Thoeng Round 2

On our drive to Thoeng.

We packed some of our belongings in the back of the truck and drove 4 hours northeast to Thoeng once again. In the middle of the hot and dry season, God decided to play Song Kran too and it began to rain.  We were worried many of our things would be soaked, but we lucked out.  We moved back into the same house we stayed in before and were glad to see the house had not been carried away by ants.

Some of the animals that come to our house are welcome... some are not!

At the stoplight in Thoeng.

Scenes from the market.

Thai farm truck

This past week we have been teaching at a school in Thoeng called Kittikhunthoengvittaya.  Kittikhun is a Thai word meaning grace.  There are about 300 1st through 6th grade students attending the school's summer camp.  In the morning, the students are in the classroom learning different subjects including Engish.  Scott is teaching the students in the 4th, 5th, and 6th grade classes.  Julie is teaching the students in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade classes.  We teach a new group every hour from 9 until 12 and each group has about 50 students.  At first, the number seemed overwhelming, but we have had some help from the Thai teachers at the school.  We are so thankful for their help in classroom management and translating when the students do not understand us.  After lunch, the students rotate between swimming lessons in the school's pool, cooking lessons, music lessons, or art lessons.  When the students leave at 3pm, the pool is open to the public.  The director of the school invited us to come swim there as well.  In this heat, we are glad to take a dip.  It's also nice to get to interact some more with our students.  When we frist get there, we try to get some exercise by doing laps, but students tell us, "Enough!  No more swimming!  Play with us!" 

Kittikunthoengvittaya School

We also will be teaching at a new house church on Saturdays and in Phu Sang, a city near Thoeng, every Friday.  This past Friday, we went to Phu Sang to teach.  Julie had two younger students and Scott had 5 older high school students.  The owner of the house where we are teaching invites many of the children in her village to church each week and is now inviting them to learn English as well.  Some weeks she brings as many as 20 people to church! 

The students in Phu Sang.

A mechanical buffalo used for farming.

We recently heard news back in Chiang Mai that a English student at TLC has recently decided to become a Christian.  Praise God!  Please continue to pray for all of our students!  Thank you again for all your support and prayers!

Opportunity to Serve

Our friend/boss, Lauren, made this website to recruit people to teach English at TLC Center.  Volunteers to teach English are needed when we leave at the end of July.  Check it out and pray about it!

http://opportunitytoserve.wordpress.com/

Song Kran Holiday

Sawatdii pii mai! 

(Happy New Year!)

We returned to Chiang Mai for a couple weeks around the Thai New Year, Song Kran. For the first couple of days we had to go to Laos once again to get a new visa. We took an overnight bus ride to the border of Laos and Thailand. We then stayed overnight in Vientienne after turning in our papers to obtain a new visa. The next night we boarded an overnight bus once again back to Chiang Mai. We were very tired by the end due to lack of sleep, but remained healthy this time. We made sure to take a lot of vitamins and wore face masks while on the bus. We are happy that this was our last trip to Vientienne and we got a visa that will last until we will be returning to the USA in August.

We also helped teach another session of Java Talk at TLC. One night during class we had fun working on the importance of how to give clear directions by making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Many of our students had never eaten a peanut butter and jelly sandwich before so it was definitely a new experience. We had our friend, Doi, eat one. When we told him about what it was he asked, "You mean you mix the peanut butter with the jelly? Gross!!" Later he made Scott eat a fish eyeball and said, "I ate the peanut butter and jelly sandwich so you need to eat this." Some how to us, it didn't seem like a fair comparison.

We also did a lesson on muscles, body parts, and exercise. To conclude the lesson Julie lead a short 15 minute yoga session. Some other highlights were making a variety of salsas during a Friday night party, reading and writing poetry, role playing a jungle survivor interview, and discussing music. We had a total of  8 students this session, the majority all new students! Most of our students have returned home for the summer session or are working so it is definitely exciting to be able to continue to have classes, especially with the opportunities to build new relationships.

People around the moat in Chiang Mai celebrate Song Kran!  You definitely get wet!

Eating dinner along the beach of Chalong Bay in Phuket.

After helping teach Java Talk at TLC, we had a week break for the Song Kran holiday. Scott's mom, Janet, and aunt, Nancy, were able to come and experience the fun! The first few days were spent beside the beach in Phuket before returning to Chiang Mai to celebrate Song Kran. What has now turned into being a country-wide water fight originated from the Thai Buddhist tradition of sprinkling holy water on elders and Buddha statues to symbolize spiritual cleansing. Many Thais come to Chiang Mai to participate in the water fights here. The moat surrounding the city is filled with people in the backs of trucks and standing along the moat with buckets of water being poured on each passerby. This feels good during the hottest days we have experienced in Thailand so far. However, we didn't really appreciate the water that was cooled off by ice. Even when the temperature is 105 degrees, ice cold water being poured down your back is more uncomfortable than refreshing. To celebrate, we loaded our truck with bins of water and members of TLC church and headed to the moat. We had so much fun being out in the water fights and we think Janet and Nancy enjoyed the entertainment from the safety inside of the truck.

Scott and Pong refilling the buckets.

The elephants celebrate Song Kran too!

We also were able to show Janet and Nancy a nearby elephant camp called Mae Sa Elephant Camp. They enjoyed the interaction with the elephants, especially an adorable 2 month old elephant, and the show that displays the elephants playing soccer, painting pictures, and various other talents. We concluded the stay at the elephant camp by going for an elephant ride to a nearby hilltribe village. On the way back from the village, Janet and Nancy were able to experience Song Kran. In the remote mountainous area, Song Kran celebrators could be found splashing any open-aired taxi or motorbike with a bucket of water. Yes, we got a bucket of water splashed at us as we passed by in our open-aired taxi on the way back to the elephant camp from the village.

Scott's mom and Scott riding an elephant.  Nancy and Julie aren't far behind.

A two month old elephant.

An elephant artist.

A woman at the Karen Long Neck village makes a scarf.

A church in the village.

A man at the village next door, a Lishu village, plays a unique woodwind instrument.

Janet and Nancy left to go back to the USA last night and are in the air now on their way to Chicago. We really enjoyed their visit and were sad to see them go. We think they enjoyed their trip, despite the heat.

We had a Thai BBQ the night before they left.

This morning we had to clean and pack some belongings to get ready to go back to Thoeng, a small town about 4 hours northeast of Chiang Mai. We taught their for four weeks before our Song Kran Holiday break. We will be returning to teach for four more weeks. We are hoping to continue to help the newly planted church in the town grow by offering English classes as a community outreach. Please be praying that we can continue to work together with the church to help the members begin to develop relationships with more members of the community.

Thank you so much for your continued support. We are continuing to feel blessed here in Thailand. Each day we are working hard to make sure that we work for God by showing His love and blessing to others.

Prayer Requests:

• Scott's cousin, Catherine, was recently told by doctor's that she would have 2 to 4 weeks to live. Catherine has been battling cancer for the past 5 years when doctors originally gave here 1 year to live. It has been about 2 weeks since she received the news. Please pray for healing and strength for Catherine and Catherine's family and friends.
• We are seeking direction on what to do in the upcoming years, seeking careers and how to serve in the USA or continuing to serve in Thailand. Please pray that we will continue to lift our worries and anxieties to God as well as continue to have faith that by seeking God we will be given clarity.
• Please pray that our time in Thoeng will be fruitful and the English outreach will be successful.
• Please pray for the country of Thailand as they are experiencing political unrest.
• Please pray for our students at TLC who are home, working, or studying during the summer session. Please pray that they will remain safe and relationships can continue to be built with them when they return to school at the end of May.
• Please pray for our new students at TLC and for Lauren who is teaching the summer sessions at TLC.

Dancing Shrimp

This weekend, on our day off, we decided to escape the heat and relax at a nearby water reservior. Around the reservior there are many restuarants with huts where you can relax and enjoy swimming. We enjoyed the day with our neighbor and friend, Rak, and our friend and temporary roommate, Doi. During lunch we ordered some "dancing shrimp." These are tiny, live shrimp that you shake in a container with the herbs and peppers. Watch out because the shrimp may hop out of the container if you take off the lid too quickly! You then eat the shrimp, herbs, and peppers with some rice. Here is a video of our experience.

It's Been a Long Time...

Jacksons in Thailand


The funniest thing happened to us on February 20th, we had the strangest urge to travel up to Chiang Rai. It is a beautiful 2.5 hour ride through 2 mountain ranges. Since all the rice fields are being burned right now, we couldn’t see them. On the way though, is great pie and a semi-natural hot spring. The hot spring just happens to be piped up into the parking lot of a rest stop. There is a place where you can dip your feet in the springs which is very relaxing but smelly. You can also buy hardboiled eggs that are cooked right in the spring! Next to it is an unfinished life-sized replica of Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Rumor has it that it is unfinished because it is not Thai architecture and they don’t want to confuse visitors. It looks very cool though. We arrived in Chiang Rai, ladies said “Sawatdii Jaow” to us. (Everywhere else in Thailand, ladies say “Sawatdii caa” which means hi) “Sawatdii Jaow” means howdy in Northern Thailand. We arrive at a hotel and we walk in. Lo and behold Scott’s aunts, Patty and Debbie, are at the hotel! (A few creative liberties are taken in this blog) As it turns out, they were in Thailand on a week-long mission’s trip. They were in Bangkok for eight days learning about the human trafficking and also helping at homes that help at-risk women and children. It was great to catch up with them and to see some familiar faces again. We are so proud of them for helping in Thailand.

Moving to Thoeng

We moved to a city North of Chiang Mai called Thoeng for 4 weeks. Thoeng is a smaller city than Chiang Maiand gave us a feel for rural Thailand. Our purpose in going there was to help a 7 month old church with an English outreach program. We had many opportunities to teach English throughout the surrounding area and at the church. Some days we began teaching at 9am and finished our day of teaching at 8:30pm. Teaching in Thoeng was very different than teaching in Chiang Mai. In Chiang Mai we attract many university and young adults to the English program at TLC. In Thoeng we taught children as young as 6 and adults as old as 50. It gave us a good challenge to plan for such a wide age span of students. Here are some of the highlights from our time in Thoeng.

Students

Every Saturday we taught a two hour English class at the house we were renting.  Scott taught older children and adults.  Julie taught the younger children.  We had breaks from the lessons to learn English songs.

 

We taught near Thoeng in a town called Phu Sang once a week.  Phu Sang is known to have a beautiful hotspring waterfall.  The owner of the house we were renting in Thoeng invited many students who are not Christians to come and learn English at her house.  We had students as young as 6 years old and as old as 20 years old.

 

In another town nearby we taught at a Chrisitan community center every Thursday for 3 hours.  The center has helped many students in the area to know about Jesus.  They do a great job and we were so happy to go and teach English at this community center. 

One day, we went to the World Vision center nearby and helped with an English camp.  We had a total of 30 students!

We also taught Tuesday through Saturday in Thoeng at a home of one of the member's of the church.  We had the opportunity to build a realtionship with four recent high school graduates and the husband and wife who attend the church in Thoeng.  Please pray for these girls as they enter a new season in their life.

Every Tuesday and Friday night we taught at the new church in Thoeng.  Again, Julie taught the children as Scott taught the older children and adults.  It gave the members of the church an opportunity to invite their friends and neighbors to the church to learn English.

Friends

We were blessed with friends during our time in Thoeng.  Our friend Kae had recently moved to Thoeng from Bangkok to open a clothing shop.  She is a Christian and really helped encourage us while we were in Thoeng.  Please keep her in your prayers as she is trying to understand God's plan for her life. 

We were also able to teach in her shop twice a week and became close to her friend, Buoy.  Buoy right now is in the process of re-evaluating her life, so please pray for her and that she will come to know about the love God has for her.

We visitied Phu Chi Fa with our friend Kae and also went swimming in a reservoir one day after church.

The Animals

We were happy to have a dog frequently visit us at our house in Thoeng.

We were not happy to have this Giant Gecko visit our house... Julie found him in the bathroom.

We are now back in Chiang Mai for a couple weeks.  Scott's mom and aunt will visit us and we will celebrate the Thai New Year, Song Kran (which is basically a country wide water fight).  We will be sure to post an update and pictures soon!

We hope that everyone has a Happy Easter!  It's amazing how much God loves us all! That He was willing to let His son die for us.