Classes Continue… November 24, 2008

Wow… It’s been a while since I’ve updated this thing. Hopefully I can remember all the stuff that’s happened over the last 3 weeks…

On Friday the 7th, P Aor, Baw Baw, and I went over to the elementary school a little ways down the road from the restaurant–about a 15 minute walk. We had found out from one of our students that some of the teachers at that school had been inquiring about what we were doing in the town. The student said we were teaching English, and the teacher said it would be great if we could just come and teach the class at the school. So, we went to talk to a couple of the teachers and the principal. Surprisingly, they were completely open to everything we said we would teach. P Aor made it very clear to them that the main purpose of us teaching English was to teach about the Bible and Jesus. She also told them that on Saturdays we have a special worship time with the kids, and asked if we could possible use the school for it. For everything that she said, the teachers just kept nodding their heads yes. It was amazing! So, that very next week, we started holding our English class in one of the classrooms. We previously had 2 different classes, but with the use of a larger facility, we decided just to combine them; that way we’d have a 2 hour class for all of them instead of 1 hour. The classroom we started out in was full and overflowing everyday. We got new students everyday. By the 12th, we hit 100 students! We were all really excited. The teachers at the school would sometimes come to the classes themselves, so they saw our need for a bigger room. The next week, they let us use a large meeting room instead. It didn’t have desks or chairs, but these kids are used to sitting on the floor.

Our class still consists of the same stuff: we start with prayer, have a short review, tell a new Bible story and write out the vocab from it, teach other vocab (such as body parts, days of the week, months, etc), teach some conversation phrases, and end with prayer. We sing songs with them too, which they really love.

On the night of the 11th, Rob, one of the camera guys, stopped by on his way to Bangkok. Melissa wanted him to video the different things we are doing here. He videoed as we visited some different people and prayed with them and, of course, our class. He stayed only two nights, and then on Thursday morning, him, me, and Baw Baw all took a van to Bangkok. I had to get the 30 day extension on my visa, and I brought Baw Baw along to help me with the language barrier. Rob was going to be in Bangkok for the weekend to video Jorge and Kelly, two other SM’s from Southern. They are teaching English also and working on some web design for Doug Vinn. We had planned on meeting up with them before trying to do the visa stuff because Jorge and Kelly knew exactly what I needed to do and where to go. But Baw Baw wanted to try getting me there herself. She took me to the American Embassy instead of the Thai Embassy where I was supposed to go. Rob kept telling her that we were at the wrong place, but she kept insisting. So I went inside, through security, and waited in line for about 45 minutes just for the guy to tell me to go to the Thai Embassy. I was pretty frusterated by this point, and told Baw Baw that I really wanted to meet up with Kelly and Jorge before we tried again. She finally agreed, and we took a taxi to the place where they are staying. They stay in a little church in the middle of Bangkok where they also teach English. It’s pretty much an apartment, but it’s right next to this little bakery where they were making cookies when we arrived. I was so jealous that they had not just one, but two ovens! Anyway, after they finished baking those, they took me exactly where I needed to go. I wouldn’t have known that I needed to get a copy of my passport and pictures of myself taken before going to the Thai Embassy. But they got me there with no problems, and I got my extension after only a 30 minute wait. I was pretty relieved. Afterall, you have to pay 500 baht for every day that you are in the country over your permitted time.

I hadn’t planned on staying the night, but Baw Baw really wanted to, so we ended up staying (I think she had always planned on staying cuz she brought clothes and stuff, but she never told me…). For the rest of the afternoon, we explored some of Bangkok with Jorge and Kelly. Jorge has been there for quite a few months, so he knows the area pretty well. We took a tram type thing, like the BART things they have in the states (or California at least), to one of the many malls. We ate there and looked into a few of the stores. On the top level was their movie and IMA Theater. Kelly had never seen an IMAX and really wanted to see one. The only one they were playing was a kid’s cartoon type one, but we decided to see it anyway. We had a couple hours before it started, so we went to a pretty nice ice cream place while we waited. They even came to our table to take out order and served us! Pretty snazy. We headed back to the church after the movie, which turned out to be pretty cheezy. There was an extra bed in Kelly’s room where we slept. The next morning, I went with Kelly to the market, which is right around the corner from the church. We got some fruit and these little waffle things that have coconut shreads in the middle. Baw Baw made some yellow bean soup to go over rice as well. After we ate, Baw Baw and I caught a taxi to the van station and took the van back to the restaurant.

On Sunday the 16th, we found out that Emily would be coming to the restaurant to help us out. I was really excited–another American to talk to! She arrived the next day, and we were able to convince Baw Baw to move into the room with P Aor so Emily and I could be in the same room. This last week has been really nice, having help with the class and having Emily to talk with. On the 19th, the Griswolds, an American family that has been in Thailand for a total of 13 years, came to visit us and help us out for the day. It turns out they’re from Ukiah, California of all places. We have a lot of mutual acquaintences. They have three kids who were all born in Thailand: Joelle (15), Nathan (12), and Josiah (5). They came with us to the class and were able to help out with pronouncing the English words. We split the kids up into groups and practiced saying short conversations with them. When we went back to the restaurant, they ordered vegetarian food from P Aor’s mom to help encourage her to make more healthy foods. Oh by the way, after being here for so long, they all speak Thai fluently. After they ate, P Aor told them more in detail about the ministry she has. They were able to give her some tips on how to improve the English class and how to relate to her mom, which sounds funny, but she really doesn’t have a good relationship with her mother. They left that night.

Baw Baw got sick on Friday and didn’t improve all weekend. On Sunday we went visiting and went to a lot of our students houses to meet their parents and tell them about the Graduation we are planning for the students on December 7. It was fun, but extremely tiring with all the kids hanging all over me. When we got back to the restaurant, Baw Baw had all her stuff packed onto a motorcycle and said she was going back to the center. We were all really shocked. When we asked why, she said she was just feeling too sick and didn’t want to be a burden to us. She wasn’t at all, but we just let her go. Not that we could’ve really stopped her–she one of the most stubborn people I’ve met…

We have one Bible study contact that we have been pretty consistant with giving studies too; his name is Dtow. Michael, a guy from Oklahoma who teaches at the Adventist school in Chiang Mai, has been here since Thursday. He’s helped with giving the Bible Studies and teaching the kids on Sabbath. Michael stayed at Dtow’s house, and so one morning, he brought Dtow to one of our morning worships. He has really shown sincere interest in the Bible and is really soaking it all in. He has an interesting health problem though: every morning he has tremors and really bad headaches. So when he was with us for worship, he all the sudden had a really bad seizure type thing; he shook really badly and almost knocked the table over. His eyes changed and almost had an evil look to them. P Aor immediately grabbed his arm and started praying for him. He started grunting and trying to get away, so Michael held onto him. He knocked the Bible on the floor, and after about 45 seconds came out of it. He started checking himself over to make sure he didn’t hurt himself, which has probably happened before–he has extremely long nails. That was a really crazy experience; I know there must have been some sort of evil spirit in him that really showed itself when we were having worship with him. He still wanted to have Bible studies though, and has been asking some important questions, like what do I need to give up to become a Christian, and do I need to stop smoking, and lots of questions about Jesus.  It’s really neat, and we’re praying that he can become a witness to all the townspeople and bring others to Christ as well. There’s lots more details about him, but I’m running out of time.

We’re starting another week of classes today. We have two more weeks before we’re having this Graduation Day. We just got certificates printed today that Emily, Michael, and I designed, which we’ll give to the kids all signed and everything. As of right now, we have about 160 students signed up for the class, but the most we’ve had show up at once is about 100. Still amazing though. It’s sure a good thing Emily is here to help us out, though I’m not sure if Baw Baw will come back or if they’ll send another Thai girl down. Melissa has had some pretty serious health issues, and is presently in Malaysia at a health clinic. She’ll be there til December 7, so she left Paul, Pastor Phamor’s son, in charge.

There’s lots of exciting stuff going on over here, and there’s lots to pray about. Especially keep Dtow in your prayers. It has been pretty fun teaching here, but I’m really looking forward to going to Cambodia. Well, I’ve gotta run. Hopefully I’ll be able to update this soon–I had to leave out lots of detail so get even this much done. Adios amigos!

More Students November 6, 2008

Things are settling into more of a routine here. Every morning I wake up at 4:30 to have my shower and devotions before we have group worship at 6. Right now P Aor is going through Revelation with us. Because of her limited English, it is very simplified, but I guess that’s good; it’ll help me understand it better. At 7 we go walking. Generally speaking, Thai people walk extremely slow, so I don’t really feel like it’s much exercise, but it’s better than nothing. Lots of people ask us why we walk every morning, so P Aor uses that as an opportunity to share a little about the health message with them. We come back at 8 to prepare and eat breakfast. I’ve enjoyed the food a little bit more lately because we’ve had more fruit. Back at the center and in the villages, usually the only fruit we had was bananas, and if you know anything about me, you know I can’t even stand the smell of them. But here, we have apples, a fruit called farang (the Thai’s always like to say “Farang eat farang!” which is basically just making fun of the fact that we have the same name as a fruit), dragon fruit, and a couple others whose names are unknown to me. We have rice for almost every meal and, amazingly, sometimes we’ll have bread, not that we have anything to put on the bread (peanut butter is pretty scarce and expensive here, but us SM’s crave it constantly) but it’s still nice to have anyway. After breakfast, we clean the whole restaurant, inside and out: Sweep, mop, wash dishes, and “rake” up the leaves outside with a broom. All that usually takes about 2 hours. From 11 to 1 we either have a little free time, or we prepare for the English classes. For example, a couple days ago, we went through a lot of P Aor’s old school supplies she had for her students and salvaged some folders for the kids to put all their papers in and envelopes to put Bible verse papers in. After lunch we may have a little more free time or we’ve come into town to buy food and supplies and use the internet, like right now.

At 4:00 we have our first class. The house where it’s at is right behind the restaurant. That class has grown from the original 8 to about 20, and let me tell you, it’s pretty challenging to try and teach that many kids with just P Aor and me, especially since I can’t talk to them (Baw Baw sometimes has to stay back and help P Aor’s mom in the restaurant). Since each day this week we’ve had new students join, it’s been hard to move on to new words with them; we keep having to go back over the alphabet and numbers and the few vocab words they’ve learned from the little Bible stories we tell them. P Aor found a small white board in the restaurant, and that was really helpful when we were trying to teach them Seek Ye First in Thai and English. That first class goes til 5, which really goes by fast. Then we walk to the next house for the next class. That one we have outside on a table, though we’ll probably have to move inside on the floor with all the new students that showed up yesterday. This class is a little quicker at learning words, so we’ve made more progress with them. At the end of that class, about 8 new kids showed up asking for an application form so they could join the class. It’s great that all these kids want to learn, but I think we need another farang here to help out… We’ll see what God has in mind. According to P Aor’s list of students she been keeping, we have 45 students at present! Pretty amazing. Some of them have shown interest in God too; like 3 kids wanted to know how to pray for themselves, and there’s this old grandma that is in the second class (she wanted to learn English with her granddaughter) that asked Baw Baw lots of questions about God and the Bible. And this was after only a week of being here! PTL! I guess praying before and after class and using Bible stories to get vocab words is enough to spark the interest of these kids in God.

After classes, we go back to the restaurant and have supper, usually just fruit and rice. Then we have worship. These last couple times, the two school girls that help out in the restaurant after school had worship with us. We tried teaching them a couple songs, in Thai, and are still trying to help them learn Seek Ye First. Yu Pa, one of the girls, is pretty interested in religious things. Several times she has asked Baw Baw about different Bible stories and about praying to God. She has a little book of Bible stories that she has been reading all the time. She wants to learn English too, but has to be at the restaurant during our classes, so we’ve tried to get a little time in with her when there’s no customers.

As far as P Aor’s mother, not much has changed with her. I think she’s becoming a little more comfortable with us living there and being around all the time. Every morning she goes into a room with all her statues/images/pictures of Budda and spends a long time in prayer. Then she has some stick things that she lights on fire and puts in a pot outside. I don’t really know much about the Buddhist religion, so it’s kind of interesting to see, but scary at the same time. Today we’re going to ask her if we can have Sabbath School inside the restaurant this week since we have so many more kids and don’t have enough chairs for outside. I’m praying that her heart has been softened enough that she will allow that to happen.

I still wonder sometimes why Melissa put me out here by myself. I sometimes feel like I’m not really doing much, but then I realize that if I wasn’t here, there wouldn’t be an English class at all. Though P Aor does most of the work with the translating and I just say the words, God has been working on the kids’ hearts just through this small effort. I’m also encouraged by Galations 6:9: “Let us not grow weary in well doing, for in do season we shall reap if we faint not.” I’m starting to enjoy the whole teaching thing a little more. The kids are great and love to listen to me try to pronounce Thai words–it gives them a great laugh. They think my nose is huge and wonder what all the spots on my arms are. Oh well… I’m glad they’re entertained by the way I look…

Well, I’m off to prepare for my classes. Keep this ministry in your prayers. None of this would be possible with out God. GB!

A Teacher?! November 3, 2008

Things at the restaurant are going pretty good. Last week was mostly filled with cleaning, serving food, and teaching English. It was kind of a settling in week, though, so this week is going to be more structured–schedule and everything! The teaching part has been pretty fun. The kids are really eager to learn. The parents are usually there and listen as P Aor and I teach, and since we’re using Bible stories to help them learn some vocab, they here about the gospel too. A couple of the adults have already asked P Aor to study the Bible with them. PTL! Right now I think we have 27 kids we’ll be teaching at 3 different times. P Aor has a couple books that have stories and vocab words in English and in Thai, which are really helpful.

One thing I haven’t enjoyed at all about the restaurant is the amount of ants we have to deal with. I mean, they are literally everywhere and in everything. When we’re eating meals at a table, the ants are just waiting for us to drop even a single crumb. I guess when I come home, the few ants in the kitchen won’t seem like a big deal anymore…

We’ve taken a couple walks around town, and it’s bigger than I thought it was. The area is really flat though, different from anywhere else I’ve stayed. It still has nice landscape and lots of trees.

Hollie left yesterday morning for Cambodia, so now I’m the only farang here. I hear from Emily that the rest of the group is all together in a Karen village. They don’t have any internet access and have to hike up a hill to get cell service. But at least they’re all together…

I have pictures I would like to put up of the restaurant and the kids we’re teaching, but we have to use a little internet cafe and they don’t have wireless, so I can’t access any of my pics. Hopefully at the end of the month I can put some up.

Please pray for P Aor’s mom, that her heart would be open to God and that we can be silent witnesses  of his love for her.