Potter News

Sawat di bi mai! That’s ‘Happy New Year!’ in Thai. We are happy welcome a new year in Chiang Mai. With cool nights and comfortably warm days, this is the most pleasant time of the year. This is when we look back upon the year behind us and look forward to the months and year, and even years ahead.

As we reflect back on December we can see God’s blessings in our lives. Our school put on “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.” What a wonderful and fun way to present the awe and joy of our savior’s birth. It is a good feeling to know that whenever we present aspects of Christianity to students and our community that we may be sharing the Good News to some people for the first time ever. Though largely Buddhist, Thailand is open to other religious viewpoints and the culture is probably more open to Christianity than many aspects of American society. During one show alone, we were able to present the play to over 350 students from other international schools in Chiang Mai, most of whom are not Christian.

In January, Lance celebrated his 50th birthday with a number of events including a ride on his new bike along with 6 friends that reflect the diversity of our relationships here. One is a retired PC(USA) missionary, others are active missionaries from America, Scotland, Sweden, and Japan, and another the Christian head of a secular NGO. We all rode out to the home of an American missionary serving ethnic people of Burma in Burma. In all our different work, we reach out with God’s love to the people we work with and for and look ahead to continuing to serve; something that God calls all us to do no matter where we are.

As we are looking ahead to the year to come, Chiang Mai International School is looking ahead to the possibility of building a new campus, and we are contemplating being here to see the building through. In the past year, Lance has experienced the intricacies of school board and Thai church politics that slow progress to a crawl at times. We are praying that God will guide the process and that the various actors necessary to make the move happen will be able to get together and come to an agreement that will benefit all parties.

The girls continue to thrive, doing well in school, learning to play the piano, riding our friends’ ponies on the weekend, and playing all sports that come their way. Right now, that’s basketball and track. They have friends from all over the world and last week had the opportunity to interact with students from the Zoe Home when friends with a mission team from Australia hosted a fun day at CMIS for these students who are victims of the sex trade in Thailand. Our kids did crafts and played games and even Debbie and Lance got to play soccer and volleyball with the older ones. It is remarkable the joy generated by the simple act of providing a space to play for those who have none. At the end of the afternoon, we were moved when more than 40 youth and their leaders gathered around the team from Australia and simultaneously prayed out loud for them. As is so often the case, those who came to give, received so much more than they gave.

We continue to realize that our current financial situation must change if we are to stay on here any longer than the coming year. State College Presbyterian Church generously paid off our car in January, relieving us of the burden of paying it off slowly over time. Our financial needs beyond our day-to-day cost of living linger, however. We have the desire to keep our kids connected to their family and culture by traveling to America in the summers, and we feel the need to save for our own retirement and our children’s education. There are two possibilities that we can see, and we are praying for God to guide us as we look to the future. One possibility is for Debbie to find a job here. With our youngest entering kindergarten next year we are open to that option, but jobs are not easy to find. The second option is for Debbie to remain a full time volunteer in the community, sharing her gifts with those around her, while we receive additional pay for Lance’s work from CMIS (not likely) or additional financial support from outside sources. Please pray with us that God will clearly open a door for us so that we know we are where He wants us to be, doing what He wants us to be doing, or if we must prepare to seek another higher paying international school job or return to the U.S. For those of you who do support us financially, we thank you for the blessing and encouragement you are in our lives here.

GREETINGS FROM CHIANG MAI
Dear Friends,
We are well into the school year here and are busy as ever. Lance is heavily involved in planning a po- tential move to a new campus. Our school has simply outgrown its cur- rent campus and has no place to go but up. The Church of Christ in Thailand (CCT) that owns our school has lots of property and has offered us some for a new campus adjacent to a university it also owns. Simple as that sounds, there are lots of details to work out and relation- ships to maneuver. Chiang Mai In- ternational School (CMIS) has little in the way of cash but other assets of value including the current cam- pus that is adjacent to a large Thai school also owned by the CCT. Everything needs to be lined up just right to make it all work. Lance also must spearhead his school’s accredi- tation effort, something that was last done six years ago, help with the transition of the new Thai leader- ship in the school, and manage the day-to-day aspects of running a school of 450 students K-12. Please pray that Lance allocates his time and energy wisely so that he may
accomplish these various duties ac- cording to God’s purposes.
Debbie has applied to be the coor- dinator of Christian Volunteers in Thailand for the Presbyterian Church (USA). This job would be a great fit for Debbie’s skills and take care of all our unmet needs. While waiting to hear about this job, she has organized the first ever CMIS Community Networking Expo and her next volunteer task is the annual PTG fundraiser. Additionally, she is taking an intensive Thai class for the next month.
of the American summer most of the places we went. They are fully en- gaged in school, sports, piano, and friends now that they are back in Chiang Mai. Elizabeth is now in 5th grade, Riley in 3rd grade, Jenae in 1st grade, and Callie in preschool.
We continue to cherish your prayer and support and thank you for the gifts that have enabled us to buy our car. God really does answer prayer.
If you would like to contribute finan- cially, please write a check payable to
We continue to cherish your prayer and support and thank you for the gifts that have enabled us to buy our car. God really does answer prayer.
Please pray for God’s will regard- ing her job prospect and balance as she pursues her interest in studying Thai, volunteering, and parenting.
The children enjoyed their time in the U.S. this summer. They de- lighted in the opportunity to see all their cousins, which took them to both coasts and basked in the cool
the Huntingdon Pres- bytery with “Lance or Debbie Potter” in the memo line. Donations may be placed in the offering plate, left at your church office, or mailed to: Liz Arm- strong, 323 Main Street, Bellwood, PA 16617.
Our Contact information in Thailand remains: Lance and Debbie Potter, c/o CMIS, PO Box 38, 13 Chetupon Rd, Chiang Mai, 50000, Thailand. Our email ad- dress is deblanceplus4@gmail.com.

Greetings from Chiang Mai, Thailand June 2010
Our second year in Thailand with Lance as the principal at Chiang Mai International School is coming to a close. The school board is pleased with what Lance is doing and is encouraging us to continue. We have decided to remain at the school and the school has agreed to pay for round trip tickets for our family from Chiang Mai to Pennsylvania, which is a huge financial blessing and an answer to prayer.
We feel that our presence here makes a difference, and while at times we may feel frustrated with cultural issues, we believe that God is still calling us to this school, at this time. Lance has the trust of key people and this will allow them to accept some changes needed to bring parts of the school into the 21st century. One thing we are considering is building a new school on a piece of property owned by our parent church. As a school community we are researching to see if we have the financial means to make such a move in the near future and we are seeking God’s guidance in this decision. As a family, we are trying to discern Debbie’s role for next year, so pray for us to hear God’s wisdom in this.
We have decided to see as many of our family members as we can this summer and we will be spending about 3 ½ weeks in State College. We will speak at State College Presbyterian Church on June 27. We will also visit family in New Jersey, the Pacific Northwest, and Southern California. Our kids will have the opportunity to interact will all of their cousins, most of their aunts and uncles, and all four grandparents.
We were really looking forward to our time back home in the US until Debbie’s broken foot didn’t heal well. After breaking her foot playing volleyball, she had to be in a cast for a month. At the end of the month, when they removed the cast and took x-rays, the doctor discovered that rather than fusing together, the broken bone had actually grown farther apart. So two days after her cast came off, she was in the operating room having her bone screwed together to ensure complete healing. The crutches came back and a new, fancy, removable cast that looks like a toeless ski boot appeared. Please pray for a speedy recovery and complete healing. Debbie is due to be able to stop wearing the cast while we are in the U.S. but we have yet to figure out how to get the doctor’s clearance for this from 14,000 miles away.
So this setback has dampened our excitement somewhat as we head home. We are apprehensive about traveling with a cast and crutches, but at least one person seems to think it’s the way to go and that we’ll all get special treatment on our flights and at tourist attractions. We’ll see.
The kids have done really well in school. They all enjoy the environment here as well as their teachers and friends. However, they miss winter and are a tired of the heat. It has been over 100 every day (except 3) for 6 weeks and only cools off to the low 80s at night. Deb has not really enjoyed wearing a cast in this heat, but she admits that she can’t think of any time and place she would enjoy wearing one. So, it’s very hot, and now it’s humid as well, which makes it stickier. We are very thankful for air conditioning and cannot imagine how miserable it is in hot places like this for people without electricity, fans and air conditioners.
People have asked how they could help us or what is it that we need. For a while we felt like we didn’t need anything other than prayer, but we are coming to the realization that we also need a safe and reliable vehicle for the whole family. The school has provided us with a van that we felt that we should just be grateful for. But the truth is we’re not. Unfortunately the van is unreliable, old, uses lots of gas, has antiquated lap belts, some type of undiagnosed electrical problem drains the battery, and it is so loud conversation is difficult while the van is in motion. Our salary is enough to live comfortably in Chiang Mai, but is too modest to save enough money to buy a decent used vehicle any time soon. So we are praying for the resources to buy a solid, reliable, safe vehicle. God is good and we are trusting that His will will be done in this matter.

Sawatdee and greetings from the Potters in Thailand.
Well, it is definitely HOT here. We can feel the heat seep into most of our day, and it saps a lot of energy. Fortunately the school where Lance works and where the girls learn now has air conditioning. The air con is like a breath of fresh air when you step into it from outside. Your whole body seems to relax and absorb this coolness. Not everyone here has air con though. Electricity is expensive, and electricity isn’t available to everyone all the time.
Last weekend we traveled with an old friend, who now lives in the U.S., to a refugee camp where her siblings and their families are living. They had been living in Burma until 3 years ago, when her father died. He was a government employee and a Christian man and he had no problems with the authorities in Burma, and because of this his children and grandchildren were also safe. After his death things changed and his children began to fear for themselves and their spouses and their children, so they walked all day for a week, taking only what they could carry, and crossed the border secretly into Thailand and arrived at the refugee camp. This camp has more than 50,000 people living in over 10,000 homes made from bamboo with leaves for roofs. The homes are elevated so that they won’t flood during the rainy season. But now it is not the rainy season, it is the hot season, and in the camp there is only electricity from 6-9 in the evening, for light. Our friends don’t even have fans. They have no beds, just a thin floor covering to lie on. They have no furniture except maybe a small low table, which they sit around for meals. We took our whole family so they could experience this, but the people who live there have little that they say in complaint, for no matter how dire their circumstances are, here they are safe, and here their children can go to school. They said next month it will be too hot to be in the house. I asked what they did to cool down and was told that they poor a little layer of water on the floor and sit or lie in it.
They don’t complain of the lack of a bed or other furniture, they don’t complain of the heat, they don’t complain of the lack of variety in their meals. They thank the UN for supplying them with rice and cooking oil and fish paste, even if the good quality rice the UN gives is not the same as the poor quality rice they receive. They only complain of having nothing to do and not being able to go anywhere out of the camp. Their whole day is in their home and neighborhood, never leaving the gates where the Thai soldiers keep watch. The entire camp is fenced in. They say that they feel like animals in the zoo. People come from the UN to see them and to feed them. They cannot take care of their own needs by themselves. The only work is if they are trained teachers or nurses. We visited a school where our friend’s brother-in-law is a teacher. We visited the hospital where our friend’s oldest niece is a nurse. Her name is Hannah and she speaks very good English. She told me that she wanted to go to university, but that it was not possible. I know that her aunt paid for her to go to nursing school, and now she helps the women in the camp give birth and care for their babies. There are many babies and children in the camp. What will become of them if they are not allowed to leave after they grow up and finish school? Some countries have camps that are places of transition. Families stay there for a time and then are assimilated into the host country. This is not so here. Thailand does not want these people to assimilate here. There is no plan to be released. Now the camp is full and only when another country allows entry does a family leave the camp allowing another family to flee Burma to the safety and imprisonment of the refugee camp. It is a sad tale. It makes any hardship that we encounter in our daily life seem so insignificant.
It’s hot, but we can retreat up into our bedroom, sit on a nice, soft mattress, propped up on comfy pillows, turn on the air and the light and read or write or type an email or watch a DVD. Lance has more work than he ever imagined possible, more balls in the air being juggled then he thought he could juggle, and at times he is worn out. But given the choice to do nothing all day or do too much, he is grateful to have a call from God and a job. And I am grateful for fans and air conditioning.
We are coming home this summer to PA. Our break is a bit earlier than that of schools in the US. By the time the Grange Fair rolls around our kids will have been in school for three weeks. We’ll be in PA from June 11 through July 9th and State College Presbyterian Church will be hosting an event for us on. We also plan to be at the Presbytery meeting at the end of June. We hope to see many of you in our time home. Thanks for your continued prayers and gifts.

Jan. 2010
Greetings from cool Chiang Mai. We are enjoying the few weeks of cool weather Chiang Mai has to offer. It’s like central Pennsylvania in the summer. Some mornings some of us we even wear sweaters.
We celebrated Christmas and New Year in tropical style. While Pennsylvanians were shivering we enjoyed an outdoor Christmas concert at Chiang Mai International School (CMIS). The concert is usually held at a venue off-campus but holding it on campus allowed us to make the place look a lot like Christmas. The new elementary music teacher really livened up the event. We received comments on how the concert really put people in the mood for Christmas. The play, “A Christmas Carol,” was performed on three nights by our new theater arts department and was well received. Lance was happy to see changes he implemented bearing fruit already.
Celebrating Christmas in a Buddhist culture is interesting. Christian homes decorate in lights like home. Churches go all out with colorful displays of lights and the nativity scene. Our international church holds a Carols by Candlelight at a local country club, which is well attended by churchgoers, secular expats, and tourists. Lance was the principle shepherd in the pageant this year. The big department stores sort of get into the spirit. But what they are really doing is preparing for New Year, which the Thai ring in with fireworks galore. It is amazing what you can buy on the street, fireworks that shoot 100 ft into the sky and firecrackers that sound like bombs. Sleeping at midnight is impossible unless you are deaf or a Potter child.
We took a much-needed holiday in December. Two weeks after Debbie finished carrying off a very time consuming and demanding CMIS fundraiser, her parents came from California for a visit. A highlight was that they treated us to a week at the beach in a wonderful Marriott Vacation Club Time Share Resort. We had the girls sailing on a Hobie Cat, Kayaking in very calm Andaman Sea waters, and learning to snorkel in the hotel pool. It was a great week and it flew by. We returned to our home in Chiang Mai in time for Christmas, tanned and relaxed. We attended a beautiful Christmas Eve service, the first in a while as we had built in babysitters (Deb’s mom and dad were happy to be on call should the girls awake…with four anything is possible, but they all slept well). The rest of our evening then continued on in what seems to have become an annual tradition, stretching to the wee hours of the morning as we helped Santa wrap gifts and tie bows and ribbons onto them and then stuff eight stockings.
Life in Chiang Mai is never dull. Lance has many stressful issues going through his head, as I’m sure many of you do. We try to give as much as we can to God. Even so, actions need to be taken. Lance had an eventful fall as principal and encountered his first “letting go” of a staff member who wasn’t working out. Overall the atmosphere on campus is significantly improved. Debbie is seriously considering applying for a couple of part-time jobs to supplement our income. Both would be new avenues for Debbie. She finds these opportunities both daunting and exciting.
As you might remember from the last edition of the Agape Herald, the Presbyterian Church USA has notified us that Lance’s position at CMIS will not be added to the mission field. However, a long term missionary in Thailand has challenged the PC USA to reconsider, not just for us, but also because the CCT (Church of Christ in Thailand), our partners in Thailand for over 100 years, is concerned about the vastly shrinking PC USA presence in Thailand. So for the moment we are assuming that Debbie needs to get a job to help us financially. As we plan a visit to the United States this summer, we are still unsure of how much CMIS will contribute to our travel expenses. We value your prayers, so please pray for us that we would have the wisdom to hear God’s call in all of this and continue to feel his blessing on our work here in Thailand, specifically at CMIS.
Blessings,
Lance, Debbie, Elizabeth, Riley, Jenae, and Callie Potter

Sawatdee and greetings from the Potters in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Well, the phrase “never a dull moment” could sum up our lives and adventures here in Thailand. The fall here is the second half of the rainy season, which starts in May and goes through October. As we enter our second holiday season in Thailand, living in a largely Buddhist country, we are reminded of how blessed we are to know the love and saving grace of Jesus. There are several holidays this time of year and this year the big festival of Loy Kratong fell on Halloween weekend, so there was lots of craziness.
While Halloween isn’t a very big deal in Thailand, it does get attention in the international school scene. All four of the girls got into the spirit and dressed up and participated in the school’s annual Harvest Festival, which included a haunted house. Then we were invited to trick-or-treat in the only American neighborhood, the American Compound, where State Department and DEA families live. It wasn’t nearly as exciting as the blocks and blocks we traveled in State College, but still, it was fun to have a bit of America in our life. Jenae was dressed as a pirate and her eye-patch, earring, and hooked hand, along with her mighty “aaaaargh” earned her an award for best costume at the party.
Loy Kratong is a big festival that centers around the river, physically. It is a time of celebration and the sounds of firecrackers, fireworks, and mini bombs can be heard well into the wee hours of the morning for four days in a row. In school, all the children make a Kratong which they can then Loy (float) down the river. The kratong is made from a slice of the trunk of a banana tree decorated with banana leaves and flowers as well as incense or candles. The Buddhist Thai people believe that on this holiday they should cast their wrongs upon the kratong and send them away, down the river. This year, Riley and Elizabeth wanted to know more about this and we found that it was a wonderful way to illustrate one very important difference between Christianity and many other religions and I explained that we can simply ask God to forgive us for any wrong we have done. So if we are truly sorry for our transgression God will forgive us immediately and we can give that sin up to God. Because Jesus died for our sins we can always be forgiven. There is no need to wait for a holiday to be cleansed, just ask and God will forgive you. They were interested in this lesson, having asked the questions about it, and we felt that afterwards they could explain to someone who wasn’t Christian a bit about their own faith, using the illustration of Loy Kratong as an example of people wanting forgiveness.
As Thanksgiving and Christmas approach, we are reminded of how many ways we are truly blessed by God and of the hope we have in Jesus. By contrast, Buddhists believe that what they have in this life is a reflection of how well they lived their previous lives, thus deserving what they have. Celebrations at school and in our community help spread the different message of the Christian faith in a natural, meaningful way as both our church and school hold events that draw people from beyond the Christian community to celebrate these holidays.
As some of you know, we have been trying to gain missionary status with the PC (USA). While our Presbytery supports this endeavor and the Church of Christ in Thailand took all the necessary steps from their end, we have been officially turned down by the national office. We were only asking for support in the form of insurance, pension, and some travel benefits, but our ministry here is not of interest sufficient to the national office to gain their support. This is very disappointing and we ask for your prayers as we seek a different path towards creating a sustainable situation for us so we can continue to serve here.
The weather should be changing soon and before you know it we’ll be in the cool season, which is pretty much like a summer day in PA. We’re looking forward to it. Debbie’s parents (who live in Orange County, CA) we’ll be visiting for a month from December 9 to January 7 and we’re all really looking forward to the visit.
May God richly bless you during this holy season, wherever you may be.
Joyously,
Lance, Debbie, Elizabeth (9), Riley (7), Jenae (5), and Callie (4) Potter

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September 2009

Greetings from the Potters in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

We feel refreshed after some time spent with family and friends, both old and new, this past summer in Thailand. Lance’s sister and her daughters visited us from State College Presbyterian Church for three weeks. We also got to know Tracie Bullis, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Philipsburg, and her family (Marty, Ryker, and Matty), along with Tracie’s friend Karen and son Thomas. They were visiting various areas in Thailand. We were delighted to show them a part of our lives here and happy to have them take an interest in us.

Lance has felt blessed by God through the prayers of so many of you. His back is fully recovered and the new teachers that have come to CMIS are fabulous. We definitely feel His presence in our little school here. The newly formed Planning and Development committee, that we both are a part of, is looking towards the future and hoping to solve some current problems we have at our present location.

We also recently met the Secretary General of the CCT (Church of Christ in Thailand), our Presbyterian counterpart in Thailand, who told us that the CCT is hoping that PC USA will officially bestow missionary status on us. This would be helpful to us in many ways and we are praying, and ask you to pray with us, that this would happen if it is the will of God. Last month we heard an excellent, and very timely, sermon where the pastor reminded us to first do God’s work and trust that all of our needs will be met. So, we are trying very hard to not worry about our unmet needs and we are praying that God will provide (as he always has).

Our energy is being focused on creating positive relationships and a positive atmosphere on campus. We feel that God is affirming us and our actions. Lance has had much positive interaction with staff and many, many unsolicited positive comments from parents. Debbie was just told by a friend of hers that in the past week she had heard countless women commenting how Debbie Potter had helped them with this or that. This is why we are here. We are here to bring love and light and live our best for the glory of God. We realize that we don’t have to be in Chiang Mai or Thailand to do this, but we are here because we answered God’s call to come here.

We had many struggles last year, but we persevered. We are certain that we will have more struggles in the future, but for now we thank God daily for the joy in our lives, for our family, and for the people here. Thank you so much for all your prayers and for your financial contributions. We wouldn’t be successful without you.

The past year we received many donations from churches and individuals, but we were not aware of all of the individual contributors. We are hoping to receive a list shortly so that we can thank each of you, but for now know that we love you and appreciate you for being on this journey with us.

Life, for Debbie, is less crazy this year and if you’d like details about anything you can email us and she will respond. Our email is deblanceplus4@gmail.com. Financial contributions can still be sent to Liz Armstrong, 323 Main St., Bellwood, PA 16617, or you may put a check payable to the Huntingdon Presbytery with “Mission Interpreters: Lance/Deb Potter” on the memo line in the offering plate, or left at your church office.

NEWS FROM THE POTTERS