Life is full of changes (some sad, some happy, some good, and some bad)

Monday night cell group at my house in November. Wednesday night cell group in the summer with the summer team.

My house where lots of minsitry took place. Praise God!

My precious friend Jai and me last month at Canaan.

Jai and me on Valentine's Day at Canaan. One of the first Thai people I met and became friends with here.

Change is just part of life and most of the time I do my best to embrace it and learn from it. I am getting ready to say "good-bye" to a dear Thai friend (Jai) that I met when I first arrived here. She is a very active member at my church here (Canaan Baptist Church). She will be moving to the southern part of Thailand at the beginning of January to start her new job. I have spent a lot of time with Jai since arriving here almost 1 year ago and am amazed at how much her English has improved (my Thai not so much). She has become a very dear friend to me and I can't imagine one week passing by without seeing her. I am excited though to see what God has in store for her in her new home and job.

Speaking of new homes that is another change that will happen soon for me also. It is bittersweet but mainly I am really excited. I will be moving at the beginning of January from my house to a small condo back into the heart of the city (along the sky train line). There are many reasons for this move and I really feel that overall it is going to be a great blessing and change. There is always a little sadness though in leaving a place I have lived for about 7 months. I have a lot of great memories with students coming to this home every week and will always treasure those times.

Those are the 2 biggest changes that I am getting ready to face. I think things change though in my life here weekly and sometimes daily and I just learn to adapt and search for God's purpose in it all.

I am going to include a few pictures that go with change and for some reason they always post before what I write. I can't figure out how to fix that yet (I need my best friend Dana for this problem)

December Winter Wonderland

Christmas in Thailand photos

O.k. so the title is a little deceiving. It is December and it is considered the "cold season" but it is not really a winter wonderland. I think the coldest it has been here is in the 80's and believe it or not it feels a little chilly since I am used to it being in the high 90's almost every day.

The great thing about living in a big city though is that many places have gone all out to decorate for Christmas. They don't even celebrate Christmas here because Thailand is a Buddhist country but they decorate for the tourists because those are the people that shop at the stores. I have seen some of the most amazing Christmas trees and decorations here but with the hot weather it is hard to think about Christmas being near.

Here are some pictures of the great decorations--enjoy :)

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 :)

10 Things I LOVE about THAILAND

1. I love Thai people! I feel very blessed to have such wonderful Thai friends.

2. I love all of the wonderful parks! My church goes almost every Sunday afternoon to the bicycle park. You can rent a bicycle for about $1.00 for the entire day and most of them have 2 seats so it is just fun to ride with a friend.

3. I love that a lot of Thai people speak English since my Thai is not very good :)

4. I love that almost everything in this big city is written in English too. I definitely don't know how to read Thai.

5. I love that God called me here and gives me a peace about it daily!

6. I love public transportation. Driving in Bangkok would be a nightmare but sitting on the bus with my IPOD is no problem. It is even better if you can ride the sky train or Metro here.

7. I love that there are so many things to do here! I should never be bored because there are always places to go and many of them free of charge:)

8. I love my Thai church here (Canaan Baptist Church). Everything is done in Thai so I don't understand a lot of it but I love the people/fellowship and music.

9. I love eating out here! It is so cheap to eat out that I hardly ever (pretty much never) cook at home. You can eat on the street for about $1-2.00 or you can even go to a fairly upscale restaurant for $7-10.00.

10. I love walking everywhere. I don't always get to exercise (run) like I would like to do but am glad that I get a lot of miles in daily just walking my every day life!