Blessings in Thailand

So the last week of Thailand is the grand Finale of the whole trip.
  I have been blessed with Jessica Williams and Abby Wartick as my missionary partners in Christ. They will be helping me this week with teaching my four classes. Abby will be teaching the two younger classes for 30 minutes each and Jessica will be teach the middle school kids for about an hour and I will stick with the older kids.

  Please pray that Jessica and Abby will be able to lead a girls bible study with some of the girls so that they can share the word of God and encourage them to stay strong in the faith. Some girls at the Hostel claim that they are not Christians even though they are living at a christian Hostel. I must stress the importance of this. Whether you are with the lord or not, you are still welcome in his church. I am glad to see that there are people here that do not know the lord, because they have been given the blessing to see God work through the Hostel.

Jessica and Abby sat in my saturday class to see what it is that I am teaching them so that they would know what to start off with their classes!!! We painted the playground equipment Saturday. The rusty teeter totters, slide and monkey bars now look like a blue and yellow collage of awesomeness!!!

  The people are so friendly! They warmed up to Jessica and Abby instantly. After painting, we played with them for a little while before going to bed.

  The next morning we went on a jog and I showed them the neighborhood. we passed by a buddhist temple and tons of dogs. It is such a beautiful city :D

  Sunday we went to a church at a really fancy hotel. The service had an english speaker that does missionary work around the world. It reminded me a lot of Harvest Christian Church when Jessica pointed out one of his hands were missing! Even though my pastor Mr. Crowe is only missing a finger, I still managed to find the irony that my moral lessons are coming from people with body parts :P way to go guys!!! Keep up the Godly examples!

  We ate lunch with a group of missionaries afterwards that own a printing company that prints out bibles in several languages. on the bottom floor where we are staying there is a room filled with inspirational books... wedecided that this will be our room for meditation and prayer.

  We went to the walking street by the old city wall were we saw many things, ate some good food, and witnessed some random. please check my facebook video if you would like to see how they honor the king of Thailand!!!
  This morning we did some more painting in the rooms. I got to pick out the colors, and I must say that they look beautiful!!!!!!!

  Please pray that the classes go well tomorrow. In the morning, we are leaving bright and early to drive 45 minutes to the elephant reservation where they let you ride the elephants and watch the elephant show. It is very obvious that these elephants are treated with respect... They roam around and they are trained from birth to accept humans as a part of their daily lives. They kinda act like dogs in a way. They get excited when they do tricks and get to play in the water by swinging their tusks around.
  After the elephants we will be visiting "Tiger Kingdom" where we will play with baby tigers!!! no worries because we will try to buy the pictures they take of us (to make money, the place wont allow you to bring cameras into the tigers cage. Last time I was there I was in the adult tigers cage one of the tigers came up to me as if i was a toy and the guy working there had to hit the cat on the nose to remind him who was in charge... Luckily I was not a ragdoll that day.
  We will also be zip lining through the Thai Jungle either Wednesday or Thursday. I am looking forward to this as an opportunity to trust in God and to get over my fear of heights.
  Even though I thought that I was no success in this trip, God has really provided me with the strength to understand and to be patient that I have been mulling over and praying about constantly for quite some time now. I have always been an easily intimidated person, but this trip has really been a wonderful opportunity to see that God always has a sense of humor about things and that everything will work out. I must admit that yesterday I did feel like a little part of me was starting to doubt what I am capable of and God used Jessica to give me a mental slap and tell me what I needed to hear. No worries, God wasnt too harsh. Just harsh enough, as always.
  Please pray that this is the new me and it will stay the new me. I love the way God made me and I am starting to really feel him where ever I go. For sometime I always just guessed where he was and tried to follow, but Satan always used that as an opportunity to get in the way and lead me down the wrong path. I am so happy to be engaged to a man that is striving for Christ day in and day out, To have two dads (one future)that are humble and study Gods word with an open heart, two mothers(one future) that shows me that things dont come easy and to have a sense of humor, the brothers(some future) that remind me that there is always someone that loves me, future sisters that show me how to be a Godly woman, friends that have supported me throughout this trip ( I consider them to be true outstanding friends), and a God that isn't fair because I know that if he was, I wouldnt deserve any of this.

June 17th, Friday

Today was significant. This morning I went for a walk by myself around the neighborhood and down the main street. The people are pleasant, however, some people do not know their boundaries. There were a couple times where I would see the same person drive by me a couple times and say something to me. At one point another guy rode his bicycle up to me and asked where I was going. So my suggestion for girls is to not walk alone if you are uncomfortable with strange men, which should be every woman. Anyways, The scenery is beautiful. flowers are in bloom everywhere!!!

We went out and bought some paint for the study rooms and the play ground today. This will most likely be a week long project with the weather and the kids contributing. I am so excited! These kids are so amazing and it just astounds me how trustworthy they are and how much they can do when they put their minds to it. Some of them are in 3rd and 4th grade and already know two languages!

Tonight we played games like hangman on the board. We then played a game of thumb war and sang head, shoulders, knees and toes over and over again. It was a true blessing.

For dinner we went to a friday market in the neighborhood. There was a ton of food made. While walking past a display of fish on a table one of them literally started flopping around!!!!!!! I then realized that they were all still alive and the one that was flopping around was just put there. This changed my definition of the word "fresh" as far as the condition of food goes.

I am looking forward to seeing my future sister Jessica and her wonderful friend Abbey tomorrow afternoon! I cant wait to spend a whole week with them doing things and having fun!!!!

The kid with the staple in his throat is out the of the hospital and back at the hostel. Thank you if anyone prayed for him.

Update about my classes

Everything is going great over here! The children are God sent :D

I have been wondering if God wanted me to be here instead of back home. This concern taught me a valuable lesson... During the days it can get lonely while the kids are at school. I wonder why I came all the way here just to sit and wait until 4:30 to spend time with the kids before I have to teach. I was not feeling like I was making a difference. So I began to pray about it. The weekend came and I went out to play with the kids and they were so excited to see me that they came running up to me and started wanting to play games. We made paper airplanes, did cartwheels in the grass and had a blast! Eventually all the other kids started warming up to me and began to play with me too! It is amazing to know that I God had something to show me! God used these kids to show me how to enjoy what I have and realized that I have been blessed. It is safe to say that I believe that boredom and loneliness is a choice. God gave life to me so I can live it, not to be unsatisfied with it! So during the day while the kids are at school, that is my chance to walk around, help around the hostel, focus on the lesson plans and relax. Thank you God for what you show me!

Classes are going well. I would say 50% of the kids are keeping up with the information I have been giving them. The other half, dont pay attention :P Some of the older students are taking English classes so I get to help them with their homework after my classes are finished.

Before going to bed, if I see any of the soccer players with a soccer ball, I take that as an opportunity to play soccer with them and try to get somewhat decent at it. So far, I have been able to take the ball from them a couple times!

Playing checkers is fun. The rule is, if someone sets you up to jump them, you must jump even if there is another checker they are going to use to jump your checker as soon as your turn is done! Last time I came here I never won, but so far this time I have won twice and I consider myself the Beckham of Checkers now! The kids helped me win, but I ignore that fact :P

Last night I was able to stay for my first two classes, where we learned how to spell more vocab words like hat, cat, dog, tree, you, me, boy, girl, ect... It was tons of fun and my classes are really starting to show their true colors! The girls in my first three classes are always ahead of the guys and most of the guys pretend like they listen but then go blank when I call on them. After my fourth class every night, some kids come into the classroom to ask for help on their homework for their english classes

The English classes at school are very different. Most kids have a teacher that is very old so therefore they have homework problems that use the slang of the olden days a rat will abandon a ____ and ____ ship. Woah.

Please pray for one of the little kids. tonight He came running up clutching his throat. Apparently he swallowed a staple and it is stuck in his throat! He will probably have to go to the hospital to get it removed. I'm sure this is a scary experience for him. Please also pray for Jessica and Abbey as they travel this weekend! I am very excited to see them and I hope they are just as excited to see me!!!!

For people looking to sponsor or are already sponsoring the Hostel

  After having a chat with Tessanee I have some acknowledgements and concerns came across about the Hostel.


For those who have been sponsoring the Hostel, there has been a lot of progress with the living environment the children live in as well as their health. For the kids that have been supported individually, they are going to school and are doing well. God has truly blessed them with people that care about them and most of them can see that and dont take it for granted. There have been improvements such as painting the rooms, fixing the electricity (that has randomely been turning off), paying the staff that look after the kids, tutor the kids and clean up after the kids. There are about 80 kids at the hostel now and they are all getting by.


There are some improvements that Bob and Tessanee pray to be underway soon. There are a few kids at the hostel that own or use a computer for school. They currently have a room that they can use to access computers to type things up. The only dilemma is that there are no printers, scanners or copiers to help when they need an essay printed, or need something scanned or copied for a project. They are working with their budget to install those items as well as get internet installed so the kids can do research during the afternoons after school.


For those looking to begin supporting or furthering their support. There are a couple issues that the hostel has come across. Even though the kids are able to have a meal for breakfast, lunch and dinner, the cost of meat has gone up. The hostel must increase their income eventually or they will have to make cuts in other areas or increase tuition to cover the cost. If anyone would like to donate for a bag of rice, it is about $30. For 30 kilo of meat per week, the hostel is now spending about $100.


If anyone is looking to support a child, I would like to introduce you to a girl named Nanuwa. Her parents do not have the money to pay for her school, food or housing. Nanuwa has taken it upon herself to work at the hostel to cover her living expenses, but there is the problem about food and school. The cost for food per month is $20 and her tuition for the school is about $150 per year. That would be about $33 per month to support her. If you are interested please send me, Tessanee, Bobby, Josh or Krystle about how to sponsor a kid. Her parents are thinking about bringing her home and not letting her go to school.


Thank you for reading this post. It is very important that these children get the education they deserve. I will keep you posted on any concerns or blessings! God bless!


Prayer requests-
For the health of the kids for the new school year
safe travels for Bobby
income for the hostel
Nanuwa and other kids that may be facing the same issue

June 6th and 7th

Okay. So classes are starting to get harder for me to come up with things... A lot of the kids in my last two classes barely pay attention and it is frustrating because those who dont listen just keep holding the ones that are learning back. the first two classes of the day are with the little ones and they all are doing great! Some of the boys like to misbehave but the girls are very attentive and encourage the boys to pay attention.
These past two days have been really frustrating with my last two classes because I am running out of ways of teaching so that they will understand my next lesson. I just feel like talking nonstop and hope that eventually they will catch on :P I know it doesnt work that way and that I need to pray for more patience.

A lot of the kids come to class straight from playing seeing as it is their free time right before class. The younger kids like to play tag and hide and seek which is a lot of fun since they usually look for the only american girl hiding with a group of Thai kids behind a small bush. The older girls either play volleyball or sit around and talk. The boys play soccer!

Two of the boys from the youth hostel got picked out of dozens and dozens of kids in Chiang Mai trying out for a soccer team!!! Their first game is this Saturday! I will be there and will be taking loads of pictures! I brought to Thailand a pair of soccer shoes that I had sitting around in my closet that were brand new and gave it to one of the boys. He was so excited that even though they were a little big he would wear thick socks so that they would fit :P I might go to the store tomorrow to see if I can buy another pair for the other kid!!! These are real soccer players.

I am starting to have trouble falling asleep because just about every morning I am waking up to a few more anonymous bug bites!!! My blood must be the finest foreign wine to Mosquitos because they keep taking samples. I found a gieco in my room that likes to come out at night... I have definitely lived the pampered lifestyle!

June 3rd-5th

Okay... Sorry that I have not been writing daily. I feel that it is better to post every other or few days so that everyone can get a summary as a whole :)

June 3rd God truly blessed me because I decided that I was only going to focus on teaching the smaller kids the alphabet because I could tell that a few of them were having trouble paying attention in class with the few children that did not feel like learning :P So, one by one I would go over the alphabet on a sheet of paper with the kids and ask them to write it down without looking at the board... It was a success! at the end of class the kids were so happy the knew their abc's that each individual raised their hand so that they could stand up in front of the class and say it all by themselves!!!! Then they said a prayer that just took my breath away. Otherwise that day I played with the kids for a little bit :)

June 4th (yesterday) I focused mainly on the older kids but since it was a saturday a lot of them did not make it to the classroom because they either had chores or were not interested in learning English. We focused mainly on sentences. I learned one thing is that the ones that are taking english courses in school are not being taught pronunciation accurately or how to spell for that matter. so we spent a good deal with their l's and r's... To them, they sound the same. so saying things like "rolex" is not easy :P After class I played on the swings with some of the girls and sat on the teeter-totter... That made me feel like aI gained a few pounds... but after three or four kids got on the other side I finally went up. We then kicked a ball around but after awhile some of the boys joined in... which was fine, until some more boys joined in and decided not to let the girls play with it. I then played hide and seek, rock, paper, scissors and tag.

It has been raining almost every night here and I wake up not feeling too well and coughing up a bunch of flem. Please pray that my health increases. I went to a pharmacy today (you dont need prescriptions for most of the meds) and took some, but taking medication has always scared me, its like saying, "i give up" on letting my body naturally heal itself. but I figured that since I am in a different country, it would probably be best to knock whatever is in me out and just double up on my probiotics :D

please pray for health and to bless those around me in thailand.