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!