Sawatdeeha (Hello) from Thailand!
We’ve been serving at our ministry here for over two weeks now, so we’re definitely due for an update.
My team’s ministry this month is teaching English at a Buddhist school called Ban Kai School. Thailand is predominately Buddhist, so all the government-run schools are Buddhist. We are living in Mae Ai, which is a tiny village on the boarder of Myanmar. We live in one of the office buildings on the school grounds, so the school is our sole focus for the month.
Our official World Race hosts are a wonderful missionary couple named Steve and Joy. Steve is from the U.S. and has lived in Thailand for 20 years. Joy is from Thailand, and she actually grew up going to Ban Kai School, where we are teaching. Steve and Joy live in Chiang Mai, which is the big city about three hours away from us. They have connections with a lot of schools, churches, and ministries in the area. Our on-site host is Kru Dang (Teacher Dang), and he is the only Christian teacher at the school. He’s so funny and he takes care of us so well. He’s like a dad to us for the month. It’s so encouraging to see the difference he is making as he stands alone as the only Christian on staff, and how he shares his faith with the students. He’s had a number of them attend church with him and ask him questions about his God.
I have been blown away by the radical hospitality of the Thai people. They are so sweet, so welcoming, so generous, and so excited to share their culture with us. Every day someone is going out of their way to bring us Thai food. Often, people surprise us by showing up at our door with pots of hot-cooked dinner. And we are asked about a dozen times a day, “Are you happy?” I’m learning a lot about generosity and hospitality from them!
The first week and a half, Britteny and I were teaching in the primary school. We were a little intimidated at first when Kru Nui, the director of the primary school, stuck us in a classroom and said, “Ok, you teach English” and left us alone with the kids for an hour and a half. But the kids were respectful and patient with us (although we got a lot of confused stares when we would try to give instructions in English, and it blew their minds that we didn’t understand them when they’d say something to us in Thai). After the first few classes, we got the hang of things and became more confident in our teaching methods. We taught a variety of subjects such as greetings, questions, shapes, colors, animals, food, and even math.
This week Ashley and I are helping Kru Dang teach the secondary school students. This is quite a bit different than teaching shapes and animals by drawing pictures and playing games. We teach vocab and spend time helping students practice pronunciation and forming sentences. I’ve really enjoyed the relationships that we’ve been able to build with the secondary students because they speak more English than the younger kiddos. The first weekend we were here, Kru Dang assigned a few of his students the task of being our “guides” for the Saturday market. These students went above and beyond the call of duty by inviting us out for a bike ride to a nearby temple after the market, and then they took us all around the village to a bridge, a pig farm, an orange farm, and another temple up in the mountains. I had so much fun getting to spend time with these sweet girls, and connecting with them, despite the language barrier. While we were at the temple, we explained that we’d prefer not to bow to the statue of Buddha because we are Christians. That led to one of the girls, Fai, asking about what kinds of things we have and do in church. It’s great to see that when you allow someone to share their culture and faith with you, it provides opportunities for you to share yours with them.
Another neat door that God opened for us is the relationships we have built with a nearby school called SAO. The first Thursday and Friday we were here, the students and teachers at our school went on a field trip to the sea. So since there was no school, Kru Dang made arrangements for us to help out at the SAO nursery. I loved getting to sing and play games with the three and four year-olds, but most of all, I loved getting to know the teachers. The second day we came, all the kids cheered when we got out of the car, and the teachers surprised us with a giant hand-painted sign, welcoming us back. When school was over, the teachers invited us back over for dinner, and they cooked for us and we partied in the nursery cafeteria. When they found out that I play guitar, they asked me to bring it and play for them. Because the only songs I know how to play are worship songs, I played some worship. And my teammates and the teachers danced along, even though they are all Buddhists (they speak so little English, they didn’t know we were singing about Jesus). Then we danced to some techno and traditional Thai songs. It was such a fun night of dancing, smiling, laughing, and not even needing much language to communicate.
The following week, Pai, the director of SAO contacted Kru Dang and asked him if we would be willing to walk with all the SAO teachers in a parade they were having. So we woke up at 5am to get all dressed up in traditional Thai outfits and head a few towns over to walk in their parade. I can’t even begin to count how many people took pictures of us that day. We were pretty amused that our ministry for the day was to get dressed up and let people take pictures with us. But it was cool to see how what seems like such a funny day of ministry actually made an impact. We helped Kru Dang develop a better connection with the SAO school (he had never been to their parade before) and the director of the school that puts the parade on thanked us for visiting their country, and thanked Kru Dang for bringing us. Our participation in their parade, and our wearing their traditional attire seemed to mean a lot the people, who are so proud to be Thai.
On Valentine’s Day, Kru Dang planned a special day for us. He drove us to Chiang Mai to visit Tiger Kingdom and Elephant Camp, where we pet tigers and rode elephants. Those are the two touristy things I was hoping to do most on the Race, and I got to do them on the same day. We spent the night at Kru Dang’s house in Chiang Mai and visited his church there on Sunday morning. Even though I couldn’t understand a single word of the service, I loved getting to meet and encourage the believers there.
Last night we got to participate in a farewell ceremony for two of the teachers of Ban Kai, who are leaving after the school year ends. One is teaching at a school closer to where she lives and the other is going to Chiang Mai to get her Master’s Degree. We went along with all the Ban Kai teachers to the new school where Kru Ann will be teaching to officially “give her away” to the director of the new school. Then we came back to Ban Kai and had a fancy dinner by the pond, where all the teachers shared memories and words of affirmation to Kru Ann and Kru Ying. They also thanked my teammates and I for coming and helping the children learn English, and they gave us beautiful elephant embroidered purses to remember them by. They love us so much! Then there was lots of karaoke, and lots of whiskey (Thai people love their whiskey, but we didn’t partake). We amused the staff by karaokeing to some Destiny’s Child and I Love Rock ‘n Roll. 🙂
This month has shown me what a blessing it is to speak English. Everywhere I go, it’s the number one language people want to learn. And it can be used as a tool to bring the Gospel into non-Christian nations, because they readily welcome English teachers. And as Kru Dang has shown us, it provides a great platform to be able to spread the Good News about Jesus.
We will be using our English as ministry next month too. We just found out our placement in Laos. We’ll be teaching English at a preschool for two weeks, doing prayer walks for one week, and teaching college students the final week. It’s going to be quite different from anything I have experienced before, because Laos is a closed country, meaning they don’t allow freedom of religion there. So we are NOT missionaries for the month, in fact, we are not even allowed to use “the M word.” The government is very strict about who they let in, and they monitor internet usage for key words in order to keep Christianity out. I’ve heard that there’s a way we can put a password on our blog for the month, so that only people with the password can access it. I’ll post more information about that as soon as I find out more details.
Thank you all so much for your prayers, encouragement, and support. God is moving in Thailand, and we are blessed to get to be a part of it.
