Stickywrites

Thought I would include a few pics from our community here in Prawet. We have started Thai tutoring with Khruu (Teacher) Awe, a full-time staff employee of New Community. Basically for 3 hours a day – Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri, & Sat – we meet with her for tutoring. She is an excellent teacher. I am getting more confident speaking but please pray for me in this effort! Learning Thai will be an ongoing, continuous challenge for these next two years.

Here is the front of New Community, our ministry center and office. We meet here for pretty much everything – Sunday service & worship with the team, Friday night Game Nights, Saturday Joy Kids ministry, Bible studies with girls in the community, and Wednesday Concert of Prayer & Team meetings.

Nearby the office we have a large covered market, with every type of fresh & prepared food you can imagine. We eat there often since it is just a short walk from the office.

As many of you have heard and written to/called us in concern, there was a military coup of the prime minister (Thaksin) here in Bangkok last night at about midnight. While the PM was away to speak at the UN in New York, the military declared the constitution null & void and implemented martial law for the meantime… Many businesses and schools have declared a “snow day” so to speak, but where we are living in Prawet (Eastern Bkk), we can hardly tell any difference in the daily life here in our community, so not much to be concerned about at this point. But thank you for your concerns & calls!
As far as we have heard, nothing too much to expect – we tried to turn on CNN last night but the military supposedly seized control of the TV stations and were playing Royal Family Thai-music videos, so we didn’t get too much news til we got on the internet this morning. Now CNN and other programming have resumed.
Can you imagine Donald Rumsfeld taking the U.S military troops and surrounding the White House, and saying “I am the current leader of this nation, there is no constitution to speak of, and George Bush is no longer President.” That’s basically the equivalent! Taking that into consideration, this has been a startling reminder that we ARE living in a developing nation even though Bangkok is a very metropolitan, foreigner-infested city of 11 million people!!

If you’re having problems viewing pictures on my blog, you’re not the only one!  Having technical difficulties and trying to get it worked out.  Please be patient with me while I try to fix the problem(s).

Thanks!

We arrived fully intact, rested, and liquid/gel-free luggage-laden on Saturday at 11 a.m. Bkk time….to the City of Angels and Land of Smiles! Thank you for your prayers for us! There is a 12 hour-difference right now between us and CST in the U.S, so we landed at 11 p.m. Friday for most of you all. We are so thankful to have had an easy flight and our bags made our 3 connections, so it was a peaceful arrival for us! Jack Cunningham picked us up and took us to drop our things off at our apartment in Eastern Bangkok, where our ministry, New Community, and office is located.

Upon landing we went almost immediately with some of the team to a slum area of town called Mahatai. The team has been investing some time in this neighborhood, getting to know the families that live there, and they have begun a kids program and english teaching time on Saturday afternoons. We were able to see some of the kids program and hope to be involved with the neighborhood as the relationship grows. The kids were adorable.

We spent our last couple days exploring our area, worshipping with the team on Sunday, orientation on Monday, and getting to know our teammates a little better. We are in temporary housing as we still search for a more permanent townhome-type place closer to our office location, but right now are enjoying being in a serviced apartment efficiency where everything is provided or has been provided by previous interns staying here. When we arrived we had furniture, appliances, towels, sheets, a stocked refrigerator, paper products, drawers, cabinets, Internet/phone, and everything, so it has been nice not having to do to much for setup yet since everything here is pretty much set up. Our biggest setup will come with our BIG move once we find a place to live.

Today we babysat for the Henry’s while Crystal Henry went to apply for her drivers license and Paul studied with his tutor, Khru Awe. The Henry’s have a 3 year-old, PJ, and a 7-mth-old, Calvin. It was fun for us to finally get to play with them and finally get to know their personalities after reading so much about them on their blog for the past year. Their blog, among other team members’ blogs, are listed on my links on the sidebar.

We have enjoyed having some free time before we start language tutoring on Friday with Khru Awe, a full-time employee of New Community. Yesterday we walked around at the biggest, newest mall in Bkk, Siam Paragon…this place is quite daunting and is very uppity, or high-society. They have every designer label you could think of and it is very shiny, new and expensive!

I couldn’t help taking a picture of something I hadn’t seen before in any food court in Thailand – a peanut butter & jelly sandwich bar/restaurant….yep, they had 3 different kinds of peanut butter and 3 kinds of jelly to choose from. Among many sights Im sure Ill be noticing and laughing about these next couple months as I get accustomed to many new things.

So here we are, on the eve of our departure, and I am staring listlessly at my 3 open suitcases, empty and silent.  I wish suitcases could speak – to tell me how I am supposed to fit all of this stuff – which has been spewed all over this room the last 2 weeks – into 3 tiny compartments for my life these next 2 years.  I know they are just things.  But I cannot leave anything behind here in Dallas – no i’s undotted or t’s uncrossed – no spare old tennis shoes to leave behind because they can’t fit.  Everything must go. You’d think we would have started the paking process sooner than now, but since we have been running around so crazy these last four days we have had in Dallas, there has been so much to do and no time to sit and pack.

I also just made my last batch of guacamole with Katherine – probably my last for awhile, and found myself getting a tad sentimental with each guacamole-laden Tostito I popped in my mouth.

Nothing profound to say.  Just that I know nothing is going to hit me – that I won’t see friends and family for quite awhile, that Im starting a new job, in a new home, in a new city, a new country, with a new language, with new friends, new co-workers, all in a new culture – until I have landed in Bangkok this Saturday and am overwhelmed with all these ‘news’.

Ta ta until we have our apartment somewhat set up and can keep everyone updated from the field.  Please pray for us during this major transition and adjustment stage – it’s going to be very overwhelming and I know we will be in a fog of jetlag, nervous excitement and weariness.  We will begin language school as soon as we can get our schedule set up with a tutor, so please pray for that as well.