Christmas outreach celebrations

Paul and I manning the Step Ahead booth
I won a toaster oven at the gift raffle! Good for Step Ahead.

Ton emceeing
Benz emceeing
Pak Ping Church choir caroling

http://picasaweb.google.com/briswann/ChristmasFestivalMarketplace

On Sunday we had a big Christmas celebration at Pak Ping Church. I was surprised at how many people showed up. Benz told me that in Thai culture, if an important person (a teacher, or someone with a title) invites people to an event, they feel obligated to show up! So I think that because Pastor Achara invited people personally, the whole front lawn was packed full. As always, we had dinner, and then there was a gift raffle, a skit, the choir sang, and a pretty neat dance number performed by some cute little boys in gold costumes. (a traditional Thai song and one that sounded Indian). But it is also Thai culture to have LONG meetings and ceremonies for hours on end, oh my goodness! I am absolutely meeting-ed out at the moment and am looking forward to a few days of actual rest. Even though this is supposedly vacation, it hasn't been one yet. But it's still been good.

The Christmas festival at the marketplace went well. Praise God, Benz has been feeling a lot better the past few days and was able to emcee as planned. She and Ton did a great job together, and Benz looked so gorgeous! I've never seen her so dressed up before. I was supposed to be an usher, which is why I had an official-looking badge, but nobody told me anything I was supposed to do, so I just stayed at the Step Ahead booth and talked to people about out new classes coming up, which was good. Quite a few people stopped by to learn about Step Ahead, and a few seemed really interested in taking classes. I enjoyed it. The event was not translated into English, so I didn't even try to pay attention to most of it, because my brain is TIRED from all of these long Thai ceremonies. Some things were pretty amusing, though, like when the little kids were on stage performing, the Jesus birthday cake, and Ton throwing stuffed bears to screaming teenagers. The director of the Bible school where Amnuey, Ton, Chaiyot, and Mae went gave the message. A lot of people attended, so I think a lot of people got to hear about the meaning of Christmas, which is cool. Some of our neighbors showed up (the couple who own the bar across from us, Geng from the bike shop), so Paul and I can continue to build relationships with these people. At the end of the evening, my number got called out, and s0 I won a toaster oven! I was standing next to Chaiyot listening to the numbers and was so surprised that mine was called! It's good for Step Ahead.

Now the Quinley family is visiting (John, Kim, and their 4 kids), so I can spend a few days relaxing and getting to know the kids. They are teenagers actually, not young kids. It is really nice to have them here. Carter, their oldest (only) daughter is sharing a room with me. She's a freshman at Univ. of Richmond. John and Kim do such a good job with Step Ahead. When they are here, I feel relaxed, because I know that I can bring any concerns I have about the center (or any concerns about life!) to them, and they often have solutions! They are like Bronson and Evelyn- older and wiser than me, resourceful, and committed to caring for people. I can see the same traits in their children, who seem very mature for their ages. Their oldest son, John John, is only 17 but he's already taught English courses by himself and helped on outreach teams in different parts of Thailand and (I think) Laos and Cambodia. I may be a little biased, but I think missionary kids are just the coolest.