Random Thoughts...

Thank you all for your comments! I really appreciate everyone's support and encouragement, it has been a great opportunity to come to Thailand for the summer.

I thought it might be helpful to give everyone who doesn't know a clearer picture of what the Christian Zone is and what we have been doing here. Maybe some explanations would be helpful....

Payap Christian Zone: Referred to often as "the Zone", this is the church and the place where many activities happen. We have church on Sunday mornings on the third floor, all of us interns live in a dorm area on the second floor where there is also a kitchen area for cooking, and the first floor consists of some class rooms, a library, an a spacious "hang out" area with couches and a ping-pong table where we usually meet for cell group.

The "P": Putting a "P" before someones name, such as P'Poi or P'Wah indicates they are your "P"- they are older than you. There is also a term for younger...which I should know but I don't use it often enough....

Equipping Time: Each morning (except Sunday, Monday, and Saturday) the interns gather to read through a chapter in John, have discussion, quiet time, and then work through a Spiritual Discipline using a summarization of Richard Foster's book as a guide. This usually goes until right before lunch.

Payap University: Payap is the University right down the road, it is literally about a minute's walk. They started their semester last week so we have begun the focus of our ministry at Payap. Sometimes we use flyers (in Thai) to help initiate conversation, but basically we go around to the lunch places at the school and talk to the students and sit down to eat lunch with them. It has been a challenge for all of us in different ways- mostly the language barrier makes it difficult so we try to use as many Thai words as we have learned. A lot of the kids have giggled but been gracious in helping us pronounce difficult words. We invite them to the Zone for cell group, free English lessons, and Movie night. Some have shown interest but we understand that it is intimidating to just show up at the Zone so we try to be really friendly and a non-threatening presence. We have been praying that God would work in the hearts of the students and draw them to him even if we can not see or understand he is doing so.

English Lessons: Everyday when we get back from lunch we have about an hour break until 3 when English lessons start. So far, Hom has been consistent in showing up and our last few lessons have gone a lot better than the first. I usually rope one of the Thai college students who has some English to help out since the lessons are only written in English.

Night Time Activities: It always depends on the day, so far we have been out of town or had something special scheduled for Sundays, Monday is our day off, Tuesday is Movie night, Wednesday is Worship, Thursday is Cell Group, and Friday and Saturday we have so far had planned for us.

It's really hard to believe we have already been here almost 4 weeks, wow! Tomorrow (Saturday) we have our second official Thai lesson, which I should study some more for and practice. We all really want to learn some of the language before we go so we can bridge the language barrier a little bit more. I know this post hasn't been exciting, but I hope it was helpful to anyone who was confused on what exactly we are doing- besides elephant riding and bungee jumping!

A few prayer requests....
Please pray for Hom, that we would be able to communicate as friends and not in a strict teacher-student relationship and that God would continue to draw her near to him and she would form relationships here at the Zone with the Thai Christians.

Pray for the leadership at the Zone, that God would empower more of the Thai Christians to be involved in leadership positions.

Pray for the Women's Class this Sunday. We are each taking a turn to teach, please pray that God would use me to touch the hearts of the women in the class and speak through me words that need to be heard.

Lastly, pray for the students at Payap University, that God would work in their hearts to bring them to him and he would use the interns and Thai Christians at the Zone to be a light to them.

Thanks for reading my rambles, miss you all!

A quick update

Hey everyone! I wanted to give a quick update about our weekend in Chiang Rai before the busy-ness of the week overcame me and there was just not enough time. Friday morning the ACU interns, Robert, and the Aggies left at 7:30 to take a 4 hour bus ride to Chiang Rai. Once there, we took a 6 hour journey down the river on bamboo rafts. We were six to a raft, and we were split up so that we could be with a group of Aggies. Getting to know the people on my raft was fun, I didn't really know any of them before. They had a lunch already cooked on the raft- spring rolls, rice, and chicken so as soon as we got on we got to eat. Six hours is a really long time to float along with people you don't really know, but it was a good experience anyway to help me get a bit out of my comfort zone. We stopped for the night in a hill tribe village- I think the name had something to do with milk and honey. They were third generation Christians so after dinner we gathered around a solar light to share with them in music and their traditional cultural dances. They were not Thai, Robert told us they were a country-less people, probably most from Korea or Taiwanese. The village was pretty similar to many of the hill tribe villages we could see along the river. The houses were made of what looked like bamboo and straw and their were cows everywhere. What was funny to our group was that we stayed in a house over the barn and the room was almost empty except for a fairly nice looking TV set. This kind of puzzled us all, it just didn't seem to fit into the context of village life.
My favorite part of the evening was joining with some of the women in their cultural dance. There is a picture in the blog below of the women in their village colors, gathered around for dancing and singing. We all watched for a while, and then somehow a bunch of us ended up joining in. The steps and hand movements looked easier, but they were really hard! After dancing, they sang some worship songs. Some were original to the village, however they did sing "Amazing Grace" in their own tongue. It was really cool to hear a song we've grown up with being sung by women in a mountain hill tribe village so far away from home. I just thought- and I am still thinking- that it is so amazing that the one thing we had in common with each other was a faith in God and how that had just crossed all the lines of language, culture, and economic status. That evening we slept over a barn on the wooden floors. Comfortable? Not so much. But we were grateful to be away from the mosquitoes and able to sleep a little while. The roosters woke us up before light and not long after that a woman came in with a basket of purses and other woven things...and a price sheet. It was actually a really good business move on her part- get them before they leave the house and buy from someone else! I bought a few things, and then was stopped in the village on the way out and coerced into buying more. It was a small amount of money, and I felt indebted since they had let us sleep in their houses and use their bathroom, so I went ahead and bought somethings. I think the women could tell I didn't want so much, but I only had a 100 Baht (about 3 dollars) and she didn't have change so I made my purchases even. Before I left she tied a woven bracelet around my wrist. It was really sweet and I'm glad I went ahead and bought something I didn't need if it helped her out (which we are confident it did).
After another 3 hours on the raft we arrived at the Elephant camp were some of my team mates were set on getting a picture with a python. I REALLY REALLY shook my head adamantly against it, but as you can see by the picture below I succumbed, and held a really really big snake. Ew.
After lunch (and hand sanitizer haha) we hopped on some elephants for a two hour ride through the jungle. Elephant riding is not as easy and smooth as Mogly makes it out to be in the Jungle Book. I lost both my shoes on the journey- I was hanging on too tightly to stop them from slipping off. Some wonderful people behind us picked them up so I didn't have to go shoeless for the rest of the trip :) I liked the ride, especially the fact that I get to say I rode an elephant from now on through the jungle. I am not sure it was an experience I am in a hurry to repeat though.
That was pretty much our weekend up to Saturday afternoon, when the bulk of excitement happened. I would continue on through Sunday, but since I have an English lesson with Hom in about half an hour that is a story for another blog post. Sawatdeeka!

Oho! It has been one busy past week and I apologize for not keeping up with my blog! I'll try to give a daily run down of what has happened beginning with last Friday. Also, there are pictures of the past week and a half of some memorable moments in the previous blog, enjoy!

Friday the 13th: Robert took us up for a "Mystery Equipping Time" in a mountain area called Crazy Horse. After some bible study and prayer time, we went cave exploring. We crawled down one that was barely big enough to squeeze through and we crawled down in pitch black. I was a little nervous that I might grab a snake! It ended up opening into this huge, amazing tavern, so it was well worth the few moments of fright. That afternoon, Jordan and Emily, a young married couple from ACU, arrived and they are joining our team for a few weeks. It was surprising and refreshing to see a familiar face all the way around the world. That evening us ACU girls planned games for cell group at Robert's house and we learned some new Thai songs. P'Poi french-braided my hair and Thumb, a new guy we just met offered to put a dred in my hair which I decided to decline ;) Later that evening the Aggies for Christ arrived and they stayed with us at the Christian Zone for this past week and we have spent a lot of time with them.

Saturday: Thai college students, Aggies, and ACU interns all went out to a National Park for a fun day of kickball, ultimate frisbee, waterball, and some waterfall climbing. It was a great way to meet new people and get to know some of the Aggies better while experiencing the beauty of Chiang Mai. After heading back to the Zone and showering we all went to the Night Bazaar downtown. It was really crowded and a lot of people were shopping. Mostly we were glad to get some Roti and a subway sandwhich!

Sunday: All of the sister churches met under one roof (and the church literally was just a roof, the building was in the process of being built) for worship. We saw people from the hilltribe villages come all the way down for worship and many many people from all around Chiang Mai came. It was very crowded! After church, we all ate together outside and some of the Thai girls gave me a Thai name, "Wan", which means "sweet". That afternoon, some of us decided to take the leap and go bungee jumping. It was pretty fun, I got lots of pictures to show when I get back, In the evening we went to something similar to Night Bazaar but it was called Walking Street. I liked it better because it was less crowded and the shop people were less pushy, but both were good experiences to get more familiar with the Thai culture, though I don't really think I did much shopping.

Monday: (I updated a bit about this last week) we went out to McKean's Rehabiliation center and went to Friendship Village where we encouraged the residents. It has been one of my favorite outreaches so far, and I think one of the interns at another church has a contact there so I may see if we can go back soon. I really wish we had had the opportunity to stay longer, but the conversations and experiences were definitely worth the few hours we had. That night we went to a cook your own restaurant and some we got to fellowship with some of our Thai friends that we don't get to see too often, so that was a pretty good end to the day.

Tuesday: Was a LONG day! After equipping at Sean Todd's house (who makes the best french toast ever!) we went up into the mountains and immersed ourselves into Thai culture by exploring a Buddhist temple. I was unsure of what to think of the experience. It was definitely a long hike up all those stairs in a skirt, and so much of the temple was dedicated to strange gods and other offerings. I had a brief conversation with Jordan about it afterwards, who asked me what I had though. His perspective was that it was like going into some of the great cathedrals of Europe and that it was good for us to try and understand Buddhism (without becoming Buddhist) if we are to try to minister to a culture that is primarily Buddhist in their religious and lifestyle beliefs. After leaving there, we spent the rest of the afternoon at another Chiang Mai church where Sean is leading. Sean wasn't able to be there, so Gahn, Katy, Jarred and I took over his English class and (tried) to have some conversations with his Thai students learning English. It was pretty fun, mostly we talked about jobs, food, family, and favorite movies. I taught them some important words: goober and cheesy. We really did try to help them practice their English, it was just fun to throw in some American terms that are fun to use. A little bit after English class, we had cell group and P'O led us. It is always fun for us to sing Thai songs, we are given the phonetics and can pretty easily follow the tune. After cell group a group went to see Kung Fu Panda, but I was so tired I headed off to bed.

Wednesday: Wednesday morning us ACU interns, and some former Apprentices, John and Julie, got up early and went to have Breakfast at Bake and Bite. They gave us some good advice on the ins and outs of ministry at Payap and answered a few of our questions about different things. After Equipping time with the aggies and interns we had quiet time, and I followed mine by nap time! The Aggies went to the Umbrella factory, where one can get Bibles and other things painted but I slept a bit too late to want to go. I stayed mostly because I had an English lesson planned with Hom, what I didn't realize was that Hom went with the group to the Umbrella factory! It was pretty funny, I wasn't upset, she probably had more fun and learned more English that way, and I am glad she is getting involved a bit with people at the Zone. Later that evening we had a talent night, and of course us ACU girls put together a Sing Song act about Thailand! We videotaped it, and posted it to facebook. It was a lot of fun, everyone had a really good time.

Thursday: This week the new semester started at Payap University, and we were so excited to finally go on campus altogether to begin the focal point of our ministry. I have been on campus a few times, going jogging and using the post office. We went to different lunch spots and had lunch with the students, trying out our Thai phrases and passing out flyers inviting them to the Zone for English lessons, cell group, and movie night. We were lucky to find some who spoke a bit of English and willing enough to translate for their friends. We ran into our friend, P'Pun there and she wanted to introduce Hilary and I to some of her friends and teachers. I think her English teachers were glad that she was helping us get around and using us to practice her English. Thursday night we had cell group at the Zone, and we were happy to see some new students who came from Payap! Unfortunately, some of them were a little intimated by all of us (it was very crowded) so after hanging around a bit they left. It was a bit discouraging, but if I had been in their situation I probably would have left too.

Well, this post has gotten very long already and I did not make it through the entire week! Since we had a busy weekend, I will save that for the next post. However, the pictures above should give away some insights into what our weekend entailed!

Pictures

Stairs up to the Buddhist Temple

The very center of the temple
Gaio walking us to his house
Climbing waterfalls
Cave exploring!Finally inside
Wow!

The Prayer Center of Thailand

This morning we went to visit the residents of the McKean Rehabilitation Center for leprosy. This is a picture of a couple that invited us into their little home to sing and pray with them. Gaio and his wife Kaleo (I know I mispelled both their names) have lived here for over 50 years. The picture does not show it, but neither have fingers and they seemed about 4 feet tall. Gaio was very talkative and excited to sing with us (we had a book of some Christian Thai songs). He shared a little bit about how he had been at McKean for a long time and had met his wife there 50 years ago and they both became Christians. He was a really sweet man, probably more than one of us were choking back a few tears this morning ;)
We called McKean's the prayer center of Thailand because many of the people there are Christians and can not go out into the world as easily as we can. Their ministry is prayer, which was very evident by the fervent desire of Gaio, Kaleo, and Wile (another woman we sang and prayed with) to be prayed for, and to pray with and over us.

Happy Father's Day, I love you Dad!

The picture says it all :)

Hairy Berries

Chiao! Sooo much has happened this week since we got back from English camp, I hope I can squeeze it all into one post w/o being too long winded!
First off, I did get sick when we got back. Whether it was from the altitude change or the four meals of rice or the fact that the food was not really clean I am not sure. BUT after lots and lots of pepto bismal and bottled water I am feeling a ton better and much more energized.
We started our English lessons at the Zone this week. The English lessons are not only meant for language practice, but to get Thai students comfortable around the Zone and build a bridge for them to relationships in the church. My student's name is Hom, and she is about 15. I am not sure what she thinks of me yet, our first lesson was kind of a fiasco. We took a break about half way through to play some Uno (which she is very good at) and after a few games I asked her if she wanted to finish the lesson. She gave me a definite "yes", gathered her things and ran, not walked, out the door and down the street. Apparently there was some miscommunication! I was tickled pink though when Hom showed up for a fellowship night on Friday and then joined us today for games.
The red fruit I am about to devour is what us interns call a "hairy berry". I wish I could remember the real name, I'm not sure I could spell it if I could. It is peeled, and a clear fruit is inside. It tastes a bit like a plum. While we were in the mountains we also had a really sticky fruit called Jack fruit that tasted a lot like bubble gum.
I'm afraid if I write too much more this post will not upload, so I must cut it a little short! I will update soon about our adventures exploring caves and climbing waterfalls on our play days. If you are reading this (which you probably are) please pray for Hom and our ministry to her, that we would not only strive to teach her English but serve her as a Christian community, so that she may see the light of God here.
P.S. I'll give you a hint about our plans for tomorrow. It involves jumping and a bungee cord.
Chiao!!

Ban Bokaeo English Camp

Sawatdeeka! We are busy busy busy here in Chiangmai. Yesterday we got back from teaching an English camp up at Ban Bokaeo school in the mountain villages. It was a lot of fun, but completely exhausting. I was paired with P'Poi to teach a class of 38 7th graders. They have English lessons once a week for an hour, so I'm not sure if they really understood anything I said. P'Poi and I taught them the parts of the body, shapes, colors, and feelings. The kids had a lot of fun singing the "hokey pokey" and the "head, shoulders, knees and toes" song- especially when it got faster and faster each time. We also played a few other games and divided them boys against girls. The girls won overall, so the boys had to sing to them- everyone was giggling of course!

While we were up there we stayed with some of the Christians who lived in the mountains. I was blown away at how giving the family was when they had so little. We were blessed to have the chance to worship with the village church that evening and shared some fruit with them. I imagine their worship was very similar to early Christian worship- it was very communal and simple. I realize of course that I have only an outsiders perspective and the worship was completely in Thai. One thing that has been prevalent in the Thai Christians we have met here is joy in the Lord. On Sunday a girl from a nearby church came to Payap to be baptized. I was moved to tears by all the excitement and joy shared by the Chiangmai churches.

The picture above is a game we played with the entire school. I am not sure I understood the rules, but the gist was a number was called in baht (such as 1 baht 75) and everyone had to find a group that added up to that number. Boys were worth 50 and girls 25. I'm pretty sure I may have accidentally cheated a few times. Whoops ;)

From the U.S. to Chiangmai

Hey Everyone! We finally made it into Chiang Mai on Wednesday. We got into Bangkok late Tuesday night and spent the night at the Bangkok church. We found an afternoon flight on NokAir and were greeted by some members of the Thai church. Robert, the missionary at Payap Christian Zone met us and took us to Carrfour where we were able to get a few necessities. Wednesday morning we had Equipping time with Sean, David, Robert, and Larry (all missionaries to Thailand). We met some more of the Thai teens, they are a lot of fun! They have been very patient with teaching us Thai phrases and helping us get around. We had some spicy Thai food for lunch- actually it was "Mai pet" (not hot) but to us Americans it was very hot! After an afternoon of Equipping we left with four of the Thai college students and Robert to the mountain retreat. We stayed on a houseboat and were able to have some quiet time to pray and meditate about our focus for the summer. The mountains were absolutely beautiful. I was still feeling really bad from the 36 hour trip over, so I crashed pretty early. It has been a lot of fun (and sometimes a little difficult) getting to know the Thai people, but they are definitely more welcoming to foreigners and most are very friendly. My first phrase to learn, and probably most important, has been "Sa wa dee ka". Hello.