Featured Friend of the Week- Pia!

Not bad!

Pia getting some instructions from another golfer

The golf ball actually left the ground this time (which was progress for me).

I do not know how to swing a golf club. 

I've had the idea for a while to feature one of my friends each week (or at least, every so often) on my blog so that you (my readers) can get to know some of the lovely people I get to spend time with here. But then I got pretty busy and didn't post on my blog for a while. So here goes: hopefully I'll be able to keep up with it!

Name: Pia- this sounds a bit more like a "b" than a "p;" but we don't have this letter in English. It gave me a lot of trouble at the beginning, but I think I can say it now.  They don't really talk about last names in Thailand, so I don't know most of my friends' last names.

Age: 29 (they do, however, talk about age all the time)

Interests: spending time with and teaching kids, laughing and having fun, being adventurous- trying new things... like golf, drinking coffee, being outdoors, watching sunsets on the beach, knowing God and encouraging others to know Him.

Pia and I have a blast together no matter what we're doing. We laugh together until we almost cry. She is from northeastern Thailand. Thai is not her first language; she is from a people group called Gui (but I'm not sure if that's how it's spelled). She came here in 2005, after the tsunami, to work with We Love Thailand (the umbrella organization that included all Christian organizations who were helping with the relief efforts). Now she works for an independent ministry. Her vision is to build a ministry house where she can have kids come and stay with her, and she can help them with their homework and teach them from the Bible. She is also involved in community development projects, including a mushroom farm that is just getting started. Pia speaks English really well, and she often translates for me at church. But she helps me a lot with my Thai, too. Pia is better at golfing than I am.