Friday's chapel
Quick update for all my
wonderful readers who pray!!
Last Friday's chapel went
very well. It's hard to know the outcome of the gospel that was shared, but it
was shared, with lots of Scripture in the message, and the students seemed to listen a lot better than they typically do (usually there's a lot more talking between music and memory verse and teaching, etc., something that frustrates me a bit and really makes me miss Pinewood's chapels!!). The music also went very well and I think the closing song ("The Gospel Song") was very powerful. The music seems to be impacting the lives of the students, which is something I hope to elaborate on soon. Thank you for praying for that morning!
Also, I think I've seen ONE mosquito in my apartment this entire week!! And that was only this morning. They have mostly left and I have been sleeping very well.
As we used to say when I did CEF, you must be righteous because God answers your prayers! (James 5:16b)
Team Maahathai : )
Ren, Dave, Me and Dang
And where we meet...
Maahathai
I think I'm falling in love. Dave warned me repeatedly that it would happen - "these kids will steal your heart if you keep coming," he said - and they are! They are keeping me up at night (mainly because I'm too excited to fall asleep after I see them!), making me smile ear to ear while simultaneously causing my heart to ache and are filling my prayers and thoughts. In many ways they are giving me a fresh vision and purpose for being in Thailand. Yes, they are slowly "stealing" my heart.
3 weeks ago, after sensing God speaking to me all week regarding mercy ministry (from many different places: music I was listening to, the book I was reading, my Bible studying of the week) and the importance He places on it in His Word, I called up Dave (Veldhorst, MTW team leader and my pastor) and asked if I go with him to the Maahathai neighborhood the next day for one of their weekly visits. The team has been working in the "Maahathai 3" neighborhood/slum (Dave prefers to call it a "community") for almost a year now, ever since Halley (an MTW intern last year) researched opportunities for mercy ministry in the area and got her foot in the door. I really didn't know what to expect in going - and I really didn't think I would be of any use to their work there due to the fact that I know so little Thai - but I really felt God encouraging me to go. Within the first hour of being with those children, I knew that was where I needed to be every Saturday afternoon - for them
and for me. They are some of the sweetest children I've ever met. Upon arrival, they all rushed out to the taxi and greeted us with a wai and curtsey. They helped set up chairs and everything in the little building we use as a meeting place and were so grateful for any thing given to them (a small prize for answering a question, a yogurt drink/snack, even a pencil to use for the lesson!). And - my favorite thing! - they are so hungry for love that they quickly embraced us and even touched me, nestling close and holding my hand. My heart didn't stand a chance! : )
And - praise God! - He had/has a job for me there and showed me a need that I could meet! Dave asked me to lead English songs and then later (after the Thai songs and Bible lesson, a game and snack) I taught the older kids their English lesson. It meets a need, I think, because the other two people who go with us, Ren and Dang (who are both SO much fun!! They are Thai interns from the Bangkok Bible College and Seminary), don't know English very well, so I can provide correct pronunciations of English words and explanations of English grammar. This also, I think, frees Dave up to go and visit with the adults and walk around the neighborhood while we work with the kids. So I think I've actually been able to bless these children, even as they bless me so much.
It's just so much fun too! Who would have ever thought that being with them would be one of the main highlights of my week?! They make me so excited about what God is doing here and cause me to dream about my involvement in it!
Today I brought my camera to Maahathai. I actually didn't have it long as Fern borrowed it for most of the time to take pictures of everyone. She took some good ones too. Here are some portraits of the kids who rock my world...
"Chang"
What I saw on
my soi (street) tonight as I walked back from the bus stop:
please pray!
The question I receive most often (and I think my parents receive on my behalf) is “How are the mosquitoes?” I must write about that a lot! So a quick update: they come and go (as do my restful nights) but overall have been much better since I last wrote. I have tried a few other “strategies” (such as pouring bleach down the drains – I have now definitely confirmed that as the place they are coming from), but I truly believe that that isn’t the reason for the recent relief. It is from YOU praying! After I wrote my story of woe, many of you must have prayed and God hears and answers your prayers on my behalf. I’ve been amazed at this power of prayer - which has caused me to ask myself – why don’t I ask people at home to pray for me more often and about far more important things than relief from mosquito bites?!
So I write with another prayer request: please pray for our chapel tomorrow morning (Friday, March 16th at 7:15). It is “Upper Elementary” (Grades 3-5) chapel week and our theme for the year for the Upper Elementary chapels has kind of been an apologetic one, attempting to answer their questions about who Jesus is, how we can know the Bible is true, why evil things happen if God is good (Dave Veldhorst was actually a guest speaker for that chapel; I recruited him and he did an incredible job unpacking that difficult issue and making it understandable to children), etc. After each chapel message, we pass out sheets of paper for the students to write down questions they have and twice this year so far we’ve had a whole chapel dedicated to answering those questions. They have many and they are not always easy to answer! Tomorrow is what you might call the climax of the year and one of the teachers will be presenting the gospel. This chapel and its potential impact on the students’ lives has been heavy on my heart the last few days. Please pray that the message will be understandable to the students and that they will find and put their hope in Jesus Christ alone. Our songs for the day go right along with the message and I’ve spent a lot more time practicing them this week too: “Nothing But the Blood” (with a few “guest” 4th grade recorder players accompanying!), “Mighty, Mighty Savior” (from Awesome God) and “The Gospel Song” (also from Awesome God and/or Sovereign Grace ministries – this one I’m particularly nervous about because I’m going to attempt to pick instead of strum my guitar, which is something I’m just figuring out how to do!!). Some of the students are miming a very powerful sort of drama during the “Gospel Song”. Please pray that it will be worshipful and will stick in their heads.
Another thing that’s been heavy on my heart: please pray for the students at Prong Jai. There are 65 students at this smaller campus where I teach once a week and I’ve been realizing recently how much more spiritual oppression they are (or seem to be) under there. Last night in the middle of the night I woke up to mosquitoes buzzing in my ear and eating my skin. In my frustration, I ½ complained, ½ wondered
why it seems that I often have trouble sleeping on Wednesday nights before I go to that campus. Of all nights, it’s the one night of the week that I want to get the most rest because I have to get up and leave so early in the morning. Often on Thursdays I end up
really tired. (That’s also been the afternoon I’ve been meeting with Katy.) Then in my sleepiness, I began to wonder if this were not spiritual warfare and then to sense the need to pray for those students at Prong Jai. So I got out of my bed, out from under the mosquito net and onto my knees and prayed for each child by name (most – a few I couldn’t remember!) and for their teachers. As I prayed for the teachers, I thought of how my friends at Prong Jai seem to be up against so many more (and greater) spiritual battles – with students and in their personal lives – than it appears most teachers are at the larger campus. When I went to school this morning, I was reminded of why…
As we neared the campus in our taxi, I saw a woman who was passed out on the sidewalk, with a man leaning over her. I was super concerned and wanted to stop and help her and make sure she was not seriously hurt. Mrs. Elsie did not see her, but she didn’t seem nearly so surprised or perhaps as concerned. Apparently that community (where the campus is situated) is a hub for many drug-dealers and often people get stoned and pass out by the streets. Talking to my friends at school, I was reminded that this neighborhood (or one nearby where they live?) is also the gay-district of Bangkok and daily they see all forms of sexual perversion. (Most likely the students get to see a lot of that too). Many more of the students at Prong Jai seem to come from homes/families that are actually opposed to the gospel, rather than merely indifferent (like many parents
seem to be at Bangna). I heard that young Dhavani, who I’ve been praying for a lot, has a mother who is a Hindu priestess and she is expected to be the next, following in her mother’s footsteps. No wonder there is a feeling of spiritual oppression in that place! No wonder there are so many battles just to teach there day by day (or week by week, in my case).
And yet, in the darkness, God’s light is shining. I had another extended conversation with the second grade class today about Jesus’ death and about heaven. SO many questions about heaven! After speaking of Jesus, one boy said, “I wish He would come back.” I got excited, “He will! And He’s going to take all those who believe in Him with Him to the place He’s been getting ready for us!” Some acted like they had never heard anything like that in their lives! It was exciting for me to open up Revelation 21 and speak of that wonderful place and talk about how different we (and everything else) will be. And most of all, how we will soon be with Jesus!
Please, please lift up your powerful prayers on behalf of these children and their teachers. God is able to do great things in that place!
Coffee-Dessert Party
This is mainly for Beka and all those who asked me what my new dishes look like. Last Sunday I had a little coffee-dessert party for one of my friends' (Shawna) birthday. We had so much fun!! I made chocolate chip cookies and York-mint brownies (thanks to a care-package Elizabeth sent!) and served Reeces Pieces (thanks to Valentines packages from Meghan and Beka) and mango and sticky rice. Mango are now starting to be in season and the ones I got at the market were so yummy! All the desserts were devoured while we played Scatagories and Imagine If. (I bought the apron, by the way, pretty much because it matched my kitchen towel and pot holder and because it makes me feel domestic! That and because it reminds me of my mom. : )
March has been the month of birthdays at the school. Last Friday a large group of friends went downtown to Tony Romas for dinner for my friend Anna's birthday. It was such a treat to be there - stepping into that restaurant felt like stepping into America! We all oohed and aahed at the littlest things that we missed or loved or that defined American dining vs. Thai dining. Most were things I hadn't thought about in a while as I've already gotten used to the Thai way of eating. For example...
*the menu was entirely in English and it served
wonderful (fattening, sigh...) things like ribs, steaks, baked potatoes, onion-ring-type appetizers, huge salads, American-type sandwiches with a lot of meat on a roll or bun (not like the restaurant next to me which defines a chicken sandwich as a thin slice of deli chicken on two pieces of white bread).
*free refills!
*American-size napkins! Thai napkins are about a 1/4 the size of most American napkins (if that!).
*the silverware was wrapped in a napkin and included a fork and KNIFE! Thai meals always come with a fork and large spoon. You rarely receive a knife.
*all of our meals came at the same time!! At which point we started eating at the same time! Typically Thais will serve the dishes as they are ready.
*at the end of our HUGE meal, we took leftovers home. I hardly ever do that at Thai places (although I probably could; I guess there just usually aren't any!)
*unfortunately we paid American prices for these luxuries. My meal and drink (with tax and tip included) was almost 500 baht - around $13! I haven't paid that much for food in months. Most Thai food costs between $1-$3, or maybe $5 at a nicer place. I think it was worth it for the special occaision that it was, though. : )
Fun with students
I've been praying recently that the Lord would help me to enjoy my students and to find delight in them. He has over and abundantly answered that prayer with so many fun, "giggly" and precious moments with my kids in class! He is teaching me to take the time to pause and enjoy their responses to music and even the expressions on their faces (instead of being so strict about sticking to my lesson plans) and to take the time to just laugh with them. I don't know how much of the following will make sense - I think most of these things are "had to be there" moments - but even just for my own sake, I wanted to write them down. And maybe, if you read, you can get a picture of what my students are like...
Things that make
me giggle and bring me great joy:
*hearing my K4 students (especially Harrish and Nathan) sing back to me "Hello, Miss Catherine" (sol-mi, sol-sol-mi) with the biggest smiles on their faces
*Ji-Won's expression (another K4 student) as she is frozen mid-movement, looking at me expectantly as we play the "Talking Tambourine", just waiting to see if the tambourine will say to walk or skip.
*watching Camp (4th grade) play recorder, sitting perfectly (almost too) erect with his elbows straight out to his sides, not realizing how extreme he looks. I've dubbed him my "perfect recorder posture man"!
*my 6th grade violinists: every time I say "get your violins up" they all hold them up high in the air. It cracks me up! They are a truly nutty class!
*the expression on all my students’ faces when I told them that Handel was ESL! : )
*seeing my students get so into the listening selection of the week - squealing with surprise and delight during Haydn's surprise symphony; creating vivid and interesting stories while listening to "March to the Scaffold" and thinking that Berlioz looks like Abraham Lincoln (we have composer posters at school that I've been using); "moving" with my K and 1st grade students to the music and giggling with them through it. Some of my 4th grade girls who have music on Wednesday told me that they always look at the "Composer Corner" (where I hang the poster and name of the piece for the week) on Tuesdays when they are in the music room for Good News Club - so they always have a "sneak preview"! During Beethoven's week, when we listened to part of his 9th symphony, they came to class with a recorder version of "Ode to Joy" and played it for everyone. I was amazed at the coincidence until they told me that they had seen the sign the day before and looked it up!
*Miss Mary's 4th grade class. Because it's last period on Friday - when we're ALL ready for the weekend - we often get silly. Last week when I asked the students to play a certain song on their recorders and counted them off, I saw Benz (who was sitting right in front of me) scramble for his recorder and hurriedly lift it to his mouth, only to realize that he was holding it upside-down! Pratu (one of the sweetest little girls in the class) saw it out of the corner of her eye and made the funniest expression as she tried to hold in her laughter. I
lost it and not 2 measures into the song had to cut the whole class off and let the rest of the students in on what had happened. It took us a while to regain "self-control" enough to continue on with class!
*my K students at Prong Jai. That class only has 6 students, so it is a lot more relaxed. We play a lot of music games which require one student to close his/her eyes while I give an object and/or call on another student to sing, then letting the one student guess who it was. My Prong Jai Kindergartners LOVE making ME be the one to close eyes, then they always think of some silly way to try and trick me, never imagining that I can tell
exactly what they're doing! A few weeks ago, Jonathan (usually the leader of the class silliness), figured out that I could probably
hear everything they were scheming, so he came up behind me and covered my ears with his hands. It didn't block out
any of their talking and it was so funny it hear them plan together how they were going to "trick Miss Catherine"!
*(sweet not funny:) chubby little Pan Pan (one of the K students at Prong Jai), pulling out the handkerchief in her shirt pocket and wiping her tear-filled eyes after listening to "This is How We Know" (1 John 3:16 - from Steve Green's "Hide 'Em in Your Heart"). "It's so beautiful!" she said.
*the silence that comes over the room when I take out the child's story Bible and read a story about Jesus before we sing "Tell Me the Story of Jesus" (the newest hymn we're working on). They all listen so intently (unless they've heard the story before, in which case they're raising their hands and practically bounding out of their seats because
they want to tell the story!).
*the story of this week was of Jesus' last meal with His disciples when He instituted the "Lord's Supper". After quoting Him saying "This is my body...this is my blood", one of my students asked "What about His bones?" Another student got excited - "It's just like 'Nothing but the Blood'!"
Thais on the beach
It was very humorous observing the differences between Thais and "Farong" (and even the extremes of Thais and Europeans) when it came their response to the sun. All the Europeans were out in the sun with their bikinis and speedos,
especially in the middle of the day, trying to soak up as much sun as possible (and most of them were sun-burnt!). The Thais, however, wouldn't hardly come outside or out from under the shade until after 5:00 and then when they went swimming, most of them went in the ocean fully dressed (with swim-suits underneath). They are so afriad of getting darker than they already are!
It was funny coming back to school on Tuesday and seeing my students' response to me. I was, of course, very sunburnt, despite my attempts to avoid it by putting on lots of SPF 45 sunblock, wearing a t-shirt and
not swimming much in the middle of the day. My students kept asking me why I was so red. One 3rd grader, Praise, really didn't seem to understand it. I told her that many farongs get red when they stay in the sun too long and that she should feel blessed that the Lord created her to be Thai so that she
never gets sunburnt. She looked so baffled!
Also funny were the options for fillings at the crepe stand on the beach. Not sure if the print is large enough to read it very well, but you could get blueberry, strawberry jam, shredded pork, cashew nuts, squid with chili, raisin, ham, steamed eustara (I don't even know what that is!), sausage, chocolate, tuna, banana - in that order! - or any combination of those. As I waited to order my chocolate-banana crepe, I noticed the person in front of me had them put banana, ham and chocolate on hers. Ugh!
Koh Samet
Last weekend was a 3-day weekend due to a Thai holiday on Monday (sadly, I don't even know what it was about!), so me and 10 other teachers headed for the beach! We went to an island about 2 1/2-3 hours south of Bangkok called Koh Samet. It was quite a different experience than being at Khao Lak (on Phuket) with the MTW team last fall. It was a little less remote (although we took a speed boat out to the little beach where our resort was and the beach didn't have a pier, so we had to roll up our pant-legs and carry our lugguge on our backs or heads from the the boat to the shore), a little more busy and touristy and had a bit of a "party-town" feel to it. We had a very fun and relaxing time, though, and got some much needed rest.
Some highlights from the weekend...
*Sleeping in until 8:30 a.m. for 3 days in a row; lots of time to read my new book (sent to me from Dad via the Henrys: J. Hudson Taylor, God's Man in China) while lounging on beach chairs; swimming in clear, turquoise and blue colored water; and watching chick-flicks at night with my girl friends.
*Eating every meal on the beach while watching and hearing the ocean, either on patio furniture-type table and chairs or lounge chairs with a small table in between or on mats with Thai-triangular pillows to lean up against and a low Thai-style table to eat on. Most lunches we just ate on our beach chairs or mats, buying "snacks" from little stands or vendors who were walking up and down the beach: fresh tropical fruit, "chicken on a stick", som tum and sticky rice, crepes and roti (kind of a flat, dessert pancake - my favorite flavor was banana and chocolate). One nicer place we ate at on Sunday night was possibly the most beautiful,
romantic restaraunt I've even been to, as we sat under trees decorated with white lights with the ocean beside us and a full moon above.
*Renting motorcyles and driving them up and down the main road of the island which ran right beside the coast. This was my first experience driving a "moto-cy" myself and the guys we rented from didn't have anymore automatics, so I got to learn how to shift gears! It was a little "lurchy" (gave me a new appreciation for the motorcycle taxi drivers I've ridden with!), but once I got to the 3rd and 4th gears I felt like I was soaring! What a thrill! I even took my first passenger (Jen) and we did not get in any wrecks (although we had some close calls with a chicken and a large truck).
*Playing pool in one of the restaraunt/bars on the beach. : )
*Taking a snorkling tour around the island. We circumvented the whole island in our boat, stopping at two different spots to snorkle and then to see a fish farm. The sea creatures and plants I saw under the water were so beautiful and brightly colored (deep blue, purple, turquoise, gold, black) - I just wish I knew what they were all called! At the second stop, one of the crew on the boat threw food out to the fish and in a few seconds there were hundreds around our boat. I went down and swam in the midst of them - how exciting! The fish farm - although I was doubtful at first - was also incredibly cool! I wish I could describe the way it was laid out with squares of net holding the different grouping of marine-life and narrow boards lining the nets that we walked along to view all the different kinds of fish, sharks, and sea turtles. I saw a giant grouper and could hear Clint's 4-year-old voice quoting his "Dangerous Sea Creatures" book: "Did you know that a giant grouper can swallow a man in one gulp?!" : ) It was very neat!
*Jumping, diving and attempting back-flips (still can't do one!) off the different levels of the boat. It's been a while since I've had a platform high enough and water deep enough to enjoy a true dive - and it was even more exciting diving off the edge of a boat as it was moving up and down in the waves into beautiful ocean water!
[The enjoyment of so many of these things, I discovered, was greatly enhanced by the absence of picky safetly regulations. It's so much more fun being in Thailand where no one
requires you to wear a life-jacket while snorkling, cares if you jump off a boat or makes you wear a helmet while riding a motorcycle (actually, I couldn't have even if I had wanted one - they didn't have any!). It really made the whole weekend so much more "adventurous" feeling. : )]
Yes, very fun. Made it very hard to come back to Bangkok and go to work the next day!
