In just a couple of days (August 12th), we’ll be heading to Bangkok, Thailand. We’re not traveling alone – our two four-legged friends, Bonzo and Ivo, are coming with us.

Picture: Our house in Bangkok, Thailand.

Preparations

The past months have been filled with preparations, social activities, presentations at different churches, work, a bunch of appointments with doctors for our comprehensive health test, the veterinarian for our dogs, missionary preparation course, and, not least, relief that the regional conflict between Cambodia and Thailand seems to have finally calmed down.

In addition to the fact that the waiting period has brought with it many things to do, it has also stirred up a lot of emotions and questions related to the whole process. Just to mention a few:

• Sadness and worries: We will soon be leaving friends, family, neighbors, and acquaintances. How will be feel about this after we arrive in Thailand? Appointments, work, planning. Have we remembered everything and everyone? Do we have space in our calendar to visit all of our friends and family before we leave? Do we have all of the necessary documents? 
• Excitement and joy: New cultures, language, friends and colleagues, climate and food.. There's so much we are excited about, and even though we are sometimes worried and scared, we can't wait to get started!

Relief

Like mentioned in a previous post, while planning for this trip, we've had no backup plans. Either our plans will go according to the plan and we will move to Thailand for NMS, or we will be stuck at home having no idea what to do next.

But all of what we planned turned out well and now we're sitting here - 10th of august, 2 days before departure, in the house of Malene's sister Åse Kari, with all documents, visas, approvals, contracts, luggage, everything ready for takeoff to our new home.

Breath, relax, believe

We can certainly have a lot of ideas and do all the planning and work ourselves. It's easy to believe in our own solutions and ideas and think that we are fully in control, but we have to ask ourselves the following. Who are we actually working for? Is our work only complete when NMS is satisfied? Are we doing our own work - or Gods work - or a combination?

We must keep reminding ourselves of the positions we are stepping into, and the kind of work we will be contributing to.

It is written:

We will face many challenges along the way. We will become tired, frustrated, discouraged, and perhaps experience that our solutions do not work as we had hoped. And in those moments, it is important to remind ourselves that we never stand alone.

Missionary course by NLM (Norwegian Lutheran Mission)

This last week (4.-10th of august) we have been attending a missionary course from NLM. This course was quite intensive with days lasting from 8am to 6-9pm, but we learned a lot and got in contact with both upcoming missionaries and experienced missionaries. Some of the topics we learned about was cultural differences, how to be mentally prepared for travelling abroad. How we should spend our time and get to know the people around us - to mention a few. 

Picture: Attending the missionary course in Oslo, 4th-10th of august.

A few pictures from today, aug 10th

Photo: Here is a picture of our room in Stovner, Oslo, taken on the 10th of august, where we stay temporarily until we leave. A bit chaotic, but just temporarily.

Photo: Two small and confused dogs, looking at us like "What are you doing? Where is home now?". I wish we could just tell them "Don't worry, we'll be home in a couple of days".

We'll try to create another post during our travel, and after we arrive. And hopefully with some pictures.

I'm currently fixing up the design of an image gallery that we can use in our blog posts. That will hopefully be ready soon!

- Written by Ole and quality controlled by Malene.