Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday

Wow, I'm getting bad about posting. Sorry!
So here's what the week has looked like so far:
Tuesday we had our first Prayer Chapel, which was a lot of fun. Kaitlyn, Kelsey, and I got to play the music for it... missed worship teams so much! We typically have lecture on Tuesday, but Alan was busy, so we had the day off, which was a good opportunity to catch up on our homework. All the APSAI students had a class to attend all afternoon and evening, so Kelsey and I went with Mark to get massages, and then went and hung out at the mall. The massages here are awesome, by the way. I only like the back, neck, shoulders option, cause the Thai massage is super duper awkward, but its only about six bucks for an hour. Life is good in the BKK :)
Wednesday was the regular chapel, which was also lots of fun, then we went to Thai lessons. We learned the days of the week, and how to ask what day it is, and how to say what we did on Tuesday, and all that fun stuff. We avoided the traffic on our way home by taking the water taxi for the first time... so much fun. And soooo much cooler than taking the bus for 45 minutes. It was a little bit intimidating, because you have to get on and off really fast, and the side of the boat is lower than my knees. Luckily there are ropes to hold onto... otherwise we might have taken a swim. It was fun regardless, and faster! We met everybody at the Mall Bangkapi, and had dinner at Pizza Company, then shopped for a while before heading home.

And that brings us to today.... the first day of September. How is this year going by so fast? Today we are free until 5:30, and then we are going to Alan, Mark, and Kara's team to one of the Muslim communities, where Kara's team will be teaching this Saturday. I think we are just going to hang out and meet people, make some connections to come back to. We'll probably get back pretty late, but I'll make sure I post tomorrow night if I can.

Have a good September 1st!

Monday Monday Monday

Hey guess what? Today was Monday! And a fantastic Monday it was. It started pleasantly late, which I definitely needed after this crazy weekend. We went over to the Rice Lady for lunch with all the APSAI'er's and Mark, then headed over to a mall called Platinum, downtown. There are like 40 million clothing shops in Platinum, most of them very inexpensive. It was super duper fun. One of the ladies from our church, Om, owns a shop there, so she walked us around, and helped us get good deals and stuff. I got a super cute shirt for 100 Baht- about $3.10. Then we walked through the open-ish air market, and rode the SkyTrain home. After hanging out for a few hours, we sound-checked for the worship/prayer service tomorrow, and then headed over to the PenAsia towers for some PB sandwiches and Settlers of Catan. I epicly fail at that game, but its still pretty fun. Maybe someday.... haha

Okay. I have to write this paper now. Sawati Kah!

Week 4 begins!

Howdy. Sorry. Been around the SAGU and Evangel people to much. Hi!

Tomorrow begins week 4- And we have grand plans in place for it. But first: Today. 

Today, obviously, is Sunday, and it was pretty fantastic. We started out the morning with a lovely jaunt down the Soi, and a taxi ride to Ekkamai for church. It's really fun to try to talk to the taxi drivers in Thai, because they get all excited, and think that you speak conversationally. Then you're stuck there looking confused until he laughs hysterically. Ah yes, just another day in Thailand :)

Today was Birthday day in church, where they celebrate everybodies birthday with a meal and cake, and all that jazz; that was sooo much fun. One of the APSAI ministry groups is going to Bangkok City Church also, so that was fun to have more farang there. We went over to a coffee shop after lunch and grabbed drinks, then the APSAI guys left, and we headed back to the church to hang out for a little bit longer.Alan met us there, and we helped him put together some stuff for the classes he's teaching, and then we headed over to Ban Don, the Muslim slum we hung out at last week. We went to the school first, where we taught English for about an hour. So much fun. We did that kids song "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" about 80 times, and had a blast, then worked on forming sentences. I think I will be having dreams with the words: "This is my nose" "This is her nose" "This is his nose" "Where is your nose" all night. It will be fantastic. Then we headed over to Lot, and Nada's house to visit, but Nada was on her way to Islamic school. We asked if we could tag along and meet the teacher, and they were happy to oblige, so we meandered our way through the sidewalks, then talked to the Islamic teacher for about 20 minutes. He teaches the kids Arabic, and the Koran, and stuff like that. While we were there, the speakers that usually blare the call to prayer started having a bunch of little girls voices singing over it, and the teacher said that this was the winner of the contest they had just had; she was singing the Koran, or psalms out of it or something like that. He had to start class, so we didn't hang out there too long; we headed down the canal a little bit to a man named David's house. David had a stroke a couple of months ago, and it looked like his left side was severely affected, but he is in the process of recovery. When the kids saw a bunch of farang, they got curious, so we ended up teaching English for about another 30 minutes. Teaching was the thing that I was the most nervous about, and I'm finding its one of my favorite things here.It's hard because of the language barrier, but it is a lot of fun. 

We met up with the rest of the APSAI crew, and headed over to dinner, and then home.

And now I will bid adieu, because I'm soooo ready for bed. As soon as I finish laundry. And a paper. And some reading. Anyway. Night!

What Am I Doing In A Banana Grove?

Every once in a while, I get hit with the suerrealness of life right now. We were in one of the slum areas today, talking with a guy who has started a ministry to the muslims there, branching out of the one of the bigger churches here. Basically what they are doing is setting up Urban Agriculture businesses in poorer areas to establish relationships with the Muslims that live in them. It's an awesome project, and this particular spot was raising fish, both to eat and sell. The part with the big fish was under a big banana grove, so we had to walk on a really skinny board to get through the mud. As we were listening to the guy tell Alan about the project, all I could think to myself was " What am I doing in a Banana Grove?" It's like something straight out a STL video, or a movie or something. It's definitely not a bad thing; I'm having the time of my life here. But... I don't know how to explain it. This kind of thing doesn't happen to me. My life is way to boring to be in Thailand, having all of these adventures. Nevertheless; I'm here. I'm so grateful that God gave me this opportunity to come and learn from one of the leading Missiologists in the world, and to stay in this awesome new building, and to experience all this crazy awesome stuff. It's just cool, and weird sometimes!

Anyway. Today we had our Thai lesson with Pii Wan.  As soon as we got back from grabbing lunch, it started raining super hard, and thunder and lightning, and all that fun stuff. So we hung out at the church for about 2 hours, hoping the rain would die down a little bit before we had to go out in it. Eventually two thirty rolled around and we simply couldn't wait any longer, so we headed out with our umbrellas up. It died down quite a bit, and then eventually stopped after we started walking. As we headed down Ekkamai 30, Alan randomly stopped and started rolling up the bottom of his pants. We were a little bit confused until we turned the corner: there was about a foot, foot and a half of water covering the whole street. That's how hard it was raining. So we rolled up our pants too, and waded over to the little cell phone shop to pick up SIM cards for the new students that just got here, then we waded over to the other side of the Soi, to grab a taxi. Of course, it's like walking in the water at the beach; no matter how high you roll your pant legs up.... you still get soaked. But you feel like you're doing something to help yourself out.  We went over to the Big church, and proceeded on to the banana grove. When we were done, there was so much traffic from flooding that we ditched our taxi on the bridge, and ended up walking for about an hour to get to the church for prayer. They were doing a big Prayer and Fasting week, and this was the conclusion of it; so that was a lot of fun, and a fantastic day to end the day. So we got home a little after 10:30, and now I am officially exhausted.
Goodnight!

Tuesday!

Good evening all!
Today was fantabulous, as we once again had the opportunity to sleep in. It's getting somewhat obnoxious, thus we have resolved to be up at 8 am tomorrow; which means this will be kept brief. After waking up, and making ourselves beautiful, the three of us girls headed over to the little restaurant on Soi 40, who is currently employing our cook for APSAI. We introduced ourselves; not quite sure how much of it made it across the language barrier. But we tried. We raced back to Soi 42 just as Alan pulled up for our tutorial. So we headed upstairs to his office, and sat down for some intense discussion. It's pretty amazing how fast time flies by when you're engaged in conversation. We were talking about the how of missions; how to create a strategy, how to start. We also talked about how roughly one third of the world has not heard the name of Christ. Isn't that crazy?
Watch this video. It's good; but sad. Slightly overdramatic, but filled with fact.
Then we talked about how the majority of Christian missionaries are going where there is already an established church, with Christians, and programs, and curriculum. But there are people in the world who don't have access, so we need to be sending people into those areas; even if it means danger, difficulty, or inconvenience.
Anyway, off the soapbox, sorry.
So right after we got out of tutorial, we headed out with Kara to go downtown Bangkok, and hot up the enormous mall down there. We took a taxi to the Airport Link, the Airport Link to the BTS, and the BTS to the street by the mall. We passed by a big temple area where people were buying flowers, and taking them to a big gold statue; there they bowed a couple of times, and placed the flowers in front of the statue. It was sickening to see all the westerners doing it; they had no clue what they were doing, or about any of the symbolism behind it. Some parents were having their kids do it while they took pictures, thinking it was so cute.... If you ever go on vacation, please research stuff before you do it; some things have very deep spiritual meanings, and as Christians, we have no place in that. Thank You.
Again, climbing off the soapbox. So we hung out at the mall for a few hours; they had an enormous Forever 21, and gelato, and tons of shops. Lots of fun. Then we went and did a little more shopping on the streets, got a skirt and a shirt, for less than 10 bucks. Yayy for cheap shopping!The first time we tried to buy something though, the lady was super rude. I'm not sure if we did something to offend her on accident, or if she just wasn't having a good day; but Kara started to barter with her ( which is perfectly allowable and typical with street vendors) and the lady snatched the shirt out of Kara's hands, hung it back up really fast, said No, and stomped off around the corner, without saying another word. It was super weird, because all of the other Thai's we have met have been super nice, and polite. If we make mistakes, they don't point them out, but they don't get offended either, we're just farang's. Oh well though. Nothing we can do about it now.

Alrighty ya'll. Have a fantastic day. Hit me up on Skype if you see me on there, I'm getting a webcam tomorrow :)

P.S. This is all a day ago. I now have a webcam.

Shopping+Brownies+Party= Great Day

I love Mondays. They are our day off; which means sleeping in! Today was the prayer/dedication ceremony for the new APSAI building, so there was a big dinner and party planned. The three of us girls volunteered to bring brownies, so we headed over the the Mall this morning to buy brownie mix and eggs and all that stuff. Betty Crocker Brownie mix here is a little under 5 bucks a box.... yet completely worth it. Anyway, we had lunch at the mall, then wandered around the tent section of the mall. Got some pretty awesome fake Ray Ban sunglasses.... actually, I had no idea what Ray Ban was, but now I know. I forgot sunglasses at home, and guess what! It's sunny here!

Okay, sorry. Got distracted. So we came back to our lovely apartments, made tons of brownies, and then helped clean up the new building. It's so gorgeous! I cannot wait to move in, maybe tomorrow, but probably Wednesday. They did an amazing job, and I wish I could live there forever. So then we came back up to our rooms, and got all prettyified, and headed over for the ribbon cutting. As we toured the new place, we prayed over it, and the head missionaries dedicated it to God, then we had sloppy joes. So yummy.

And now, its time to write a paper. We have lecture tomorrow, and then we are going to go shopping with Kara, and finally see downtown Bagnkok! Yay!

Sawati Kha!

Weekend Saam

Good evening!
It's Sunday night here, after a crazy busy weekend. I'm not sure I can even remember everything we did this weekend, but I'm going to try. Warning: This post may be super long... feel free to skim, and skip anything boring.
Okay. Lets get this ball rolling!
Friday: We got to sleep in (Hallelujah!) and went over to Ekkamai with Alan at about 2 pm. We dropped off our stuff at Alan and Lynette's house, and went wandering. We had a couple of businesses that Pastor Bei asked us to go visit. One was a massage shop that one of the ladies at the church owned. None of her employees are Christians, so she asked us to come visit, and help them practice English, and get to know them. The other business was a restaurant that another lady owned, and it was pretty much the same deal. So we wandered down to the Massage Shop first, and found out that the owner wasn't there, and the employees were too busy to talk to us. So we continued on in our trek. We walked down to the little restaurant, and discovered that it was closed. Apparently, she is never closed, but Friday; she was. No big deal, we'll visit the Muslim slum! So we wandered down there, and walked around. We stopped at three houses that Alan had connections with; not a single one was home. By this time, it was about 6 pm, so we headed back over to the house, and had prayer and dinner at  the restaurant downstairs. At first it was pretty disappointing; we had walked around for 4 hours, and hadn't talked to hardly anyone. None of the goals on our checklist had been accomplished. But as I thought about it, I landed on this thought. God has been in control, and has orchestrated every encounter that we have had thus far. If we didn't run into anyone that we had planned on talking to, that's okay. Because God is still in control. In each area we walked through, we prayed and asked God to bless the people that loved there, and to open their hearts to our influence, and His love. And perhaps, that Friday, that's all that God wanted us to do. So we played a game and headed to bed about 11.

Saturday:
We woke up early; about 7 am, and went on a prayer walk around Ekkamai with Alan, Pastor Bei, and a couple of students from the Bible College. We walked down Ekkamai, to Sukhamvit, then back up the other side of Ekkamai. It was pretty much the same deal as Friday, just praying for the community. On our way though, we got to see where the church is moving to at the beginning of September. I think I mentioned how small the church was... about the size of maybe 2 small bedrooms. If you go to New Life... Think about the size of the Orange Room with the storage part. That includes the stage, and everything. Cramming 30-40 people in there gets a little bit tight. So they get to move into another building that can seat 250 people, which will be absolutely amazing- the church that is there currently is also having to move due to size. It's so exciting to see how God is working in this small church, and how it is growing because of it. Anyway, I'm getting on a bunny trail. So on our walk, we stopped at a couple of businesses that are owned by church members, to pray blessing over them, and to talk to them a little bit. We ate lunch at the restaurant that had been closed the day before (amazing food!) and then continued on back home. At 2 we had our third Thai lesson, which went really well, and then went over to another Muslim slum area to teach English to some kids that live over there. There were eight kids that showed up- I think the youngest was seven, and the oldest was 12. It was so much more fun than I thought it would be. The teaching part was the thing that I was the most nervous about coming here. I was worried that I was going to suck at it; not be able to do it, not know where to start, or how to do it. But it was so much fun. The kids are super eager to learn, and had a lot of fun. Thai language only has 6 diphthongs, so English is pretty difficult for them, they always want to add vowels in. So the word "sports" turns into saports, and "spill" turns into sepill. The three of us girls were laughing because we knew that as much as these kids were struggling with the English words; that's exactly how we sound in Thai lessons. We're like 2 year olds trying to learn how speak. Can be frustrating, but Pii Wan is so patient with us. We raced out of there at about 4:45 and headed over to another missionaries house for a game night with Alan, Lynette, Tim, Duffy, Mark, Kara, Deanna, and Joyce. We ate delicious food, and got to meet everybody, then settled in for a really long game of Settlers of Catan.

Sunday:
Sunday was church, where Mark Rodli preached. After a really great service, we played guitar for a little bit and sang with some of the ladies there, then had lunch. Every 3rd Sunday, there is a youth group called "Wake Up Gang", so we hung around for that; so much fun! There were about 16-18 kids there, from 6th grade to about 18 years old. We played a couple of games, then Pastor Bei talked and one of the kids shared his testimony, and then we played a couple more games and had ice cream. Then... the fun part! We headed over to another Muslim slum, and hung out with a musician over there. He was asking us to help us translate some stuff into English, then he was explaining some of his heart and passion for his community. It is Ramadan in the Muslim world, which means fasting every day for a month, until the sun sets, and then they pray and feast together. So we were invited to go break the fast with them. As women, we weren't allowed to go into the mosque, but they had the four of us (Duffy was with us) sit right outside, and they brought us bowl after bowl of food. So sweet, and absolutely delicious. Alan and Tim were invited inside, which was quite the honor, since they were Farang, and not Muslim. There were members of the Thai Parliament there, and other higher ups. It was so much fun, just hanging out with the people, and practicing our limited Thai. They were some of the kindest, most serving people we have met yet, and thats saying a lot in Thailand.

Anywho. I'm soooo ready for bed, so good night!

Please be praying this week for:

• Good connections with people- open hearts, and open doors. 
• Good health for the three of us girls- lots of bugs and stuff we're not used to!
• APSAI building to be ready- we get to move in on Wednesday if all goes well, and everybody else will get here that night!

Love ya'll! g'night, 

Jessica

It's Friday, Friday... Ah Geez.

My hatred for that song really runs deep. But I kind of enjoy the fact that a mere glimpse at that title may have it stuck in some poor souls head for the next 8 minutes.

Sorry.

Today, in case you didn't get it, is Friday. Friday for us is kind of like the beginning of the work week, rather than the end. On Friday's we pack up and head to Alan and Lynette's house. So today, Alan picked us up at about 1 pm, and we headed over to Ekkamai. We were supposed to visit a couple shops that ladies at the church own, but they ended up being either closed, or busy. So strike one. No problem, we had a couple people in the slum we could visit. They were not there. Strike 2. Okay, no problem. This is how we roll right?
So we went into the slum we were in the other day, and had Pepsi's with a family there. They had the cutest little boy, and we practiced our Thai with one of the ladies there. We also found out that Uum, the girl we've been praying for to go to youth group on Sunday, was arrested, and put in jail this morning for drug dealing. It's heartbreaking... please pray for her heart to be softened, and a good influence to be placed in her life soon!

Anyway, we walked around a lot today, and then had dinner at the Chubby Chef. They make the best garlic chicken, and a Magnum Bar for dessert just makes the perfect meal. We played a couple of games with Alan, Lynette, and Joyce, and now we're headed for bed. Tomorrow is a bit of a crazy day; we're going on a prayer walk with the church at 8 am, then having Thai lessons, a little bit of study time, going to visit some people on Soi 3, and then going o play games with a few other missionaries here in Bangkok. It should be fun!

Anyway, I'm off to bed, so Good morning to all you Americans, and G'night to all in Thailand. Sawati Kha!

Soliciting.

Hi!
So I am going to solicit some prayers from you  guys, if you don't mind.
Please pray for:
1) Good connections with people. Right now, we are pretty much wandering around, meeting people, talking to people, finding people who speak English, or want to learn English, and praying for people who want to be prayed for. Please pray for God to guide us to the right people, to walk down the right street, and to run into the right people.
2) Two girls, Uum, and Ying. They are 14 and 15 year old girls who live in the slums in Ekkamai, and when we walked through there last Sunday, Uum's father asked us to take them to church and beat them up. Kind of a silly question, but he's worried that while he and her mother go upcountry for work, that the girls are going to get in with the wrong group of people, and get pregnant before they get back. Men in the slums offer the girls gifts, and place to live, in return for sexual favors- resulting in girls who are younger than my little sister getting pregnant. It's absolutely sickening, but in many of these areas, its a reality. So we invited Uum and Ying to youth group on Sunday, and offered to come and get them. So please pray a) for their safety- weekends get dangerous, because there is no school or work. And b) please pray that they will come to youth group with open hearts and open minds.
3) Our new dorms need power! Administration is in limbo right now with officials with the power station, and this can either be a swift, easy, painless process. Or it can be a long, tedious, frustrating process. Well, we have a bunch of people coming next week... so it needs to be the first one! Please pray for God's hand to be on this!
4) Last thing, I promise. God has been revealing some of the things that are coming next in life, so please pray for patience through the process, and confirmation.

Yeah, that's about all I got. Appreciate your prayers!

Today we walked around a Muslim neighborhood in Ekkamai, and got to pray for a family; we met a whole bunch of kids, and ladies, so that was really exciting, and we made connections to go back on Sunday. I'm so excited!
Anyway, I'm exhausted, so Good Night, have a fantastic day!

Traffic...

Yesterday was our second Thai lesson with Pii Wan. We started out the day at the Bamboo House restaurant for breakfast, and then headed over to Ekkamai. We had lessons from 2-4, then chatted with Alan for about an hour. It had started to get really really dark about four pm, and we didn’t really think about it until we went outside, to head home. A huge rainstorm started as soon as we got on the bridge to cross over to the bus stop. Within about two minutes, it looked like Kaitlyn and I had taken a shower in our clothes. Our clothes were drenched, our hair was wet all the way through and dripping, and our makeup was smeared all under our eyes. We were soaked. It was about 5 pm, which means crazy traffic in Thailand, and we waited about 25 minutes for the bus to come. It was packed. In the end, we were on the bus for about 2 hours and 20 minutes. The first hour and a half we were standing, holding onto the bars, and then we got seats for the last little bit. At 2 hours and 20 minutes, we hadn’t moved very far, so we decided to get out and walk to the mall, which was probably about a mile-ish. It was a crazy crazy night. Regardless, we go to the mall, and got pizza and salad and pepsi, and it was a good night. But I’m not a fan of traffic.

Explanation

Okay. So yes, this is a new blog, with the old posts. I struggled with Yahoo for access to my account for a week, and now I'm done. But I have to write a journal for the practicum side of this trip, so I just took some entries straight out of there. They are a little more touchy feely, but I don't really have time to write whole new paragraphs. So forgive me.

Also. I will do my very best to keep up with this, but in reality, this may turn into a every-other-day thing, depending on amounts of homework, and time.

If you're reading this, I probably love you, so Love ya! Thanks for reading :)
Jess

8/13/2011

Yesterday we had our first Thai lessons. I feel like that’s going to be the most difficult class for me, but also one of the most rewarding. It’s difficult to be trying to learn so many new things all at the same time, but at the same time, I understand that this total immersion is going to be the most intense, individual opportunities of my life. Today and yesterday, a phrase kept running through my mind: “This is what I was created for”. We went out to the slums yesterday evening, after our Thai lessons, and that was probably one of the most shocking, amazing, interesting, fun, scary thing I have ever encountered. I thought houses in Mexico were bad… they were absolutely nothing compared to what I saw yesterday. The houses were built on 3 meters of public land; squished between two high-end condo/apartment buildings. A water run-off ran below it, and the houses were built on concrete brace-type things that intersected “sidewalks”. The first area we stopped at had two or three little girls running around, and a couple of older ladies. One of the older ladies was holding a baby boy, about 4 months old, if we understood right. He was the cutest thing… but he didn’t even have a diaper. He had a dirty shirt on, but other than that, he was completely naked. Alan prayed with one of the ladies while we played with the baby, and looked around. Continuing on, we walked down the sidewalk between the house- maybe 2 feet wide, and darker than anything. We got to a house, where Alan poked his head in and chatted for a while. This house had a girl who looked like she was about 9 months to a year old, and a maybe two year old. After talking for a few minutes, Alan told us that the lady there wasn’t the mother of any of these children- she had three total. They were all her grandchildren; she was taking care of them because their parents were in jail. She was telling Alan that they had no milk for the baby. That was when I realized what we were really seeing and experiencing. These people are living as squatters on government property, living day to day. And some days, it’s not enough. Some days, you can’t give your baby granddaughter enough to eat. Talk about a reality check. We kept walking for about another 2 minutes, when we came across a girl who was probably about 8-10ish that Alan knew. We stopped and Alan pulled out a guitar and sang some songs with the kids, it was so much fun to get to sit and listen. Then we sat and prayed for the community for a couple of minutes, and Muy, the little girl, came over and we prayed for her. Apparently, her mother refuses to let her go to church with Alan, but is fine with us praying for her, and hanging out with her. We ended up going to Muy’s house, and praying over her house with her mother. Her Mom invited us in, and was super sweet. Muy’s grandmother was crippled, laying in a bed next to the door. After we prayed with everybody, Muy’s mom asked us what our impression of the slum was, which was a really brave question in my opinion. If I were living in that kind of situation, I don’t think that I would be brave enough to ask people that question. But she seemed genuinely curious. I wasn’t really sure how to answer, so I kind of stayed quiet. In all honesty, I was feeling blessed, and almost ashamed of all the things that I have. So much of it is so unnecessary. But I’m diverging. Muy’s mother was telling us how her mother’s wheelchair was too wide for the walkway to exit the slum,  so when it was necessary, the only way to get her out was to carry her; one person holding her arms, and one person holding her feet. The loss of dignity that the woman must experience so often broke my heart, but as we were leaving the house, the woman turned over in her bed, so she was facing us. I smiled at her, and she gave the biggest grin back, it was so cute. I touched her hand as I walked to the door, and she squeezed it so hard…. I don’t usually like old people, but she was pretty cute. It was very touching. We walked down about three more houses, and Muy and some little boys followed us, so Alan pulled out some color crayons and paper, and left the three of us girls with a guitar and coloring stuff and about 8 kids. We were coloring, and practicing our Thai, and having a blast. The we pulled out the guitar and played with it for a few minutes while Alan was talking. Kelsey started playing “I’ll Fly Away” on the guitar and the three of us just got in this three part harmony…. It was a total God thing. That’s when that phrase popped in my head…. “This is what I am created for”. I don’t know how life is going to pan out. I don’t know what God’s plan for me is specifically… but I know that it is this… being empowered by God to minister to people that seem to have so much less than I am blessed with; but recognizing that they have the same simple need as I do; Christ’s forgiveness, and grace and mercy, and new life through him.

First Day of School!

That’s right! This morning we woke up, got on a bus, and went to school. For now, we will ignore the fact that it was 11:30 am. In all honesty though, we were ready to go by 10- but we ate toast and Nutella (my new favorite breakfast!) and watched episodes of Friends in Kaitlyn’s room for about an hour. Then we got the call we were waiting for, and headed out. That was probably the most fun day of school I have ever had in my entire life. Except maybe the day my Bio class went to the Primate Sanctuary. Anyway. We took the bus to Ekami (I know I spelled that wrong, but I don’t know how to really spell it) and went to Alan and Lynette’s house. When we got there, we ordered food from the restaurant downstairs ( I think my favorite meal yet), and then started in on the material. The first course we are working on is Missiology- currently working on defining what missions means; not only to us, but to the local church, supporting churches, and the church as a body. So we talked about that for the most part, mixed with stories and experiences that Alan shared. It didn’t feel like 3 hours at all, it went by so fast. Then came the scary part- riding the bus alone! We hadn’t ridden the bus back to Ramkhamhaeng yet, but we knew the general idea, so Alan walked us to the bus to make sure we got the right one and then we hopped on. We were going the direction that the traffic was, so it took a while, but it was fun to sit back and watch everything. We hopped off at Bangkapi mall, and decided to watch a movie for the evening. We grabbed some pretzels and ice cream for dinner, and wasted a little bit of time while we waited for Harry Potter. I haven’t seen any of the other movies or read any of the books, but it was a pretty good movie on it’s own, in my opinion. I totally missed any references to other situations outside of the movie, but it was better than I thought it would be.

Tomorrow we are going with Weldyn and Barb to the Grand Palace, which I am super excited for. Thailand has the world’s longest reigning monarchy, so you can imagine the history around that place. And with the Queen’s birthday so close, it should be fun to see what all is going on. I’ll try to take lots of pictures, and post them up here when we get back.

Have a fantastic day everybody!

Keepin this Brief...

Cause it is waayyyyy past bedtime. Today was super laid back and nice. We slept in a little bit, till 8:30! Haha, our poor confused REM cycles. We got an email from Alan, with our first class’s homework assignment, and some info about the next few days, then we walked around our Soi with Barb. We ended up eating lunch at a cute little restaurant kind of thing with Mark, one of the missionaries that lives across the driveway from us. This lady is one of the favorites, they call her the rice lady. She introduced herself as “aunt”, and told us many times to “please, come back!”. She was really sweet, and the food was really good. When we got back to our rooms, we were pretty wiped out… life is really tough wandering around and eating. Seriously though; something about the heat and the humidity just sucks the energy right out of you. Guess that’s one of the trade-offs for living in beautiful Washington. So I listened to some music (Mumford & Sons!) and read some of Alan’s book, Apostolic Function in the 21st Century. Fantastic  book, I’d seriously recommend it to just about anyone. I’ve had to pull the dictionary out a few times (I lied, it just meant pulling up the web browser, but that didn’t sound as scholarly), but it really is a great book with very interesting points on modern missions, and what it means in our world, church, and to us as individuals. I got about halfway through, then crawled in bed, and worked on my blanket. Its like 6 feet wide, and about 3 inches thick now! Yeah, we’ll see how much longer I can have the patience to work on it. At about 6 we walked over to the mall with Weldyn and Barb, and had dinner at Sizzler. It was really good, but this kinda sealed a sneaky suspicion I had. Dr. Pepper, and Ranch dressing do not exist in the Asian world. At least, in Bangkapi, Bangkok, Thailand. Sad sad day. But they had cheese! I missed cheese. And french fries! Mmh. I think I’m learning to appreciate American food.

Okay. I know all I ranted about was food and a book, but I’m too tired to think about what else happened today. So Good night/morning.

Kap kun kah! (Thank you  )

Just another average Sunday… in Thailand

Okay, so I’m going to briefly interrupt Saturdays adventures, and fill you in on Sunday. I think I can keep this a little briefer. I know this is like my 4th post today… but whatever. Okay, so we went to church this morning at Bangkok City Church. The church had about 20-30 people, the Pastor is Pi Bai, and his wife Pi Wan. I probably spelled that wrong, but I don’t know Thai script. Pi Wan will be our Thai teacher, and she speaks really amazing English, which makes me really excited to get to work. The Pastor and his wife live above the church, and I’m not really sure if they were there first, or if the church was. Anyway. The room the church was in was probably the size of the upstairs dining room part of my house, including the stage and all of that. So it was pretty tiny. But they had plastic chairs set up, and it was a lot of fun. Pi Wan translated for us in the back, and we recognized quite a few of the songs, which was nice. The pastor talked in the beginning about forgiveness, and then gave the group a chance to pray, and seek out people they had wronged, and been wronged by. After that, we took communion, and then he talked about sharing Christ with others, and how the Bible holds a truth for everyone, and that we can’t be ashamed or embarrassed about it, because of its value. It was pretty cool when you thought about it in an Asian culture, where you are trying to save others and your own face. People won’t tell you that you’re wrong, even if you are asking a question, in order to save your face; its a huge deal here. So to ask people to go introduce a foreign, unaccepted idea to their fellow Thai’s, is kind of a risky thing for their “egos” or “face”.

After church they had a community meal which was so much fun. They had a huge rice cooker, and they spooned out a big dish into bowls. Then there were about 10 bowls of different flavored chicken, pork, fish, and other food I don’t feel like I need to identify. The curry was amazing. So delicious. Other stuff…. I tasted it, but probably wouldn’t voluntary eat it again. Regardless, it was a lot of fun to talk to the people at the church, and hear some of their stories. Quite a few of them spoke very good English, and the rest were very willing to teach and help us practice Thai.

This evening we walked over to Bangkapi Mall, which was enormous! There were so many people, it was crazy. Okay, two quick side notes. The population of Bangkok alone is over 14 million people. So our tiny little section of the city, known as Bangkapi, probably has a population about the size of Seattle. Just guessing here. Second sidenote: Parking cracks me up. There are spaces, like at home, and people back into them, regardless of how impossible it seems. But then, after the spots are full. People park in front of them, in a row, about 4 inches from the first cars bumper. The rule though is, if you park in front of a car when the spaces are full, you leave your car in neutral. So if you’re blocked in, you simply push all the cars in front of you forward, until you can get out. Crazy, right! So anyway, we wandered around the mall, and went to Pizza Company for dinner, which was really good pizza. The crust was perfect, and the sauce was kind of spicy, which I liked.

And now we’re at home. I think the three of us are going to watch a movie or something. It’s getting easier to stay up past nine, which is nice, cause it’s kind of a pain in the butt to be going to bed at 9, and feeling like its 2 in the morning.

Good night/morning!

Saturday!

So just to give you an idea of yesterday, I took 368 pictures…. Yeah. Now, this isn’t all that impressive, because the Automatic focus broke on my lens, so I have to manually focus; thus I take a lot of pictures to make sure that I’m getting some decent shots. But yesterday was crazy and busy and beautiful and fun…. and I love life right now. But I’ll break down the day by pictures, and hopefully that will keep this somewhat entertaining. So we left at about 7 am, and the five of us (Weldyn, Barb, Kaitlyn, Kelsey, and I) all climbed into a big van, with green leather interior. Yeah, that’s right. Green. Anyway. We got on the road pretty early so that we could skip the traffic heading out of Bangkok, and jumped on the freeway. The first thing we came to, and actually stopped at, was salt fields. They looked like rice paddies, but the guide, Nom, said they were salt fields. Now apparently, there are two kinds around here. The water in the fields was brought in from the ocean, which meant the salt was iodized. But the salt from the ground wasn’t. So we pulled over so that Nom could get some salt.

                           

The clear bags of salt came in two sizes- 20 Baht (70 cents-ish), or 50 Baht- ( About $1.70); it was rock salt, which Nom said made great ice cream. You could also get refined salt, and table salt, and pretty much whatever kind of salt you wanted. It was pretty cool to see all the equipment and stuff they used…. and lots and lots and lots and lots of salt. We drove through this crazy market about an hour-ish outside of Bangkok. Kepp in mind that its only about 8 in the morning, but there was a market in full swing- So much so that stalls were set up on train tracks. We asked Nom if the tracks were old and not used anymore, but she said that no, the train just went slow in that area so that people could pick up their stalls and get out of the way. All I could think was that they better train their conductor well.

                           

Next Stop: Coconut Farm!

This amazing looking stuff is not only amazing. Its every good adjective that you can think of. Also known as coconut sugar. Oh my goodness that stuff was delicious. The farm had pretty much any kind of product made out of coconut that you can imagine. Purses, lamps, honey, teacups, mugs, plates, earrings, elephants……. it goes on and on.

Okay, it won’t let me post any more pictures, so I’ll continue a little bit later. Sawadika!

Elephants, Snakes, Monkeys, and Big Lizard Things.

Okay, so because I have soooo much to say, I’m going to try to break it up with pictures. They’re worth a thousand words, right? But first, back to yesterday a little bit. I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but they drive on the “wrong” side of the road here, which already feels perfectly normal. But motorcycles are crazy! They go the opposite way of traffic, they weave in and out of tiny spots, and sometimes jump on the sidewalks. But somehow it all works out; I don’t really get it. Anyway, we were trying to learn how to take the bus from our main road, to the church where we’ll be going, the lady who will be teaching us Thai, and also Alan’s house. So we walked around a little bit, and then went to the church and chatted for a little bit. Well, we kind of watched, while they talked. Just smile and wave boys, smile and wave. Then we headed to Alan and Lynette’s apartment and had dinner in the restaurant downstairs. You know how when you’re at a restaurant in the States, the servers bring the food out all at once? Here, they bring it out as soon as it’s ready. So one or two people could have their food, and be expected to eat, 5 minutes before the last person to receive their food. That was kind of a quirky cultural thing they had to explain to us. Also, you don’t eat with a fork, even though you’re given one. You also have a giant spoon, and you use the fork to push your food onto the spoon. Okay, anyway. It’s monsoon season here, so when we went back upstairs, Alan and Lynette have an amazing view of the “downtown” Bangkok, and there was thunder and lightning, and it was all very fun.

On Saturday, Weldyn and Barb booked a tour for us from their hotel.  We saw so much stuff in one day that each stop could legitimately have its own post. Actually, I might just do that, because I have way to many pictures. So I’ll just put in the highlights.

At the Floating Market, we saw a baby elephant, which was probably the cutest thing ever. You weren’t allowed to touch him unless you bought food to feed him, but we took lots of pictures.

There were guys with huge snakes wrapped around their necks, and for a small price, you too could have a big fat snake wrapped around your neck…

So later on we rode Elephants, but I’m going to tag those pictures on to another post. But we saw a MONKEY! It was in a cage by someones house when we were floating down one of the canals, and it looked sad, but it was adorable. I have like 10  pictures, so it was kind of hard to choose one.

On our way back down the canal, we saw this enormous  thing that looked like a snake gliding through the water in front of us. But when it got to land, it had arms and legs. The guide said that it was a water…. something that started with an m, but I can’t remember what it was. I didn’t get any good pics though… sorry.

Okay, that’s all the time I have this morning. I’ll get more pics up this evening. Jetlag should be over its worst by now, so maybe I’ll make it up past 9:30 

Learnin The System

Okay, even though I have loads of verbal vomit, this will remain short due to eyes that won’t stay open. Today was amazingly fun, though my brain is on overload. I woke about 8ish, and got to talk to Mom on Facebook for a little bit, then headed over for breakfast… toast and nutella. Such a fan of that stuff. We went to a “restaurant” over on the next Soi for lunch with Weldyn, and John and Barbara Wright, who are helping to oversee the APSAI program we’re kind of involved with. The restaurant was attached to the 7-11 (They’re on every block around here!) and it was soooo amazing. Then we met up with Alan, who is directly in charge of us, and he introduced us to the bus system, and did some orientation stuff. After that, we went to dinner with him, and his wife Lynette, Barb, Weldyn, and Mark, who is another missionary over here. Again, the food was spectacular.

Okay, I could go on and on, but we are going on a cultural excursion tomorrow, and have to be up early. I promise there will be pictures tomorrow, but for tonight…. Good Night/morning to all you US’ers!

Bangkok!

We made it! So much has happened already, I don’t know where to start. Okay, plane ride. The plane ride was loooooonnnnnggggg. We flew Asiana, which was pretty nice, in my uneducated opinion. We had about 11 hours from Seattle to Seoul-Incheon airport, then a two -ish hour layover, then a 5 hour flight to Bangkok. Our first plane was super full, but the second one was almost empty; so we grabbed window seats. I slept pretty much the whole 5 hour flight, which felt super duper good. We landed a little before midnight; by the time we got through immigration, it was the 4th. So we pretty much skipped all of the 3rd, which is screwing with my brain. Anyway. We got through the airport, and our teachers from NU, Weldyn and Barb Houger, met us with the directors of the program. It was so awesome to have some familiar faces, and to get to see them again. We got to our rooms at about 1-ish, and got the tour. We are on Soi 42, off of Ramkhamhaeng road, in Bangkapi, Bangkok. Our address is obnoxiously long, but kind of fun to write. Soi’s are streets off of main roads, so the main road is Ramkhamhaeng, and we are down the side street. We are in what the call PenAsia towers, two buildings across the driveway from each other. Kelsey and I are sharing a room above the Bible translation center, and Kaitlyn’s room is above the PenAsia office. Our room is pretty awesome, we’re on the top floor (5 flights of stairs, no elevator, lots of bags!). Our room is big and open, with air conditioning (!), and then there is a separate little room with a bathroom and a kitchen. We have a tiny little balcony, which is pretty fun to go look at the city from. I’ll try to post pictures next time. We went to bed about 2, I was a little wound up from the fact that we were HERE! But once my head hit the pillow, I was out. I woke up about 6:30 this morning, and was wide awake. So I played on my computer a little bit (didn’t have the internet code yet) and then finally decided to just shower and start the day. We hadn’t planned on getting up until 9, so I was a little ahead of schedule- pretty unusual for me. The shower felt amazing, after 23 hours on an airplane. A little before 10, we all walked down the Soi with Barb, and had breakfast with her and Weldyn, while they told us about their travels this summer. Sidenote: There are dogs here called Soi Dogs. If you’ve ever been in a city in Mexico, it’s pretty much the same thing. Felt like Mexico while we were walking. They pretty much just ignore you, but I guess only rich people have dogs as pets, and when they do, they’re little dogs. Sidenote over. After breakfast we walked back, and met with Tammy, who is one of the directors of APSAI. She exchanged some money for us, about 3000 baht, for 100 dollars. Then she showed us around her house, and took us to the grocery store. For any youth group-ers out there: We rode to the store in a Speed the Light vehicle! Wayne and Tammy’s daughter is handicapped, so its a really awesome diesel van, with a wheelchair ramp in the back. The store we went to was called Big C, which they think is like Walmart. It isn’t. It’s pretty crazy. I thought it was more like a mall, because there are separate little sections of the store, and you pay for the items you got in that section before you go to the next one. So we went and got our cell phones first, then went to a different section and got them activated. It only cost about 1000 baht for a phone and 270 minutes; about 35-ish dollars. Then we went shopping, and got the low-down on shopping in Thailand. We found a whole bunch of “odd” fruit. One looks like a strawberry, but it has 1/2 inch long spikey things coming out of it. Tammy said that they are super sweet, and look and feel like eyeballs inside. Then there were similar tasting things, that were brown, dry-looking balls on a bunch of sticks. There was so much stuff in that store I can’t even begin to touch it, but I think one of the funniest/strangest things I saw was Seaweed flavored Pringles. We had lunch in the food court there, sooooooo delicious. I got Yakitari chicken, grilled chicken with a sweetish spicy sauce and rice. The food is really cheap, 45 baht for a huge plate, but apparently that is really expensive compared to the street vendors. There is one on our Soi that is only 10 baht for some of the best Thai food ever, according to some of the missionaries here. Now we’re back in our rooms, having some downtime. Tonight we are having dinner at Wayne and Tammy’s house across the driveway. She’s making Mexican food, which I found somewhat amusing, but it will be delicious.

Okay, I know I’m dragging on and on, but two more things, I promise.

1. I now understand why people always say “But it’s dry heat!”. It was/is about 93 today, with 88% humidity. It’s not unbearable, but it’s definitely an adjustment from the beach. However, almost everywhere we go is air conditioned, which feels spectacularly fantastically amazing.

2.They drive on the left side of the road here. Traffic laws are sooooo confusing, but because of the Buddhist culture, trying to earn karma points, nobody honks, and people let each other in. Motorcycles/scooters are huge here, they kinda scare me though, weaving in and out of the traffic. I’m really glad I don’t have to drive here, cause I would probably have a heart attack.

Okay, if anyone made it through that extremely long ramble up there… my apologies!

If anyone wants a souvenir, tell me what you want in the comments, shopping is a blast here!