We started month 6 by traveling to Thailand, by bus, on New Years Eve. Our bus arrived in Bangkok, and my team headed to the train station. We pulled out of the train station right about midnight and rang in the New Year! We arrived in Chiang Mai the next morning, and made our way to Abba House.
Abba House was founded by a couple from Kansas City. Small world right?? (If you don’t already know, I grew up in KC). Abba House is a safe place for children, from the surrounding Hill Tribes, to come and live while they finish their schooling. They house children from primary age up through High Schoolers. The children are considered to be at risk for not being able to complete there schooling for various reasons. The boys lived off the property in a farm house, and we stayed on the Abba House property where there are dormitories for the girls to live.
In addition to going to school, the children of Abba House participate in an extra hour of English lessons 4 days a week, and a Bible study every Wednesday. They also go to church at Abba House on Sunday morning.
Our mornings were used for various chores and once a week outreaches. At 1pm we began our Bible study with 3 older boys from the farm house. Our friend Tony joined us each afternoon to interpret. We each took turns preparing a short lesson, and spent the month focussing on different parables. For one of my lessons I focused on the parable of the house built on sand and the house built on solid rock. We looked at pictures of floods and discussed if we thought people expected a flood to happen and how they might prepare for a flood. We then talked about how this fit into our lives and how we could prepare for the storms that came. We talked about how important it was to make sure our foundation was based on Jesus Christ so we could withstand the flood.
At 2pm we began worship practice with the three boys and Francis. The boys played guitar, piano, and the drum set, while us girls sang. After practice, at 3pm, we started English lessons. Brittany and I worked with a 19 year old boy named Sammat. He has only been studying English for 2 years, and he does quite a good job conversing. It was a lot of fun working with him. If we finished our lesson early, we would pull out the scrabble board for some fun and extra practice.
At 6pm we would begin our hour long lesson with the girls. I was with 4 girls, Earn grade 8, Pachaw grade 9, Bee two grade 11, and Ya grade 11. We really had a lot of fun as we practiced conversing in English. On Wednesday night we would have Bible study with the girls. We started with some worship songs. Next we played a game. One week we played 4 corners, another week musical chairs, and the last week was a game where you tie a balloon around your ankle and try to pop everyone else’s balloon! Finally we gave a testimony and short message.
We all took turns sharing a short message and testimonies each week at church.
We did several outreaches. We visited the women’s prison and the hospital, where we passed out Bibles and tracks. We put on programs similar to our Bible study at a drug rehab facility and both the girls and boys detention centers. We got to visit a Bible study group at the local university one evening. But the most exciting outreach was the opportunity to broadcast live over a Thai radio station! The lady who runs the station allows Abba House 1 hour of air time each Saturday evening in exchange for English lessons. So we each had the opportunity to prepare a short message to share on the radio.
As always, we did a few fun things as well. Chiang Mai is known for their Sunday night street market. It was really neat to visit, but got very busy later at night. We visited a place called Sticky Falls. The falls formed over lime stone deposits, which make it very easy for you to walk up the falls! It was super beautiful and a lot of fun. The high light was Elephant Camp. We got to ride on an elephant, feed eat it, watch it take a bath, even watch them paint a picture! It was so neat to see these gentle giants up close.
It was a super fun month with lots of new friendships and some great adventures.
The train station in Bangkok.
Happy New Year!
Me sharing my testimony at church.
Having Bible study with the boys.
Using scrabble to learn English.
English class outside 🙂
Wednesday night girls Bible study.
Francis our worship leader.
My student Samat.
My four girls from English class.
Broadcasting live from Chiang Mai, Thailand!
Sticky Falls
Elephant Camp
Rafting down the river.
An Elephant Hug 🙂
My girls and I at the Friday night market.
