Guests of a different culture

I have been living in my new house for a little over 2 months now. It has been a great blessing in many many ways. Every Wed. there are about 15-30 Thai students that come for "cell group" and almost every week-end 1 or more of my Thai friends come and stay the night. It has been a busy place. I even had some American friends come and stay for a few days. All of these guests are welcome and I love having them!

Unfortunately my house also has some unwelcomed guests. If I have never written this before can I just say that everything seems to come in much larger forms here in Thailand. For examples--roaches. The roaches are huge in this country. I have one that has decided to move into my home and I am scared to kill him because he is so big! The most recent unwelcomed guest is a rat (or maybe 2 or 3). I have actually only seen him 3 times but I know he is around because he leaves evidence. I have been trying to figure out how I am going to kill him. I have been given many suggestions but most of them I just can't do. The most ideal way would be for me to put out poison and he eats it and then he goes outside and dies. Doesn't that sound like the perfect plan??? I am afraid it won't be that easy.

If anyone has a great "American" way to kill a rat please let me know. I am up for any suggestions. I do have some workers coming tomorrow to close holes and such and maybe that will solve the problem and I won't have to kill him at all--we will see.

Living in a different culture has many surprises--some good and some not so good but it is just life!

I am alive :)

I hope that people are still reading my blog and haven't given up on me yet. It has been a very very busy summer!! I am currently writing this blog entry from Chiang Mai ( a city about 9 hours north of Bangkok). I will give a quick summary of the summer.

The Univ. students from America arrived in early June and then we immediately began work on 3 univ. campuses in Bangkok. At first I was busy taking all the American students around and spending days on the 2 different univ. campuses. I teach English 2 days a week at Rangsit University to chemistry students. It has been a lot of fun. I have a freshman class on Monday which has around 50 students and sophomores on Tuesday with only about 20 students. Tuesday is a much easier day but I enjoy both of the days. The rest of the week I spend at Sripatum Univ. tutoring students and just working to build relationships.

The first week-end in July we had an English camp in Pattaya. We had over 200 univ. students from the different campuses. It went really well. We had some students make decisions and many who are seeking to know more. I will be busy doing a lot of follow up in the month of August.

I came to Chiang Mai for 2 weeks of meetings the day after camp finished. I have enjoyed seeing a different part of the beautiful country of Thailand. The other day I went with some friends on an elephant trek through the countryside and also went white water rafting. It was a lot of fun! I am ready though to get back to Bangkok! Only a few more days of meetings left and then I return home!

I still don't have internet at my house yet but hope to have it up and running in August. I will try to be better at updating my blog so please keep reading. Pictures to come in the future!!

Busy, Busy, Busy

I have not updated my blog in a few weeks for many reasons. one of the reasons is because I do not have internet at my new house. I have been working hard to get it but everything is a process here and sometimes a long process. I am hoping to have it soon.

June has arrived which means the summer teams are arriving. We have 14 univ. students from America coming to work with us for June and July. It will be an exciting but very busy summer. I will have 9 of the American students working with me at 2 of the Thai universities. We will be teaching English, tutoring, and doing lots of programs at the universities and also off campus. I will be working 7 days a week and putting in long hours each day but am so excited about it. This is what I came here to do and it is finally time to get started doing it!!!

I will try to update from time to time when it is possible. I will also try to get some pictures of my new house up soon. I haven't taken any pictures inside yet. I am still working on the decorating part. The house is going to be great for ministry but it isn't fun to clean:) I will try to update again soon so keep reading:)!

Module 3 Complete & Moving Day :)

Today was the last day of Module 3. I am now finished with language school and the work begins! I am really excited about the summer work at the university but am a little sad that I won't be returning to language school. I have really enjoyed attempting to learn Thai for the past 3 months at school. I still have so much to learn but am hoping that my speaking will improve as I am around lots of students this summer. I will also miss all of the great friends that I have made with the students and teachers at school. (The pictures above are of my module 3 class and my teacher "khruu Wanthanee".

Tomorrow (actually today because I am writing this past midnight) is my moving day! I am so excited to move into my new house. I am a little sad though that I will no longer be living on the sky train route. I will be riding the bus now and taking taxi's once in a while. I will be finding new places to shop, eat, and hang out. All of the changes bring about all new adventures so get ready to hear about a whole different part of Bangkok that you haven't met yet.

My first house!

I never would have thought in a million years that my first house would be in a foreign country! The first house that I can actually call just "my house"! I am so excited! I found the cutest little pink house (yes I did say pink) that is in a great neighborhood near the university that I will be working at this summer.

It was really nice and spacious on the inside also. I only have pictures of the outside for now but I move in next week so more pictures will be coming soon! thanks to many of you who prayed for me! It was a perfect fit. I saw it today and it is move in ready and I have the keys in hand right now.

By the way--it is a 3 bedroom house so all visitors are welcome!!

Lessons of the Week

Do you ever feel like you have heard things before but this time you are hearing/seeing/learning it differently? Maybe you are seeing it differently because of experiences in your life or maybe your perspective is different? This past week was one of those weeks for me. I hope you don't mind me sharing:)

Compassion--this word received a whole new definition for me this week. I always thought about how God has compassion on us and how He loves us no matter what. Even when we disappoint Him by making the wrong decisions in life, irritate Him by committing the same sin for the 100th time, and sometimes even turn away from Him but He is still there. This week I was challenged in my Tuesday night Bible study when my teaching leader asked the question "God has compassion on us even when we disappoint and irritate Him-do you have compassion on other people when they disappoint or irritate you.?" That question hurt a little! I really had to think about it--do I have compassion on other people when they disappoint or irritate me?? I am really going to work hard to be more compassionate towards others. I am so thankful that God never gives up on me when I disappoint or irritate Him and I need to show the same compassion towards others! What a challenge!!

Perspective- this word has really been heavy on my heart since arriving in Thailand. You can see the things around you in so many different ways and either find the positive or the negative in them. This week I was challenged when I heard a story about a Marine General in World War II who was surrounded on all sides by the enemy and had just heard word that no help would be coming. What he told his men was this "All right-the enemy is on our left, on our right, in front of us, and behind us, and they can't get away this time!" We have the opportunity to shoot at them from every direction." Life is full of challenges/hardships (the enemy). How are you going to face them? Are you going to feel defeat and surrender or are you going to see things from a different perspective and fight with the right attitude?

Along with learning Thai culture and the difficult Thai language I am learning many other great life lessons!

Is it May already?????

Ever since arriving in Thailand 4 months ago the one thing that has never changed is that the time passes by really quickly! I feel like a month is just beginning and the next thing I know it is over and the next month is here. A lot has been accomplished in the past 4 months but in some ways the time has gone by a little too fast! Time passing by also brings about changes. It means that some things that you have grown to love and have done routinely are coming to an end but the exciting part is that it means new things are beginning!

I only have 2 more weeks of language and I will be finished with school. I am actually really sad because I like going to school and learning Thai and there is so much that I need to learn. I have really developed some great relationships with the teachers and some of my classmates that it will be really hard for me to say "good-bye". Hopefully in the future I will either be able to go back to school or get a tutor because I still need a lot of help with my Thai!

The new beginning though is that my summer work with university students will start in June and I am really excited. There are univ. students coming from America to work with the Univ. students here in Bangkok for 8 weeks. It will be a very busy but fun summer. Hopefully being around Thai students all summer will help my speaking to improve since I won't be in school.

I keep reminding myself that change is good and as time passes by lots of changes will continue to happen. I look forward to seeing what changes God has in store for me here!