Cool Season
The last few days have been full of Thai "firsts"...
Sunday was the first time I have ever felt
cold in Thailand. I took the bus to church in the morning, and sitting by the open window with the wind coming through as we bumped along the roads, I found myself quite chilly (I was wearing pants and a short-sleeved shirt). Although it warmed up throughout the day, it was a nice sensation to come back to my apartment around noon after walking a few blocks to and from bus stops and not feel sweaty!
Then yesterday morning, it was very cool when I woke up. I took a hot shower and then actually
wanted to blow dry my hair (something I have kind of given up on the last few months because it's been so hot) and wear hose to work. When I got there, I pulled on my button-down sweater, which has been draped over the back of my desk chair and not been worn since arriving.
Last night was the first time I've slept (most of) the night without either the AC or my floor fan on (most of the time I use both!) - and I still woke up chilly and did the whole "hot shower/blow drying the hair" thing again.
"So, how cold is it?" you ask. I looked up the forecast online yesterday morning. The lows for this week are in the mid-60s!! (Granted the highs are upper 80s or 90.) I couldn't believe it! I didn't think it ever got this cold in Bangkok! Thursday the low is supposed to be 63! How exciting! The whole thing has caused me to be in a very good mood recently. : ) (Although it's also been the source of a head cold I seem to have contracted yesterday - either that or my K4 class! - and the reason I've been drinking Airborne the last few days.)
My students, however, are not as thrilled as I am over the low temperatures. I'm on morning duty this week (something I actually really enjoy doing because it allows me to see my students in a more relaxed, less formal, non-classroom environment and get to know them better) and it was pretty funny seeing their reaction to the cold weather yesterday morning. They were all shivering, wrapped up in (very light) jackets and snuggling close to each other, their parents and even me (which I didn't mind at all). I heard many say, "I'm
freezing!" Pat, especially, cracked me up with her purple ear-muffs. She sat at the table, hugging her self and groaning (in her very Thai accent), "I'm going to
die!"
So funny! : )
Disgusting foods people eat
Joanna told me that she and Gabe just read a book about disgusting foods some people have eaten throughout the ages and around the world. Interestingly, one of the foods mentioned from Asia I just ate last night.
Today was Jen's birthday and last night X, one of our Thai friends, organized a dinner and karaoke party for her. She prepared a game for us all to play that involved passing around a present that had been wrapped multiple times while music played. When the music stopped, the person holding the gift had to open up a layer then do whatever "task" the note on the wrapping said. Several other people got pleasant, happy things like "sing a song that the birthday girl will dance to" or "say 5 Thai words or phrases". When it landed on me, I unwrapped the gift to find "eat a special Thai snack". Right away I knew what sort of "snack" it would be. X handed me a little package and said I only had to eat one sliver. It was dried squid. After she passed it around the whole room so everyone could smell and be disgusted, I plugged my nose, stuck in my mouth, crunched and swallowed. At first it wasn't so bad - until the smell reached my own nose. I tried to drown the fishy taste in pepsi and ice-cream cake, but the whole thing was
disgusting. I managed to keep it down though. Griffin would have been proud.
Tonight I had another food adventure. I got myself some "take home" Lebanese for dinner and was just beginning to enjoy my meal when I popped what I
thought was a raw green bean into my mouth. (This may sound like a strange thing to assume it was, but many Thai dishes here, and apparently Lebanese dishes, are served with raw vegetables.) I ate it like I would have a raw green bean. Soon my whole mouth was on fire and I was reaching for anything remotely "cool" to ease the pain: water, slices of cucumbers and tomatoes, reeses pieces, mango juice, more water (in that order). (I probably drank 2 or 3 full glasses of water in a matter of seconds!). My eyes were all watery and my nose was running. It took a while before the inside of my mouth stopped hurting and I could taste my food again. I took a closer look at another of the "green beans" and it was, of course, a type of green pepper, which I guess eaten whole, is quite hot. Another lesson learned...
Nothing can for sin atone...
It's been another week of amazing conversations with my students while discussing the hymn "Nothing But the Blood of Jesus." This week I taught most groups verse 2 which begins by talking about Christ as our atonement. What a hard concept to explain to kids! Even after looking up various definitions in dictionaries and study Bibles, I still stumbled around a lot in my words. I realized that the idea of "atonement" needed some background, so we also talked about God's just wrath, our need of punishment, and Christ's perfections. Again, I was amazed that so many classes listened so intently - some students even with tears in their eyes. One particular class (one of my most difficult!) had a lot of questions, most of which came from a boy named "Pow". He seemed really concerned about God being angry at unbelievers and of his own connected God's punishment with what he had heard about hell (although I didn't really talk about hell originally). He really seemed to be sorting through everything I said, but continued to have a heaviness on his heart. Please pray for him and the rest of his 2nd grade class. His teacher from last year was amazed when I told her about our conversation. Apparently he spent most of last year telling the other students not to listen to the Bible lesson and not to believe in Yahweh because He was not true (Pow comes from a staunch Buddhist home), but slowly throughout the last year has begun to open his heart to God's word - even to the point of memorizing class and Good News Club memory verses! But I think it's still a great battle for him. Like many others, he has completely different teachings being thrown at him that he has to sort through (as a 7 year old!), and should he choose to follow Christ, it would be at a great cost.
Today my friend Jaime read something to me as we shared our hearts over coffee at a cute, Thai-style Starbucks. It was such an encouragement to me in my weakness as a bearer (or explainer!) of the gospel, I wanted to post it...
"This is my life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message. It came as a sheer gift to me, a real surprise, God handling all the details. When it came to presenting the Message to people who had no background in God's way, I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities.
And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ. My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. Through followers of Jesus like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels!
All this is proceeding along lines planned all along by God and then executed in Christ Jesus. When we trust in him, we're free to say whatever needs to be said, bold to go wherever we need to go. So don't let my present trouble on your behalf get you down. Be proud!
My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you'll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.
God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us."from Ephesians 3, The Message
Nothing but the Blood of Jesus
The last few days have been full of opportunities to share the gospel with my students. Starting this week, the hymn of the month(ish) is "Nothing but the Blood of Jesus". This was my mom's excellent suggestion as it is a fairly easy one to learn (even for young and/or ESL students) but yet is full of rich doctrine. So far the kids have
loved it! Several of them knew the first verse from Good News Clubs (which we have on campus once a week after school) and already loved the singing it. As I was teaching on the meaning of the words in the first verse, I shared all the ways/times that Christ bled for us leading up to and during the crucifixion, giving them hopefully a picture of His great love for us. In just about every class (so far this week I've introduced it to one K, 1st, 3rd and two 2nd grade classes), the students grew extremely serious and even sad as I talked about the cross. And not just that, but I don't think I've ever had every single student's rapt attention like I did when sharing about it. It's been amazing to see the Spirit at work, causing them to listen to the gospel message. And they've asked several questions too - especially my 2nd graders to whom I gave the assignment of making visuals for the hymn (the fold-out cross visual we used to use in CEF). "I don't know what this means...precious is the flow? What does 'flow' mean?" "What is 'atone'?" I had to pray many times throughout class that God would give me the words to put these concepts in "kid" language.
Another neat thing I started yesterday is meeting with Katy Veldhorst (Dave and Jan Veldhorst's daughter) after school to study the Bible, memorize verses and pray together. She's in 8th grade and goes to ICS (too old to be in any of my classes though). I'd like to say that I'll be discliping her, but I have a feeling that I'm going to learn much more from her than she will from me. She a very godly, ministry-minded girl and I have really enjoyed getting to know her this past fall. We actually have a lot of common interests too, despite the difference in age, so I think our Monday afternoons are going to be a lot of fun.
God has encouraged me these last few days. It's been so neat to see Him at work. Since coming back after Christmas, I've been trying to get to school earlier and spend a bit of time in prayer for my students (praying for each by name - Laurel's challenged me so much in this area) and dedicating the day to the Lord. I'm finding that I'm always in a position of need and almost nervous fear as I approach each day, but it's amazing to see God work despite that need and weakness. Maybe me praying only opens my eyes to better see what He is doing, but it seems like recently God has really been "showing off" (as Dave said in his sermon on Sunday, God loves to do : ) - taking what is so difficult for me and what I know I can't do and showing me that He can do it! It's neat to be a spectator here. : )
The following are verses that really challenged me as I prayed through them last Thursday (especially in light of the fact that, as Maria Francis said, I have the "nations" in my classroom):
"Sing a new song to the Lord!
Let the whole earth sing to the Lord!
Sing to the Lord; praise his name.
Each day proclaim the good news that he saves.
Publish his glorious deeds among the nations.
Tell everyone about the amazing things he does.
Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise!
He is to be feared above all gods."Psalm 96:1-4 (NLT)
roommate - part two
I wrote the last post around noon of yesterday, but as the day progressed, I got less and less enthusiastic about having a gecko around. At first I thought Sam had left, as I hadn't seen him most of the afternoon, but in the evening I saw him crawling around again. While I was on the phone with my family, my eyes followed his movements back and forth along the walls and I could feel my body tensing up, especially when I saw him crawling on the ceiling right above my bed. I wondered how I was ever going to fall asleep.
While I was watching, I shared with Dad and Meghan about my new roommate. Dad's reaction: "That's great!! God answered your prayers and provided you with a solution to your mosquito problems!" At first I just sat there wondering at his positive attitude. "This is God's
provision?" I thought skeptically. (And even deeper down: "I wish He had provided for my needs in a
different way.") But it's amazing how one comment can completely change your view on things. My Dad always seems to be able to point me to God's providence. As I sat there the next several minutes and continued watching Sam, he seemed to change from being merely a slimy lizard to being my fearless little defender on a mission from my loving Heavenly Father. He acted as if he had been given strict orders to keep me from harm as he very intently made the rounds along my the tops of my walls, pausing only every now and again to look around for "danger" (or perhaps in his case, food. : ) By the time I went to bed, I almost felt safer knowing he was there and knowing that God cared enough for me to send this little gecko my way.
And I slept soundly all night.
roommate?
I think I might have a new roommate. His name is Sam and he's been living with Jen next door, but they must have gotten in a fight while back because he left her place before Christmas. The last few nights he's been lingering outside my door with an eager look on his face. I had intended to be a good girl and leave him out in the cold (er, shall we say elements?), but today he got in somehow.
My Thai friend Nok was over for a late breakfast and while we were talking, her face suddenly brightened and she said, "Oh, you have a gecko too - just like Jen!" I whipped around to see where she was pointing. "What?!" I exclaimed. "No, he would be new." My first thought was how much I wished Clint or Will were here to kindly dispose of him for me (or even Lady - although she's not very humanitarian in the way she gets rid of geckos!). [I'm not much of a gecko (or even bug) catcher. When alone, I take more of a "You stay in your space, I'll stay in mine" approach to them - then I leave the room.] But then I thought, "Wait - this could be a good thing." My place seems to have grown a new crop of mosquitoes and little spiders since I left for Christmas break. I'm hoping Sam and I might be able to strike some sort of deal: he eats my pestilence, I let him visit every so often. I'm not sure how I feel about him staying the night though. So far he's mainly hung out in the kitchen area of my apartment (typical guy). I'm just hoping he's not planning on getting cozy tonight! We'll see if I can get any sleep...
Arrived Safely
After traveling for almost 30 hours through the airports of 3 different country's capitols, I have arrived back in Bangkok safely. The first things to greet me upon arrival were the warm air, the wonderful smell of the city's pollution, and several airport workers asking me if I needed a taxi, saying that they could get me a "deal", taking me to my nearby apartment for 700 baht (to which I replied, "700 baht?!" "Or else you will have to wait in the long queue downstairs to get your own taxi." "I'll wait." Which I did for less than 10 minutes and saved myself over $10.) Yes, I'm back in Thailand.
Thank you for your prayers for my safe return. Although I had been rather nervous before leaving due to the recent bomb scares in Bangkok, God gave me His perfect peace as I traveled and took care of me the whole way.
