Some recent fun events here!

We celebrated my friend Jai's birthday at Pizza Hut :) I like pizza!!

O, me, and Fon at Sripatum University

Puy, me, and ann eating corn while watching the elephant show in Ayutthaya:)

Jib, Nice, Kayla, Ham, and me on dress day at the bicycle park. We all wore dresses that we bought on the street to church on Sunday and took lots of pictures at church and then at the park after church. Fun times with University students.

Ann, Me, and P'Pom at church

I am still here :)

I am not even sure if anyone still reads my blog or not. I haven't been good at updating it very often. Lots is happening here and I am keeping pretty busy. I am spending most of my time now at Sripatum University. It is about a 15 minute walk from my house or on the hot days (which is every day) when I ride the bus it is 3 bus stops away. I usually ride the bus in the morning and walk home in the afternoon. I am having lots of fun just hanging out with the students and helping them with their English.

In the past few months 12 people have been baptized from my church!! We went to the beach both times to baptize in the ocean. Both of them were amazing experiences and were at 2 different beaches. If you have facebook there is a video of the most recent baptism.

I hope there are still some readers out there :)

Do I really understand what they are saying?

O.k. my title can mean many things. The obvious being that everyone here speaks Thai and I struggle to understand them. However, my language is getting better (not good but better). I understand a lot more Thai and now I am not sure that it is a good thing. Sometimes I hear my Thai friends talking about me or a situation and I wonder if I understood correctly what they said and if I did my feelings might be hurt a little. Now here is the tricky part--enter in cultural differences.

Example #1--Last Friday I went to ULS (Union Language School) to visit and have lunch with some of the Thai teachers and an American friend. One of the first things the Thai teacher said to me in Thai was how I was skinnier now but I used to be fat. I hadn't seen them since May when I finished language school. I guess it is better than the other way around. The Cultural thing is that Thai people call each other fat all the time and there definition of fat is not quite the same as the American definition. I am glad to look skinnier but I would like to think that I have never been fat.

I don't know if I will ever be able to understand the language fully but I am pretty sure that I will never be able to totally understand the culture. I have learned a lot of things and know most of the do's and don'ts in Thai culture which helps a lot. Will I ever really understand what people are saying to me?? The first step is to understand Thai but then the next step is to understand culture.

All in a days work!

Goals+Accountability=Success

Just a few weeks ago I attended a 3 day conference about how to reach the lost and help church multiplication to occur in the country that you are serving. It was an intense 3 days as we met from 8-5 daily. We were given some sheets to set some concrete goals for the future work and it didn't take me long to write some down.

One of my first goals was to spend at least 1 hour of my day while I am at Sripatum to meet new students. It is not difficult for me to connect with students that I already know but I knew it would be a challenge for me to go out and meet new students. I am still working on this goal but the Lord has been very gracious to me this week. I have already met 7 new students and it has only been a 3 day week so far. Isn't God so good?? Most of these students are friends of students that I know so I actually didn't have to go out and find them but they came to me. I love when God answers prayers in His own way.

One of my personal goals is that I will get up earlier each day and exercise and have my quiet time before heading to Sripatum. I just started this week so I will see by the end of this month how well I do with it :)

Things are busy but great here. I will post pictures soon! Stay tuned :)