Go FiSH!

We had an awesome time at "Under the Sea" English camp this past weekend! We started on Saturday morning at about 9:00, and we had about 45 students come, plus our team of 6 volunteers and the Payne family. We did plenty of singing, relay games, and told several Bible stories. To go along with the "Under the Sea" theme of the camp, we told the story of Noah, Jesus calming the storm, and Jesus walking on water. Within our teams of sharks, whales, dolphins, and fish, we had small group discussions to talk more about the stories and practice English more. I had some great conversations with some students pertaining to the gospel and God's forgiveness. The camp lasted until lunchtime Sunday, and the students seemed to really enjoy all the activities we did :)

Some random highlights from camp:

• One of the relays included "shave the balloon", where the team leaders (a.k.a. the Americans), held balloons covered in shaving cream, and the team members had to shave them. The first team to pop their balloon was the sharks, which meant Kristen and the Thai shaving the balloon got shaving cream all over them--hilarious!
• It was fun to sing lots of songs pertaining to water...such as Baby Shark, Peace Like a River, Waves of Mercy, and Deep and Wide.
• Saturday night we introduced what a square dance was to the students...and we all proceeded to do the Virginia Reel :) It was so much fun doing a country dance with all the Thai students and teaching them "dosie-do," "bow to your partner," "swing your partner," etc. :)
• I enjoyed rooming with 3 other Thai girls for the night--all the while watching a Thai soap opera, chatting with the girls, eating lots of snacks, and then watching part of Transformers in Thai before heading to bed.
• The students prepared a neat song and chant to share with us....As they practice they wouldn't let us watch/listen because it was a "secret". Sunday morning we thoroughly enjoyed hearing them do the chants with motions :) They did such a great job!
• I was part of the Fish team, and by the end of camp (after earning points through relay games and decorating team posters)...we won!! Go Fish!! :D

Needless to say, we loved spending so much time with the students and had an amazing sense of accomplishment after it was over. God truly  has blessed us and has grown us closer to our friends and to each other tremendously...I look forward to seeing how God uses us this next month!

Sawadee Ka!

the park, food, and English camp...

I enjoyed going to the park this morning...since we don't have class until later in the afternoon on Fridays, Ginny, Becca, and I went to exercise at the local park. It completely made my day when I saw a class of preschoolers playing on the playground...Each time I walked around the park, I'd smile and wave to a particular group of little girls. Later as I sat down to rest, one little girl just kept waving over and over to me. She'd slide--and wave. Stand there--and wave. Run around--and wave. Turn around--then wave. I've determined that Thai kids are adorable!

Anyway, this week has gone by fast just like all the others...we taught every day with our regular schedule with several fun activities in between. Tuesday, several of the English Education students came over to our apartment, and we celebrated one of the student's 21st birthdays :)

Last night, we went to eat with Pat and Yui (2 English majors) at Boomsteak...they've got a good bit of "American food", or at least food close enough to it :) Fries, burgers, porkchops, etc...
We've found that we seem to be eating a lot...I guess food is a major part of many cultures :) I absolutely love eating Thai food! Here are some favorites (I'll do my best to explain since most of them I say using Thai :)...fried raman noodles, fried rice with chicken or pork, omelette over rice, garlic pork, Thai-style noodles, stir fried vegetables over rice, thom yam gung (a popular soup with spices and shrimp in it)...and of course, LOTS of tropical fruit!
The different brands they have for snacks are fun too...For instance, the other night I was craving some cookies to go with a glass of milk I had, so I went to 7/11 real quick...and came back with a package of Fun-O's! Talk about fun cookies :) Anyway, just some excitement I get from simple pleasures of life :)

English camp starts tomorrow, which is very exciting! We've got a full camp and have been planning a lot the past few days for all the activities we'll be doing...pray that not only will everyone enjoy it, but also that the Bible stories we tell to teach English will create good discussions among our groups to explain more about Christ and the Word.
As we go through life in Thailand for the summer, I pray that we won't grow complacent and forget the seriousness of the task God has called us to...May we be passionate about building relationships and sharing the gospel to those around us :)

[Colossians 1:9-14]

Thanks for your support!
~Shompoo

Lots of Teaching...and UNO :)

Well, another week has flown by...it's amazing how fast things go when we're teaching and getting to know students! It was a pretty typical week as far as the schedule goes...I battled some coughing and congestion all week, but I'm basically recovered now. I found it a little ironic that I had "cold" in such a hot country ;)

Wednesday was our first full afternoon of teaching the pharmacy students, which was a little challenging because they don't know quite as much English as the majors we're used to teaching. Nevertheless, it was great to meet them, and I'm looking forward to seeing them next week :)

Last night we had our weekly party, which was definitely a blast :) We were thinking we might be overwhelmed with how many students might come after inviting so many, but just a couple people came at first. Later 6 or 7 more came, so it was a good number to play games and interact one on one...of course, UNO was a big hit as usual, and then later we taught them a game called "Signs", which can be quite a funny game to play. Once they caught on, the Thais seemed to really enjoy it.

Some other random tidbits:

• We usually walk to school 2 or 3 days out of the week (maybe a couple km?), which leaves us VERY grateful for an airconditioned classroom!
• We now love to go "drink milk" with our friends...i.e. go to a shop down the road to drink smoothies/shakes-- a favorite pastime of the students :)
• There have been LOTS of applications already turned in for English camp coming up soon--very exciting!!

Please pray for interest in Lifegroups/Bible studies we're trying to start. We advsertised several last week to our students, but there were just 2 students who came for the one on Tuesday. However, those 2 seemed to be interested in coming again next week and possibly bringing friends. Pray that God will open the Thais' hearts to be interested in learning English through Bible stories in small group settings we're trying to offer. This coming Wednesday, we'll be helping Valerie with a Bible study she'll be starting.

A blessing from this past week also was that we met 2 Thai girls who will probably be coming to church Sunday. I'm excited to see they're interested, and I pray that God will be able to work through us to minister to them.

God is good!
-Hannah

Pictures

I uploaded some pictures! Click here to see them :)

we did it! the first full week of teaching...

Wow! We've officially finished our first full week of teaching at the university and it's been great...sometimes seemed to go by slow, other moments fast, but we're all enjoying in nonetheless :)
The students have seemed to enjoy the classes and (hopefully) learned alot...I'm definitely looking forward to seeing familiar faces next week as we teach on our regular schedule we've begun. The friends we've made have been so kind to us and helping us feel welcome here...The other night we went to the small market with several of them after class and we all had a blast! We were definitely all stuffed after dinner because they kept buying all these different foods for us to try, and it all being so good (arroy mak!), we couldn't resist :)

On Monday, Thursday, Friday we teach English Education majors of many different years on school; those classes usually have about 30 to 40 people on them. Tuesday and Wednesday we teach 2nd and 3rd year English majors, and those classes each have 20 students in them. We mainly taught about family last week, and most of the students caught on well, and we all learned so much about their families...it's alot of fun finding out where they are all from and what they like to do for fun. It's a little overwhelming trying to learn all their names (or rather nicknames, since all Thais have nicknames)...The ones we've hung out with lately include Mintra, Thu, Jiw, Momew, Tee, and so many others!

By the way, in case your interested, here are our Thai nicknames:
Me- Shompoo (rose apple)
Josh- Pleng (song)
Ginny- Nam Som (orange juice)
Stephanie- Nam wan (sweet water)
Becca- Nampung (honey)
Kristen- Namthan (sugar)
...when our student find out all our names, it's pretty funny cause they all say something like "oh you all so sweet!" haha ;)

Today we went with Thu, Tee, and Tee's sister to Khon Kaen for the day (about the 4th largest city in Thailand). We took a bus, and it usually takes about an hour to get there. They've recently built a really big new mall in Khon Kaen, where we watched a movie and had LOTS of pizza for lunch :) It was lots of fun hanging out together, and we look forward to possibly going again sometime to see more in the city.

That's about all for now...continue to pray for us as we meet so many new students and find ways to spend time with them and get to know them more. Also, please pray for the other missionaries we're working with, Rich and Vicki Casebolt, as they seek to make connections at another major university in town (Rajabhat Mahasarakham University). We're able to see them a few times a week to help Rich out and see their little boys sometimes :)

Sawadee Ka!
(by the way, I'm hopefully gonna have a chance to possibly post pictures next week...I'd love to share some with you if I can!)

Psalm 19:7-9, 14

"The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul;
the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;
the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever;
the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether.

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer."

Getting into the swing of things!

Well Becca and I just came back from talaat noy (small market) at the university, which is a great place to shop and buy food (cheap!). We enjoyed sticky rice and moo ping (pork on a stick) along with a yummy smoothie :) Last Friday night us girls walked a much bigger market that is only open Friday and Saturday nights and can be a little overwhelming at first with just floods of people shopping. You just kind of have to jump in a walk with the masses (better not try to walk the opposite direction!)...

Saturday night our party turned out great! There were only about 6 or 7 Thais that came, but we had a blast nonetheless! Playing Uno, chatting, and eating were probably the main highlights of the night :)

Sunday, our team had such a blessed time of worship together in the morning, where we sang, prayed, and shared Scripture with each other. It was so encouraging to lift each other up and hear how God is working in their lives as well. We enjoyed going to the Vietnamese restaurant for lunch, and in the evening we had Thai church. We meet in one of the church members houses, and it was amazing to see the Thai Christian family from last year (Ot, Gai, Nuan, Kopter, and Tra)... They are filled with such joy, and it was exciting to reunite with them and hear about how God's been providing for them and being faithful.

Today was our first day of teaching-- and it was splendid! The students seemed to really enjoy the activities we did, which consisted of some more introductory sort of things...playing a name game, tossing around a beach ball with simple questions on it, and singing "If you're happy and you know it". Later in the day, Becca and I got to tutor/teach a couple of high school girls named Faa and Deer...they were a little shy at first but very sweet. I'm looking forward to helping them learn English once a week.

Anyway, we'll be teaching some more in the morning... so I look forward to sharing with you all at the end of the week!

Sawadee Ka!!

Here I am, finally getting a chance to blog-- in the familiar internet cafe from last year :) It's hard to even know where to start with what all's been happening and going to happen soon! We arrived in Bangkok around 11pm Monday night (thai time), then Tuesday morning flew to the town of Udon Thani for orientation at the local church there. I loved being able to see that ministry there, where they have such strong Christian leadership from the local people. The pastor and associate pastor were involved in orientation as well, helping us learn more about Thai culture and religion. It was a lot of information, but definitely all really helpful as we learn to relate to the Thais we'll be teaching and ministering to.

There were 2 girls, Jessi and Stephanie, from Tennessee that met us in Bangkok and will be working in Udon Thani for this summer, which is about 3 hours from here (Mahasarakham), so hopefully we'll be able to work with them a couple times during these 2 months. Please be in prayer for them as they partner with the church there and serve in a variety of ministry opportunities.

Overview of what we've done and what we'll do the next few days:

• ate supper at KFC yesterday :)
• met 2 friendly girls in an Udon Thani grocery store who are teaching an elementary school there--did I mention one was from England and one from Australia?? how cool is that! It's quite exciting meeting other "farangs" (foreigners) here :)
• slept in this morning...til 8:30. Jet lag hasn't been too bad...well, maybe for some worse than others, haha ;)
• went downtown this morning just to look around-- saying we stuck out like a sore thumb would be a pretty accurate description I'd say. 7 white people walking together (one being 6'5") stands out just a little bit.
• ate lunchat my favorite restaurant around the corner-- love seeing familiar faces :)
• had dinner with Rich and Vicki Casebolt, who are missionaries here in Mahasarakham also (moved here in the last year or so)...they have 2 little boys, 3 yrs old and 1 year old-- so cute!
• had a Thai language lesson with Pat and Nui, some friends from last summer, which was so fun! they'll be back in the morning to teach us more...Thai is quite a fun language :)
• we'll be meeting with a few Thai professors we'll be partnering with for teaching ESL...starting to teach next week!

I guess that's about it for now (or at least what's on my mind at the moment!)...thanks for reading!

Sawadee Ka!