In January 2025, we put together our wedding website. One of the pages suggested was an “FAQ” page – “What’s the dress code?” “How’s the parking situation?” And, of course, the most important question of all, “Will there be food?”
Now we are just over a year into marriage. If we were to redo our “family FAQ page” it might look more like this:
- How do you pronounce Thipok’s name? (to be fair, this was on the wedding website too)
- Who does most of the cooking?
- Has Sarah started learning Thai yet?
Beyond these, some of our most frequently asked questions are about Thipok’s time in the US and our future plans to move to and serve a church in Thailand. Something along the lines of, “how do you view yourselves as a Thai-American couple serving in Thailand?” or the much more simple, yet equally thought-provoking question: “so, where is home?”
For Sarah, the answer seems easy. She grew up in Washington. We still live in Washington. She loves Washington. She even thinks the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge is better than the Oregon side! She is a Washingtonian, through and through.
Thipok’s answer, true to form, is a bit more complicated. He grew up in Southern Thailand, went to high school and college in Colorado, attended Seminary in Kentucky, completed a short internship in Portland, and now lives at “home” in Vancouver.
And yet, Lord willing, in less than a year none of these places will be home. While moving to Bangkok may seem like an adventure into the unknown for Sarah (she’s never even been to Asia before!) and a homecoming for Thipok, our answer to the question “where is home?” is about to get even harder.
Because when we move, neither one of us will be home! For the first time, Sarah will be living thousands of miles from friends and family. Hopping in the car to spontaneously meet up for a hike with them will no longer be an option. For the first time Thipok, in spite of returning to his home country, will be living in the 11-million-people-sized city of Bangkok. Most of his friends are Americans. He has certainly never lived in Thailand as a Jesus-follower working for a church before. Navigating “home” when he’s spent his entire adult life in the US will bring its own unique challenges. Both of us will experience culture-shock, homesickness, and loneliness in distinct and unfamiliar ways.
All of which contribute to a sense of home-less-ness, amidst which we will work to be fully present in Bangkok. We hope to build our home, raise a family, serve our church, make new friends, and be contributing members of the society there. Bangkok, Thailand will be our home. Even as we put down roots overseas, however, we will deeply miss the US (specifically the PNW!). Yet, when we come back “home” for visits, we will come to miss our life in Thailand. Where, then, will be the “right place” to call home?
Perhaps defining home is not about finding the right place to live, though. The sense of longing for a place to belong may not be satisfied by moving to or living in the “right place”. Writing to early Christians scattered throughout the Roman Empire, the Apostle Peter addressed them as “sojourners and strangers” (1 Peter 2:11). Sojourners don’t sojourn in a land to which they belong. Strangers, if they are at home, cannot be strangers! As with the first century church, we are not meant to – indeed cannot – find home in this realm. Reflecting on the hope of heaven, C.S. Lewis writes, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”1 For Christians, even at “home”, we are at best “sojourners and strangers”, longing for the world where we fully belong.
Which brings us to the sweet, forward-looking hope found in the words of this hymn, from which we’ve titled our blog:
“And there we’ll find our home,
Our lives before the throne;
We’ll honor him in perfect song
Where we belong.”2
Where is home for us? Not ultimately in a city or country (even as we love the people and places to which the Lord leads us), but in the realm yet to come, in the beautiful throne room, in the presence of the Lamb. As we wait to come to our true home, though, we find a glorious taste of it in the here and now, following the call of Jesus. Because as we will someday worship before the throne, we worship here – temporarily yet genuinely – singing our sojourning way.
We hope you’ll journey with us as we seek to be faithful where we belong – now in Vancouver, soon in Bangkok, and ultimately with our Savior! Come with us as we find our home in the now and the not-yet.
Where We Belong 
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