Hello everyone, this blog is coming from the extremely pregnant lady who is hoping she will be interrupted at any minute in this writing with the beginning of labor. I’m going to mix things up a bit with our “We Ain’t in Kentucky Anymore” story section up front. Enjoy!
We Ain’t in Kentucky Anymore!
Water Pails on Motorcycles
Before we came back to Bangkok, we had some friends visit us in Roi Et for a day. They also work in Issan, and they were in Roi Et for a conference, so they stayed with us for a night. The night they stayed, we actually ran out of water in the tank located behind our house, though there was still water in other buildings at our school. Chris took a couple of buckets to go fill up at another building across campus, and as he was walking back, another teacher saw him. The teacher ran and jumped on his motorcyle and proceeded to pick Chris and his two very full buckets up! Chris rode all the way across campus trying to balance himself and two buckets of water on the back of a motorcycle!
Overweight Americans!
My parents arrived just a couple of days ago. We are staying in a hotel with them close to the hospital where we will have Natalie (if she ever decides to come out!). The first night, as the four of us got in the elevator to go up to our rooms, the elevator started beeping. It’s a pretty small elevator and apparently it was past its weight capacity. So, my loving parents and husband decided it was best if the pregnant lady gets off the elevator so that they could ride up together!! I was definitely (not) feeling the love!!
Jesus and Taksin
We had a unforgettable trip back to Roi Et from Bangkok in late January after putting Chris’ parents on their plane headed back to the states. We got a late start to the bus station (because we did not have our car by that time) and realized that all the decent buses for Roi Et left in the early morning or late and night. So we bought a ticket that cost less than half of our normal Bangkok-Roi Et ticket (which should have told us something) and we hopped on a 1 PM bus. Not two minutes after we got on, a crazy-looking, longhaired Thai man came stumbling on the bus with a beer in one hand and a red shirt in the other. When he saw us, the only white people on the bus, he made a beeline for us! Then he pulled his shirt up over his head to show us a giant tattooed cross on the left side of his chest. He yelled “Christian,” pointing to his left peck, and then pulled up his shirt farther to reveal a Taksin face tattoo (the red shirt party leader in Thailand)! Between yelling (literally) “Jesus” and “Taksin” he proceeded to “entertain” us with drunken ramblings for the entire 8-½ hour trip. Chris kindly asked him to stop for a while so we could sleep, but finally we resorted to faking sleep in order to give our ears a momentary rest from deciphering drunk Thai. We pray God forgives us (we gave it all we had)!
Blessings in Banon
Helping Students to Understand English
On Saturday mornings, we both teach an English class in Roi Et consisting of only about 5-6 students. However, the last day before coming back to Bangkok, our class was only 2 students because the others were studying for final exams, so we taught that class about giving directions. We worked on saying sentences such as, “The movie theater is across from the pharmacy,” or “The shoe store is on the corner of Main and Fifth Street.” We had the students ask each other how to find certain buildings, then had them act out how to get there using a map. After practicing for a while, one of our students, Am, started smiling and laughing, and told her classmate in Thai, “I finally understand this now!” It made this whole past teaching term worthwhile!! We felt like it was an affirmation from God that teaching English is as valuable a part of this ministry as anything else.
Preaching in Banon
We recently taught at the church in Banon again, in Thai! We were asked to lead one Sunday, and we decided to talk about choices. We started off the service with the “Would You Rather?” game (one of our favorites). We had two students (the contestants) leave the room, and presented seven “Would You Rather?” questions to the rest of the students. These students voted on how they thought their friends would answer. Some of the questions included, “Would you rather be rich and ugly or beautiful and poor?” “Would you rather have a lot of friends that don’t know you that well, or just a few that know you intimately?” and “Would you rather be invisible or be able to read others’ minds?” After the students voted on how they thought their friends would answer, the “contestants” were invited back into the room to answer each question. If they answered in the way the audience predicted they would, they got a point.
After the game, we talked about how everyone we know constantly has to make choices in life. We then went on to talk about how God the Father and Jesus faced choices as well. We taught about the fact that God had to decide if He would rather keep his Son in heaven, or send Him to die. We also taught about how Jesus had many choices, the biggest being to die or not. We ended the service talking about how each one of the students had a choice as well: live a life in which they could know Jesus, or not. We approached this last choice as a positive one. We used Isaiah 43: 1-7 to talk about how God wants us to choose Him and how He gives us the utmost joy when we do. Here is the passage:
1 But now, this is what the LORD says-- he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. 3 For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I give Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba in your stead. 4 Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I will give men in exchange for you, and people in exchange for your life. 5 Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. 6 I will say to the north, 'Give them up!' and to the south, 'Do not hold them back.' Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth-- 7 everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made."
It was a lot of work to prepare this lesson in Thai, but our teammate Kat helped us (quite a bit). The preparation time is so good for our language comprehension!
A Miracle (MUST READ)
One of our team members, Kat, teaches middle school students at one of the schools in Roi Et. One of her students, a 13-year-old girl, recently had been having troubles. She was skipping school, and was not coming home to stay with her mom. A couple of weeks ago, Kat got a call from the girl’s mom saying that the girl had not been home in a couple of days. We prayed for her and asked God to bring her back. A couple of days later, Kat got a call from another student, one of the girl’s friends. It turns out that the girl, under the influence of peer pressure from an older friend, traveled all the way to Bangkok with this friend. Once there, her friend betrayed her and sold her to someone who wanted to sell her into sexual slavery. For two days, the girl was guarded in an apartment of someone she didn’t know. Miraculously, after the second day, her guard left the apartment to get some food, and left her cell phone. The student grabbed the cell phone and called her dad who lives in Bangkok to ask him what she should do. Her dad told her to run out of the apartment and read the street signs to him so he could figure out where she was. She did, and her dad came to pick her up. The student is now safely back in Roi Et with her mother. As you can probably assume, this is almost unheard of when someone is kidnapped to be sold as a sex slave. God was definitely working in this student’s life! Praise God!!
Back to Bangkok and Baby Time
Teaching in Bangkok
Since being back in Bangkok the last couple of weeks, we have both been asked to share at the adult prayer meeting held at the church each Wednesday night. We prepared a short message in Thai. Chris’ message was about being amazed by God. He talked about looking around in the mundane of our daily lives to allow God to show us how wonderful He is. My message was about remembering God, and I based it on several texts in the Old Testament, both about Israel remembering and forgetting God, and the accompanying blessings and consequences.
More Prayer Miracles: Our Good Friend Boot
Some of you that have seen the video we made last summer may remember Boot. She gave her testimony about what God was doing in her life and the life of her husband, Kampon. We were told that Kampon left Bangkok to visit his mother who was sick in a different province in October, and when his mother died, he decided to stay in that province. Well, it turns out that he found another wife and called Boot in January to tell her he wasn’t coming back. Chris and I were at the church the day she found out and we tried to console her the best we could. She kept asking us why he would find another wife when she tried to be the best wife she could, and when he had a 6-year old son. We didn’t have an answer for her. She asked us to pray that God would bring Kampon back and restore their marriage. Honestly, I told Boot I would pray that Kampon would come back, but I really didn’t want to pray for this. I thought that Boot deserves a more honest man and that she probably would be better off without Kampon. However, we did pray for him to come back because we told Boot we would. About two weeks ago, Boot got another call from Kampon. Apparently, he and his new wife had both had a change of heart. They both started to feel like what they had done was wrong, and Kampon decided to come back to Boot. They still have a long way to go in fixing their relationship, but Kampon is back in Bangkok with Boot now. Praise God that He knows more about relationships than we do and He can restore them!! Please pray for Boot and Kampon.
Dora’s thoughts on church and life in Thailand
For a long time, I had troubles when I attended church in Thailand. The services are great, but I always felt like I don’t fit in, or I don’t have a role, or I don’t understand the language well enough, or whatever. Recently, as I sat in a church service in Bangkok, I had the most amazing feeling. For the first time since living in Thailand, I felt like I really love it at this church and I realized that I love living in Thailand. Don’t get me wrong, there have been many days throughout this past year where I have enjoyed being here, but there have also been some days where I have not. In church that day, I felt like I really love it here and if we were forced to return to the States right now, I would definitely be sad. I do miss our friends and family back home, but I know that Thailand is where God wants us to be right now, and He has really given me a great love for this country and the Thai people. I’m not saying that I still won’t have some hard days, but I am certain that I want to live here for a long time. We, of course, have no idea what the future holds, but I am thankful for the peace and love God has granted me for our new home.
We love you all! Please pray for a speedy birth for Natalie Paige! We look forward to sending pictures soon!
