More Than Words

Hello everyone,

I am really sorry for my lack of posts lately I really have no excuse other than I can’t find my camera cord and I’ve simply been putting it off.

Everything’s going well here.  I have 30 days left in Bangkok and that means one more cycle of classes.  It’s only one week until Brandy and Eli get here and I’m so excited to see them.  Last night 26 students from Northwestern University came to Santisuk and they’re upstairs being orientated right now.  I can’t wait to see you B and E!  I hope everyone is taking care and doing well. 

Allie and I are leaving with the Santisuk youth cell group to go to Changmai, a province in the north of Thailand.  We’re going to be up in the mountains and it’s going to be so beautiful, I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures and post them for you all to see.  I just wanted to give a head’s up that I’ll be gone for the next week.  I will make sure that I update as soon as I get home. 

Please pray that the students would be eager to help the church that we are visiting and that the new christian students will be able to learn something more about their faith and become stronger and more persistant in searching for the answers that they’re looking for.

“What goes around the world but stays in a corner?”

“KFC”  -Lookee
“Canada”  -Nick
“A Baby Crocodile”  -Warn
“Spiderman”  -Warn

Hello everyone,

I got home from my trip to Laos on Thursday night.  Everything went really well.  I didn’t have much time to be touristy because most of my time was spent standing in lines at the Thai embassy.  It was kind of fun to speak english to people from all over the world, even though they were all griping about something or the other.  I got my 3 month visa with no problems at all, thank you Jesus.  The only problem we encountered was that as we went to get on the train for our trip back to Bangkok we were told that the tracks were flooded and the train wouldn’t be leaving for 2 or 3 days.  We stayed the night at a local pastor’s house, his wife was extremely nice and they both even spoke a little bit of english with me.  We went home the next morning by bus instead. 

This weekend Santisuk had “Friendship Camp.”  This camp was for people who had been going to the school and who were searching.  Most of the youth cell went including Peep, Pang, Kwang, Earth, and Kurt.  These kids are great and they’re really close to my heart, they’re fun and I love them to death.  During the camp, Kwang, Earth and Peep were baptized with some other people from Santisuk that were ready to profess their faith to everyone.  Earth is really excited and scared about being a christian now, he told me that he’s afraid he’ll do something wrong.  I told him that’s the point, we’re never going to not do things wrong but as long as we know who we’re living for, we’ll be okay.

Khitt (assisting Steve), Earth, Peep, Joy, Ann, Kwang, and pastor Steve.

The youth: Tai, Kwang, Ben, Allie, Rung (leader), Peep, Pang, Kurt, Hannah, Earth, and Charissa

Allie is another volunteer that came this month, she’s 18 and she’s super fun.  We teach together in the morning and we go out together a lot too.  She will be leaving December 1st.

I have officially hit the half-way point of my 6 months here in Thailand!  Rung and I will leave on Monday for me to go to Laos to get another visa.  I got my tourist visa for Laos today without a hitch and I am fairly confident that getting my Thai visa will go just as smoothly.  Please pray for me and Rung to arrive in Laos safely and pray for understanding by the Thai embassy officials (they’re no DMV employees but they’re close) that they will allow me to come back into Thailand for three months and not just one as that would mean two more visa runs. 

 Also pray for Rung that she may be able to get her visa to visit America, she will be coming to the US around the same time as me if all goes well but it’s pretty hard to get even a tourist visa for America. 

Thank you for your prayers and support.  It’s great to know that people at home are praying with me

Well the prime minister has been asked to resign, along with his whole cabinet but the unrest is definitely not over.   The PM’s party has promised to reelect him even in the face of the people’s opposition.  Please pray that the government and the parties do the right thing for the people.  Pray for wisdom for the officials and the people, pray that this will be something that no more people need be hurt for. 

 Classes are going on even with the political problems, the mob has moved even farther from the shcool and traffic isn’t bad anymore.  We are coming to the end of our first week of class for this month.  Next week I will be traveling to Laos to get my new three month visa.  Soon Rung will know if she sill be able to get a visa to visit the US in December and January.  Please pray that neither of us have any problems on our journey and at the embassies.

Thank you for your continued support and prayer! Especially during this time with everything that’s going on here.  It was great to talk to Carol and Marjie last night (this morning for you) I love hearing your voices. 

If you haven’t heard, there is a bit of unrest among a lot of the citizens here in Bangkok.  The prime minister of Thailand is not a huge favorite among the people and there has been a mob of people near the victory monument since I got here.  But the two sides of the mob (for PM and agains PM) erupted and got in a fight a couple of nights ago.  You can read the article below if you’d like.  But please understand that the media is blowing this a little bit out of proportion.  Thailand has the luxury of having an official that everyone in the country will listen to.  Everyone here respects and loves the king.  If things really get out of hand, the king will step in and ask the people to stop, and they will.  Almost immediately after the state of emergency was declared, the figting stopped.

Also know that I am not living near the victory monument nor is santisuk near it so I am not in any real danger.  Just pray for the people here and for the Thai government.  Pray that the people respect and obey any decision the government comes to.  Pray that the Thai government may have wisdom and patience with its people, pray that the Thai government will make a descision quickly and efficiently, that they will help the people and not forget why the were elected.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/09/01/thailand.protests/index.html

For the last week or so I have been reading the book of Titus over and over.  I am so compelled by this book to stop sitting around and talking about doing something.  I want to do something.  Titus says that we should not be idle, that we should teach those that are older than us and those that are younger than us.  What is the use in talking about strategies and having meeting after meeting after meeting when there are people starving for truth and people dying in the streets?  I think that we as christians need to wake up.  We need to give up on our conservative urge to simply committee everything to death and become a little bit more liberal.  Jesus was indeed much more liberal than christians today.  I challenge you and I challenge myself to not ignore things anymore, don’t think you’re too busy to help, feed someone who is starving, give someone a home, do something.  do anything.  do not allow yourself to be idle because you hold something that is too good to not be shared.

 Well classes have started for August and I am Teaching Level 1.  Last month I was teaching Level 2.  The classes are very full and very fun.  I have two classes with 10 and 12 students.  That’s a huge class for Santisuk, they barely all fit around the tables :).  We are learning consanat sounds, there was a quiz on the ‘th’ sound yesterday and one on the short ‘i’ sound today.  Yesterday my second class played a huge game of speed scrabble and in two weeks there will be a speed scrabble championship at the school. 

Everything is going well and I really appreciate all of your continued support through prayer.  God is doing wonderful things here and it is so exciting to watch him work.  Please add Michael Devries to your prayer list, he is going to China to distribute bibles to the people there.  He will come to Thailand as well.   Please pray for his safety and health as well as for his mission to be a success. 

Hello everyone!

I have had this week off from classes and have been keeping myself really busy, it’s very fun to go out with the thai people and to see all of the things that I would never get to see at home. 

A couple of days ago I went to see Thai Boxing, it was so much fun.  The old Thai men all around me were betting all the way through every match.  I couldn’t see how they found anything even remotely resembling order but at the end of the night we watched them all pay up and there seemed to be no confusion whatsoever.

I moved from my apartment that I shared with Lisa to a room that I now share with Rung, a girl that works at Santisuk.  Rung is very nice and she has been helping me with my Thai.  I’m slowly learning but it’s extremely difficult.  Yahk mahk mahk as the Thai would say.  I have been forming my first small scentences and it’s kind of fun.  Yesterday I said “Rung gaap Hannah ja baay gin aahaan yee poon.”  or ” Hannah and Rung are going to eat Japanese food.”  Like I said, pretty basic but still fun.

This is a picture of Rung and I on the floating market trip:

 Rung and I have been talking since before I came to Thailand and she is one of the most joyful and kind people I have ever met.  She always has this gentle christian love of everything around her.  Santisuk is lucky to have such a loving woman on staff at the school.