Thursday

Thursday I met with the Andy and Kat and Aaron and we all got organized for me beginning to give English lessons next week. I am very excited to begin the English lessons. Right now I have 3 people I will be reading with. I sat in on a couple of the English lessons on Thursday, just to observe. It was so neat to see people considering the tremendousness of the gospel story for the first time.

That evening the whole team (the farangs (white people) and the Thais) all went out to The Great American Grill restaurant for Thanksgiving dinner and finished off 4 platters of barbecued ribs between us. It was very different from regular Thanksgiving, but so cool at the same time.

Wednesday 21

Went to the dept. of labor with PiYai first thing in the morning. It went really smoothly and didn't take too long. Hung out at RCC for a while after that and then went shopping with PiYai and PiNong for groceries for dinner (there's always a big dinner at RCC on Wednesday night before Wednesday evening worship). We went by an open air market to buy some of the food and that was a neat experience. I got to help cook a little too, which was great. Played some games and chatted with people who came in to RCC until dinner time, then we all ate, and then we had worship time.

In the evening when I got back to my apartment I got to talking with my room mate PiJon. We got onto talking about Christianity and spiritual things. PiJon is a Christians, but she still has a lot of questions and a lot of things she doesn't quite understand yet. I thank God for providing this opportunity for me to talk with her and I pray that He will put all the right words in my mouth to say to her. I look forward to having lots of conversations with her, and I hope through those that her faith will be strengthen and also that she will begin to learn how to grow her own faith (without having to rely solely on missionaries to be fed spiritually).

Adapting

I feel like I am beginning to adapt and be able to operate on my own a little. Last night at RCC (the Christian Center where we give English lessons and hang out the rest of the time) we had a group English class followed by a short devo and I got to help a little with each (and it felt fantastic to be able to begin and help out a little). I was also able to take the public transportation home on my own yesterday evening and I have begun to be able to have some basic interaction with non-English speakers.

There is still lots and lots to be learned, but I feel like I have begun on a good foot and am well under way.

Additional Prayer Request

Today PiYai will be taking me to the Dept. of Labor to finish my work permit. Please pray that it will go smoothly.

Prayer Requests

Thanks for a safe trip

Thanks for all of the wonderful Christians here in Bangkok who have welcomed me so warmly and helped me through each day as I am learning to do everything the Thai way.

Request to be able to gain an ear for the way the Thai people speak English

Request to be able to get good sleep (which hasn't happened so far).

Request to be able to learn and adapt to the culture

My team

There are many people on the Bangkok team, and I have not met them all yet, but let me tell you some about the ones I have met.

Andy and Katherine Miller are wonderful, dedicated people who really know what they are doing in their work here. I am so glad they are my internship mentors; I know I will learn alot from them. They aren't kindred spirits, but they are good, reasonable people and I know we will get along well and work together well. They are 3 kids.

Aaron is around my age (a little younger I think), I know we will be glad to have the company of another person our age and that we will become good friends notwithstanding his being a Texan (if you know what I mean).

PiYai and PiNong are a young Thai couple who are absolutely precious people; they just radiate goodness.

P'Atinya (who may be my favorite team member) is a middle aged Thai man who is one of those people with a genuine spirit and who has a calming presence.

I am so thankful to God for each of these team mates; they are truly a good group of people to be working with.

First few days

Wow, I'm on such an information overload right now, so, so, so many new things in only a couple of days. In the last 48 hours I have met 2 dozen new people, learned a dozen Thai words and phrases, re-learned how to use a bathroom, how to sit, how to sleep, how to get from place to place, how much money is worth, what is good to eat (and what is just plain too spicy), how to make a joke, how to use my living space. Some more specific things I have learned are: they drive on the other side of the road, people tend to always eat out as it is very good and very cheap and most houses have no kitchen, breaded-fried banana is surprisingly yummy, you can find many American stores such as McDonalds, Toys R Us, and Starbucks here, showers and sinks only have one knob and that knob is cold, doing anything takes forever as Thai people do not believe in organizing anything, people are very friendly.

Everything is so wonderful and difficult all at once. I think the most frustrating thing right now is not being able to even understand people's English because of their heavy Thai accent, though I'm told that my ear will get used to it in time.

I think my favorite thing so far are my two Thai room mates: PiNuNing and PiJon. They are such wonderful, funny, and informative girls. I'm so glad to have them.