Potter News

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.

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