The Fun a Short-Term Team Brings!

Christ Community Church from Atlanta, Georgia is here for a week! Praise God for the great activities we've been doing together!
Young Adult Coffeehouse
The Losers for this game got baby powder smacked on their face!
Some of my English students playing games with me.
Our Jazz Band
The final steps of the community center at Mahathai- a concrete front! This is bamboo weaving for reebarb (sp) after we smoothed out the dirt.
Youth Game Night!
Some sweet girls!

How would you like your egg?

Here's your choices in Thailand:
-boiled
-salted
-boiled and salted
-boiled, salted, and on a stick (don't ask me how it gets on a stick)
-pickled
-in an omelet
-an egg star (aka, over medium)
-let stand for a hundred years and then eaten (aka, 100 yr old egg)
-cooked and put in a pastry--most recent for me. One of the short-term team guys told me to eat it and my stomach says I shouldn't have. :)

Come and get 'em!

Getting Better

Last night, I picked up my roommates dishes on my way to the kitchen before bed, and one roommate looked up, startled. She exclaimed, "You're getting better." Getting better at what?

I live with 4 Thai girls and one American, and work with twice as many at the office. They are amazing servants. Before I can even think about caring for someone else, they've done it! If you want to wash their dishes, you better eat faster and jump up quicker! And I fight my sinful self that has no desire to think about anyone other than myself. And I've been praying that the Holy Spirit would work in me and help me to desire to serve! Make me what I'm not! More like Jesus!

Surprisingly, we don't become just like Jesus when we become Christians. We become sinners that Jesus died for, but still sinners. And slowly, the Holy Spirit changes us, changes our desires, and makes us be more like Jesus. So, Hallelujah for the small growth in my life last night. It almost made me cry.

The Small-Town Feel

If you didn't know yet, I don't live in the middle of Bangkok. The hustle and bustle is not so evident out here in the suburbs. If I'm out at the right time, the elephants are out for a walk (we have 2 neighborhood elephants), the water buffalo are chillin' in the swamp (I think we have 4 of those), and the pig is wandering down the street (I'm pretty sure somebody owns him).

Last night, Rachel and I went passing out flyers around the neighborhood. We have a short-term team coming tomorrow! (I'm excited.) They will be teaching CPA three times and hosting game nights/ coffeehouses two times. Rachel and I started at the coffee stand at the outside market beside the four-faced Buddha statue. This lady is a Christian. She helped us pass out flyers to the people hanging out eating at the market. Then, we made a stop at the 7/11 to invite my friend who says hi to me everyday there. (Yes, all the 7/11 people know me.) She wants to come and bring a friend. Passing through another market, I invited Au who cooks food for us all the time, and told her she should learn CPR since she's going to be a mommy (again)! We walked to the post office and invited that cool guy. We got to meet his dog who has a Chinese name which means something like eternal fortune. Then we swang back by towards our house, stopping to hand one out to the noodle shop owners across the street and the people who have a convenience store. I offered to take over the shop for a day so they could come, but they haven't said yes yet. We missed the tire shop people, the papaya salad makers, and the fish noodle soup makers, but we hope to get them another day.

I hoped you enjoyed our stroll through the area. I do hope one day to see some of the people I say hi to everyday in our church, and knowing Jesus!

A real missionary-- an excerpt

From a missionary devotional book, Voices of the Faithful, I found this small story yesterday which I really identified with. Thought I'd share.

"Missionaries are ordinary, everyday people. I grew up thinking they were superspiritual: that they didn't need money to live on becuase they had a extra dose of Jesus. Now I know better. I fall under the category of "missionary."

I thought becoming a missionary meant that I would have great stories to tell that would wow my Christian friends back home. My story, however, is of an ordinary person, struggling to learn a foreign language, frustrated because there is no such thing as privacy where I live, and battling thoughts of criticism directed toward people I am here to love. And my story is also about how God is changing this everyday gal, from the inside out, to live a life of divine proportions.

Mine is a marvelous story because he brought me all the way to East Asia to show me that I am complete in Him. He is teaching this weak individual, with human limitations and hang-ups, that His power truly is manifested in weakness. God's promises become real as I encounter the world outside or as I crack open the language book to study.

I am learning that it is not just about victories. It is also about obedience that costs, unrecognized sacrifices, and unanswered questions. Ultimately, it is about following Christ.

Clumsy = Beautiful

Don't you love proverbs from other countries? In Thailand, they say if you're clumsy, it means you're beautiful. And I have successfully broken almost an entire set of glasses in our house! All the floors are tile here. I can't seem to hold things. And all the glasses crash to the floor! So when we were at the end of our supply of water-holding devices, I bought plastic!

Introducing Yu's Blog!

Yes, the Thai friend of mine, as well as co-worker, that can beat me at Scrabble has showcased her own blog! With a small bit of help, she has begun writing her own posts. You can find the address on the side bar of teammates' blogs. Enjoy. She'd love your comments too!

Enviro-Friendly Thailand

Since I'm from hippie-organic-hug-a-tree Asheville, I've been wondering how much of this I can do in Thailand. Well, not much. I mean, the ritzy grocery stores downtown do have organic. I haven't seen any hippies hugging trees. But my roommates and I do recycle! We saved up 4 whole bags of plastic bottles, cans, and cardboard boxes. Four huge garbage bag size. Then we dragged them down the street. There are no recycling government establishments here. Instead, people decide to take up recyling as a business. Their houses look like landfills, yet they take in everyone's trash recyclables, separate them, and sell them. So, Rachel, me and my 4 Thai roommates went to sell our saved up recyclables. We want to go on a vacation with the money. Sadly, with all those bags, we received 66 baht--which is two dollars!!

Hanging Out with the Teeny Boppers!

I found myself last Friday night, squished in a taxi with five teenage girls headed to karaoke. I thought to myself, how do I end up in these situations? I thought back to this time I was driving 25 teenagers around Eastern Kentucky in search of wild horses, while the guys screamed "Women drivers, no survivors!" And the many times I have been entrusted with teenagers headed to crazy destinations. Yet, this was the first time that parents trusted me with their kids when I didn't speak their language!

Last Friday, Tang and I started a get-together for the teenage girls from Mahathai. We have some good activities for the women and for the kids, but we felt like our ministry to the teenagers was failing. None of them come to our church right now, yet two of them became Christians through our team.

So, last Friday we went out to karaoke. I had much of my youth group from my church in America pray for me, and I felt their prayers. Though I couldn't understand much, we had a good time. And more than that, since then, three of the girls came to help with our kids clubs on Saturday. Three came to church on Sunday. And another stopped by the office just to say hi this week! So praise God! And pray for next Friday!

Bouncing Tofu Birthday Parties

Wit (on the right) had his 23rd birthday a couple weeks ago, and invited us all out to a popular restaurant together. Paul (also pictured on the left) had been before, but it was my first time. A big buffet of raw meat and vegetables were laid out. You chose what you wanted and then brought them back to your table to cook yourself on small grills. It was tough to decide whether Paul or Wit ate the longest!

Tang and I smile with our chopsticks. Twice, I tried to pick up tofu with chopsticks. The tofu slipped out of my chopsticks, bounced on the table, and fell to the ground. Did you know tofu could bounce?
Two of our Bible college interns are pictured on the left with Team on the right. Team first came to our fellowship needing to learn English quickly. An aspiring artist, he desires to study in San Francisco. He's got a big test coming up this Friday to qualify him. Pray the Lord's will be done, and most of all that he and Wit will come to know Jesus!

Joy Kids Club x 3

Every Saturday, our staff holds kids' clubs at three different slum communities in our neighborhood. We split in threes, and go to each every Saturday morning. Kieow, Rod, and I are at Mahathai. I'm in charge of games, because I can't tell Bible stories yet. Its a great time to share Jesus with lots of kids who don't know him yet. We have between 15 and 45 kids at each location!


Kieow tells a story to the kids, and we play fun games together.


Fern, the teenage girl pictured, is one of the few Christians in Mahathai. Kieow disciples her weekly and she helps us out a lot with kids' club. This other little guy pictured, he comes weekly to our kids' club. He's usually quite a handful, but always smiling. But just because we wanted his picture, he wouldn't smile.

You Know its Hot When....

the chocolate chips are melting before you put the cookies in the oven.

How do you Hang an Elephant?

Let me introduce to my sweet and superb Thai tutor, Bah Ot. Every Monday for two hours, she tutors Rhianna and I in Thai. We spend the time reading a short Thai story, looking at sentence structure, and answering comprehension questions. Many of my stories are about the history of Thailand. If you'd like a small, funny history story, read on. You know, I love history!
Ok, so the 2nd Ramkhamheng, King of Thailand, made the first Thai flag. Here it is, a red flag with an elephant in the middle. Yet, when he went visiting his kingdom, the village people all decorated their houses with the flag. Yet, when he saw the flags, he was very shocked! They had hung them upside down, with the elephant's feet in the air! I don't know how they could have done that without thinking, but they did.
So, the shock continued I guess until King Ramkhamheng the 6th came along. He corrected the mistake by making a new flag, hung upside down or right-side up, it is the same!

Apple Pies and Fireworks

How did I celebrate America's Independence Day across the globe?
First, I made apple pie with my friend, Crystal. Though cooking isn't at all an even infrequent event in my life, I had an urge to make one. Yet I found myself without an oven in my house or a pie pan! So, that's what missionary families are for! Isn't it pretty?
The American Embassy holds a pretty cool festival day--including American food, games, and music! Even the Marines visited, showing off the American flags for us. I got to hear from the American Ambassador to Thailand. He states that Thailand and the US have had one of the longest standing good relationships between countries in the whole world, lasting 175 years already!
And I found the Democratic and Republic tables, and was able to register for an absentee ballot. Yes, that guy is wearing a shirt that says "Bangkok for Barack." I had to ask for a picture, that was hilarious!
And I did find some fireworks there too! The end of a wonderful July 4th! And a happy birthday for my brother, James, who turned 30!

My First Thai Graduation

Tang graduated last Saturday from the local Bible college. When our team leader first came to Bangkok, Dave was a part-time professor at this college, to meet some interns there who could help him with planting a church. Thanks to that beginning, we now have three full-time staff that are graduates from there, as well as three weekend interns who study there now. On Sunday, she had quite a fan club, most of our team and many friends came out to watch the ceremony. Congrats Tang!
Tang lives across the hall from me in our apartment, as well as works alongside me with children's ministries for the church and in Mahathai. She has great gifts teaching children and great visionary ideas to help lead our team and encourage us. I am so happy to have her with us.

I'm Melting!

The Wicked Witch of the West couldn't get wet or she'd melt. I observe that the Thais believe the same thing. During rainy season, which it is, people will not go out of their house if its raining. So, if its raining hard, my English class possibly will be cancelled. Church attendance would be low. Special events will fail.

I think it follows along with some past folk beliefs about temperatures. If a Thai person has a cold, they won't drink cold liquids. If its raining, they are certain that if they get wet, they will be sick. Last night, we only had three students at Preston's last English class before he returns to America. But, charades was still fun!

But, Officer...

Riding on the bus the other day, a policemen got on to check the driver's records and the passengers' tickets. Its a normal everyday thing, but most the time he passes me up because I'm a foreigner. Well, this day, he didn't. He wanted to see my ticket.

Usually, after I pay my 8.5 baht or 30 cents for a ticket, I shove the small square paper into my wallet...with all the others. As he stood over me, I searched for today's ticket. I gave him one ticket. Nope, not today's. I dug deeper into the wallet pocket and gave him two more tickets. Nope, neither were for today. I handed him slowly about eight different folded up tickets--none of which were for today. Finally, I found today's shoved in my purse. He tore it, thanked me, and handed back all nine or so tickets in a nice pile. No smile found on his face. I promised him I'd clean out my wallet better.