Changes

Well in case you don't know, I've moved into a very new chapter in my life of being a married man, and as we all know, when you get married, things change. Like a lot. Big time. lol. Thankfully, they are good changes and although some of them can be tough, they've been amazing and a blessing and I am so thankful to God for bringing those changes into my life.

One of these changes is that I am now changing how I blog from now on. Grace and I have created a new blog at wokandpan.wordpress.com (notice the east meets west kinda vibe there....we're clever), which is where we'll be posting short updates on what we're doing and how we're doing and such. Rather than be redundant and post updates on both this blog and our new one, I've decided that I would repurpose this blog to focus more on things that I'm learning or things that God's been showing me or just random things that I think about when I'm lying in bed and can't sleep and am trying not to wake up my wife. lol

So ya, go on over to our new website (again it's wokandpan.wordpress.com) and sign up to follow our blog via email, but still keep an eye on this blog if you want to get a glimpse of what's going on inside of my head.....if you dare....haha.

Hope you're all doing well. Grace and I are doing great. Just got back to Malaysia 2 weeks ago, and if ya want to hear more, then head over to our new blog.

Bless you!

A brief update from my hotel room in Thailand

Kata Noi - One of the beaches near where we are staying.

Well it has been quite some time since I have posted anything on here, and quite a lot has happened since then.

For those of you who haven't heard from or about me for a while, I am sorry (yet again). It has been a very eventful start to the year to say the least. I have gone from my home in Oxford, NZ to spend time in Queenstown, NZ, then to finally meet back up with Grace in Melbourne, Australia for a few weeks before we travelled to Malaysia and then Singapore while doing everything we could to try and get Grace's Canadian visa settled before we flew out. Unfortunately we weren't able to so I had to fly to Canada without her (but with her father), but thankfully God came through in the nick of time (as we knew He would) and got her over to Canada with a week to spare before our wedding. We then spent 2 months in Ontario visiting family and friends before flying back to Malaysia for a few days and then on to Thailand for 3 weeks.

And that is where you catch up with me now as I sit in my hotel room in Phuket, Thailand looking out at the Andaman Sea. It has been quite a journey for Grace and I these last 5-6 months (not to mention the previous 11 months, of which we were separated for 9), but it has been an amazing time of discovering each other and what it means to be together as well as discovering more about God and His faithfulness to us and of His plan for us.

We originally came to Thailand a little over 2 weeks ago and spent 9 days in Chiang Mai in the northern part of the country to attend the call2all congress and the YWAM Asia Pacific gathering. This time was an amazing gift from God and He really refined more of our vision for the future as well as giving us things to think about for the present and for when we return to Oxford in September. I feel very privileged to have been able to attend these gatherings and to be able to hear about what God is doing in Asia and beyond to reach the unreached as well as to use those who know Him. I've come away from this week just amazed at how good God is and amazed at how He wants to use me and Grace (and everybody really) to make His name known to all nations and to show people how loving and caring and awesome their true Father is. God is so good and as I think over these last couple weeks here and over the last year or two or three even, my heart just continues to overflow with love and joy and appreciation for the amazing Father that I have in Him.

So now we are down in Phuket relaxing and having a great time being on our own (we had been staying with my parents for the 2 months in Canada and will stay with Grace's parents for the next 3 months) and enjoying God's beautiful creation; continually being amazed with how good He is to us to give us this time to relax and recharge before another busy time planning for another wedding celebration as well as planning for a teaching that I will be doing in August, which will be the first time I've been invited to speak at a base other than my own.

We have been very blessed in these last few months and we know that God will continue to bless us and grow us as we prepare to start our new life in New Zealand. I will try to be more diligent in my communication in the future (with the help of my darling wife, who is WAY more organized and better at these things with me), and we will be sending out our first combined newsletter as the new Mr and Mrs Matt and Grace Stelpstra soon.

Blessings to all of you.