Java Talk

The students at Chiang Mai University have finals now. They are incredibly busy and it seems that all they do is study. Still, we do get to see them a lot at TLC Java; the place has been pretty busy lately. We decided to change our format for teaching these few weeks due to the fact that the students are always studying. We started Java Talk. Java Talk is very similar to Coffee talk from the old SNL skits. We talk about different topics such as “Rhode Island is neither a road nor an island” or “a peanut is neither a pea nor a nut.” Each day we had a different topic such as poetry, Valentine’s Day, Retro TV night, music, baseball, football, and cooking. We wanted a little easier format to give the students a break from studying. It has been very successful. The students always seem to have a good time.

Poetry
Thai poetry is interesting. We have only heard the Northern Thai poetry though. It is sang in song, but there are no instruments. Some of the poems are very difficult and only a few people are able to recite them. Thai’s are not used to rhyme or alliteration. We showed them how to write Haiku and we played a limerick game where they had to guess the last word of the limerick. We got the limerick game from NPR’s “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me.”

There was a young lady named Kite
Whose speed was much faster than light.
She left home one day
In a relative way
And returned on the previous ____________.

Retro TV nightWith the Retro TV night we all watched an old episode of “I Love Lucy.” The Thai’s really liked it because physical humor goes over quite well here. It was a good example of American humor and also helped with explaining some different idioms and sayings. We watched the chocolate factory episode as well as an episode when Fred, Ethel, Lucy, and Ricky go to court.

MusicMusic really helps people who are learning English. It helps with understanding how to say things and also the different stresses that we use while speaking. Scott played his guitar and taught the students “Country Road” by John Denver and “All You Need is Love” by The Beatles. After that, we gave the students the lyrics for “Needle and Haystack Life” by Switchfoot with some words missing and they had to fill in the correct words. We also played a game where students had to match popular English idioms with the correct meaning. The first pair that finished received a free coffee. For each song, we discussed the meaning.

Baseball
We had a very exciting game here in Thailand. We played at this rundown, dusty softball field that looked like the field from “Sandlot.” We explained the game and briefly showed the Thai’s how to hit. The Thai’s took to the game very well. We even had a few homeruns. The homeruns were the result of grounders. The grass is not thick enough to stop a ball, so we needed to be very careful not to let one pass between our legs. There was a game of soccer being played right next to us, and the players were wearing masks. They were wearing them because they kicked up so much dust playing. Everything is very dry here.

Football
We taught them about football and the Superbowl. We didn’t have them play football though. We found a collection of all the good plays of this year’s Superbowl and explained what was happening. They enjoyed the compilation more than watching an actual game because it moves much faster. After ten minutes of watching, we had them make their own commercials. They were making commercials for spray-on tanning and a tuk tuk. In Thailand, it is more attractive to be lighter skinned than darker, so it took a bit to explain why spray-on tan would be a popular product. A tuk tuk is a three-wheeled open air taxi. They are often pimped out with dance club lights and exhaust tips. The tuk tuk is the reason for global warming. You often hear them or smell them before you actually see them.



Cooking
The Thai students love to learn how to cook and love to eat even more. It is difficult sometimes because they are weary of foreigner food, and they often don’t like to eat anything that they are not used to. This is a country filled with Randy Jacksons. We taught a few different recipes to them during Java Talk such as how to make spaghetti with homemade sauce. To tempt them into enjoying it, we added a spicy Thai sausage called “Say Uah”. The taste is described by our friend Lauren as, “a Thai market in your mouth.” It turned out pretty good. There was nothing leftover by the end.

Bolognese Sauce

Ingredients8 tablespoons oil
16 large cloves of garlic, finely chopped
32 whole tomatoes,diced
2 green bell peppers, coarsely chopped
2 yellow bell peppers, coarsely chopped
2 medium red onions, finely chopped
2 medium white onions, finely chopped
mushrooms, chopped
2 teaspoon fresh leaves of basil, chopped
4 (16-ounce) cans tomato sauce
Salt
Pepper
1 pound ground pork
4 tablespoons sugar
4 hot sausage link (optional), chopped
2 tablespoons Italian seasoning


Directions
In a large skillet, place the olive oil and cloves of garlic. Cook for about 2 minutes over medium heat until garlic gets light tan but not brown. Add the tomatoes into the oil and garlic and scald tomatoes for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, and breaking up with a spoon. Transfer tomato mixture to a large saucepan and keep on low heat. Clean out skillet for upcoming use.


Mix chopped vegetables and basil, and Italian seasoning together in a big bowl. Take 1/3 of mixture and set aside. Put the remaining 2/3 into saucepan with tomato mixture. Add 4 (16-ounce) cans of tomato sauce to tomato mixture. Add 2 teaspoon salt to taste, and freshly ground pepper (as such as you like). Let the tomato sauce cook uncovered simmering.


Put about 2 tablespoon of olive oil in bottom of skillet. Add ground pork, and remaining 1/3 vegetable mixture. Cook until meat is medium well and then add mixture to tomato sauce. Add 4 tablespoons of sugar to pot. Simmer tomato sauce partially covered.


Next, take the sausage links and make a slit down the middle, but do not cut in half. Place the sausage links in skillet and cook until browned all the way through. Chop sausage into chunks and add to the tomato sauce. Serve over cooked pasta and enjoy! Bon Appetit!

January Update

January was an amazing month. This has been the most fruitful time here in Thailand. We continue to teach English at TLC and volunteer at the coffee shop. Scott is becoming quite the barista, but he prefers the term "baristo." We had our first Quest outreach in January as well. We made a trip to our friend's hill tribe village. We also had our first visitors, Julie's parents. God is answering prayers in amazing ways. It is a very exciting time here in Thailand.

English classes continue to go well. We still have around 30 students, which is a perfect number. We don't even have to advertise to gain students. We had many new students, who we are getting to know well. During this past English course, we invited our students to join TLC church's outreach to a nearby children's home called Hope House, during Thailand's Children's Day. We were very happy to have seven students that are not members of TLC church came along. The students organized a game to play with the students as well as brought treats for the children. TLC church planned games as well as songs, a skit, and prayer time with the children. We also gave the students gifts of school and art supplies that TLC church and English center had collected. The seven students that went told us they definitely want to go back and loved spending time with the children. The children also enjoyed the time and many hugs and sad good-byes were given when we had to leave.

In addition to the children's home outreach, we also invited our students to our first Quest outreach event. We created Quest as a time for students to come who want to learn more about God and Christianity. We also wanted to encourage students who had questions about God and Christianity to come as well. We first got the idea about hearing about how an AGWM English ministry in Bangkok had started what they call "seeker camps" and shared about it's success at a Fellowship meeting we had a couple months ago. We felt it would be a good event for us to try as well with the goal of having them with every English course. We also invited members of TLC church to come to become a part of the event as well to begin building relationships with the students as well as share their own testimonies. At our Quest outreach we had two of our students come, Nok and Iew. At first, we were discouraged by the low number of responses, but God had a plan in motion. Nok and Iew ended up having to come late because Iew's bus arrived late back into Chiang Mai after she went home for the weekend. Because they were our only two students, we were able to start the event an hour later than we had scheduled. Horm, a friend of Dee, a memeber of TLC church, came was well. It was well worth the wait! We all had fun playing games we had organized with a "quest" or "searching" theme, singing worship songs, and hearing King, the pastor of TLC church, share about Christianity. After King shared, his wife, Apple, asked the girls their thoughts. Nok and Iew shared that they had gone to a Catholic school when they were young and had heard about Christianity, but didn't know how to begin a relationship with Christ. They came to Quest seeking a relationship with Jesus and prayed to accept Jesus as their savior! The girls left excited and thankful for the Quest outreach. We left so thankful for how God hears and answers prayers! The next Sunday, Nok and Iew came to TLC church and Julie and Lauren met with them later that afternoon for discipleship time. Nok and Iew have begun their journey in knowing God. Sadly, already, they have had to learn quickly to lean on Him and trust God during tough times. Two weeks ago, Nok and Iew had a very bad week. A tree branch feel through the windshield of Nok's car during a storm, Iew returned home to be with her dad who was in the hospital with a broken leg, and Nok and Iew's friend died in a car accident. Through it all they have learned the comfort that God can provide through prayer and are continuing to trust God. Please keep them in the prayers to continue to persevere through this tough time.

The same Sunday God answered prayers for Quest, God also answered a prayer for our friend, Leemar. Leemar is a good friend of ours at TLC. His father has diabetes and he became very sick. He lost his sight, had seizures, had both of his kidneys fail, and he couldn't move. Our friend said he was rotting from the inside out. Leemar's family took the father to the doctor and the doctor said he was dying and there was nothing he could do. The family took him back home and waited. The father could not do anything for himself, his sons had to do everything for him. Leemar wanted his father to meet his friends from church before he died. Leemar invited the church to come and pray for his father. We all went to his village and prayed with his family and played some songs for his father. It was very hard to see our friend watch his father die. The next day the church received a call from Leemar. Leemar said that his father woke up the next morning completely healed. He could see, walk, and talk! The family was so happy. Leemar's father and mother went to church to get baptized that same day. It is an amazing story. We had never seen anything like it. God still works miracles.

Julie's parents visited this month. It was great to see them again. They enjoyed seeing the ministries here in Thailand. It was also nice to be able to do some of the tourist activities that we haven't done here yet. We saw some beautiful waterfalls. We caught some large MeeKong catfish.