A letter from Amy Davisson Galetzka serving in Thailand
September 2015 - Travel, Paperwork, Prayers
Dear Friends and Family,
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One of our daily FaceTime sessions with Johnny while he travels.
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Audit preparation! What a great team. + So many papers and receipts. (More details described in my January-March 2015 newsletter)
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Nadia with my mom. Precious time together in Oregon.
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Our office team saying goodbye to N’Mat (second from left)
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Finance training that we do with our project finance staff every Friday.
As I write this I hope and pray for so many things. For basic things—a peaceful sleep for Nadia, meaning a refreshed little one when she wakes up (and a refreshed me!). I hope and pray for encouraging words, with whomever I’m talking, and for those to whom I write. I hope and pray for divine appointments, schedules, encounters, where I can share God’s love. I work with the Pan Rak Foundation as the deputy director. Pan Rak means ‘Sharing Love’ in Thai, and we have the privilege of supporting education, relief, development, cultural arts and health programs. Even now I hope and pray for time and focus to support in prayer and management those sharing God’s love. As I look back over the past months and look forward to the remaining time in 2015, I have hope, and I know that I need to pray and meditate on God’s Word. It is such a better result when I make sure to spend time doing that.
Much of my 16 years in Thailand has included saying goodbyes. It is a struggle to stay sincerely interested in and engaged with making new friends here in Chiang Mai, Thailand, no matter how long they stay. That goes for co-workers also. We had one lovely co-worker, N’Mat, leave for a different job at the end of January. It was sad to see her go, but the process of her notifying us and of knowing that she was satisfied in her job at our Foundation and would miss working with us was a good feeling. She had family obligations and needed to find a job (I’m thankful she found one she likes!) closer to home. We miss her and are thankful for her year with us. We have a plan to visit her in her home area sometime this year.
April was full of travel to California and Mexico for Johnny’s work. As usual, I work remotely while we are traveling and try to check in to our staff meetings as often as possible by Skype. At the end of April Nadia and I had gone to Oregon to stay with my family while Johnny continued work in Mexico. However, when the very large earthquake in Nepal happened at the end of April, he traveled to Nepal immediately to respond.
The month of May was one of waiting. We were not sure how long Johnny would be in Nepal, and so we were waiting to make a decision about where to go. The time with my parents was wonderful, and being in one spot really allowed me to focus on work and spend time with other family and friends as well. I did take a trip to Washington State to meet with a supporting church and some co-workers to do planning and just spend some quality time together! We were able to spend a couple of days in discussion, prayer and just enjoying the beauty of God’s creation around us. Later that month when I realized Johnny would be in Nepal for another month, I made plans for Nadia and me to go and meet him there.
During June, Nadia and I were in Nepal with Johnny for three weeks. We saw good friends we haven’t been able to see since 2013. We then returned to Thailand and have been so thankful and full of joy to be back in our little rental home and with our friends and co-workers here. I love our time here. When thinking through the practical and the relational, the technical and the more abstract, the words I come up with to describe our time (or often these are my hope for our time) here include:
• Training, planning, double-checking, paperwork
• Relationships, empathy, daily devotion and consistency
• Meetings, calls, emails, agreements
• Daily practice of inclusion and purposeful communication
• Accounts balance, papers signed, audits prepared for
• Love, Joy, Peace, Reconciliation
Our Pan Rak Foundation board meeting was held July 10 and 11. Our board gathered to do strategic planning, hear presentations from our programs and individual grantees, and have our official board meeting with board members, management and staff. During the past two years any gathering of this board has been a blessing and joy. It has been efficient and a great use of time, allowing time to hear deep and meaningful stories as well as making decisions and getting the work required completed. Those involved are wise and committed people.
In August we had one of our final “catch up” audits for more of the paperwork from past years. It seems like each time I write, I am writing about an audit, either coming up or just completed. It is my hope that all of this documentation will allow us to communicate being transparent, accountable and efficient, so we can spend less time preparing.
Thanks and Prayers:
- Health: Continued good health for my Mom, me, Nadia and Johnny.
- Language: For time and commitment to get better at speaking Thai.
- Home: For a feeling of home wherever we are together with friends and family. I want Nadia to feel surrounded by love and not unsettled as we move through our many travels, both inside Thailand, the U.S.A. and Mexico (and wherever else we will be traveling).
- Water: Thailand is experiencing a drought in many areas, and so I would ask for prayer for rain and the water that the farmers need to grow their crops.
My sincere thanks and love,
Amy (for Nadia and Johnny too!)
The 2015 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 235
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