Pictures are coming

Wow! It has been such a long time since we posted pictures, so sorry! I am in the process of adding a bunch to catch up right now, thanks for your patience, sorry we haven't been so good at keeping up with those! Soon to come!

Hello everyone!

Since we got back from India we have been doing a lot of readjusting to a semi new schedule. We are not teaching anymore because the students are all on term break.

In the past week we have had mostly a random day to day schedule. A lot of it has been preparing for the Jesus festival happening in just 3 days from now! We are very excited for this event and we have been doing a lot of inviting people and praying for people to come and be healed. Please continue to pray for this event!

Last wednesday we helped Kris and Silk with an english training for he workers at the hospital we have been helping out at. That was a lot of fun and they all seemed to enjoy the activities we did with them!

We have decided to continue with english practice with the workers in the hospital on Wednesdays and Fridays. We have switched departments and we will be starting to help in a new area today. Karla will be working in the inpatient department and i will be working in the drug addiction department. We are excited but a little bit nervous to start working with new people again. Please pray for that as well!

On Friday we went to our very first movie in a Thai movie theater with 2 of our friends from the university! Let me just say, this movie theater is nicer than any one I've been in before! The seats reclined! We saw the movie Oz the Great and Powerful. It was interesting, and in Thai so it was somewhat hard to follow, but still big fun!

Other than that, not too many things happened this week! Once again, continue to pray for the Jesus festival happening on March 22-24! Thanks for reading! I'm sure we will have lots to say about the festival next week :) until then! Have a fantastic week everyone

Patient Readers of our blog, we thank you. We have been very busy. I cannot believe we only have two more months left here in Ubon. And they sure will fly by fast with all of the upcoming events. God is going to do some great things here and we are pumped for Him to unroll them. First of all, I believe an update is needed for you lovely folks. And Id like to apologize for however many times you may have tried to come onto this site and found nothing new written here. Hopefully today, as you read this, you will be able to smile! :D

The 22^nd, Bekah and I flew from our home here to Bangkok. We took a taxi to a Guest House where we met up with Bekah’s mom and brother. Hugs were given; reunited family members. Bekah and I tried to keep her mom and brother awake-12 hour difference, let me tell ya what, doesn’t not do good stuff to your body-so we walked around to different malls around the Guest House. Got some grub. There was an Auntie Anne’s Pretzel Shop at the one mall and they were showing a video with a few people in it that we recognized! It was nuts! :D  Good to know they have videos enriching people here in Thailand about Amish people back in PA….haha! That made us smile. We showed Bekah’s mom and brother some of our favorite foods here and they thought it was just as delicious as we do! We took a tuk tuk back to the Guest House after a day of walking around. Even though there were four of us Americans, we fit into the tinny little car. Good experience! Bekah, her brother, and I played games in the evening. That night, Bekah and I stayed up with a small 5-10 minute nap because our flight was at 6am the next morning to go to India. That meant that we had to leave at 3am from our Guest House. We got to India on the 23^rd I believe. We ate supper with some of the Indians we would be getting to know during the rest of the week. They were such sweet people! Bekah and I went out to get some slushies with some of her friends, then we called it a night.

On the 24^th we went to church. Bekah and I went outside and played games with the kids. I played table tennis (without a table, just hit the ball back and forth) with some boys and Bekah played matching games with the girls. I think we both had a lot of fun! Afterwards, a friend in India and Bekah’s brother tried to teach Bekah and I how to drive motorbikes. :D  That was exciting! We went to lunch with some of the people we met from the church and it was very delicious. I still think I like Thai food better than Indian food, but it was still yummy. We went to the beach afterwards. Bekah, her brother and I played games in our room later that day. We went out to eat supper with some friends. Then Bekah and I went to get some cold drinks with some of her old friends in India.

We had breakfast and then had a meeting with the church leaders where everyone shared what was happening in their lives lately. Afterwards, everyone went to the beach. We tried to teach some of our new Indian friends how to swim. (Indians don’t swim. They live next to the beach; they don’t swim in it. The area where we stayed in had a lot of Europeans vacationing there so we actually weren’t the only white people in that area! It was great!) It was fun to splash in the waves and make sand castles. We went to eat supper on the beach and then got our cold drinks with our friends once again.

The rest of the time we hung out with people at the church, went to the beach and had late nights eating cold drinks with our friends there.  

On March  1^st, we headed off to  our friends’ house that live in another area of India. Our friends’ family stayed with her at her house and so did Bekah and I. We stayed in one room with three Indian woman, Bekah and I and our friends’ little girl. It was so cute to be there with a big family again. Indian tea is absolutely delicious! Yumminess. If I could drink that every day, my thirst would be quenched. We hung out with her family, went to church there, shared what we were doing here in Thailand, and played with the kids at the church. We went to a park with our friends’ family, played games and ate home cooked Indian food. The people we hung out with were extremely kind, and I know it was nice for Bekah to see her old friends again.

 

On March 4^th, we said our goodbyes at the church and then headed back to the airport. We had short flights but long layovers. We played card games while waiting. Shout out to my sister, Christa, for telling me to bring from cards. I don’t know what we would’ve done to pass the time without them. We arrived at the Guest House on the 5^th, I believe. We went to parks in Bangkok and ate street food often. We went to visit our teacher, Khruu in Bangkok. Then, we met up with some of our friends that we made in Bangkok the first month we were in Thailand. It was good to see them again. We played more games and just spent some quality time together. It was nice to have more than two people in our little group.

Today is now the 8^th and Bekahs mom and brother are still working on flying back to America. Bekah and I arrived back in Ubon last night and were greeted with our leaders and two big hugs. It is great to be back. I had an extraordinary time in India and a great time in Bangkok. I still learned a lot and made new friends. It was good to catch up with some old friends as well. Last night we watched a movie and then went to sleep early this morning. Today was a down day, and I slept for most of it. Im still a bit tired I guess from everything that happened. Tomorrow we’ll be gone all day long.

Thanks for reading and for waiting. I think we’re back on schedule now. God has been good to us. Thanks for your prayers and support this whole trip. They are greatly needed and appreciated. We hope you have a splendid day. :D

Hello everyone! Sorry this blog is a bit late, we have been very busy!

The past week (a little more) we have done a lot of the same things we have been doing. Our schedule pretty much stays the same. I will pin point some of the more exciting things that happened.

We have officially started fasting for the Jesus festival (40 days prior to it) each of us are fasting different things and we are interceding for the event!

On Friday (feb 15) we went on a prayer drive to the site where the Jesus festival will be in march, and then went out for lunch with our friend, tookta. It was very good to reconnect with her

Saturday, instead of teaching at compassion, we went on a field trip with the kids to a self sufficient army base. We learned how to make soap, bricks, and fish food. Everyone was very nice and seemed a lot more happy to be in the army than most Americans! They smiled a lot. Saturday afternoon we went swimming, it was very refreshing!

Sunday our old room mate who we lived with in Bangkok, Sarah, came and stayed with us for the night! It was very exciting to be able to reconnect with her. We miss her very much! We took her out for pizza, and on Monday (late) morning we went to the park and the fresh market for lunch! It was a lot of fun.

The rest of our week was basically the same as our normal schedule. We said goodbye to the kids at the preschool because we are leaving for India and when we get back they will be on their term break (same as summer in the US)

Tomorrow morning we fly to Bangkok and the next morning we fly to India! We are very excited to get there, meet new people, and reconnect with old friends! I will post some pictures of recent things happening when i get a chance, until then, have a great day and rest of your week! Thank you for the continuous prayers and support. It is much appreciated!

Hola. Como estas? …Wait, that’s the wrong language…..lets try again…

Sawatdii kah/clep. Sabbay dii mai?
Hey guys! How are you? I hope you all had a splendid week, and if you didn’t, don’t worry: Joy comes in the morning and everything will be ay-okay! :D

                Lets see here, I believe we left off on January 30^th…The next day would be Thursday the 31^st…the last day of the first month of the year. Bekah and I went to Muang Ubon School and taught the 2^nd, 4^th, and 5^th graders English. Afterwards, we went to grab a quick lunch at the local grocery store (more like a Walmart I guess) and headed off to Thai tutoring. In the afternoon we went to the Ubon Ratchathani Museum with our friend, Matt, and learned about this place. It was actually pretty eye-opening. It felt like a field trip at first, but then as we all started thinking and reflecting, it was very helpful. There were Buddhas everywhere and just thinking about that was pretty startling. The many different things that people believe here…Hmm…just interesting. We probably picked one of the hottest days to bike to the museum and our bikes kinda broke…soo! That was exciting (not really) but Jesus got us home so that was nice of Him. We just relaxed in the evening.

                Friday we went to the Psychiatric Hospital to help the staff learn English. Matt went to the Psychology Department. Bekah went to the Social Work Department and I stayed in the Outpatient Department. (Basically, the whole downstairs is the Outpatient Department and there are a few rooms on the side of the building that belong to the two other departments.) I got to role-play that I was a patient, while helping the staff ask me questions in English. I help translate a bit and figure out the best way to ask a question. (Ex: Instead of saying, “Sit down, I want to check your pulse.” We decided that, “Please take a seat. I would like to check your pulse,” would be better. Stuff like that.) Bekah talked with her people and Matt did the same with his department but he tried taking an IQ test that day as well-he’s into that kind of stuff so that’s good!) In the evening, we had a prayer meeting at Prakittikun Church (you may recall that we teach preschoolers at Kittikun Preschool, same place) for the Jesus Festival happening in March with speaker, Henry Madava. Bedtime came after that.

                Saturday the 2^nd of February we both went to Compassion International. We sang songs and played Sharks and Minnows with the kids out in the Soi (street). We made little sheep after that with Q-tip ends. That was a cute little craft. I played futbol with some of the kids afterwards. They fed us a bowl of yumminess, and then we headed off to find a song thaew. Kris and Silk were going to meet up in another part of Ubon so we could head off to a village. We revisited a lady there who is very sick and rests on a bed all day long, so that was nice to give her some company. Some kids from the village came over as well, so we sang some songs and played Twister and Uno with them. They loved Uno!  We spent about an hour playing that…it was nuts! We were pretty tired after moving all day long so we went to sleep.

                Sunday we had church. We sang these songs in church in Thai:

“Here I am to Worship”

“I Want to Know YOU More”

“YOU are the Everlasting God”

“Open the Eyes of My Heart”
       If you would like to know how to sing them in Thai….just wait a bit…we’re still trying to learn that too! :D  Haha. I love our house church though. We talked about Acts 14-16 and had a very good prayer time at the end, catching up on everyone’s lives and hearing what God had taught everyone throughout the week.        

                Monday is the Sabbath as you can remember. That was a great, restful, prayerful, very much needed day. We both enjoyed some good alone time with God and talked about it at the end of the day. Definitely blessed us with each other.

                Biking to Kittikun Church at 8:30am in the heat of Thailand is always fun. We taught the body parts and then sang “The Hokie Pokie” with them. They totally loved that. I’m sure we’ll have to teach them it again this Tuesday but it was cute to watch them try! We had Thai tutoring in the afternoon and then a Team Meeting in the evening filled with worship, prayer, discussion and love.

                Wednesday we got to rest in the morning and then went to the Psychiatric Hospital in the afternoon-just Bekah and I because Matt’s family came this week to visit him…awww! How cute-Mom and Dad, I’ll see you soon, right?  (Not really guys.) We had a Prayer Meeting in the evening at a nearby church.

                We didn’t teach at Muang Ubon School on Thursday morning, but just went back to our apartment and got some stuff done. We went to Thai tutoring and then went swimming!  Finally! Even though it wasn’t for a very long time, it was incredibly nice. There’s a pool in the mall that we go to a lot. Man! Glorious. Fifth floor. Thanks God for big pools of water (we don’t have a tub so it’s not like we could really make our own pool. We could flood the bathroom! But, I don’t think our Apartment Guy/Leader/Owner person would enjoy that very much :/   SOO! We’ll just go to Sunee Mall for now! :D In the evening we went to a friend’s house and helped them make dinner (we didn’t have a clue what it do) Ate some delicious Isaan food and then played some card games. They liked that but the game never ended! Still, it was good to see our University friends again because last week that all had projects to do so we didn’t see anyone. Hurray to Jesus for letting us see them again! ;D

                Friday we had a pastor’s prayer meeting. We went to a new place for lunch! It has American food and it was very yummy…never even knew that it was there!  Gotta go exploring more I guess, huh? We went to the Hospital after that (we will go every Wednesday and Friday until the end of February). The rest of the evening was pretty relaxed I guess.

                On Saturday Bekah went to Compassion, and I went with Kris and Silk to the village. That was my very first experience in a village. Definitely learned a lot there and had some good discussions in the house church. We also visited a lot of friends on the way home, so it was good to meet new people and see some friends that I haven’t seen in a while. The ride home was full of worship songs and processing and some good discussion between the three of us. Definitely thankful for our leaders. In the evening we went to a birthday party with the same friends we hung out with on Thursday, only with more people. They made food again-fish, clams, and soup. I actually tried a clam!! Totally branching out over here! And the fish was really yummy too! :D Its hard to stop eating when there’s so much food and it’s all just sitting out in front of you on the floor so it was bit rough, but when everyone finally stopped eating, we cleaned up and then played a game. Bekah and I taught them how to play spoons. THAT WAS GREAT! The university students really enjoyed that-once they picked it up and finally understood how to play it! There were eight of us playing so it took a while to finish the game. Then, two of our closest friends took us back to our apartment. That was a great night. Very kind, compassionate, humble people who are already sweet and giving, so we like them a lot! (They’re the group we played bad minton with all those weeks ago.)

                Today is Sunday so we had our house church. We read Ephesians 6:10-20 and talked about what we learned and felt like God was teaching us. Putting on all of God’s armor. Every morning we wake up. Here are some of the things that we talked about:

- Its not that we just have to put on a shield of faith whenever the time arises, we must put it and all the other things on every day, because we do not know what we will face throughout the day.

-In Thailand, you don’t leave your house without shoes. You put them on before you go anywhere; put on the shoes of peace. Meaning that you never leave your house without putting on peace so that wherever your feet go, peace goes with you.

-We are to fear God, but we are also to fearlessly go out and tell other people about the mystery of the gospel.

-We struggle against the rulers, against the authorities, against the power of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms….in other words, we struggle against invisible things. Not against people. But against what the powers of evil do in people.

-We need to fight for other people and put on the full armor of God …for them and with them. We are brothers and sister in Christ. Together. Stand firm.

-We are not to just stop the fiery arrows of the Devil, but to extinguish them. The battle doesn’t end until evil is dead and gone so keep fighting until the arrow is broken and the fiery-ness is put out, or else it will still be able to hurt.

-Pray in all circumstances. No matter if you come with a broken heart, a servants heart, if you just need to complain or talk it out, if you want to hear something from God….whatever. Pray.

                Today was a good day. We went to lunch with two of our fahrang friends. That was delicious-I have no idea what I got, but it was good!-Bekah and I came home and took a nap after that. We ate at Sunee and then went to Kris and Silk’s house. We watched a movie that….well….made me think. Good thing tomorrow is our Sabbath so I can journal everything out, huh? Then we sat and talked about the movie and told stories. Our fahrang friends came to that again as well. Hurray! Super fun times there.

 

                Hello. Today is now tomorrow. Its 12:00am on Monday morning. I’m finally done with this blog. I hope you guys have a wonderful week. Sorry it was a bit late. We write these things at the weirdest times! Always remember who your number One fan and number One lover is!  :D

New people, new experiences

Hello everyone! Sorry this weeks blog is slightly late! We have been busy busy busy! I am not going to go into much detail about every day of the past week because we have pretty much the same schedule week to week for now

We have reached our 2 month mark of being in Thailand! I'm sure all of you are wondering "how are you feeling?" The answer to that is we are feeling great! We are so excited to be here and continue to build relationships with people. We have met quite a few new people in the past week and we are so excited about it

On Tuesday-Thursday, Kris and Silk, along with their friend, Amy; from Chaing Mai, went out to new villages with almost nothing (basically enough money to take the bus there and back, and a tooth brush) to find "people of peace" and teach the gospel to them, just like Jesus told his people to do! (read Luke 10) It was quite an experience for them! Some things went smoothly and others didn't go as planned, but they ended up meeting a few people who were interested in hearing more and they will go to follow up with this week! It was an exciting new experience for them. Karla and i got to fend for ourselves for a few days!

Last Friday we started working at a psychiatric hospital down the street from us to help the workers there in the out patient, psychology, and social work departments. I (Bekah) was so excited to begin working there because I want to study social work in college! Being the one chosen to help the social workers with their english is wonderful because i am so interested in what their job consists of. Karla got chosen to work with the out patient department, and she got to role play and pretend she had the symptoms of someone who would typically come to the hospital! That was a lot of fun for her, she enjoyed it. Our new friend, Matt; who is from America, and grew up in the Czech Republic, is also helping at the hospital and was chosen for the psychology department. I think he enjoyed it as well!

We have been hanging out with Matt somewhat often since we met him last week, it is nice to be able to talk with someone whose native language is English! It is also nice because we can help each other with our thai learning. He has been here a few months longer than Karla and I, so he is a little further along in his thai speaking than we are (and he's really smart!)

On Saturday we went to he house of blessing (the orphanage) for he first time with the people from the city house church! We played lots of games and sang songs with the kids. It was lots of fun!

Today we did our very first english camp in a village about 62 kilometers away from where we are staying. Kris, Karla, Matt, and i each had our own topic to teach on. There were over 100 kids split into 4 groups and then rotated between each of us. Each session was about an hour long! This is the first time Karla, Matt, and I have taught something like this by ourselves! It was a little but nerve wracking but things went fairly well i think! We taught the same thing 4 times since the kids rotated in groups. After the first session i kind of got the hang of what to do and things ran smoothly! Kris taught about jobs/occupations, Matt taught about sports and entertainment, Karla taught on directions, and I taught on transportation and places. The kids seemed to be pleased with what hey were learning!

Well, its been a long day. Tonight we will have team worship and prayer and then crash early probably! I Hope everyone at home or where ever you are reading this is doing well! Have a fantastic week! Until next time :)

New Years-present day

All things from New Years, eating different foods, having fun with new friends, seeing exotic animals, and lots more! Thanks for looking and enjoy! :D

P.s. for some reason the pictures got really out of order. Sorry about that!