Since we accepted the positions as missionaries in Thailand in November 2024 we have been preparing. We sat down and made a plan. We needed to make sure most preparations were taken care of by the end of June 2025 in order to spend the last weeks in Norway with family. 

We are both “planners” in different ways. We like to get into the details, the execution and practical results. It's sometimes hard to focus on both the “why” and the details at the same time. The details are real, and important. We needed to go through all of our things and sort them. We were selling a lot of it, like our campingwagon, car and many other tings. We were storing most of it somewhere in Norway and it turns out, we have a lot of stuff! 

Anyway, we had to start the research and process of applying for an import permit for our two dogs, and make sure they were booked as luggage on our flight to Bangkok. We had to get our health checks, vaccines, visas, international driver licenses, and we had to rent out our apartment in Oslo. In addition to this we were active in the process of finding a house in Bangkok together with NMS. And have found a really nice one.

As the months went by in what felt like slow motion we stuck to the plan and got a lot of things done. Even though all we did, apart from work, was preparing and organizing for this life changing event, it didn’t really become real until a few weeks ago when we both had had our last day in our current jobs and all that was left between us and Bangkok were a few weeks of summer vacation. At this point time started speeding up.

It’s a strange feeling, knowing that everything is going to change so drastically in a few weeks, yet somehow it doesn’t quite register as a fact in your brain. I don’t really think it will until we are standing in our house in The Centro Sukhumvit 113.

Right now everything feels just as it always does. We are in that weird waiting period where there isn’t much left to do, apart from spending time with family and try to focus on the broader “why” of this journey. It is sometimes forgotten, or hidden, behind every practical detail.

WHY

We want to share the good message of the gospel, and bring healing, restoration and peace to people in Thailand. We want to love the people of Thailand and truly be willing to sacrifice time and resources in order to do so, and we want to follow God's voice and His will for our lives in Bangkok. It's no easy task, and we need to keep reminding ourselves and praying about the “why”. If not I fear our small day to day choices will be centered around us and what we want rather than the bigger picture. 

Next week we will be attending a gathering for missionaries at Fjellhaug in Oslo, and hopefully have a week centered around the “why” of it all.