Hey family and friends,
Well, we have had one long adventure filled week!
We worked last week at several different schools all the while going back to the school we have been at for the last two weeks. We visited tiny country schools that had never had foriegners/Christians visit there. We also visited an all girl school and another high school, and went back to the high school we visited last week (the one near the 100 year market). With every school came much dancing (they tried to get us white people to look elegant...interesting!) alot of food (Wow! They blessed our socks off with overwhelming hospitality and thoughtfulness for foreigners.) and most of all smiling children who spoke from wonderful English to just a smattering of shy attempts. With every school it seemed we left just a small piece of our heart with the sweet students,
The major event for the weekend was the English Camp that we helped run over Saturday and Sunday. We were divided up into ten teams. My team, called the Ninjas consisted of Panda (He reminded me a ton of my brother Christopher.), Setta (The class clown.) Nurse (The oldest ) Benz (The social butterfly.) Pond (The quiet one.) and finally Cake (who was an avid student and loved to read and take lots of notes!).
We were all headed about three hours north, but half way through the drive we stopped at the famous museum for the Thailand-Burma Death Railroad. This museum and the adjacent cemetery hold so much fascinating and yet revolting history from WW2. It was a bit overwhelming trying to explain as much history to the kids as possible. We then drove further north and found the resort we were staying at. Yep, Resort! It was beautiful! It was situated right on the River Kwai. It was so beautiful and jungly! We had classes that afternoon, game time, swimming time and then ate some of the best food ( Which included french fries!) since arriving in Thailand.
After supper we were watched the live show that the resort puts on called The Light and Sound of the River Kwai. The outdoors half an hour presentation told of the history of the area and the Death Railroad....it featured a miniature bridge which “blew up, actors, and finally fireworks! The Americans on the team were especially excited for the fireworks because it was July 3rd! After the show we got to meet the owner of the resort who we found out was a teacher for years and out of his love of history and in memory of personal friends who worked on the railroad bought the resort, which boasts of a 15 acre museum and the Light and Sound show.
Sunday brought more English classes and games and then after lunch and a broken down bus (the transmission went out as we were going down a hill) a long and sad goodbye to all the students and teachers which had opened their hearts and schools for us. We were so sad to say goodbye, but trust that God will tend the soil of such tender hearts.
After a short stop at the Bridge over the River Kwai, we headed with our local Thai contacts to a surprise for our team for the evening, We found our that they had rented a barge on the river. It was so delightful to spend the Fourth of July floating down a river, the night concluded with lots of food, meeting new friends a dance mash and finally worship on the river.
The next day we jumped on a night bus and headed ten hours north to Chaing Rai, which is only 45 minutes from the Burmese border.
We are working with the Chaing Rai YWAM base here for the next three week. We will be doing street evangelism, teaching English in schools, playing sports and helping in the YWAM ran smoothie shop. I am excited to see what God has in store. Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we continue to adjust as a team and to the culture that we are serving in.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Friday, July 2, 2010
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!
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!
Thailand Take Two!
Hi friends,
Well, we have been here in Thailand for about one week so I thought that I would fill you in on the happenings.
There are thirteen people on our team. We arrive here on the 18 of June and spent the first two days in Bangkok in orientation. After lecture, we went on a scavenger hunt around the YWAM base and surrounding neighborhoods. We visited a coffee stand (yay!), visited the open market and ate weird parts of chicken (EW!), met the locals and hung out in the 7-11 (the only place with AC), walked around the King’s University praying and then met up with the rest of the YWAM team for lunch at the Turtle…we went here five years ago and it was still just as good as I remembered!
The next day we arose early to head into downtown Bangkok…two hours away, to play tourists for the day. We were able to visit several temples I had been to before and also a few new ones. First we jumped on a bus, sky train and then a boat to visit Wat Pho…the largest lying down Buddha in the world! The temple complex is expansive and has courtyards full of rows and rows of Buddhas. It is the oldest Wat (temple) in Bangkok and so many of the idols are hundreds of years old. It is a little overwhelming and you can feel the spiritual oppression. Next we walked down to the river through some slums, got on another boat and went to the Golden Mount. The Golden Mount is one of the highest places in Bangkok. It has a lot of historical significance which I tried to understand but since most of the signs were in Thai…I didn’t have a lot of success. The view was expansive so we took the time to pray over the city. Oh my, it was soo hot by then that we decided on lunch by the river…we ate Moo Ping (Grilled Pork) with Peanut Sauce, a noodle dish which names escapes me…and Thai Milk Tea which is the yummy!
Afterwards, we went down the river to the palace. The admission for the actual palace courtyard is super expensive and so we satisfied our time by visiting the city guardians. There are five of them and all are housed in the most elaborate shrines I have ever seen. They are different idols which represent protection, wealth, health ect…There was lots of incense and people lying prostrate on the floor crying, singing…it was very surreal…and very sad. As we walked around the temples we prayed that God would open their eyes and that would learn to call out to the only one true living God.
On Sunday we headed two hours north. All we knew is that Sweete an English professor had set us up to work in a town called Supanburi with a private school and we would be staying two weeks.
We arrived to find that the owners of the school owned a hotel so we would be staying there in the Mind Hotel. The rooms were nice and clean and had an added blessing of AC! The only downfall is that we are in the same lot as a nightclub which likes to play their base so loud after midnight it shakes our windows. After we settled in, our local contact Dum, took us to meet the local pastor, Felix. Felix greeted us at his tiny church with such excitement and passion that we were caught unprepared. He and the rest of the locals made us very extremely welcomed…they took us to supper. The food was amazing…the majority of it was seafood so I ate squid for the first time!
On Monday we were taken to the school to meet the owner, teacher and of course students! The school is privately owned and so it is very different then the school we taught at before. It is fairly Western looking; they have a pool a library and AC in the teachers’ lounge. We are the first foreign volunteers and first Christians to ever visit the school. Because it is a private school they do have an intense English program and three Americans who teach it. We will be assisting the teachers in the both the basic and advanced classes with accents, conversations and generally encouraging the kids to engage in fun activity and practice their English. As before a lot of the English that they know is very robotic and doesn’t actually hold a lot of meaning to them.
The kids are generally very well behaved; welcoming and shy! We divided up and assist the different teachers in the morning and then at lunch try to play/talk with the kids and then head back to the classrooms after lunch. The English levels range from none to fairly understandable.
Will write later with more details…please pray for our team that we have grace for each other, that we will be prayer warriors, that we will be a Light. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers!
I love and miss each one of you!
Well, we have been here in Thailand for about one week so I thought that I would fill you in on the happenings.
There are thirteen people on our team. We arrive here on the 18 of June and spent the first two days in Bangkok in orientation. After lecture, we went on a scavenger hunt around the YWAM base and surrounding neighborhoods. We visited a coffee stand (yay!), visited the open market and ate weird parts of chicken (EW!), met the locals and hung out in the 7-11 (the only place with AC), walked around the King’s University praying and then met up with the rest of the YWAM team for lunch at the Turtle…we went here five years ago and it was still just as good as I remembered!
The next day we arose early to head into downtown Bangkok…two hours away, to play tourists for the day. We were able to visit several temples I had been to before and also a few new ones. First we jumped on a bus, sky train and then a boat to visit Wat Pho…the largest lying down Buddha in the world! The temple complex is expansive and has courtyards full of rows and rows of Buddhas. It is the oldest Wat (temple) in Bangkok and so many of the idols are hundreds of years old. It is a little overwhelming and you can feel the spiritual oppression. Next we walked down to the river through some slums, got on another boat and went to the Golden Mount. The Golden Mount is one of the highest places in Bangkok. It has a lot of historical significance which I tried to understand but since most of the signs were in Thai…I didn’t have a lot of success. The view was expansive so we took the time to pray over the city. Oh my, it was soo hot by then that we decided on lunch by the river…we ate Moo Ping (Grilled Pork) with Peanut Sauce, a noodle dish which names escapes me…and Thai Milk Tea which is the yummy!
Afterwards, we went down the river to the palace. The admission for the actual palace courtyard is super expensive and so we satisfied our time by visiting the city guardians. There are five of them and all are housed in the most elaborate shrines I have ever seen. They are different idols which represent protection, wealth, health ect…There was lots of incense and people lying prostrate on the floor crying, singing…it was very surreal…and very sad. As we walked around the temples we prayed that God would open their eyes and that would learn to call out to the only one true living God.
On Sunday we headed two hours north. All we knew is that Sweete an English professor had set us up to work in a town called Supanburi with a private school and we would be staying two weeks.
We arrived to find that the owners of the school owned a hotel so we would be staying there in the Mind Hotel. The rooms were nice and clean and had an added blessing of AC! The only downfall is that we are in the same lot as a nightclub which likes to play their base so loud after midnight it shakes our windows. After we settled in, our local contact Dum, took us to meet the local pastor, Felix. Felix greeted us at his tiny church with such excitement and passion that we were caught unprepared. He and the rest of the locals made us very extremely welcomed…they took us to supper. The food was amazing…the majority of it was seafood so I ate squid for the first time!
On Monday we were taken to the school to meet the owner, teacher and of course students! The school is privately owned and so it is very different then the school we taught at before. It is fairly Western looking; they have a pool a library and AC in the teachers’ lounge. We are the first foreign volunteers and first Christians to ever visit the school. Because it is a private school they do have an intense English program and three Americans who teach it. We will be assisting the teachers in the both the basic and advanced classes with accents, conversations and generally encouraging the kids to engage in fun activity and practice their English. As before a lot of the English that they know is very robotic and doesn’t actually hold a lot of meaning to them.
The kids are generally very well behaved; welcoming and shy! We divided up and assist the different teachers in the morning and then at lunch try to play/talk with the kids and then head back to the classrooms after lunch. The English levels range from none to fairly understandable.
Will write later with more details…please pray for our team that we have grace for each other, that we will be prayer warriors, that we will be a Light. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers!
I love and miss each one of you!
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