Week Two in Thailand

Greetings and salutations,
Well it is Monday here which means a start of another great week teaching English as well as some other exciting opportunities which I will indulge you in later.
We have been here at the school for a full week now and have had the joy of watching the kids open their hearts to us. The kids are very enthusiastic, welcoming and have generally overcome their shyness. We have had the opportunity to work from every age from kindergarten to eight grades.
I have been working with two Philippine sisters. The sisters teach most of the Basic English classes here. It has been such a blessing to work with sisters; we make each other laugh a lot! The fact that they teach all ages makes the day pretty interesting, but tiring by the end of the day. We have been doing quite a bit of testing which has been a great opportunity to spend some one on one time with many of the students.
On Wednesday we were blessed as a team to be invited over to one of the teachers’ houses for Supper. Michael, a transplanted Canadian, is one of the Advanced English teachers here. He just built a house a stone’s throw from the school and it is extremely westernized! He has a full kitchen, AC!, a big screen TV ect… he decided to double bless us and make mashed potatoes, fried chicken, carrots and gravy for supper…it was delicious! The girls made a confetti birthday cake for Laura to celebrate her birthday.
On Thursday our team split, half stayed behind to teach English, and the other half headed off for unknown adventures at a high school an hour away. Danni and I were among those that went to the high school. We were greeted with much ceremony and smiles. We were introduced by our guide amidst lots of laughter…so while we are not really sure what was said at least it was funny! We do know that our guide told them that we were with YWAM and that we were Christians. After the ceremony we walked with about 25 of the girls to the nearby market and museum called Suphan Buri. The market is very old and famous. They took us around to all their favorite vendors, explaining the many exotic looking items in giggly English. It was such a hot day the girls helped me buy a hat...a floppy pink hat with a big gold flower! By the time we left later that afternoon, amidst cries of ‘don’t forget us’, we had all become friends. So many things can be communicated without verbal language. Our team felt so blessed. We had gone there praying that in some way we could show the love of Christ through our actions and words, and we had all gone away feeling doubly blessed. Please pray that we will have another opportunity to go back and share with them.
On Saturday we helped with a kindergarten English morning. We had about 50-75 kids and their parents. We were mostly just there to help, as the entire morning had already been planned out. We did lead a nice rousing round of ‘If Your Happy and You Know It’…seriously between that song, Hokey Pokey and London Bridge I don’t think I have ever sang so much in my life. Thanks mom for all the kids songs you sang to us!
On Sunday we visited the local church, doubling the congregation, their pastor, Felix is spoke an encouraging message of God’s love. The worship time was especially fun because the congregation sang praise choruses simultaneously in Thai and English. After fellowshipping our team headed back to the hotel for some much needed down time.
Well, that’s about all folks. Please keep us in your prayers!