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Oh, where to begin…. November was by far the most difficult month so far. Not much happened compared to other months when I was experiencing many new things and yet there was so much going on for me personally. November was also a good month in many ways and I am definitely still enjoying my time here, despite the roller coaster of a ride that it has been. God is so faithful and so good in so many ways.
The Northeastern Polytechnic College
Before I go into anything else about teaching at Poly, I will start with a couple of stories about my first day and week of teaching.
Story #1: I was happily teaching on my first day of class, when about an hour into class, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something fall from the ceiling or window. I thought, hmmm, I should go see what that was. But before I got too far, all the students started screaming and yelling something in Thai, which of course I could not understand. They all started heading for the door, before one of them said in English, "snake!" Oh, so that's what it was! Needless to say, I myself headed for the door. So, long story short, about ten minutes later someone had coaxed the snake out of the door with a broom. I couldn't get anyone to understand my question as to whether or not it was poisonous until the whole thing was over. It wasn't poisonous, but it was about 5 feet long. Now that’s an exciting first day teaching experience!
Story #2: I decided that in order to make things more interesting that on the first day of each class I had the students write down questions they wanted to know about me rather than just telling them. Now this can always be a dangerous thing. I then I had students guess at the answers until they answered correctly. A sampling of questions and answers: How old are you? I got anywhere from 24–40 years old! Yikes! At home, most people guess around 20-21. Where are you from? I got a lot of European countries such as Germany and Denmark, Australia, Canada, and the US was one of the last guesses. How much do you weigh? How tall are you? Are you married? Then with the answer to that being no I got "Do you have a boyfriend?" There were many questions but those are the highlights. :)
Anyway, Kim and I started teaching at Polytechnic on November 3 despite getting our curriculum only a couple of days before that. The curriculum is weak at best which means a lot of time is spent looking at outside sources for teaching material. The students never arrive on time and a lot of them don’t come at all. And many of them don’t understand English at all despite being in either my level 2 or my level 4 class. I feel very inadequate to teach at this level and to be expected to do grading and testing. I was definitely not prepared for this type of teaching, but nonetheless that is where I am. I am definitely learning to take things one day at a time and leaning on God for strength and so much more. But, it is not all bad. I am enjoying getting to know the students that do come to class. I need to focus on the relationships rather than dwell on the teaching situation. And probably most exciting is that Kim and I have decided to pray for two of our students everyday. The exciting part is that this is probably the first time that many, if not all, of them have ever been prayed for! Now that's a cool thing to do for someone.
The Church
Every Sunday after church, we all eat lunch together which consists of some sort of Thai food that church people have prepared. They are good about usually having something not spicy that I will like and I enjoy eating with everyone. Well, a couple of Sundays ago they asked us Americans to fix the meal. So, we decided to make tacos for everyone since we were craving something more familiar. So we set out to find all the ingredients: ground beef, oops can’t find that anywhere, ended up with ground pork which after you add the seasoning tastes pretty much like beef, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, taco shells, and Dean brought some sour cream down from Chiang Mai since we can’t get it here. We very much enjoyed our meal and most of the church people did too especially since we also bought more ground chili so they could make their tacos as spicy as they wanted. Although, some did not like the shells and decided to eat it over rice instead. In any case, it was fun and tasted wonderful.
We also began teaching English classes at the church on November 15 and that is going very well. We have 3 classes four nights a week, a beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Each class has about 5-9 students which is just perfect. This is definitely a fun experience while helping people learn English which can be important for them.
Thanksgiving
I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. My Thanksgiving was good despite being so far from home. My parents surprised me and called from my aunt and uncles on Thanksgiving. I was on speaker phone so I got to talk to everyone at the same time and feel like I was there with them for a moment. We actually had a super Thanksgiving dinner here. Another couple who is working over here, Chris and April, had us over and cooked dinner for all of us on Friday. We had turkey (not easy to come by in Thailand), homemade mashed potatoes, homemade applesauce, and much more. Yum! Kim and I even attempted to make a cheesecake. We should have known when we couldn’t find white sugar that we shouldn’t make the cheesecake, but instead we decided brown sugar might work. Well, after buying that we thought maybe we should look a little more to try and find white sugar. Well, for whatever reason they don’t keep white sugar by all the other baking stuff, instead it is by the salt. So, we bought what we thought was white sugar. We brought it home and asked Bum to make sure that we bought sugar. Well, turns out that MSG looks surprisingly similar to white sugar. I sure am glad that we asked before we added it to the batter! So, back to the store we went and finally bought actual white sugar. Then Kim mixed everything together and looked for the glass pie dish that I told her we had. Well, turns out I was wrong. No pie dish. We thought that maybe we could use a rectangle glass dish instead. Well, that didn’t fit into our little toaster oven. At that point we went to the store to find a baking dish which was to no avail since baking isn’t that popular in Thailand. So, we finally gave up. No cheesecake. Oh well.
Things I am Thankful for this Thanksgiving
1. My wonderful family who is so supportive of me. And my parents who faithfully call me every week to say hi and see how everything is going. Love you!
2. My friends and supporters who pray for me and encourage me all the time. Thank you all so much!
3. God always gives people the opportunity to accept Him and trust in Him.
4. That God can use the good and the hard times to grow His children.
5. Wonderful friends here in Thailand.
6. That God is real and always works things out in His time.
7. To experience God in another culture and know He is the same and in control.
Random Thoughts
1. Sometimes we need a good laugh or just a break from lesson planning. This is when we hop in our car/truck and head to the store. Yes, we do actually find entertainment at the store reading the shirts that they attempt to write in English. Some examples: "Voting is for Old People," "New Hampshire, 40 million squirrels can’t be wrong" (I actually bought that one and wear it to bed), "Love Machine" (with a picture of a car engine on it), "Absolute Truth, Nice Vaccine," (what????) "Beer, It’s What’s For Dinner."
2. I got my haircut and highlighted for $7! Wish it were that much at home.
3. Well, harvest is over now and the once beautiful green rice paddies are chopped down and turning brown and will remain that way until they replant next June or July.
4. I saw a baby elephant the other night while I was riding my motorcycle with Bum. It is quite strange to look over while stopped at a stoplight and see an elephant next to me! Then the next night we saw another one. This time from the backside, a red light strapped to its tail. Gives a whole new meaning to the term tail light! :)
5. My name has taken on some new spellings here in Thailand, including "Corny." Isn’t that nice?
New Picture Galleries
Check out the new pictures: Early November, Church Friends, and Thanksgiving in Thailand.
Prayer Requests
1. Communication within the team along with unity. Right now things are going well between all of us.
2. Pray for confidence in my teaching ability as well as quickly building relationships with the students. Pray for effective teaching. I feel very overwhelmed at times with the responsibilities that I have. Pray that I will continually give everything to God and realize that through Him I can do anything.
3. English at the church is going well. Pray that the kids we have coming now will sign up for the second session that starts in January. It is such a good opportunity to build relationships with Thai people.
4. Pray for safe travel to Vietnam and Singapore. We are having a team retreat December 5 thru 12 and we are headed to Vietnam via bus through Laos. Then December 28 thru January 3, we are going to Singapore for a vacation as well as visa trip for Kim. Pray for safety and good times of relaxation and rejuvenation on both trips.
5. I am still trying to learn the Thai language. It is coming slowly since a lot of time is spent teaching and preparing for teaching.
6. Pray for continued health. I am doing well right now other than a residual cough from when I was sick earlier.
7. Pray for my family. Pray that we don’t miss each other too much especially during the holidays.
8. Pray for the Thai people, that God will open their hearts to Him and they will see the truth of Jesus.
9. Pray that culture shock will not hit too badly. There have been some tough days along with great days.
10. Pray that ultimately everything I do will glorify and honor God! That people will see Jesus through me.
11. Pray for my attitude as it is sometimes focused on the wrong thing due to many frustrations. Pray that I won’t let circumstances steal my joy and take my focus away from my purpose.
12. Pray for Kim’s visa as she needs to renew it for another 90 days when we go to Singapore.
13. Pray for Dean’s Dad as his health is failing and may be going home to heaven anytime now. He is 90 years old and it is time to go. Pray for the family as they prepare for this and for Dean as he will be traveling to Pennsylvania once he hears of his dad’s passing on.
14. Pray for accountability in prayer for me. I sometimes feel hypocritical asking all of you to pray for me and then I fail to pray for these things myself. For some reason, I find it easier to pray for other’s issues than my own. Pray that I will lift my own needs up to God.
Words of Encouragement
These verses have always been among my favorites, but they have had special meaning for me this month.
Hebrews 12:1-3 (NLT)
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish. He was willing to die a shameful death on the cross because of the joy he knew would be his afterward. Now he is seated in the place of highest honor beside God's throne in heaven. Think about all he endured when sinful people did such terrible things to him, so that you don't become weary and give up.
Philip. 4:4-13 (NLT)
Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice! Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon.
Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
And now, dear brothers and sisters, let me say one more thing as I close this letter. Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned from me and heard from me and saw me doing, and the God of peace will be with you.
How grateful I am, and how I praise the Lord that you are concerned about me again. I know you have always been concerned for me, but for a while you didn't have the chance to help me. Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to get along happily whether I have much or little. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything with the help of Christ who gives me the strength I need.
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4. November 2004
