harrowing ordeal that kept us in the hospital for the rest of the week. Thank you to our kids for stepping up and taking care of each other and our friends and family for stepping up and taking care of them! Thank you can never be enough! (Do you understand why we are called “Chaos Creek World Missions” now? It is always chaos around here!)
September Events:
· Oh … September. Like a breath of fresh air after August! Garrick is on the mend this month and just taking it easy. What a scary time malaria was! We are so thankful for his continued healing and for all your prayers!
For those who aren’t aware – I use crochet skills to help support the funding of our mission. I also crochet stuffed animals and beanies and different things for the babies born in the jungle and also for different refugee camps and orphanages in Asia/Burma. So, after crocheting my little fingers into arthritis, we attended the Ichthus Festival in Wilmore, KY this month. Garrick had been as a middle schooler (a really long time ago!) and Ruddy nor I had never been. It was so much fun! We had a table set up with all the artists and their merch and were able to meet some really great people. Most importantly, we were able to share with others what we do and fellowship together. The weather was amazing for this event and we took our old van on another adventure and camped for the weekend! I was told time and time again how small this festival was compared to years past! I would love to see it build back up to what it once was – I think that would be amazing! I love a good music festival, but one that is family friendly and Christ centered is really something unique! Special thanks to Cheryl Lycan for working with us up to the very last few days before the festival. We weren’t sure that we were going to be able to attend since Garrick was still on the mend, so she worked really hard to accommodate us!
I also attended Camp Calvary’s Ladies Retreat this month and had another fantastic year. I was able to see some of the same ladies from last year who remembered who I was and yet was able to meet some new faces as well! Thank you again to Camp Calvary for allowing the opportunity to come back again and share our mission!
October Events (I’m FINALLY caught up to date!)
So far this month, I only have one event confirmed in the books – and it will be October 17 at Fit Time for Women. If you would like to come out and check things out, I will be there from 9am-2pm. Perry works at this gym and the owner is very involved in the community and supporting different missions and events in Frankfort and surrounding area. So, thank you to Dianna Geddes for making another event possible. I pray that I am able to share our mission with some new people and that more doors are opened for us.
There are some other exciting things happening this month though – it’s time to start planning our return trip. Many have asked if we are taking a year off because Garrick was sick, but we have no plans to do that. We will likely be heading back for a few months after the first of the year. We are currently working on the details – I will update as we know more!
I will also be getting my Etsy page finished up – you can check it out if you want – the store name is ChaosCreationsbyKJ. There isn’t much to see right now because I’m slow at setting things up – but it is fall break for us this week, so I hope to get some of these things done that keep getting pushed to the back burner. I have designated Perry as my media person, so hopefully she can get me on track!
Another exciting thing happening this month – I am going to look at a retail space to rent. I have had an idea for a store where all of the profits would go to our non-profit and help fund our trips to and from Asia. I don’t want to share too much right now, because I am trying not to get my hopes up! Starting this right now would mean that I have a business to open up and an international trip for 4 to plan in the midst of Thanksgiving and Christmas! I’m praying for God’s discernment in this right now!
Thank you all so much for letting me ramble and still loving me even though I am a terrible slacker when it comes to updating our newsletter! We could not make any of this happen without all of your and your support – both prayers and financial support!
Also, it is nearing the end of the year and if you are looking ahead – don’t forget that we are registered with the IRS as a non-profit organization and any donations you send our way are tax deductible!! We always maxed out our Charitable Donations before the end of the year when our business was at its peak and I know many of you do as well.
Please feel free to get in touch with one of us if you have any questions or want to learn more about what we do! If you would like us to share our mission work with a group or class (Sunday school, school group, etc.), please reach out to us! We love to talk about what we do!
In His Service,
Kelly Jo Gay
Praises
· Garrick’s health is on the mend
· Speaking and events we’ve been able to be part of
· Family time
Prayer Requests
· 2024 budget ($25,000 – minimal amount for family of 4 for airfare, housing, etc. for one year)
· Team involvement – ways to get you guys involved and come visit us in Asia!
· Spread the word of our mission – more speaking engagements
· Consistent, monthly donors
· Location for a 5K for a fundraiser
Needs/Donations for Etsy Products
· Yarn (needing to de-stash? I can pick up!!)
· Gift cards to Michaels, Joanns, Wal-Mart, etc. (For yarn, etc)
· Clothing – especially looking for vintage (think “Great Aunt Ruby’s clothes that you inherited!), but open to all because we can share anything we cannot use with local shelters
· Retail space that is within our budget (less than $700/month)
· Glass jars and containers (jars, canisters, etc. – preferably clear glass)
February 2023
As promised – we have been super busy on this side of the world! Once the kids and I left Lexington and said our good-byes to everyone in Kentucky (which is never easy), we made our way to Thailand – “The Land of Smiles”. I believe history says the reason Thailand is called the Land of Smiles is the Thai culture is to generally avoid conflict, confrontation, and argument, so they just smile. In my case, I think they may be smiling as more of a “bless her heart” gesture because I’m generally stumbling around my words or trying to figure out what something says with Google Translate. I think I will start responding back with a smile of my own and quote Numbers 6:25 - “May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you” because it is somewhat refreshing to look up and see a smiling face in the middle of a frustrating moment (even if it is at my own expense!)
Garrick was safely back in Thailand and waiting for us at the airport when we arrived – with chocolate bars!! After two months of not seeing one another, it was a very happy reunion – even if we were all tired and probably a little bit smelly after 30+ hours of travel time! And he brought chocolate in case we were grouchy, because he knows – chocolate makes things better! He’s a good man.
In the short time that we have been here, we have found a house to rent, moved what things we had in storage from last year into the house, laid some flooring, and built an in-home “dance studio” for Perry. It’s not perfect, but she’s making it work. Once Ruddy started jiu jitsu back up, I realized his new gi needed some alterations, so I acquired a sewing machine and went to work. we started and completed our first week of school – managing to “almost” catch up on everything! Not too bad for one week in the house!! Now we are trying to navigate living on the opposite side of town from where we lived last year. We will have to learn the area to better understand where we need to shop for food, home goods, etc. I’ve been shopping on Facebook marketplace and found a family right down the street from us who is moving back to the US (and who also happen to also know someone I graduated with from Lawrenceburg), so I’ve been watching their Facebook posts!!
The house is a huge praise because we now have a place to be able to invite people to join us on missions overseas and I pray that can begin to happen in the near future. Several of you have shown interest in this and I am so excited to be able to bring that opportunity to life! There are many steps to make that happen, but one of the big ones is out of the way – where to put you! We could easily put you in a hotel, but the keeping the cost down is a priority for us and this is easily the most cost effective way to do that! So, pray about it – if you have any interest at all, please shoot me an email and let’s talk!!!
We are actually going with our church tomorrow to a school/orphanage for an outreach program. We are excited for this and are looking forward to beginning a relationship with this organization for future endeavors.
It’s going to be a busy time ahead and I hope you choose to follow along on the website and Facebook page – I promise to try and do a better job of keeping both updated in the future!!
Praises … Prayer requests…
· Reunited with Garrick * Garrick’s upcoming visa run
· Garrick’s safe return to Thailand * Bank account
· Relationships being made with karen villagers * Budget for 2023 is met
· Found a house and got settled * Karen villagers avoid bombs
· Connecting with organizations * 2023 Rent Budget (Still need $2500)
$23 in ‘23
Fundraiser
This is how I hope to fund our rent this year for housing in Thailand. I am hoping to get 50 people to commit to donating $23 per month for the year 2023. That would cover our rent and living expenses while abroad for the next year. Please pray about this and if you feel like it is something you can do, there are several ways you can give to our organization and remember – all donations are tax deductible!!! We are a nonprofit organization – a registered 501(c)3. there are still other expenses such as airfare, insurance, special projects etc. that one time gifts are wonderful for. having a consistent, reliable income for the recurring monthly expenses is really the best way for us to budget for those. Thank you all so much for everything! We couldn’t do this without your support, belief in us, and your prayers!
January 2023
Let me begin with saying what an incredible first year we had as a registered non-profit organization!! We jumped in feet first and God took care of us faithfully all year long in 2022. We are certain he will do the same in 2023 and continue to grow our organization and bless our future endeavors to share his Word!!
Much has happened since we returned home from Thailand in May and I will do my best to update you quickly and share some of the plans we have for 2023 without making this too lengthy and boring.
As many of you may remember from our prayer requests in the last couple of newsletters, we found out last February that Garrick’s dad had glioblastoma - an aggressive type of brain cancer. He then spent several weeks undergoing surgery and later chemo and radiation treatments. We chose to spend time together as a family this summer and enjoyed several days together at the pool, lake, family dinners and vacations. The family had a good summer that ended with a great Christmas and we are grateful for the time we were able to spend together. Mike lost his battle with cancer and left this earth last Friday, January 27th. Although the kids and I decided to wait until February to leave for several reasons, Garrick continued with our original plans and left December 31st. He and Mike both knew it may be the last time they would see one another on this side of heaven and look forward to that reunion again someday! We appreciate all of the prayers and love given to our family during this difficult time – they were and continue to be felt, and we are truly thankful.
Although we scaled back on international missions this summer, we were still able to help out closer to home. We took food to the men’s homeless shelter on a couple of different occasions. In late July, there was severe flooding in several counties in eastern Kentucky and We were able to make a trip to Wayland, KY with a truck load of cleaning supplies, food, and clothes to help that community clean up. If you saw the pictures of this on our facebook page, you saw how crammed we were in the truck! The entire bed was full and the kids were basically covered up in the back seat with stuff. There wasn’t an open spot left in the truck to put anything!! We did still provide support financially to Thailand from home in several different ways - we helped our friend and his family who escaped Burma and sought asylum in Thailand with housing for several months. Another project we financially supported was the mosquito netting and doors at the orphanage in Thailand, and we sent money to another children’s home for boxes that are similar to the Operation Christmas Child boxes we put together at our church. You have helped make these things possible!!
Garrick is currently in the jungle finishing up a solar panel “farm” that will provide power for the medical facility he helped with the construction of last year. This facility provides emergency services, a surgery center and a labor and birthing facility for many local hilltribes. It is one of very few such facilities for many, many miles. he has been installing water supply pipes, sinks, waste drains, etc. so they will be able to begin cataract surgeries in the facility at the end of February. Working with another organization that has two “jungle ambulances” (which are really just pick-up trucks),that they will be offering the area, he has been building some beds for the back of the ambulance. this has proven difficult because the wood supply is low and the beds are made from scraps and cut with a chainsaw. he has been leading bible study with some people from the village on Sunday afternoons. This has been a blessing – they had not been able to have them since they had to move deeper into the jungle due to planes and bombings.
He has unfortunately seen several unpleasant things in the field as well – several young men with shrapnel and/or gunshot wounds, children who have died from cases of malaria, stillborn babies, mothers who passed during childbirth, etc. Not all the patients that come into the clinic have success stories – it’s a cruel reminder that much of what these villages are lacking is basic healthcare. Every time we can go there to help bring these necessities that we often take for granted, we are bettering their chance for survival. Every project that gets finished in the jungle is a new facility that will provide care that could save someone’s life. Most important, he is building relationships with the Karen people and is able to continue to share the love of christ with them. He just celebrated Karen Revolution Day with them by praying and fasting – they pray for an end to the revolution that has wreaked havoc in their country for 74 years now (began January 31, 1949).
Our future …. 2023 mission plans and goals.
Garrick will return to Chiang Mai toward the end of February where the kids and I have plans to meet up with him. We will find and rent a house for the next year, or as long as our budget allows. While in the city, we plan to work with our church there and the outreach ministries they do. They work often with a children’s school, they have a frequent presence in the downtown area as well as some of the large shopping malls. I hope to still work with the refugee camps and be able to deliver food and supplies to those as well as the orphanage if we can work out scheduling for those while we are there. The kids and I will return this time in the spring (April) and Garrick will make one more trip back to the jungle, to come back to the United States at the end of may. We do hope from there to be able to get to a point to bring teams with us to Thailand soon! We are trying to get things set up to be able to do that. Finding a home that would allow us space to invite others to come stay with us and making contacts and developing relationships so we can take teams into the community is on our list of goals. It’s going to be a busy time ahead and I hope you choose to follow along on the website and facebook page – I promise to try and do a better job of keeping both updated in the future!!
Praises … Prayer requests…
· Quality time spent with Mike * Kelly and kids visas and safe travels in February
· Garrick’s safe return to Asia * Garrick safely returns to Chiang Mai
· Relationships being made with Karen villagers * Budget for 2023 is met
· Projects seeing completion * Find a house that we can rent long term
Daniel and his family’s safe arrival in Thailand * Village where Garrick is stays free from bombings
June 2022
Being back in my “Old Kentucky Home” the past few couple of months has been great! We have been able to finish up some projects here at the house that we ran out of time to before we left. We now have a fully functioning bathroom/shower in our upstairs bathroom, all of our outlets in the house work, but best of all …. I HAVE A LAUNDRY ROOM!! No more laundromat for me!! I will say if you want some drama and entertainment, it can be found at the laundromat! The ladies and facilities at Mom’s Laundry in Frankfort were great, but I certainly am appreciative that I don’t have to visit them anymore! However, if you do find yourself in need of laundry services, I would highly recommend them! They also have a drop-off service, which I was very grateful for when our family had Covid and no functioning washer or dryer!!
I have also spoken to a couple of different groups this summer about our times spent in Thailand. It was such a blessing to see these young children engaged in learning about the lives of others across the world. They all asked some really great questions and I enjoyed talking with them. I will share the funniest comment I received with you though. I was talking about going back to Thailand and one of the kids raised his hand for a question. Keep in mind - all of the questions up to this point had been about the food, the houses, weather, etc. but we had gotten on the subject of how much cheaper things costs in Thailand than they do here in the US. So, you can imagine how surprised I was when he says, “Why would you waste all that money to go back?” It was the perfect opportunity to tell these kids that sharing Jesus with those who do not know Him doesn’t have a price tag.
If you recall, our friend and Christian brother, Daniel, was trying to get his wife and two children safely out of Myanmar and into Thailand. I am pleased to say that his family arrived in Thailand shortly after we arrived back in Kentucky. Thanks to many of you, we have been able to help provide housing for his family while they are getting set up with work and education visas. We also left the car we purchased for them to use and Daniel has made some repairs to it for us, so it will be ready for our return. They will be enrolling their two children in an international school for the upcoming school year. This has been an answered prayer for Daniel - he has wanted a quality education for his children for some time and is grateful they will have the opportunity to receive this!
The construction has continued on the clinic in the jungle as much as possible through the rainy season. Garrick showed me videos just today of a new problem they were dealing with. They were digging a toilet retention pit - better described as a “poop hole” in my opinion. The pit they had has filled, so they had to work on a new one. As you can imagine, that probably isn’t a very pleasant job. Garrick and I were discussing different ideas … composting toilets, ways to let one “poop hole” rest, etc. It’s hard to implement processes that work in our climate and location in the jungle. You have the unforgiving heat, relentless rains during the rainy season, etc. If you are a “poop hole” expert and have any suggestions or ideas, please feel free to share with us!!
As far as “what’s next?” for us, because that question gets asked frequently. We do have plans to return to Thailand in the fall of this year. We learned many things on our last trip and feel much better prepared for our next. We have a better understanding of the geography and where we need to live, we have a church home to return to in Thailand and hopefully become more involved in, and a better understanding of travelling to and from the jungle. We would love to be able to out together team projects and hosts those in the future - who knows - maybe I can pull those plans together before we leave! Some of the plans for our next trip are continuing to work with the construction/engineering teams in the jungle with various projects. I also have some leads to various organizations that work with children’s homes, trafficked individuals, and education that I hope to see come into play more on our next trip.
Please stay tuned for more updates and opportunities to help! If you think you may be interested in coming to Thailand for a couple of weeks to join us in things we have going on, please email me! I would love to share some of these experiences with you all! And would love to see you sharing Jesus with some of those less fortunate! My email address is kellyjo@chaoscreek.org.
Until next time…..
March 2022
Setting In and Staying Busy
Settling in and staying busy …. Sounds simple enough, right? We have settled into a normal-ish routine here in Chiang Mai.
After finding a Jiu Jitsu studio, Ruddy has been given the nickname “Kentucky Killer.” If you know Ruddy, it’s appropriate. He has done well adjusting to a new teaching style and has even earned a new stripe on his belt. We were super blessed to find a studio with an American instructor so there is zero language barrier for him. He is eager to get back home to Kentucky to Core Combat Sports though and see old friends and instructors!
Perry has discovered Ballet here in is much different than at home. The studios use Royal Academy of Dance curriculum from London. It has been quite the adjustment learning dance from a “book” curriculum. Also, we weren’t as lucky to find a native English speaking instructor and that has added to the struggle. She has been a trooper and has hung in there for two hour long classes twice a week.
Garrick has been living in the jungle since our last newsletter. He spent 3 weeks in a location (I won’t mention for safety reasons) where he was able to put his “man of many skills” to good use. He helped work on the operating room some, he fixed some mechanical issues with vehicles, motors, pumps, etc. and start setting up some solar to keep the batteries running all night if needed for a patient. He was able to bring some encouragement to some field doctors through prayer that he met along the way and even connected with some local villagers with his lyrical talent. Though not a singer, Garrick is generally up for whatever someone throws at him and, well, they asked him to sing. So, he did. I want to add in here that he can make up a song on a whim and pretty sure he did that for most of his entertainment debut. Regardless of his ability to sing the correct words or not, I’m sure the local men sitting on the porch (let me paint the picture of the local retirees drinking coffee at McDonald’s at 6am in Lawrenceburg in your mind) enjoyed the giant white dude belting out song in a foreign language. As adventuresome as his trip was, it was also quite dangerous. I cannot share all the details, but he was in an area being bombed quite frequently and he came home with a souvenir rock that landed just a few feet away from him as a result of one of the bombs. He also slept in a literal hole in the ground some nights rather than in one of the buildings in the village. So many of these villages are needlessly destroyed and so many people killed or injured daily – please keep them in your prayers. There are hundreds of patients served at these small clinics because they are far and few between in the jungle and many of them have to travel for miles and miles. We are certainly glad he is safely back under the same roof as us, but grateful he was able to go and help out for a few weeks.
As for me … I have been quite busy too. The kids schoolwork is coming to an end for our schoolyear. They have worked really hard; doubling up on school days to stay on track and even finish up early – we’re getting there - I’m very proud of them for the hard work they have put in! While they have been working, I have as well. I am continuing to take Thai language lessons – and even though I’m not a very fluent speaker, I am learning – one day at a time. I can pick out some things I hear when we’re out and about, so that’s kind of cool. I also finished the first part of my Tesol course and will start the second part of that soon. If you aren’t aware of what Tesol is – it is Teaching English to Students of Other Languages. After the second portion of the class, I will be certified to teach in schools and other places. I found an amazing organization that teaches you how to use this in ministry. This will open up some doors to share the Gospel in a way that I am familiar with since I have homeschooled our kids for years.
I have also put together some “itineraries” for different activities here in Chiang Mai. We have worked hard and been super busy that it’s time to do some fun stuff! Rather than a full week for spring break, we will take a couple of days here and there, so be prepared for picture overload! There is so much to see here!! In Aislinn’s words “you do love a good itinerary” – she’s not wrong. I love to research and find all the fun, quirky places that you don’t see everyday!
Very thankful that we found a church to connect with here in Chiang Mai. Although we’ve only been a few times, we really like it. The pastor and his family spent several years in Myanmar before coming to Thailand as a result of the military coup. We really hope to be able to serve more through them as well before we leave. They have outreach programs in various ways – serving the homeless, reaching out through worship programs downtown, etc. They are in the middle of moving locations and Garrick has been able to reach out to offer help with that. Hopefully the kids get comfortable enough there to participate in the youth programs – I’m sure they’re tired of hanging out with their parents all the time.
Now, for the question I know is on everyone’s mind …. What about Foot-Long the lizard?! Well, I think he decided we weren’t very good roommates. The feeling is mutual. We set traps for him and sought him out every chance we could. We bought Nerf guns and shot at him and his girlfriend. Also, you know the sticky mouse traps? Well, they are the size of dinner plates here – for rats – which thankfully we haven’t had any run-ins. However, you can stick them to the wall and catch lizards! Unfortunately, we don’t have a Foot-Long trophy to show, but we did hear this awful commotion upstairs one afternoon and we knew it could mean only one thing – we caught Foot-Long. So, up the stairs I run with my stick and Ruddy is on my heels with his Nerf gun. Perry decided to stay downstairs in case she needed to escape quickly. When I reached the top of the stairs, there he was … in all 12 inches of his glory – with his head stuck on my sticky trap! It was a little intimidating – I won’t lie – to have him hanging from it by his head like that. But he wasn’t giving up and neither was I. He ripped his head off the trap and took off. I chased him up the wall with my stick and got one good whack in before he ran behind the wall. (FYI the wall connects to Perry’s shower and each of the bathrooms has one of those spinning vent things on the roof) So, we ran to the bathroom and there he was on the wall above her shower. Ruddy starts shooting at him and he runs to the vent and finally outside to the roof. That was the last we saw of Foot-Long. His girlfriend was around for a few more days but she didn’t like being shot at either so we haven’t seen her in a bit. Occasionally though, we can hear them outside the house with their distinctive Tokay call just to let us know they’re still around and planning their next attack! I think in retaliation, he ate the eggs from the birds nest that I had been watching outside my bedroom window.
Thank you all for your continued support and prayer! Please don’t stop with either! There are so many ways to share God and good with these people that we need all the help we can get!!
Please check out our website and Facebook page for pictures!
Prayer Requests
Garrick’s dad – Mike – cancer treatments start
Operating Room Project and the people it will serve
Safety of those living in Myanmar in target zones
Continue to open doors to introduce the Gospel
Safe Haven Orphanage – we had to cancel our plans to go due to a Covid outbreak
Learning Thai language
Refuge Fellowship – moving locations
Prepare for trip home and plan for return trip
Our friend Daniel and his family – he had to flee to Thailand in December 2021 and has been away from his wife and children since then. He is currently trying to get them to Thailand as well.
Praises
Garrick made it home safely
Project progress at KMC
Kids are settling into routine
Found a church to connect with
Visa extensions approved
January/February 2022
Greetings from Thailand!!!
Hello from the other side of the world – literally – we could not get any farther from home that we are! I want to thank all of you have supported us this far both financially and with prayer. It is such a comfort knowing that we have prayers going up daily for our family and our mission here in Thailand. Keep it up – we feel those prayers!
This newsletter will be lengthy because January and February have been a whirlwind of … pretty much everything! So, just hang in there and I promise they won’t be so long in the future! We spent the first ten (10) days in Thailand in quarantine in Bangkok. Our highlight of the day was when they rang our doorbell for meals and the forty-five (45) minutes per day they let us out of the room. Exciting, huh? Our “outside” time was an escorted trip to the 26th floor balcony of our hotel. However, there was a hot tub …. EMPTY! We used it as a massive Bey Blade arena – it was actually pretty cool! We cherished every single one of those minutes outside!
Once we provided the hotel with many, many temperature checks and multiple brain … I mean NOSE swabs, they decided they would let us leave the hotel. Upon our release, we spent a whopping five (5) minutes outdoors before we hopped in a car and were shuttled off to the airport. We boarded yet another plane and flew to our final destination for the next few months – Chiang Mai, Thailand.
We hit the ground running once we got here … we had a lot to do in a short amount of time. I had booked a hotel room for five (5) days and really did not want to spend anymore than that in ANOTHER hotel room! We needed to find a house FAST! The kids were ready to unpack and stop living out of a suitcase and I was ready for them to have some space from one another.
Within the first week, Garrick had learned how to drive on the wrong side of the car, on the wrong side of the road, in a city we don’t know with road signs we cannot read. Did you know that anyone with a current driver’s license, a few bucks, and the internet can get an international driver’s license? It’s true - mine was just delivered by DHL today! What could go wrong?! Plenty, but I said a prayer every time we got in the car and I thanked God every time we got out of the car for our safety. Basically, driving rules in Chiang Mai are this – drive fast, honk your horn just because, scooters ALWAYS have the right of way, and if it is wide enough for a scooter, it’s considered a road and you can drive on it! Regardless, between Google Maps, pure luck, and mostly God’s protection, we found a house by the end of the week. We moved our suitcases over and took the weekend to relax and unpack.
The next week consisted of finding and trying Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Ballet studios for Perry and Ruddy and settling in and finding the necessities we needed for the house. Funny story – you can basically get anything you want delivered to your door here – Door Dash doesn’t hold a candle to the Grab drivers in Chiang Mai. It does help tremendously if you can speak Thai … or at least be able to say your address in Thai – I learned the hard way. I ordered dinner because we hadn’t been to the grocery yet and everything was going smoothly until the driver couldn’t find the house. He called and I said, “I don’t speak Thai.” He said, “No speak English.” Uh oh – we’re in trouble. All of the sudden, the emotions of the past several weeks came at me at once – mostly because I don’t know how I am going to feed the kids that night. I’m at my breaking point, when, all of a sudden, I hear a little shuffling around and I look over to see my THAI neighbor! I basically shove my phone into his hand (because he also speaks no English) and he starts talking to my driver. He directs him to our house and I get to feed my kids. God is good…even in the little things!
Once we had all that squared away, Garrick started going to EMA (Earth Mission Asia) office to begin to get familiar with the operations there and what he would be able to do to help. We also needed to acquire a vehicle of our own since we had been borrowing one up to this point. Fast forward another week in and we have found a vehicle that fits our needs and is in our budget … and then we were told the cost of the vehicle was covered within a couple hundred dollars – AMAZING! God provides! Garrick is settling in at EMA and helping to procure materials for an operating room building project. His many years of finding the impossible for Toyota is really starting to pay off!! He is pretty skilled at finding those things that don’t seem to exist – or at least coming up with some kind of contraption that will work. I don’t pretend to know what he is talking about when he mentions things like “flap disk”, but he is very eager to tell me anyway. I mean, you never know when I might need a flap disk for something, right?! It’s exciting to see his enthusiasm for something that he knows will one day serve many with its physical purpose as an operating room, but also, through the doctors and nurses who will work there, the spiritual needs it will fulfill.
I have been taking a Thai language course so I can better communicate with the surrounding community (and make sure the Grab driver can get to the house!!) and get involved in some different organizations. It’s funny how God shows us that even things that seem so trivial can prove to be a mission field. For example, I have been in contact with an organization that has been teaching sewing and crochet skills to families who are unable to return to Myanmar/Burma. They are families of patients in a Children’s hospital that came here for different types of surgeries, but have been unable to return home due to the ongoing effects of Covid restrictions and the military coup that is happening there. They also cannot leave the dormitories of the hospital and have asked for things to do. Who would have thought that could be a mission field?! If it works out, I will need your prayers to find a store that sells yarn, material, and a sewing machine – or you guys will have to send me care packages!!
I have also been in contact with Safe Haven Orphanage that is located about 5 hours from Chiang Mai. For those of you who aren’t aware, this is the orphanage we have visited in the past with Dave and Marty Sperow and La Cima World Missions, Inc. We plan to visit the orphanage in a week or two to deliver some items they need there and visit with the children for a weekend. If you would like to help with this, I will be pricing the items they need this week and I will add them to our Facebook page/website. You can sponsor some of the items if you want to! I will definitely keep you posted on this as well as anything else that comes up. I will also do a better job of updating Facebook and our website – it’s just been super busy and I didn’t feel like I had much to share – the pictures would have all looked the same – selfies of me terrified as Garrick navigated the roads. I asked the kids if I could just sit in the back with them at one point!
With all the good things we have going on here, there have been struggles too. Garrick’s dad is actually going into surgery soon after I finish typing this newsletter. He had a couple of spells where his memory and thoughts weren’t clear. After a couple of visits to the ER and some scans, they found a lesion on his brain. They will be removing that and sending it for a biopsy. It’s so hard to be away from our family at times like this, but we know God hears our prayers as we lift them up and we also know there are many of you praying at home.
There are other times since we’ve been here that are trying – especially on a Mama’s heart. Aislinn misplaced her passport the night before she was leaving for Ecuador. I wanted to be there to help her find it. It was found – my mom and Emma came over and they found it – all three were VERY happy. Emma has had car trouble several times. Because Aislinn isn’t home, she has had something to drive and support from friends. Perry and Ruddy were missing their friends and activities and they were getting bored. They both found places they really like and are doing well at them. Also, can I brag for just a second? These are two of the bravest kids I know – they have gone into new studios, some with very little English spoken - and they have totally rocked it! It is often very hard for me to let go of the reins when it comes to my kids, but God proves to me time and time again that He can taken much better care of them than I can.
There are also the “creatures” that live among us. I call them creatures because I know no other way to describe them. We have encountered a couple of cockroaches in our bathrooms that are about the size of a mouse. And they are not scared of humans – in fact, I am pretty sure they run after me. It could be because I despise the sight of a cockroach and they’re laughing at me, I’m not sure. Either way, the two I have encountered haven’t made it out alive. Who’s laughing now … insert evil laugh here! I have been telling Garrick and the kids about a movie that I watched years ago about a couple of girls who went to Thailand and ended up in prison here for allegedly smuggling drugs. In the prison, a cockroach crawled into one of the girl’s ears. This movie traumatized me as a teenager … yet, here I am … in Thailand …. with roaches in my bathroom. Please Lord, keep me out of prison and the roaches will stay out of my ears!! It probably helps that I sleep with headphones in my ears every night! (BTW …. The movie is called Brokedown Palace for anyone who wants to inflict this type of trauma on themselves. I’m sure it isn’t a very wholesome movie, so don’t let the kids watch it!) There are also lizards living among us. I’m not talking about tame lizards like Ruddy’s Leopard Gecko, Lizzy, at home. There are wild little geckos running around our walls chirping and fussing at each other. They don’t bother me so much, but the foot long gecko (that we coincidentally named “Foot-Long”) that has taken up residence with us – he bothers me. He’s big and he’s fast. Also, you know the old wives tale about getting bit by a snapping turtle? It won’t let go until it thunders? Yeah, they say the same thing about the Tokay gecko – that he won’t let go until it rains. Also, I think he knows I’m talking about him, because he just chirped at me!! We’ve also had not one, but two, bee swarms land in the tree that is directly out our back door. Both thought it was a great idea to do that on laundry day. So guess what? The laundry got to stay outside to dry a little longer those days!
If I were to wrap our experience this far into a few words, I would choose humbling, overwhelming, and fulfilling. I have been humbled time and time again since we’ve been here. We have had to depend on others for so many things – a vehicle for transportation, directions, advice, projects at home, and even food! It is pretty hard when you are a control freak who usually depends on no one but yourself! I have learned to trust people that I cannot even carry on a conversation with! Overwhelming just speaks for itself – there have been so many things to learn and do that my mind feels like it is going to explode sometimes. Little things like grocery shopping take so much effort – because I have to Google Translate half of the packages. And you have to be careful – what looks like the green Lay’s sour cream and onion chips is actually Lay’s SEAWEED chips here!!! Lastly, fulfilling. Although I feel like I really haven’t done a lot yet, I know that this is just the beginning of many doors opening and many hearts being touched by the one true God that so many people on this side of the world haven’t even heard of yet.
Please continue to keep our family and our mission field in your prayers and thoughts! And don’t hesitate to send us messages if you’re feeling really spunky, send some Lay’s Sour Cream and Onion chips – I’ll send you my address, because I had my Thai neighbor write it down for me!
With Love and Gratitude,
The Gays
- Garrick, Kelly Jo, Perry, and Ruddy
Prayer Requests
· Garrick’s dad – Mike – a successful surgery
· Operating Room Project and the people it will serve
· Continue to open doors to introduce the Gospel
· Our trip to Safe Haven
· Learning Thai language
· Find a church/youth group
Praises
· We found a house and settled in
· Vehicle cost covered by donor
· Kids have found activities
· Settling in