sawadee ka.

once again, i must say that i am sorry that it has taken me so long to give you an update on my life in thailand. well we got here on february 4, i think. and the first few days here, we just rested and learned a little bit about the culture, ya know the what to do and what not to dos. things here are very different from anywhere we've been and its quite interesting here. but i like it for the most part. they call thailand the 'land of smiles.' that's because thais smile at literally everything, when they are happy, when they are sad, when they are mad, its just what they do. the culture is all about 'saving face' so you never do anything to make yourself or someone else look bad, ever.

the second day we were here we went to visit a school. they had arranged for us to go and meet the director of the school and he would decide if he wanted us to come and teach english the next week. we got there and met him for only like five minutes then they decided that we would come back everyday the next week and then if we did good then we would come back the following week. then immediately they sent us off to a classroom and gave us an hour to teach. well, we weren't exactly prepared, at all, for anything. we all just kind of stood in the front of the class and after we introduced ourselves, we didn't know what to do. luckily we had Jesse with us and he took over. let's say that was just the beginning. on saturday the third day we were here, we had to teach an all day english camp at the church. none of us had ever taught english before. and despite what you may think, my degree in liberal studies did not prepare me for that. it was a good thing that rob and cy helped us prepare the night before, because we didn't plan that well. although the next morning when we got there only 3 kids had come. but we had run out of things to do by lunch time, it was a good thing the pastor said that we could end the camp at that time because i don't know what else we would have done. that sunday we had church in the morning, where steven preached and then we were done for the day. we went downtown and found a wonderful coffee place and just walked around. monday was our free day. we rode elephants, which is super touristy and not as great as it sounds, at least not where we went. it was kind of sad to see them all tied up and i don't know how well they are actually taken care of. but we did meet another pastor and he invited us to go see the church they were building and we got to prayer over the church being built. so that was really cool. then later we went to this tribal place where there are people from five different tribes all living in one place and you go and see the different people. it was really weird, and i didn't like it. i don't know if any of us really wanted to go but the pastor took us and he thought that's what we wanted so we just went in anyway. it was so forced it seemed like they didn't want to be there at all, and i probably wouldn't either. needless to say, we didn't want to be "tourists" anymore.

on tuesday, the real work started. we went to the high school at 7:30 prepared to teach english to four classes that day. when we got there, the plans had already changed. the eight of us had to split off into pairs to teach classes seperately, we had planned to teach altogether and had a big lesson all planned...oh well. so scott and i went to our first class and it was alright, the second class was worse because the teacher just left us alone and the kids barely knew any english so we couldn't communicate. wallace joined us for the third and fourth classes which went pretty well. all in all it was a very interesting day. then we went back to the ywam base for the afternoon. at 6:00 we headed over to the smoothie shop ministry that we are helping with. Jesse and his wife Uab, have a smoothie shop and a ministry for the local university students. that night we went on a prayer walk around the university. it was a lot longer than we were expecting, it took almost a half hour just to walk to the university, almost another hour walking around it, and then another thirty minutes back to the shop. i was exhausted after such a long day. the next day we went back to the school and they told us after that day they didn't need us to come back because all the students really needed to study for their exams, which was alright with us because we don't really know what we're doing. that night at the smoothie shop we went to the local market and did evangelism and handed out flyers for their valentine's day party. we did the same thing on thursday night. we did dramas and dances in the marketplace. then friday night we had a really fun free party at the smoothie shop. we sang and danced and did drama and shared testimonies. it was great.

we had another english camp last saturday. it was better, but still only five people showed up. but we had a way better plan this time and the students really liked it. and we had fun too. yesterday was church again, scott and susanne preached. then the boys, or wallace rather, taught some soccer skills in the afternoon. today we went to a couple different temples. one was the white temple, it was rather extravagent, you should look it up. and it was really sad. it seems so empty and hollow and i don't understand it. that is something that is so sad here, the religion is so empty and it makes me sad for the people here.

it is so hot here. aahhh. and its the 'cold' season. let's just say i would hate to be here during the hot season. yuck. at least it cools off at night and in the morning. this week we get to go to the university everyday and eat lunch with the students and then play sports there in the afternoons. that should be fun. we've met some really great people here. some from here (thailand), some from the us, and some from australia. and we've had a lot of fun with them. although being here has been a bit hard for me, and i think for most of my team. it's reaching the end of outreach. and i know that none of us want to leave outreach on a weird note. so if you could keep us in your prayers that would be appreciated. i should get going to bed now.

peace.love.grace.