I'm a little behind on this post, so I'm going to finish it up now. Last Saturday Paul and I went to Nam Kem, a town just up the road from here that was the worst hit by the tsunami in all of Thailand. We looked at the memorial there, which has a big boat that was washed on shore and the names of ppl who died on a wall. It was raining the whole day though, and since we were on the motorbike, I didn't take my camera. En route we saw a white guy and his wife in front of their house, and we decided to stop and talk to them (Paul figured they were missionaries). Well, his wife went off to a church meeting, but we ended up chatting w/ Joe, who was from California, for about 1 1/2 hours! He invited us in and told us about his work (church-planting w/ Thai and Burmese) and about his journey of faith. It was fun to talk to him. On our way to the memorial, we saw Brad, a guy from Fayetteville (!) who's doing church-planting w/ Burmese, too. He is going home for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I wish I were. I usually don't feel sad about being here except when I think about the holidays. But I've decided, in order to combat my holiday blues (or at least Thanksgiving blues), that I'm going to organize a Thanksgiving meal at the Center and invite my students. There are actually a lot of dishes I can make easily, as long as we get the oven fixed. And it'll be a great way to build relationships w/ my students. I suppose most of them will not be able to come, but even if only 4 or 5 come, it'll be fun!
On Sunday we had a meeting after church to discuss starting an international worship service in English on Sunday nights for the tourists who come here and any Thais who are interested in practicing their English. I am really excited about this, because it means that I'll actually be able to understand sermons on Sundays (we do have translation, but I always feel like I'm still missing a good deal of what's being said.) And I was given a job- I'm going to lead worship! I'm excited but nervous about this, because I've never led worship before.
On Wednesday night (or Tues, can't remember), Paul, Chaiyot, Amnuey and I went to a little fair just down the road. It was so much fun! It was like a fair you'd go to in America, yet it was distinctly Asian. There were lots of different kinds of foods and Thai sweets and drinks. Instead of hot dogs and nachos, there was phad thai, curry, sticky rice, and then Asian cookies, gooey candies, and stuff kind of like Rice Krispy treats but not exactly. And there were vendors selling clothes, sunglasses, health/ beauty products, shoes, you name it. I bought some body scrub- milky rice scented. We walked around looking at everything and then played balloon darts and bingo! (great number practice for me). There was a dance and singing contest that was pretty funny. And a big slide and jumping castle for the kids. For the most part, I've settled into life here, and I'm glad to have a routine. But every once in a while, something reminds me that I'm actually in Thailand!! And how cool is that?
On Sunday we had a meeting after church to discuss starting an international worship service in English on Sunday nights for the tourists who come here and any Thais who are interested in practicing their English. I am really excited about this, because it means that I'll actually be able to understand sermons on Sundays (we do have translation, but I always feel like I'm still missing a good deal of what's being said.) And I was given a job- I'm going to lead worship! I'm excited but nervous about this, because I've never led worship before.
On Wednesday night (or Tues, can't remember), Paul, Chaiyot, Amnuey and I went to a little fair just down the road. It was so much fun! It was like a fair you'd go to in America, yet it was distinctly Asian. There were lots of different kinds of foods and Thai sweets and drinks. Instead of hot dogs and nachos, there was phad thai, curry, sticky rice, and then Asian cookies, gooey candies, and stuff kind of like Rice Krispy treats but not exactly. And there were vendors selling clothes, sunglasses, health/ beauty products, shoes, you name it. I bought some body scrub- milky rice scented. We walked around looking at everything and then played balloon darts and bingo! (great number practice for me). There was a dance and singing contest that was pretty funny. And a big slide and jumping castle for the kids. For the most part, I've settled into life here, and I'm glad to have a routine. But every once in a while, something reminds me that I'm actually in Thailand!! And how cool is that?
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