Having Guests, Similan Islands, and other adventures

Similan Islands

Whitney and I- does it get any dorkier than this?

Teaching the kids at church



Ton with the motorbike loaded with kids!




It's been ages since I last blogged! Here's a link to several new photo albums: http://picasaweb.google.com/briswann





So much has been going on that it's hard to know where to start! Well, first of all, there was a happy end to May's story (the girl who was living at Step Ahead, separated from her husband in Singapore due to visa problems). She hadn't heard anything for months about getting her visa to join her husband, and then one day, the letter that she needed came! Her husband flew here the next day, stayed for two nights, and we got to send them off with prayer and encouraging words. May (and her husband) joined us for our morning devotion for the first (and last) time, and then they cooked a huge Chinese meal for us. I miss May, but I'm happy that God answered our prayers for her to be able to return to her husband.





We've had lots of visitors at Step Ahead in the past two weeks, which has been really fun, and really encouraging- to have fellowship with English-speaking Christians. First we had Nick and Paula from Oregon. They're doing a trip around the world. Benz knew Nick from his DTS outreach in Chiang Mai six years ago. They were so nice, fun, and just easy to get along with. We made chocolate chip cookies three nights in a row! We went to the beach and played volleyball with some of Paul's friends who work at a hotel there, and I got a swollen, bruised wrist (I must've hit the bone; it's better now though). Paul, Nick, Paula and I stayed up late trying to solve the world's problems, and they helped me teach a really fun lesson at the Sarojin. We went to a waterfall (same one we went to with Gaan recently).





Then Whitney escaped the frigid cold of Xining and visited me for a week. We had lots of fun together! The highlight of her visit was our trip to the Similan Islands. Those pictures are definitely worth checking out if you want to see the most beautiful beach you can imagine (at least, it certainly was the most beautiful one I've ever seen!) I have never seen such clear water in my life. We went snorkeling and we climbed up a rock with a gorgeous view. We made friends w/ some ladies from Bangkok who spoke Chinese (Whitney chatted in Chinese, and I talked to a lady a bit in Thai). It was really neat to hear about Whitney's work, and we exchanged teaching ideas. She helped me with my classes as well. During Whitney's visit, we also had a girl from Chiang Rai come and stay at Step Ahead for two days. She's a friend of Ton and Chaiyot's, and she was a lot of fun too! Paul's parents are coming into town this weekend. For some reason, Feb seems to be the month for visitors.





The last thing for me to write about today is something I'm excited about: teaching the kids at our church. Last Saturday, Ton and I started teaching the kids from church, plus quite a few neighborhood kids. He did some songs w/ them and a few other things I didn't quite understand, and then I did a short English lesson w/ them. This week Pia and I will teach together. She'll do a Bible lesson, and I'll do English (obviously, since I can't teach the Bible in Thai!). We had 18 kids the first week, and half of them were kids whose parents don't come to church! I think this is a great opportunity to reach out to the community.





Oh, and one more thing: I seem to have become an expert at miscommunicating things lately! For some reason, whether I'm trying to speak in English, German, or Thai, the messages that I think I'm communicating are not getting across (or also, people aren't communicating clearly w/ me). Usually funny situations are the result. And I normally take these things in stride. But today, for some reason, I'd had enough of it and was frustrated to the point of tears. There is a German lady who is possibly interested in joining my Thai lessons with Ton, which is cool. I talked to her on the phone (in German) and invited her to sit in on our lesson next Monday, but I said I needed to confirm it with Ton first. He said sure, and so I sent her a text message saying Monday was fine, but I abbreviated Monday, and she thought I meant for her to come the next day! So while I was at the Sarojin teaching today, Monika showed up for a Thai lesson! I am sure that Ton was thoroughly confused, but (Benz told me this later) he tried to do a lesson w/ her. It didn't work out very well b/c he doesn't speak much English, so he didn't understand what she was asking him. I had a good laugh when I heard about it, but then I actually just felt frustrated b/c I couldn't explain to Ton very well in Thai what had happened (well, I sort of could; Paul said "Bri, your Thai is brilliant! You should speak it with other people besides Ton!" I appreciate his encouragement). And this was the 2nd day in a row that a major breakdown in communication had happened to me (along w/ several other minor ones this week). Oh well... it's all part of living in a foreign country.