don't worry, i'm still here :)

wow, it's been awhile since I've blogged...we just got back from going to lunch with some of the pharmacy faculty--they wanted to show their appreciation for our help this summer. Later tonight, a few of the professors from the English department are also taking us to dinner as a thank you...The people are so kind here!

So here's some highlights since the last post (sorry for delay, we've been crazy busy!)...

*Last Wednesday was the beginning of a 5 week Bible Study that Valerie is leading in Thai. There was only one Thai student and a professor, both of whom are Christians, so it was kinda sad not having more than that, but it being the week before midterms, slightly expected...It was still a blessing though, getting to meet together, singing praise songs, and reading Psalm 8. But some great news: yesterday we had it again, and 7 students came! At first some of them were shy to come because they had never been before and they weren't sure if they could since they weren't Christians...We told them them we would love for them to come and find out what we do during Bible study and learn about. It's basically a study of who God is, why we should know Him, how we can know Him, etc...alot of the basics that many Thais aren't familiar with.

*Last Friday was Rachel's birthday (21st!), so our weekly party became a birthday party! Many students came, and it was so much fun like usual :) We plan on having our last one tomorrow, so we hope to be able to see lots of our students before we have to leave next week :(

*This past weekend at English camp was great! It was much smaller than previous camps, but we still have 25 or so students, which was awesome considering it was the weekend before midterms started and many had said they couldn't come because of that. The theme was "Heroes", and in teaching English, we explained different stories of American superheroes (such as Spiderman and Underdog, haha), and Biblical heroes (Joseph and the father in the prodigal son parable)...And of course, we played lots of games and sang a whole bunch of songs, which they all seemed to really enjoy :)

*This week we don't teach classes since it's midterms at the university, so we've been spending lots of time here and there with all our friends :) It seems to be even busier than we were when we taught classes! I was so excited because a couple students named Noof and Peach asked if I wanted to join them in some of their elementary classes that they are student teaching for, it being their 4th year...So Monday and Tuesday morning I got to help out by reading some stories and teaching basic English to a Kindergarten class and a 4th grade class :) It absolutely made my day getting to see lots of cute Thai kids! Since this town is primarily a college town, we haven't interacted much with kids, so I just didn't even know what to do with myself cause I was so happy :) :)

*Tuesday: Went to lunch with the Paynes and a friend of our named Pat...then we went to this village about 30 kilometers away that has TONS of monkeys! They just roam around so you can take pictures and stuff...but beware, they're not as friendly and cute as they look ;) They started like hoppin on top of the van, but thankfully none of them attacked us-- although Rachel was threatened by one of them lol...I can't wait to put pictures up of this place cause I've never seen so many monkeys in my life--and in a place you could just walk around with them! The baby monkeys were my favorite :)
That evening, our group and the Paynes enjoyed going to Ot's family's house--the Christian family that got baptized a couple weeks ago. Some of them played tekraw, a difficult sport that Thais play. It's kinda like volleyball--with only your feet and head--and takes some serious skill to play...We got to sit and chat outside as we ate and took pictures. It was such a blessing to spend some time with them because they have amazing joy, and it's neat to have the deep bond of Christ with them :)

*Last night, Charlotte got to spend the night at our apartment...funny story though--we had no power all evening/night! We noticed in the afternoon that it was out, but apparently we were to dumb to think to tell Scott haha...so by the time he knew, it was too late for the electrician to come replace the fuse. But nonetheless, we had a blast! Two of our Thai friends Ploy and Pat also came over, and we sang songs as Aaron played guitar, made bracelets by candlelight, and just enjoyed time together. We also made late night run to 7/11 around the corner, which we tend to do often, even if it's just for a snack or Coke :) Thankfully, our air on the first floor was still working so even though everything was pitch dark, it was cool downstairs :) Ploy had to leave late, but Pat went ahead and stayed the night as well, so we all spread out mats downstairs on the tile (it was really hot upstairs without the fans working) and slept really good with the airconditioning, lol.

It's been great getting to have freetime to make plans with our friends this last week...Please pray that we'll continue to make the most of our time these last few days. And also, pray that goodbyes won't be too difficult, because I know none of us our looking forward to leaving all our friends next week...

Thanks again for keeping up with my summer and for all your prayers...they've made such a difference!
~Shompoo