M&M graduated from high school! Congratulations!

 

It is with enormous pride that we announce the high school graduation of our sweet M&M!  Full of compassion and adventure, she is off to carve her own path through the world.  She can be found climbing every climbable surface or examining feathers and plants....she loves getting little kids to feel comfortable around her and does so easily.  M&M lives and breathes music, the Word of God, and her love of nature.  Words cannot express how much will miss having her giggles and sincerity in our day-to-day in Asia (just like how we feel about having J-Dub and E-Roo gone), but we are excited to release her into the world and share how spectacular she is.

Congratulations M&M!  Go save all the turtles! 

dayenu.

What is a Dayenu? “Dayenu is a Hebrew term meaning "it would have been enough." It is a song of gratitude traditionally sung during the Passover Seder, expressing appreciation for the many blessings received by the Jewish people throughout their history. The essence of Dayenu is to acknowledge and feel grateful for what one has, emphasizing that even if one had received less, it would have sufficed.” (chabad.org)  

The Hebrew Dayenu is typically 14 stanzas and the same are repeated annually… below is our family’s version of a Dayenu, we went a bit beyond 14 stanzas, but we don’t think there are any hard and fast rules about it!  

 

Wiebe Family Dayenu (November 2025)

 

If You’d drawn both of us, Chris & Diane, individually to Yourself, but we didn’t have believing families, it would have been enough.

 

If You gave us a rich heritage of strong believing families with parents and siblings all following You, but You didn’t give us each a clear passion and calling, it would have been enough.

 

If You directed each of us with a clear passion and calling to serve You with our lives, but hadn’t brought us together, it would have been enough.

 

If You brought and joined the two of us together for this journey, but didn’t help us discern together that it was a calling to the people of this country in Asia, it would have been enough.

 

If You united us both in calling and purpose even with a five-year plan we set loosely before You, but didn’t give us a home base in the US, it would have been enough.

 

If You gave us such a great updated, fully renovated home in KC, but didn’t provide help to pay off renovations, it would have been enough.

 

If You provided for all our financial needs through others to help cover home renovations and even pay off student loans, but didn’t give us our first child, J-Dub, it would have been enough.

 

If You blessed us with our sweet boy J-Dub, but we’d never met E-Roo, it would have been enough.

 

If we were doubly blessed to then have our sweet girl E-Roo , but didn’t have the funds to go overseas, it would have been enough.

 

If You confirmed our calling and blessed us with STM funding so quickly so we could leave for this country, but never gave Diane her “celiac miracle,” it would have been enough.

 

If You blessed Diane with 11-years being celiac-free while living in a province that was noodle country, but never had us connect closely with friends there, it would have been enough.

 

If you gave us deep long-lasting friendships in locals like C, J and Y that we could pour our lives into, but hadn’t taken us out of the country during the big earthquake, it would have been enough.

 

If You spared our family the trauma of the big earthquake by taking us back to the states beforehand, but hadn’t given us M&M, it would have been enough.

 

If You blessed us again with the gift of our girl M&M, shortly after losing our 3rd baby, but hadn’t given us such a full min with the school we worked at, it would have been enough.

 

If You gave us so many ways to pour into youth in that province through the work of OTC and our relationships into their lives, but hadn’t answered our prayers for someone to come teach our kids out in that rural town, it would have been enough.

 

If You answered our prayers and brought KB to prep our kids to enter elementary school in the US, but hadn’t brought us out of the unhealthy burnout situation we were in at OTC, it would have been enough.

 

If You brought us to the US for a long home assignment and began healing us from the season of burnout at OTC, but hadn’t allowed us to use our home filed with furniture, it would have been enough.

 

If You made it so we didn’t have renters at just the right time and could use our home and provided so many people to gift us furniture to fill up our empty house, but didn’t give us an extended home assignment to regroup, it would have been enough.

 

If You gave us a two and a half year home assignment to recover in many ways and be renewed for service, but didn’t give us another long season for language study, it would have been enough.

 

If You gave us another two and a half years of focused language study - free from distractions, but hadn’t also given our kids an small international school they could attend with other expat kids, it would have been enough.

 

If You blessed our three kids with the school community to learn and thrive at such a critical time in their lives, but hadn’t ever had Diane meet L-Wa at the center he was at, it would have been enough.

 

If You orchestrated their meetup and put L-Wa on Diane’s heart, but hadn’t provided what we needed to get a vehicle in our country of service, it would have been enough.

 

If You helped us raise money to buy a new van for our family to “live normal lives” overseas, but hadn’t seen fit to have us join EG, the company we work with, it would have been enough.

 

If You placed us in this city and drew us into the EG family and legacy of a unique and fitting kind of work, but hadn’t given Chris the specific role he had at JJ Camp, it would have been enough.

 

If You saw fit to use Chris’ gifting and experience for fulfilling work with the team, volunteers and kids at JJ Camp, even moving our family to such a great home in our small town, but hadn’t moved things along with L-Wa, it would have been enough.

 

If You saw fit that we could both begin to get to know L-Wa through frequent interactions, but never allowed us to adopt him, it would have been enough.

 

If You blessed us with the adoption of little Wa into our family, but didn’t guide and provide every step of the way, it would have been enough.

 

If You led us through each step - closeness for Diane, trust for Chris - and provided so many thousands of dollars so we could adopt and protection in the finalizing, but hadn’t also taken care of our kids’ high school needs, it would have been enough.

 

If You blessed us with the amazing resource of an online high school for our kids’ high school experience, knowing what we’d need long beforehand and orchestrating it, but hadn’t also given additional support through the SG team, it would have been enough.

 

If You put in place the SG team of the Es, Bs and Ks at such an important season in our kids’ lives at their school, but hadn’t had the K family’s situation so perfectly mirror ours, it would have been enough.

 

If You gave every one of us in our family such a close relationship with the K family, and had even their adoption timing and growing mirror ours in such a way that we could have key friends along the way, but hadn’t given us time with our families in the US just before COVID, it would have been enough.

 

If You blessed us with a short trip to the US to see family - arriving back just before the doors to our country of service closed during COVID, but hadn’t already had Diane start an antidepressant for the first time, it would have been enough.

 

If You had Diane start an antidepressant just before a season of some of her lowest lows during COVID, but didn’t keep her from serious injury during her horse accident, it would have been enough.

 

If You protected Diane from serious permanently-immobilizing injury during her horse accident, but didn’t use the following season to shape her, it would have been enough.

 

If You used the time recovering from the horse accident and met Diane in the waiting and the pain to revive her faith, but didn’t give us times of community through Shabbat nights, it would have been enough.

 

If You drew us deeper into relationships with our local community through regular Shabbat night fellowships during the isolation of COVID, but didn’t make a way for the kids’ school to keep going, it would have been enough.

 

If You made a way for the school to keep going without expat teachers and drew Diane closer to local teachers (that were young moms) in the process, but hadn’t continued to make a way for yearly visa issues to be resolved, it would have been enough.

 

If You kept us in our country of service through years of visa uncertainty, even through J-Dub’s visa miracle and a last-day-visa-arrival before our home assignment, but hadn’t prepped what we needed for that home assignment, it would have been enough.

 

If You provided everything so tenderly to us on home assignment - use of our KS house again, support for Diane’s medical needs through the min’s crisis fund, furniture, and so many gift cards! - but hadn’t also provided a means for L-Wa’s double-hip surgery, it would have been enough.

 

If You made us aware of L-Wa’s need, gave us an impossible appointment slot, and took care of all the details of L-Wa’s surgery, but hadn’t given us an extended home assignment, it would have been enough.

 

If You gave us nearly two years in the US because of L-Wa’s surgery and recovery, along with space to recover and heal, but hadn’t provided even more for college starting, it would have been enough.

 

If You provided so much for both J-Dub and E-Roo through scholarships, roommates, and the campus organization at their college, but hadn’t also blessed M&M with friendships, it would have been enough.

 

If You rooted M&M in friendships through our home fellowship and her online high school on our extended home assignment that provided new friendship in the absence of older siblings as we returned, but didn’t continue Diane’s healing back in Asia, it would have been enough.

 

If You provided a season for Diane to do acupuncture and see additional healing beyond what seemed possible in the US, with the same place even helping L-Wa with physical therapy, but hadn’t met us in the middle of L-Wa’s horrific struggle, it would have been enough.

 

If You came around us with support from every side during L-Wa’s violent rages, culminating in prayers of deliverance from our dear friends’ group of women across the ocean, and seeing L-Wa’s freedom from oppression, but hadn’t also supported and led J-Dub and E-Roo from afar, it would have been enough.

 

If You walked hand in hand with J-Dub & E-Roo, while we couldn’t do so as much as we want to from afar, and grew them in faith, but hadn’t also called both of them more specifically, it would have been enough.

 

If You called J-Dub & E-Roo specifically overseas for summer trips, trusting You like we have, to lead, provide and use them, but haven’t given them or us all the next steps of how to do life and ministry in the places we’re at, but Your presence still sustains us and brings us closer to You in joy, it is enough…

 

___________________________________________

 

Diane: This was honestly really difficult for me. In the midst of a difficult run of years, when we started, I was only able to contribute to talking about a timeline of what things have happened. Even knowing that the Lord has been faithful and present and our Defender through it all, I’ve been pretty raw and not able to steep in reflection. Only after Chris took it all and wrote it into this format, was I able to sit with it and reflect on our 25 years together…letting the evidence of His faithfulness in our lives be a balm to my emotional triggers.

 

Chris: Working on our Wiebe Family Dayenu has really made me stop and reflect on the sovereignty of God. Would it have been enough if these things didn’t each happen in succession? Yet He knew they would - He saw our every need and met those needs. And had He not? We don’t really have to wonder, but in the wondering, yes, it would have been enough, because He is enough. And this exercise showed Him faithful over and over… like the lyrics, “Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him! How I've proved Him o'er and o'er; Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus! Oh, for grace to trust Him more!”

 

funeral dirges and a new song.

photo cred: m&m

Every so often I find myself imagining what a compilation of the soundtrack of my life would be like based solely on the music or sounds around me as I go about my life. This is especially interesting living in a country without obvious noise ordinances. 

Neighboring storefronts blast competing music out in front on the sidewalk to encourage passersby to come in.

Community events in neighborhood gathering areas are projected by loudspeaker to be heard for blocks. Often this is something like local opera – oh the joys. 

Sellers on the streetside or driving around play recorded messages on endless repeat saying something like “half a kilogram of bananas, 5 bucks” or “we’ll buy your broken computers, refrigerators, electric bikes, etc…to recycle them” as loudly as possible over and over and over. 

Then, there’s the trash truck that plays a tinny “happy birthday” as it drives around town. And the ever-present beeping of horns and the utility vehicles as they reverse and announce, “backing up, backing up.” 

Recently, the music that’s caught my attention for an addition to this soundtrack in my life is the funeral dirge that’s played at a home when a loved one has passed away. Musicians are hired to play for hours, several times throughout the day, as mourners come to give their sympathies and final respects. The people closest to the deceased wear white sack cloths over their clothes and on their heads. Occasionally the dirge players will add wailing to the music.

I am very thankful to say that we are not personally a part of any of these current mourning groups, but since the performers amplify their music, the songs can be heard quite far across the town. For the last several days, there have been multiple places in our town where funeral dirges have been going on throughout the day. 

It’s been interesting to me that during these days, I haven’t heard the drums of a single wedding. It’s not often that days go by without someone, somewhere getting married and the drums outside the bride’s home announce the arrival of the groom coming to fetch her...or again when the couple arrives at their new apartment as the groom takes the bride there before the wedding feast and ceremony.

We just recently came out of the Lunar New Year celebration season, during which our life soundtrack was punctuated by an insane number of fireworks. It was daily during the first 2 weeks, then every 5 days for a few weeks after that. There were quite a few weddings during that time, as well. 

This brings to mind the oft referred to passage in the Bible from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 when King Solomon lists out how there is a time for everything:

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.

This last year back in this country has been a time for a lot of transition as a family – only having two of our kids here; having two of our kids in college in the US; changes in much of the work; different health needs; and much, much more. 

It’s also been a time of tying up loose, frayed ends of parts of life that got torn out and torn up because of the pandemic, both practically and in our hearts and souls. 

For example, the first stop on our return to Asia was to spend several days reconnecting with dear friends where they live now. They used to live and work together with us, but we hadn’t seen them since covid began because they had to leave suddenly. They are whom we would count as our first “loss” of the pandemic years and the Lord gave us the opportunity after 4 years to bring closure to that loss and a way to move forward, more whole, together with them.

In a completely different kind of example, this week I’ve been cleaning out the closet of our kids’ former teachers. They’d gone to the US for what they thought would be one week in January 2020 and we haven’t seen them in-person since. At some point, we did manage to send their most important belongings back to the US when people were finally able to leave here, but there a lot of their stuff is still here, and we’d just put it all into the closet storage part of the apartment. 

Now 5 years later, I’ve been pulling it all out and going through it with them by video and pictures to see if there’s any last bits they want before the rest (which is most of it since they had to buy all new stuff in their rebooted lives in the US) is donated. 

This has been extremely therapeutic for me to work on tying up this loose end that’s been flailing in the trailing winds of the covid-storm. 

There is a time for every matter under heaven. 

I feel like the Lord is swirling things up in me to move into a different time – a time that has maybe finished tying up the loose ends of covid-loss that are possible to tie up. As well as finishing some other things I haven’t managed to name yet, but I feel on the edge of my heart needing acknowledgement.

I hope this next “time” has lots of dancing and laughing and love in it. Less funeral dirges, more party drums. 

No matter what kind of time it is, though, I can look back now and see that the Lord has brought me through fires without getting burned. He has brought me through the waters and kept them from going over my head.¹

He has been my rock and my refuge and my ever-present help in times of trouble.^2,3 If He had not been my help, I would not have been able to get through the things that we’ve gone through these last years. When I’ve thought my foot was slipping, His steadfast love has held me up.⁴

I have spent a lot of time wondering what in the world He was doing and questioning why His goodness and faithfulness can hurt so much sometimes…but His presence has never faltered,³ and His consolations have cheered my soul.⁴ Though it honestly took me a long time to figure out what that last part actually meant. 

(1-Isaiah 43:2; 2-Psalm 18:2; 3-Psalm 46:1-3; 4-Psalm 94:17-19)

I am learning a new song as the Lord walks me through this season. It is a song of obedience because of His faithfulness and not because it feels warm and fuzzy. 

It is a song of soul healing that comes through surrender. 

It is a song of hope – that’s finally less hesitant– that there will be something beyond what it feels like I’ve been trudging through for years. Hope that came not because He changed, but because I’m fighting against Him less. 

When we were in the US for our last home leave, I spent nearly the entire time begging the Lord to change His direction for our lives. I didn’t want to return to the hard things I knew we’d be returning to. I was tired of having to choose the extra-hard. I have no misconceptions that there aren’t hard things everywhere – I just didn’t want to have to go into the particular hard things I saw ahead. I was tired of it all. I’m 100% sure I’m not alone in this feeling. 

I also knew my feelings were not the reason to make the decision to upend our entire lives (without other guidance to do so). I have too many life experiences of the Lord giving us things that are the opposite of what I think I want, and they end up being the absolute best and I’m super thankful. Sometimes hindsight is annoying. So, I begged for a change in direction. Clearly, we didn’t get one since I’m writing this in Asia. 

That is all a much longer and more complicated story to save and maybe share another time, but for now I want to share that, most importantly, what I did get from Him, was a kind, tender, compassionate, unrelenting message that 

it’s not about me.

It’s about so much more (namely Him) and I get the honor of being invited to participate in the way that I do. I am one small part of a big picture – and when I step back far enough to take in the legacies of what the Lord has done that my life gets to intersect with and this bit of time I get to do my little part of the story – it’s breathtaking. (I think I can be so bold to say that this is true for all of us.)

Lift my head – and keep lifting it. Prop it up if I need to.

Keep my eyes on Him, more than on myself.

Steep myself less in vats of thoughts of all the things I wish were different. Instead, praise Him because of who He is. 

None of this is simple and it has not been easy, but it has been possible to slowly do it more and more. And that makes it easier to do more and more. 

And so, I’m learning a new song. If you’re in need of a new song, too, I hope you’ll learn it with me. 

'I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord. '

Psalm 40:1-3

 

 

' When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. ' Isaiah 43:2

'The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. ' Psalm 18:2

'God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah ' Psalm 46:1-3

' If the Lord had not been my help, my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence. When I thought, “My foot slips,” your steadfast love, O Lord , held me up. When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul. ' Psalm 94:17-19

 

the view from 18 years in asia.

j&e coming home for christmas break

zoe, ollie, pantaloon (aka luna)

can we take a picture with you, foreign boy? giggle giggle
a lifetime spent taking pics with strangers because you're foreign 

this kitty didn't used to be such a snuggler - this is so happy

our town's registered local church

catholic ch in a village up the mountain

Love and Sanding

 

We leave for Asia in 8 days.

Because sanding the floors needed to be done (they were grimey and it had been 20 years since the last time)…

And because I felt more strongly about that then Chris did, he has spent the last 3 days solid working on these floors. 

He has slept a total of 5.5 hours in the two nights between the days. 

Sometimes love in a 22.5 year marriage looks like refinished floors and sleepless nights 8 days before an international move.

It’s beautiful.

And so are the floors.

I appreciate this guy so much.