Sweetheart's Day

Whew! This past week started off fast and furious. I've been diligently working on my thesis trying to finish the first three chapters before we leave on furlough plus trying to fit in preparing to leave for four months. And the ministry has been busy as everyone wants to fit in one more dinner, service, etc. with us before we leave. And we have our usual work even though most of our schools have canceled classes for the rest of the school year.

Rusty started teaching at a new high school. The teacher that invited him used to teach at one of the other schools he teaches at. So every Monday morning he does the opening assembly for their English day. The Thai government is really promoting the beginning of the ASEAN union in 2015, and everyone is busy trying to get the standards of education up to the levels they need to be at. They're really making some changes in the English department, and it's going to continue to gain importance in the coming years.

So every Monday morning he teaches a new sentence or question to a group of 1200 students then has them practice. He has really enjoyed this school. The students have never studied with a Western teacher at this school, and they seem very interested in talking with Rusty. The relationship is just starting with this school.On Monday evening our adopted nieces came over to bake a birthday cake. Lily's birthday is on Sweetheart's Day, and she had her cake with decorations all planned out. She wanted a chocolate cake with red cream cheese frosting. Note for next year: don't add milk to the frosting until you've put in the food coloring. Your cake will be pink when everyone really wants red.She also brought over a chocolate bar and used the shavings to make a heart. I thought it turned out really pretty, and she said her school friends said it was delicious. She brought us a leftover piece, and it was pretty good if I do say so myself. :)Tuesday morning found me up early making muffins for Rusty to share with the other teachers for Sweetheart's Day. These are chocolate chip muffins; I also made cranberry harvest muffins for another school. I figured the teachers probably wanted something not as sweet as my cookies, and I was right! The teacher that usually complains about my cookies absolutely loved the cranberry muffins.Rusty made it home from teaching in time for a special supper. We had bought some steaks that were marked down at the Lotus and had been saving them for a special occasion. I also sauteed some shrimp; there are some definite bonuses for cleaning out the freezer before furlough. We also had stuffed mushrooms, stuffed jalapeno peppers, salad, and rolls. And the star of the show was the Dr Pepper!Before English class we managed to fit in dessert also. I had asked Rusty early in the morning what he wanted for dessert, and carrot cake was his choice. I knew it had to be a really moist carrot cake so I was looking for a recipe that called for crushed pineapple in it like my mom's. I found one that had crushed pineapple and had an extra step that sounded super moist and super delicious. After the cake comes out of the oven, you top it with a sauce and let it soak into the cake. Then you top it with cream cheese frosting after it's cool. Rusty declared it to be the best carrot cake I've ever made. :)Then after supper it was time for the neighborhood class. They made valentines for their families and practiced their writing. Just give them some paper, scissors, and colored pencils and let them go! Pawn and I made these to give to some of our students. I only did them at one school, but I plan to do something better next year.

We had a great day together, but we always enjoy our time together. It may be squeezed in between work and more work, but it gets done. And it makes us thankful for our lives together. I'm so thankful God gave me Rusty!

ESL Camp 2012

We did another ESL camp this year at the large school Rusty teaches at two afternoons a week. We try to limit the camp to 100 students so that we can have about 20 at each station. Last year Rusty and I did the planning and preparing for the camp, but this year the teachers did it themselves. We had four foreigners teaching, and the day was a great success.

Everyone was ready to get the show started. I thought the registration and opening assembly were a lot smoother this year. Last year we seemed to be behind from the very beginning so our first few classes were cut short. This year we had the full class time with all of our groups. Rusty taught a song about love and discussed the true meaning of love. He loves having discussions with his students, and he usually gets a lot of good answers from the students.I had the craft/activity station. We opened the class with a brainstorming activity about Valentine's Day and then had the students write cards. I tried to encourage them to write to their parents, teachers, and friends since they were all too young to have sweethearts! I'm not sure my seniors believed they were too young!I'm constantly amazed by their artwork and creativity. I guess the talents that we don't possess ourselves always impress us when we see them in someone else.I was paired up with one of the Thai teachers for my station, and she thought we should pick the best cards for prizes. I didn't want to judge the contest because I remembered how it was trying to judge the cookie houses from 2010. I talked her into getting the student teacher to judge. After all we are both older than the student teacher so we could get away with that. While I was sitting with Rusty and another one of the Western teachers, the student teacher brought the cards over to get us to judge. I couldn't believe I ended up being the judge again!

So I judged the cards on both artwork, creative design, and correct English and chose the card on the right. I didn't know it, but it was the card of the girl who made a perfect score on the pre-ONET test which is the government English test. It's a very hard test, and the school is really hoping this means their students will do better on the test this year.

We had a great day at the ESL Camp, and we were really glad the school fit it in before we leave on furlough. It's been a crazy year and very, very busy!

Cambodia Day 2

We started off day 2 with breakfast at the hotel. It was a small buffet with mostly Asian dishes, but we enjoyed it. Some observations--Cambodian coffee is really strong, and it felt strange to be doing business using American dollars. Almost everything is even amounts such as $1 or $2; if something is 50 cents you'll get change back in the local currency. There are no coins in Cambodia. Also, the driver sits on the left side of the vehicle and drives on the right side of the road. Strange! :)

When we went to the lobby to check out the driver was already there to take us to the van company's office. He started talking to us, but for some reason I didn't trust him. No one told me he was there to pick us up. Thankfully Rusty listened to him more than me and showed him our van tickets. He was the one to drive us; I thought he was a tuk tuk driver trying to find some Western customers. I think I had read too many travel books and websites and distrusted everyone.

The Cambodian roads were crazy and not necessarily in good repair. I had read that the road between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap was pretty good, but that varies between provinces. Then there was the driving. Our van driver was constantly on the other side of the road passing tuk tuks and other slower moving vehicles. I eventually stopped watching because it just became normal after the first couple of hours.

Rusty started talking to a Cambodian man on the van who works with International Justice Mission. You can read about them here: www.ijm.org. He invited to take us out to his village so we could see the countryside and a beautiful sunset. He also said we didn't have to worry about anything while we were in Siem Reap. He had friends who were tuk tuk drivers, and they would take care of us. We checked into the hotel, settled into our room, and then met him for our first adventure.

One side note so you don't think we just go off with strangers that we meet. We did discuss the safety issues while we were in the hotel along with what we knew about Asian culture. We really felt like God put us in contact with this man, and we had also heard about IJM before so we knew a bit about his work. Asian culture is very warm and group-oriented so we didn't want to miss out on this opportunity because of our fear of being taken advantage of. Each tourist should exercise caution when traveling.
I'm not sure how many kilometers we went outside the city, but it wasn't long before we were on dirt roads. There are always lots of bicycle around in addition to the motorbikes, tuk tuks, and cars. This village had recently had some bad flooding. It was flooded for a couple of months. You can see how high the water level was. Most of the houses were open at the bottom, but this one had concrete at the bottom. It was our new friend's mother's house.
Throughout our time we saw lots of kids who were not in school--kids of all ages. They do have a two hour lunch break so they study until 5 p.m. During the lunch hours, the road is filled with students on bicycles making their way home for lunch.
Our new friends invited us to visit the school. There was only one class in session. Notice the dirt floors and primitive conditions. I believe the other school building which was donated by the Japanese may have had a concrete floor.There were lots of young kids running around the yard for us to talk to. Of course Rusty had to start teaching some English and singing some songs with them. We don't want to just stand around taking pictures.This little guy probably warned up to us the most. He wasn't afraid to touch Rusty, be around us, or even speak English. I think if we went back to this village to teach, Rusty would have a young buddy for sure.At first Rusty had to stand off by himself because these students just wanted to watch us from afar. They were very interested in the English songs, but they watch from a distance. They began warming up when Rusty went over to them. Before long they were singing with us.We definitely saw more smiles in the village. These kids were great and will need English for their future. The more English they know the better jobs they will be able to get when they're older and have to work to support their families. If you're interested in some of the work IJM does in Cambodia do a search on youtube. They've been featured on newscasts around the world. These kids face a dangerous future if the wrong people get involved in their lives not to mention what kind of future they face if they don't have Jesus as their personal Savior.
The students enjoyed the songs and actions. I think the teacher let the students out of the classroom to come and study with us because our group kept growing. Then she called them back inside when we were saying goodbye.

There were a lot more kids running around without clothes in this village. Most of the babies we saw were completely naked, and some of the older kids were just running around in either shorts or skirts. Our friend was definitely right about the sunset. The view over the rice fields was absolutely astounding! We got back to the hotel hungry for some supper. While Rusty relaxed in the room I went to check out the restaurant at the hotel. They had a marinated meat sandwich on a Cambodian roll (they sell baguettes everywhere) so that's what I ordered. It was excellent even though it didn't come on the baguette like I thought. A good end to our first full day in Cambodia.

When God Opens the Door

In the past few months God has given us the opportunity to start visiting Pawn's grandmother's village. It started with us taking Pawn's grandmother to the hospital when another truck wasn't available. After we did that twice they expressed interest in having us come to teach English to the students. Saturday is the only free day that we have, and Saturday was perfect for them. So we decided to go about twice a month.

We had been invited to come and spend the night in the village, but leaving our house has always been a problem. We have to leave someone here to take care of Texas and to guard the house. This summer we had someone from Antioch Church come and stay while we went to Isaan, and that worked out really well. It's convenient as long as it's not a ministry Antioch is involved in; then I'm usually the one that stays home.

We spent our first night in this village in October during the semester break. We had a lot of fun, and the people were happy to have us.
The kitchen was built on to this house, and the smoke quickly filled it up. It was not a good time to be in the upstairs bedroom. We enjoyed eating with the family, and they expressed surprise that we would eat with them. We look at it and wonder why we wouldn't, but I'm sure some foreigners would turn their noses up at the food. If we only understood how important the sharing of food is!

After supper, we played a game of Uno with a couple of the students from the village. Hopefully as we spend more time there, we'll have more students who will come and fellowship with us.On Saturday morning it was time for our English class. We had our biggest classes yet with over 40 students present. Rusty had the smaller children, and I had the older students. Teaching English is a lot more fun when you have a good sized class! Rusty had had some Hmong students in his class before, but this was my first Saturday to have them in my class as well. So now I've had Karen, Hmong, and northern Thai students in my class.

The Hmong students come from the village at the top of the mountain. We drove up to their village on another trip and discovered they do have a church building in their village, but it's Seventh Day Adventist. This could explain why we haven't had many of them show up for our classes.

The Hmong students left right after the Bible class and didn't stay to eat lunch with the rest of us. They're interested in having some Bibles in their own language so we'll see what we can do for them, and hopefully they'll be back to study with us again soon!

The End of Camp

The last day of church camp was always a really sad day for me. The end of the ESL/basketball camp in Isaan was no different. Not only did we have to go back home, we were going to lose our summer intern, Carmen on the following Sunday as well.

In true Isaan fashion we had a closing party/ceremony. We the new schools basketballs and certificates for completing the program. Then we had some entertainment, a big Thai grilling party, and of course some karaoke.Some of the students did the traditional Isaan dancing for us.


It was hard to say goodbye. We didn't get to spend as much time with the teachers this year, but we really invested our time in the lives of the advanced English class. We still get phone calls from them, and we're supposed to be sending some Bibles to them. Pawn and Kaimook did a great job sharing the Gospel with them, and it meant so much more to the students coming from people who speak the same language as them. God can use anybody, but there's something special about Thai people reaching Thai people with the Gospel message. The students said they could really tell that Pawn and Kaimook believed what they were talking about and that they really felt loved since Pawn and Kaimook were so sincere in sharing their faith.

What We Do In Isaan

It seems we are always busy when we're ministering in Isaan. Since we're living with friends, our days are filled with lots of activities which help us build relationships with the people. This year we often went to our hosts' farm and picked fruit or did other agricultural work. They love it when we enjoy life there and the new experiences we get to have.
This year I learned some interesting things about lamyay. There are so many interesting varieties of fruit here, but I don't really buy too much because I don't know how to choose the best ones. What I learned about lamyay won't help me in choosing it, but I did learn a bit about taste-testing. I don't like the lamyay that has a high water content. I compared the lamyay from our hosts' farm and another farm, and there was definitely a difference! I'm partial to the fruit from out hosts' house. They really liked that.
We teach basketball skills every afternoon. Some of the students take these drills very seriously! Most of the students do a very good job, and they can't wait to get to the actual games.
This year we had a different schedule for the English classes. Rusty had an afternoon class with the teachers. Some of the students were so interested in studying that they joined in too.
We also had an intensive English conversation class with some of the top students from the school. We really got to spend a lot of time with these students as our classes were two hours long, and we did some activities with them in the evening as well.This really doesn't have anything to do with our work, but we just like motorbike pictures. :)
This year the scheduling at the school was extremely crazy. The school we work at had just been upgraded to dream school status (not sure what exactly that means but I do know it gives the school more prestige), and their schedule was crazy with installing a new assistant principal, having district-wide competitions, and adapting to their new status (workload). Since school was canceled for a couple of days during our camp, we set up teaching appointments at the temple kindergarten. This was a hard class to teach because we only taught them for a couple of days, and they had never studied English before. But like all of our kindergarten students, they did a great job!
You can always find a group of kids around Rusty. This year he had another lunch bunch who wanted him to read English books to them, and they were worried about quantity as well. They didn't want him to spend very much time on any of them--they wanted to move on to the next one! They were a very faithful group until the schedule change.

Saaw Chiang Mai

We're on school break here during this next month so I'm hoping to use the time wisely and get caught up on some work. It's always harder to go back and write about things that happened a couple of months ago, but I do want to share some of the highlights even if they are a bit out-dated by now.
One of the highlights of my summer is our trip to Isaan. We've been blessed with the opportunity to work with a school in this part of Thailand conducting a two-week basketball and English camp for two years now. This year our team was rather small, but we enjoyed it. We started off the two weeks with a school holiday. In Thailand that means an opportunity to have a picnic at a waterfall! We picked up some grilled chicken, spicy green papaya salad, and ice and headed off for a day of fun in the water.
After a long, hot day of work, there's nothing like sitting around Ms. Rerai's gazebo or making good use of the hammock. The kids warmed up to us pretty quickly. I don't think they forgot us. We also enjoyed preparing food together and spending time together. This picture shows me working on eating some special fish that Mr. Korn made for us. It wasn't that bad except that it was really salty. Carmen couldn't handle it so I took one for the team and ate her plate too. She didn't know about the special fish breakfast sandwiches yet, but I remembered them so I made sure we didn't have any leftovers.
And of course in Isaan there's always plenty of good sticky rice! This year we enjoyed steaming the black rice...it's a special treat for us.
It looks like Kaimook is stocked up and ready to go with two large baskets of sticky rice. At our house we don't usually eat sticky rice so I guess we stock up when we go to Isaan. I still don't have one of these fancy sticky rice baskets, but I plan to add it to my Thai kitchen soon.

I also need to mention that Kaimook is our saaw Chiang Mai, northern Thai girl. They really like talking to Kaimook and having her sing the song on karaoke/party night. Some of the teachers are supposed to come visit us this month, and they had to time their visit with Kaimook's school break. :)

Summer Intern

Part of our summer was spent hosting our summer intern Carmen. She spent just over two months with us and was involved with all aspects of our ministry here. She was an incredible blessing to us and to the ministry.
She had quite a long journey to get here by herself, but she looked fresh as she got off the plane! I've never had a just off the plane picture that looked good.Carmen found lots of ways to make herself at home around the house. She enjoyed hanging up her hammock and relaxing with her Ipod and journal. Other times she was sitting at the dining room table working. She was even willing to watch Get Smart with us. Of course her mental age is 43 so she had no problems fitting in around here.Even though Carmen didn't know any Thai or Karen, she was able to find ways to interact with lots of people. I think everyone really liked her young face, curly hair, and easy-going attitude. The people here are very good at reading people, and they really liked Carmen's attitude. The children flocked to her!She loved holding the babies. They seemed to like her too. She went to the village with us a couple of times, and she seemed to enjoy being with the people and the children.
We had an excellent summer with Carmen and really miss her easy-going attitude, hard work ethic, and ice cream breaks. :) She was a great encouragement to us and brought some short-term work experience to the team that is helping us in planning for those who may come to work in the future.

Carmen also has really special parents. Her parents took the time to let us know that they believed in and supported Carmen's calling in life, and they really supported her spending the summer working here. To know that they were praying for us and sent notes of encouragement to us was an unexpected blessing. I couldn't be more excited or pleased with how everything went. :)

In most of the books about short-term mission trips, people talk about the impact they have on the person who makes the trip, but I haven't read much if any about the impact on the missionary personally. God used Carmen and her parents to encourage us. Her attitude about the work and the people were refreshing to us. Let's face it--sometimes mission work is hard and tiring. Sometimes there is discouragement that comes from just about every area imaginable, but then God...God sends someone with a fresh look and a fresh excitement that breathes new life into what may have become mundane or difficult.

We will continue to pray for Carmen and the plans God has for her life. She's already making a difference!