Alot has happened since I last wrote...the Wednesday after my last post me and Kendall went to the Cambodian border to get our visas renewed...come to find out she was only allowed to stay 19 more days until she would have to leave the country--leaving her 10 days short of her plane flight. No need to worry though, she's just moved her flight to an earlier date, so she'll be leaving this Sunday instead of the same day as me as was originally planned.
Today we just got back from a week trip to the beach for a conference the Cobbs had to go to. Me and Kendall got to help take care of the kids each day; I worked with 2-year olds, which definitely kept me busy! During the week though, many of the kids and workers started getting the stomach bug, so of course, it had to come around and catch me...I didn't get to work one of the days, but that allowed me to rest a whole day, so now I'm up and running again! The week was enjoyable, but also reminded us how good it is to be back in Khukhan--especially away with no more hotel food! I definitely loved getting to see the beautiful Thailand beaches and work with lots and lots of kids :)
So now we're back in the swing of things... for another week at least, since Kendall will sadly be leaving Khukhan on Friday. Please pray for her as she packs and gets ready to go--and that she'll have a safe flight.
Oddly enough, God has refreshed and renewed me so much during this past week even through all the tiring days, and I can't wait to share with you again soon!
~Hannah
Forgot to mention...I've been posting my pictures on the web; you can check them out at http://picasaweb.google.com/freckle89... there's a whole bunch of them so I hope you enjoy them!
Friday, June 27, 2008
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Yay for Rainy Season!
Wow, what a great last several days it's been! The rainy season has begun, which has helped cool things down tremendously...I feel like I have so much to say, so this post may run a little long :) Last Thursday, Kendall and I went to the big school here in Khukhan to interact with Patty's English classes (she's the one who speaks fluent English), which were all 9th grade except one extracurricular class that was 11th grade. We got to stay the whole day there and really enjoyed the change of not necessarily having to teach the class, but instead being there to give examples of conversations and giving help to the students when they paired off the practice. I love to see such a strong desire in the high school students to learn English...the 11th grade class was really fun because since it wasn't a real English class, they just got to sit and talk with us, asking us questions in English. The girls absolutely loved learning all about me and Kendall, finding out our hobbies, where we live, how old we are, etc. I'm so glad that God has led us to Patty, not only so we can be completely comfortable in a Thai classroom, but also so we can develop a great relationship with a Thai person. Kendall and I have had the chance to hang out with Patty so much; she loves to take us to different places to eat, and we've had her over for dinner at our apartment as well. I'm praying so much that she would be someone we can possibly see saved...I would appreciate your prayers in that as well.
Friday, David invited the pastor from Sisaket (about 30 minutes away) to join us in following up on 2 people who had sent response cards back to the Cobbs (we put a card in each gospel tract that's handed out). First, we visited an older man in a village not too far from Khukhan...We sat there for a pretty long time while the pastor explained to him about Jesus, etc. and the man seemed pretty interested, but we're not sure if he'll come to Christ or not; he was just the time of man that loves to read and study material. I pray that as he studies the Bible we gave him that he'll see that it's the Truth and believe in the Lord. After that visit, we went to see and older lady nearby who had sent a response card as well. I couldn't quite tell if she was completely interested, but from what I could see she was very talkative, and I think she was kind of trying to compare Buddha to Jesus as the pastor was explaining some things. I'm not sure how that follow-up will turn out either, but the fact that the Cobbs received a response card says alot because that doesn't happen very often.
I enjoyed my first Barbecue here...Patty took me, Kendall, Yee, and Boo to a restaurant that has tables where you get to cook your own food! They put a round pot in the middle of the table (sitting over hot coals), and you put the vegetables around the outside of the pot, where there's water boiling. Then in the middle of the dish, it's raised up like an upside down bowl and you put pieces of pork on there to grill them (the Barbecue part... ;)...It tasted so good! And plus, we got to perfect our chopsticks skills, which are still a little rough. It was funny because Patty asked for forks and spoons especially for me and Kendall in case we got too impatient (or too hungry) using the chopsticks.
Today turned out to be an incredible day as well! We got to go to a school this morning, where Kendall and I each taught separate lessons for about an hour (I did 5th grade and she did 6th). It was pretty funny because I was teaching different activities like sit, stand, play, run, etc. They weren't catching on as quickly as usual, but I think they were just kinda shy because they thought they might say it wrong when I acted out the activity. So finally, they were started getting them right, so I decided that they knew it enough to try charades...At this point, David had left to run a few errands; usually, he sticks around to just see if the kids understand what we're actually talking about. I went ahead and started trying to get one of them to volunteer to act it out...of course, they just kinda sat there with a really confused look on their face, kinda half-giggling because neither of us could understand each other. So maybe 5 or 10 minutes later, after a lot of broken English/acting out/pointing/blank stares, they figured out what in the world I was talking about, so by the time David came back almost all the kids had acted out and activity...Everyone, including myself, just laughed through the whole thing, and they seemed to actually have learned some English by the end of the class.
After the crazy morning with the kids, we went to visit a couple about 20 kilometers away; the man is from Hawaii and the Thai woman is really sweet. We just kinda chatted for awhile, and a man from the village stopped by for a little while as well. David then read a few verses from the Bible, partly talking English, partly talking Thai. I'm not sure if the Hawaiian man is a Christian, but he seemed to understand all that David was saying about us being reconciled with God when we become saved, and he knows many Bible stories, as does his wife.
Then the woman took us to a Buddhist temple near their house because her husband had mentioned that the monks have the option of studying about Christianity for a year, and he was quite curious to see what they were actually learning about it. We got to take pictures and go in the temple; we stopped for a little while to talk to a monk (or rather, David talked to him) and later we found out that they were kind of comparing/contrasting Jesus and Buddha. David tried to explain to him about Jesus, but it's hard because many times, Buddhists will say He's just like Buddha in that He taught people to do good, etc. so they just kind of agree but don't understand the aspect of Christ's dying for us since we can't be good enough on our own. So anyway, please continue to be in prayer for David to know how to explain Christianity to Buddhist so they'll see the difference and want to know more about Christ.
One last fun thing I'd like to write about before I'm done...this evening I went to the park to see if a couple of friends from the high school were going to still meet me to play volleyball...they ended up not being able to come because they were busy with homework, but I did get to watch some girls I met about a week ago play in the volleyball tournament that's been going on! There's been a ton of people at the park every evening to watch the soccer and volleyball games the past week or so...I'm so glad I saw those girls cause after a close match (in which they lost in the 3rd game), they invited me to go to Lotus (the Thai equivalent of Walmart) with them! The three that I went with are 24, 24, and 28 years old, and they all work at the hospital in Khukhan. So we hopped onto 2 different motorcycles and enjoyed getting to hang out in Lotus and eating dinner there together as well. The oldest one knows a good bit of English...at least enough communicate with me, and the others are alot of fun to be around as well even when I don't know what they're saying :) They taught me several Thai words, which I can't guarantee I'll remember, but I do my best...We were about to leave when we noticed it was pouring down rain, so we just decided to wait it out for about 40 minutes or so...it didn't stop. It was about 8:00pm by this point, and they decided that as long as I didn't mind, we'd go ahead and drive back cause the rain didn't look like it was slowing down, so we commenced to driving back in the rain :) It's not that far of a ride, and I actually enjoyed it alot... I can't wait to be able to hang out with them again :)
Anyway, I can never thank you enough for your prayers during my trip--I know they are making such a big difference!
~Hannah
Isaiah 55:11,12
Friday, David invited the pastor from Sisaket (about 30 minutes away) to join us in following up on 2 people who had sent response cards back to the Cobbs (we put a card in each gospel tract that's handed out). First, we visited an older man in a village not too far from Khukhan...We sat there for a pretty long time while the pastor explained to him about Jesus, etc. and the man seemed pretty interested, but we're not sure if he'll come to Christ or not; he was just the time of man that loves to read and study material. I pray that as he studies the Bible we gave him that he'll see that it's the Truth and believe in the Lord. After that visit, we went to see and older lady nearby who had sent a response card as well. I couldn't quite tell if she was completely interested, but from what I could see she was very talkative, and I think she was kind of trying to compare Buddha to Jesus as the pastor was explaining some things. I'm not sure how that follow-up will turn out either, but the fact that the Cobbs received a response card says alot because that doesn't happen very often.I enjoyed my first Barbecue here...Patty took me, Kendall, Yee, and Boo to a restaurant that has tables where you get to cook your own food! They put a round pot in the middle of the table (sitting over hot coals), and you put the vegetables around the outside of the pot, where there's water boiling. Then in the middle of the dish, it's raised up like an upside down bowl and you put pieces of pork on there to grill them (the Barbecue part... ;)...It tasted so good! And plus, we got to perfect our chopsticks skills, which are still a little rough. It was funny because Patty asked for forks and spoons especially for me and Kendall in case we got too impatient (or too hungry) using the chopsticks.
Today turned out to be an incredible day as well! We got to go to a school this morning, where Kendall and I each taught separate lessons for about an hour (I did 5th grade and she did 6th). It was pretty funny because I was teaching different activities like sit, stand, play, run, etc. They weren't catching on as quickly as usual, but I think they were just kinda shy because they thought they might say it wrong when I acted out the activity. So finally, they were started getting them right, so I decided that they knew it enough to try charades...At this point, David had left to run a few errands; usually, he sticks around to just see if the kids understand what we're actually talking about. I went ahead and started trying to get one of them to volunteer to act it out...of course, they just kinda sat there with a really confused look on their face, kinda half-giggling because neither of us could understand each other. So maybe 5 or 10 minutes later, after a lot of broken English/acting out/pointing/blank stares, they figured out what in the world I was talking about, so by the time David came back almost all the kids had acted out and activity...Everyone, including myself, just laughed through the whole thing, and they seemed to actually have learned some English by the end of the class.After the crazy morning with the kids, we went to visit a couple about 20 kilometers away; the man is from Hawaii and the Thai woman is really sweet. We just kinda chatted for awhile, and a man from the village stopped by for a little while as well. David then read a few verses from the Bible, partly talking English, partly talking Thai. I'm not sure if the Hawaiian man is a Christian, but he seemed to understand all that David was saying about us being reconciled with God when we become saved, and he knows many Bible stories, as does his wife.
Then the woman took us to a Buddhist temple near their house because her husband had mentioned that the monks have the option of studying about Christianity for a year, and he was quite curious to see what they were actually learning about it. We got to take pictures and go in the temple; we stopped for a little while to talk to a monk (or rather, David talked to him) and later we found out that they were kind of comparing/contrasting Jesus and Buddha. David tried to explain to him about Jesus, but it's hard because many times, Buddhists will say He's just like Buddha in that He taught people to do good, etc. so they just kind of agree but don't understand the aspect of Christ's dying for us since we can't be good enough on our own. So anyway, please continue to be in prayer for David to know how to explain Christianity to Buddhist so they'll see the difference and want to know more about Christ.One last fun thing I'd like to write about before I'm done...this evening I went to the park to see if a couple of friends from the high school were going to still meet me to play volleyball...they ended up not being able to come because they were busy with homework, but I did get to watch some girls I met about a week ago play in the volleyball tournament that's been going on! There's been a ton of people at the park every evening to watch the soccer and volleyball games the past week or so...I'm so glad I saw those girls cause after a close match (in which they lost in the 3rd game), they invited me to go to Lotus (the Thai equivalent of Walmart) with them! The three that I went with are 24, 24, and 28 years old, and they all work at the hospital in Khukhan. So we hopped onto 2 different motorcycles and enjoyed getting to hang out in Lotus and eating dinner there together as well. The oldest one knows a good bit of English...at least enough communicate with me, and the others are alot of fun to be around as well even when I don't know what they're saying :) They taught me several Thai words, which I can't guarantee I'll remember, but I do my best...We were about to leave when we noticed it was pouring down rain, so we just decided to wait it out for about 40 minutes or so...it didn't stop. It was about 8:00pm by this point, and they decided that as long as I didn't mind, we'd go ahead and drive back cause the rain didn't look like it was slowing down, so we commenced to driving back in the rain :) It's not that far of a ride, and I actually enjoyed it alot... I can't wait to be able to hang out with them again :)
Anyway, I can never thank you enough for your prayers during my trip--I know they are making such a big difference!
~Hannah
Isaiah 55:11,12
Monday, June 9, 2008
Sorry it's been several days since my last post;our internet's been broken for the past couple of days...anyway, I've finished my first full week of ministry and have absolutely loved it! Wednesday we went to a village to pass out some more tracts and Thursday we got to go to the school here in Khukhan (3,000 students from all around the province!) to teach some English and answer any questions the kids had for us "faranges". It's kinda funny getting to go to the schools because whenever we wave or smile to the kids, they'll get all shy and the girls start giggling and hide behind each other. I'm excited to have met a few girls and teachers who can speak some English...in fact, one of the teachers knows fluent English because she lived in the States for 1o years! So me and Kendall have gotten to go out to eat with her and a friend of hers--they're both about 27, so it's great to have some Thai women we'll be able to personally reach out to during the rest of our time here. Please pray for us as we develop or relationships with Patty and Ni--and that they would see the difference of Christ in us.
Friday we didn't have any ministry to do, and the prince's wife was coming, so there were flags lining the streets and huge posters decorated of her...it was quite a site to see! On Saturdays, we have a weekly children's ministry we do at a couples' house about 15 or 20 minutes from Khukhan. The children sing several Thai songs, then the pastor teaches a Bible story to the kids. Then me and Kendall taught the kids a short English lesson about emotions then taught them the song "If you're happy and you know it...", which was good song for the because even if they couldn't quite pick up the words of the song, they could at least do the motions of clapping their hands, etc. There were about 12-15 kids there this week which I think is about average for the Saturday ministry. I enjoyed going to church in Khukhan on Sunday, although I went by myself because the Cobbs went to the other church in Sisaket and Kendall wasn't feeling too well. Afterwards, one of the ladies and a couple of the girls lured me into the kitchen to help them make lunch, which made them so happy to be able to teach me how to make papaya salad. I've found several Thai food I really enjoy, you just have to be careful because the majority of Thai food has lots and lots of peppers in it, so it'll catch your mouth on fire, including papaya salad!
I'm continuing to try to learn some of the Thai language, but it's kinda difficult since they have 5 different tones, so you have to be careful how you say things... It's great though that body language and smiling can go a long way!
I continue to look forward to all the new opportunities God gives me everyday; thanks for praying for the missionaries and the Khmer people!
~Hannah
~
Friday we didn't have any ministry to do, and the prince's wife was coming, so there were flags lining the streets and huge posters decorated of her...it was quite a site to see! On Saturdays, we have a weekly children's ministry we do at a couples' house about 15 or 20 minutes from Khukhan. The children sing several Thai songs, then the pastor teaches a Bible story to the kids. Then me and Kendall taught the kids a short English lesson about emotions then taught them the song "If you're happy and you know it...", which was good song for the because even if they couldn't quite pick up the words of the song, they could at least do the motions of clapping their hands, etc. There were about 12-15 kids there this week which I think is about average for the Saturday ministry. I enjoyed going to church in Khukhan on Sunday, although I went by myself because the Cobbs went to the other church in Sisaket and Kendall wasn't feeling too well. Afterwards, one of the ladies and a couple of the girls lured me into the kitchen to help them make lunch, which made them so happy to be able to teach me how to make papaya salad. I've found several Thai food I really enjoy, you just have to be careful because the majority of Thai food has lots and lots of peppers in it, so it'll catch your mouth on fire, including papaya salad!
I'm continuing to try to learn some of the Thai language, but it's kinda difficult since they have 5 different tones, so you have to be careful how you say things... It's great though that body language and smiling can go a long way!
I continue to look forward to all the new opportunities God gives me everyday; thanks for praying for the missionaries and the Khmer people!
~Hannah
~
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Fun-filled last few days...
Sawadee Ka!
Everything's going really great here halfway across the world...I went to church here in Khu Khan for the first time on Sunday; there were only about 5 other adults besides the missionary family and us 5 college students. Although the whole service was in Thai, it was still exciting to get to see some kids and know what the local church is like. From what the missionaries have told me, there are very few believers in Thailand--in fact, during the 6 or 7 years that the Cobbs have been here they've probably just seen a handful of people get saved. It's kind of a struggle for us college summer missionaries to minister as well because we don't know Thai, so all we can do is just smile and nod at the people around us (which the Thai people love :). This morning we went to a school nearby to see if we could teach some English to the kids, but for some reason the school was closed for the day--there were only some really young kids, but they were about to be let out. David said you never know when a school will just randomly close...not for any particular reason, just kind of random, so we just learn to be flexible.
Instead, the 3 member team that gets to stay one more week, me & Kendall, and David went to another town and handed out Thai tracts to alot of the people there. Many of the people weren't home though because they were working; the ones we did see though were polite and took the tract even if they may not have wanted it, while others actually started reading it. Right when we were loading up to leave, the school in the village let out, so we gave tracts to the kids coming out and they were pretty excited to get them. Sometimes it's hard for us and the missionaries to know exactly how to minister to the people because we're limited with the language barrier and all, and the missionaries have seemed to get little interest in people going to church or learning about the gospel. The Thai-Khmer people are very friendly, it's just hard to get them to understand that pleasing spirits and worshiping dead ancestors is not what they need. Please pray that we would be able to search for and find ways to show the love of God to these wonderful people, and for us not to get too discouraged when we may not see people getting saved, etc.
Amidst the mission work, I've gotten to do some fun things to enjoy the Thai culture--including riding an elephant! Mondays are our days off, so the other missionaries were glad to take me and the other 3 college students to ride elephants and see a show in a town called Surin about 1 & 1/2 hours away. It was so much fun, and afterwards we went to a small mall where we got to bowl a little and eat pizza or KFC for dinner. We were all whooped at the end of the day, but now we can say we've ridden elephants before!
Thanks again for all your prayers...Luke 8:2~Hannah
Everything's going really great here halfway across the world...I went to church here in Khu Khan for the first time on Sunday; there were only about 5 other adults besides the missionary family and us 5 college students. Although the whole service was in Thai, it was still exciting to get to see some kids and know what the local church is like. From what the missionaries have told me, there are very few believers in Thailand--in fact, during the 6 or 7 years that the Cobbs have been here they've probably just seen a handful of people get saved. It's kind of a struggle for us college summer missionaries to minister as well because we don't know Thai, so all we can do is just smile and nod at the people around us (which the Thai people love :). This morning we went to a school nearby to see if we could teach some English to the kids, but for some reason the school was closed for the day--there were only some really young kids, but they were about to be let out. David said you never know when a school will just randomly close...not for any particular reason, just kind of random, so we just learn to be flexible.
Instead, the 3 member team that gets to stay one more week, me & Kendall, and David went to another town and handed out Thai tracts to alot of the people there. Many of the people weren't home though because they were working; the ones we did see though were polite and took the tract even if they may not have wanted it, while others actually started reading it. Right when we were loading up to leave, the school in the village let out, so we gave tracts to the kids coming out and they were pretty excited to get them. Sometimes it's hard for us and the missionaries to know exactly how to minister to the people because we're limited with the language barrier and all, and the missionaries have seemed to get little interest in people going to church or learning about the gospel. The Thai-Khmer people are very friendly, it's just hard to get them to understand that pleasing spirits and worshiping dead ancestors is not what they need. Please pray that we would be able to search for and find ways to show the love of God to these wonderful people, and for us not to get too discouraged when we may not see people getting saved, etc.
Amidst the mission work, I've gotten to do some fun things to enjoy the Thai culture--including riding an elephant! Mondays are our days off, so the other missionaries were glad to take me and the other 3 college students to ride elephants and see a show in a town called Surin about 1 & 1/2 hours away. It was so much fun, and afterwards we went to a small mall where we got to bowl a little and eat pizza or KFC for dinner. We were all whooped at the end of the day, but now we can say we've ridden elephants before!
Thanks again for all your prayers...Luke 8:2~Hannah
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