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