Easter Blessings

Som and Jao- 2 young ladies who came for Easter.

Aajaan Lek- Professor at Sripatum Univ. who came for the Easter service.

2 high school students have been coming to church to study English for several years and both of them brought their mothers to church for the Easter service.

Muy, Puy, and King are all University students that came to church for the first time.

Ann, me, and Ham (students at Sripatum University)

This post is really late but better late than never :) The Easter service at Canaan was such a blessing. We gave out invitations inviting many people and at least 15-20 people came that have never heard the story of Jesus before. The most amazing part of it all is that on Easter day many people stayed at home because of the protests taking place in Bangkok yet our church had a full house- Praise the Lord!

Please continue to pray for peace in Thailand. It has been over 1 month since the protestors arrived and they are still here.

Praying for peace in Thailand

I have not done well at keeping up with this blog. Lots of things have happened here this month. On the positive side- our Easter service at Canaan was amazing. We had about 50-60 people at the service and about 15 of them heard the story of Jesus for the first time! We had several students from Sripatum University come including 1 professor along with several people from the BSC. Praise God for the amazing turn out for Easter despite the turmoil going on all around us.

Some of you may have seen Thailand in the news these days. Just a few miles from my home are "red shirt" protestors. I am very thankful that so far only 1 day has involved violence. The biggest problem is that the red shirts are not willing to budge or negotiate. Every day is a guessing game on what will happen next.

I do feel safe and overall my daily schedule has not changed much. The smartest thing is to stay far away from the protestors and pray for a quick peaceful resolution.

Sprained ankles are not fun in Bangkok :(

Exactly 1 week ago (on a Sunday afternoon) I sprained my ankle playing soccer. I was actually going for the ball and started to fall and my ankle twisted and then a Thai guy, who was also running after the same ball, stepped right on my ankle as it was turning. It was very very painful! I actually thought it was broken at first but I went to the doctor and it was x-rayed and it was only a bad sprain.

I had to take it easy this week and stayed at home a lot which is not fun. It wasn't easy getting around this big city with a bad ankle. I am thankful though that it has been 1 week and it is healing quite well. I will take it easy though for a while.

I love that I get plenty of walking in every day just getting around the city. It makes me feel like I get plenty of exercise without going to the gym or running. However, this past week my thoughts were different. I kept looking ahead and saying--wow the bus stop seems far away. This week will be much better though and I should be back to normal shortly.

Don't wear red or yellow and it is mango and sticky rice time!

My title might confuse some of you because it involves 2 totally different topics.

Topic #1- Don't wear red or yellow!!!

That is a serious statement. There are 2 major parties known here as the "red shirts" and "yellow shirts". The red shirts are the ones that are currently protesting the government and wanting a change (Thaksin Supporters). The yellow shirts are the ones that protested a few years ago and took over both of the major airports in Bangkok in order to get rid of the prime minister at the time (Thaksin). I am even scared to answer the question "What is your favorite color" honestly because my favorite color is red. I will not be wearing either of these colors anytime soon just to be safe.

Topic #2- It is mango and sticky rice time!!
Mango is now in season--yippee! one of the most delicious Thai desserts is Mango and sticky rice with a wonderful coconut milk sauce to pour over it. I could eat it every day but the problem is that it is very fattening!! I will try to limit myself to 1 time a week!

I am finally going back to the University tomorrow!! It has been closed for the past 2 days due to the protests. I am ready to work again!

The HEAT IS ON!!

Yes, it is hot here pretty much year round. When my parents were here visiting in early Feb. they would sweat after a few minutes of being outside. I would love for them to come and visit now so they would realize that it really wasn't that hot then :) It is all relative! It is just the beginning of March and it is boiling hot already. April is known as the hottest month here and I can only imagine what it will be like and am not looking forward to it!

On the bright side of things-- GOD IS SO GOOD and things are going really well here. I am discipling 2 believers at the University one day a week and feel so blessed to watch them grow in their walk with Christ. The study is done in Thinglish (mixture of Thai and English). Actually the girls speak and understand english pretty well so I only have to use Thai once in a while. I continue to build relationships with old students and also am meeting new students weekly.

All is well in the Land of Smiles :)

I am still here

o.k. so I wrote a nice long blog post and pressed publish and lost it all . In case there is anyone out there who still takes time to read my blog I am still here and will try to do better to keep up with my blog entries.

This one is going to be short though because I lost the last one and don't want to type again. more to come........

Catching Up

Wow- it is already the middle of February and I haven't written in my blog in a while. A lot has happened. The most recent event was my parents 3 week visit to Thailand! It was a busy but fun 3 weeks. The first week we took a vacation to Southern Thailand to Bang Niang Beach. It is one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. We stayed at a small resort called "Cousin's Resort". All of this area had been destroyed 5 years ago by the tsunami so all of the resorts are new within the past 4 years. Every evening we went to the beach to watch the sunset and it was beautiful.

The remaining 2 weeks we spent in Bangkok. I had to work at the University part of the time so I sent my parents out and about around Bangkok on their own. No worries because I sent them with a map and cell phone. I usually took them to the place they would explore the day before so when they went alone it would be the 2nd time and things would look familiar. They did a great job navigating around Bangkok!! They got to see lots of parks, shopping centers, and tourist sites.

Part of the time I also just took them to see my work here and introduced them to my friends and students. I took them to the University one day and they got to meet many of the students and even met a few new ones that day. I also took them to the BSC for a Friday Night Life event. They went to my church (Canaan) with me and even endured the long Sunday events (church, teaching English, 2nd service at church, bicycle park, and then dinner at the mall). I think they got to meet almost all of my Thai friends so we made the most of each day!

It was a busy 3 weeks and the time went by really quickly! Now I am back to my routine today which meant I studied Thai this morning for 1 1/2 hours, then had a meeting, and then went to Friday night life and dinner. Who is going to visit me next??