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.
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 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.
Everything sounds wonderful. Thanks for the update. Love the "howdy" comparison. Can't wait to hear more about that water fight! Think we can start that tradition here? start small at NWAOG!
ReplyDeleteBlaine and Heather