Under the Cross

Lately, many people have asked, "So, I noticed there are Buddhist idols at your school, why is that?" While my mouth gives the black and white answer in my mind I think about what those idols represent. They are symbols of a lie of the devil that we daily fight against. How daily we live and work under the loving eyes of our all-seeing Father as well as in front of the unseeing work of man's hands.

On the surface, we are just a school. Underneath there is so much more.

I have Buddhist children who during FUN reading when they get to pick anything they want choose my English Children's Bible. When they've looked in that Bible they get the Thai Children's Bible and read about the stories. My boy from the mountains who has trouble speaking Thai sits next to this boy and tells him the Bible stories that he knows. When the daughter of an woman suffering from cancer who is also an ex-prostitute comes to join my class I'm thankful I get to speak into her life. I have a little girl who was just taken from her father and his girlfriend (who is a man who has decided to become a woman) because of abuse and other illegal activity. I have a boy whose parents abandoned him, and one whose parents are in jail.

Everyday our team speaks into their lives. In all the languages we speak we tell them they can overcome. With all our efforts we show them they are worth it. With every ounce of His energy we pour His love on them.

For many of them we are their only hope. Their only hope of coming to know Christ Jesus as Savior. Their only hope of receiving a good education and not being left behind. Their only hope of a better future and a life different from their parent's.

Everyday we fight to be light in the darkness. We pray that the entrenched tradition of Buddhism and the unseeing, unhearing, unknowing statues which represent it will one day be cast down. That its influence will no longer blind our children or their families to the truth of Christ.

So at times when it seems like we live under the darkness of the idols and the lies of the devil which pervade this country, we have to remember that really we live under the cross, the victorious and gracious cross of Christ. That Christ on the cross ransomed and redeemed all who will come to Him. That He is the light in this darkness, the hope for these precious ones, and the Savior of every nation.

Grades 3 and 4

I know you've already seen the school and class photos but I thought you might enjoy a glimpse of these photos of the kids taken by my great roommate. They show some more personality than the other photos.

Grade 3

He cracks me up with his sense of humor and his use of informal English. He is the only student I have who will ask me how I am before I ask him.

He is the little boy who would show up to summer school an hour and a half before school started, by himself. He is our mystery child that started singing Christian songs and drawing crosses when we didn't have any idea where he learned them from. Today when I asked him if Jesus loved babies (we were reading a book about them) he said a definite yes. When I asked him if Jesus loved him he looked at me and said, "I don't know."

Another child from summer school this little girl is a perfectionist. She has a beautiful smile that lights up the room.

This little girl is very smart and does so well in class. She has a sweet and gentle personality. Even though she doesn't understand when I talk to her she still likes to come and sit with me which I think is brave. :)

This is my sweet charmer. He aims to please and usually tries his best. He likes to explain things in Thaiglish while wildly gestering so I get the point.

She is also very smart and diligent. She survived last year as the only girl in her class. Which actually didn't bother her too much as she likes playing sports and gets along well with the boys. (Of course they all fell in love with her which also doesn't seem to bother her too much)

This is my newest 3rd grade addition. He showed up yesterday so I don't know much about him yet.

He is smart and works hard, and like most of the boys likes to be silly.

He is super sweet and respectful. He struggles quite a bit to understand but always tries his best. Yesterday, with our two new students he was very gentle and would translate what I was saying to his new friends. I think he took pity on them because it is usually him who is totally lost. He did a great job with the translating though!

Grade 4

This is my newest 4th Grade student who always answers me with "Khap. Khap."(a respectful word that shows agreement) because he has no clue what I'm saying.

He is my sensitive student who struggled quite a bit during summer school. Now he finds himself doing so much better because he understands a lot of what I'm asking. He is doing a great job remembering and building on what he has learned. Every morning he arrives on his bicycle bringing our copies from his mom's copy shop down the road.

This is my only 4th grade girl. She works hard and has such a sweet and helpful spirit although she greatly misses her friend. We started out with another girl and through a sad set of events she might not be able to join us anymore (please pray that she will be able to come back.)

I also started out with one other boy from last year. However, his parents have decided that it is too far to bring him to school everyday and he will no longer be joining us. Please pray that the seeds planted in his heart last year will be watered by someone else and that he will come to know the Lord as his Savior.

I'm so thankful for these children that the Lord has given me this school year. Please pray that I will teach them well and that I will daily show them the love of Christ by my words and actions. Pray that they may know hope and that they may have a future in both Christ's kingdom and this kingdom of Thailand.

Meet the Gang

Meet the gang...the students and staff of the 2011-2012 school year! Wednesday we started off with twenty-six students which is more than double our beginning day of last school year. We are so thankful for our new students as well as two new Thai teachers. We even have a couple of students from summer school!



This year has seen some changes as we are short a few English teachers. I am now teaching Grades 3 and 4. I'm a bit sad to say goodbye to the little ones but I am excited for the different challenge of teaching the older kids. My new co-teacher Khruu Ning and I have nine students. Six boys and two girls. We have five students from last year, two from summer school, and two other new additions. About half the class understands me and the other half is completely lost...but such is the nature of what we do.



Khruu Nida and I are teaching Grade 4 and have three extremely quiet students. So quiet. None of the three of them understand or speak a word of English. But they are sweet and try very hard to do their best. The two girls are from the mountains and are sponsored to come to our school. They had to leave their families and move to Hang Dong. They are currently living with two very generous staff members of our school who virtually became single mothers overnight.


This school year has many challenges which we are already feeling as well as so many opportunities. Please pray that we would make huge strides toward meeting our three main goals for this year:

1) Share the Gospel

2) Provide Excellent Education

and through those things to...

3) Provide Hope and a Future

Forever Changed

I'll always remember, actually I probably won't vividly remember for too long in my mind. Yet my heart will remember. My heart will remember the way it falls in love with beautiful broken children who speak a heart language so different from my own. It will always remember why I agree with the statement that "Asia gets in your blood." That walking these dirt roads has forever changed my heart. That seeing two of my students walk by the gates of our school barefoot, with shaved heads, and draped in orange cloth breaks my heart a little more. As the procession of somber monks walk by clutching their neighbor's offerings and one of the little ones exuberantly calls out to me. As I watch three of my students pick a multitude of leaves from a nearby bush so that they can show me the way they can cut the leaf in two by cutting it with their hand. The way the one who really can't do it at all squeals "Teacher" when he finally makes a small cut in the leaf. The way the little boys look at me before and after every time they shoot the basketball just to make sure I'm watching. The way they don't really seem to care that I'm not the same color as them or that I don't always understand what they are saying.

I've seen their faces, I've listened to their stories, I've dried their tears, I've prayed for them, and I will never be the same. Because of the orphans and at-risk children who I've been blessed to teach or work with "I've exchanged the carefree for the pain of God. His heart is heavy with the pain of suffering for the people He created. The people for whom He died. Then sometimes, He gives us a glimpse into His pain. He peels back the corner of His heart to reveal to us His pain. For His people." (I'm sorry I don't know whose quote this is.)

I know that His heart hurts for the boys who become monks to "earn" merit. I know that He hates it when little girls are used. I know that He suffers when children are hurt by those who should be protecting them. I think that what my heart feels is just a twinge of what our Father God feels for these children, He just lets me have a glimpse of how He feels for them. That glimpse is enough to know my life can never, should never, be the same.

Shiny Green Paper

I have a sweet little girl yes I consider her, in a way, mine. She rides to school with us every morning because, well if she doesn't she can't always make it to school. Something to do with a father, who shall we say, "falls short in the parental realm". Anyway, she sticks with us. Last week she didn't have a ride home from school so we took her with us, stopping at a cafe run by a ministry down the road. She got a special treat from us and from one of the people working. She does really well holding her own among people she doesn't understand very well. Although now I do expect her to understand much more English (however, in new circumstances we'll talk with her in Thai to make sure she understands what is happening and why.)

This is background on the girl who spent her early morning at the school picking flowers off a bush as a gift for her teachers. She and another sweet student came to the classroom while I was still getting things set up for the day. They told me to close my eyes and after a minute told me to open them. When I opened them they were standing there looking embarrassed and called out, "Just a minute!" as they ran back out the door. I smiled and continued with my work. They approached a couple minutes later with shy smiles and held out their offering. Some freshly picked flowers wrapped in shiny green paper (paper that I had the day before seen blowing around the schoolyard.) She proceeded to explain that they picked these beautiful flowers and she wasn't sure what to wrap them in but that she was so excited when she found the paper wrapped around a tree trunk. She also excitedly declared that she had cleaned off the bird poop too! I smiled at them and told them that they were so sweet and that the flowers were beautiful. And they were. Who can't help but feel loved with an offering like that. :)

Introducing...

Teaching summer school has been challenging and tiring yet so good. Let me tell you why. 1) There's Ahm...shows up at school around maybe 7:00 am (an hour and a half before school starts)... about ten to twenty minutes before we get there. I wonder how he gets through the fence and why his guardians don't care that the eight year old child wanders around a empty school early in the morning. I think he has long taken care of himself and decided when he would go where. 2) Then there's Tham...the kid who understand and finishes his work in about one minute. He's fun to talk to because it is easier to see his personality because he understands and is able to respond. He and our class clown Dhun became monks today for about one month to "make merit as usual." They are happy to be doing this for their families. 3) There's the third grade boy First who looks about three years old because he is soooo small. He is smart and animated and is quite vocal when he figures things out. "OHHhhhh!" 4) There's Bim who when he wants to earn a point can be perfect and about any other time prefers to sit with his legs tucked up on his chair and his hands drumming on his table. He's the boy with a bruise on his face and the tendency to throw punches yet who is about as sweet as they come. 5) There's Bami who "Is only five years old" as she likes to tell us when something is hard for her. She likes to have her big sister write her answers for her when I'm not looking. 6) There's Namtaan ("Sugar") who is super quiet and hardly ever says a word. 7) There's Oh Chawng who is just like his big brother quiet, diligent, and smart. 8) There's the five girls who get picked-up up and all try for about fifteen minutes to arrange themselves on one motorcycle. 9) There's Mai who comes and sits by me and chatters. As I'm cutting out a pile of game cards she picks up every piece of paper and runs to throw it in the trash can for me. Such a sweet heart. These are only a handful of the kids that have wiggled into my heart in the past two weeks, funny how they have such a way of doing that, isn't it?

Pray for Their Hearts

One of my students who comes from a Buddhist family who is really trying to discover truth.

The school day started off with our normal prayer time. I asked my kiddos what they wanted to pray for and they answered (all in English by the way) mom and dad, everyone, teachers and students, Somo (one of their classmates who was absent), and a little boy in Africa. Several weeks ago I told my kids about a boy in Africa and everyday since then they've reminded me to pray for him. They often call him my little brother and one of my little girls usually reminds me to pray for his house. I haven't ever really understood why she wants to pray for his house...maybe she is worried that he won't have one. Today someone else brought up praying for his house. I was so surprised when my little boy said in English. "No, not pray for house pray for heart!" I stopped in my tracks and told him that he had such a great point. We really should be praying for his heart. I was surprised that this little boy understood something so important.

Pray for his heart.

That reminds me as well to pray for my kid's hearts. To live with their hearts in the forefront of my mind...not the work I need to do or the things my students still need to learn. It was a reminder to me to slow down and focus on the hearts of all those around me. English is just the reason I've been granted the opportunity to speak to their hearts, to tell them that God loves them, it isn't the main reason why I'm here.

Nothing stops my kids in their tracks more quickly than when I teach them about God. They listen because they want to know. Even at such a young age their hearts are crying out for hope and love. They want to know that they are cared for and protected. During a lesson sharing the gospel using a wordless book given to me by a great friend (with the five colors: yellow = heaven, black = sin, red = Jesus' blood, white = forgiveness, and green = growth in Christ) they listened well and comprehended a lot. To help them understand I also used flannel graph pieces depicting the concepts. When they saw the flannel picture of Jesus on the cross everyone of them stared at it and they all had such sadness in their eyes. I don't think that they understand yet what the cross means for them (I'm still learning myself) so please pray with me that they would understand why he died, the fact that He is alive now and offering life, and that they can chose for themselves how to respond.

Hope and a Future

The tears in her eyes remind me why.

Last week was mid-terms, I don't know why we have mid-terms in 1st Grade, but we do. She was worried. On the morning of the English mid-term as we picked up her daughter in the cold morning air she told me, "I don't know if she can do it." In my mind its a just a test in 1st grade and I knew that her daughter, while she might not get a perfect score would still do alright. In her mind it's her daughter's future, it's an indicator of whether she can rise above her circumstances. When the tests were all done and the scores all marked, I put them out of my mind.

However, last night as we entered my boss' house, who actually employs this dear mother as his wife's house helper, I saw her. I told her that her daughter did really well on the English mid-term that she scored an 80%. As I looked into her eyes I saw her tears and the words spilled out.

Words revealing that she doesn't understand English at all, that she didn't know if her daughter could do it, that she dreams for a better future for her daughter, that she tells her daughter everyday to make the most of this opportunity to listen well and work hard because she has a chance to be special, to be different.

Now I know it's more than a test, more than 1st grade to her, it's her daughter's only chance for a future. It's her dream of seeing her daughter with an education higher than her own. It's the hope that her daughter will marry a godly man who treats her well. It's the hope that her daughter won't have to work so hard just to barely make ends meet.

I tell her that her daughter listens well, asks for help, and gives it her all. She often doesn't quite know what's going on but that doesn't stop her from trying. Today as I watched her she helped some of the other kids who've been here longer and who should know more than her. But she's working hard to make her momma proud and the tears in her mother's eyes mean that she's succeeding.

The tears in her eyes remind me why. It's times like this that I remember why we're here...Hope International Schools provides hope and a future to students and families in the developing world by sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, providing excellent education, and breaking the cycle of poverty and oppression.

Romans 10:10

Because we are as grown-ups learning the importance of committing God's precious words to heart we hope to see our kids letting His words shape their hearts. Throughout this school year our kids have been learning the words that call them sinners and short of the standard of a holy God. They have learned that the punishment for that is death. Thankfully for us those aren't all the words. The next words speak of God's free gift which we could never earn or deserve. The words say that whoever calls on the wonderful name of the Lord, confesses Jesus as Lord and believes in their heart that God raised Him from the dead will recieve salvation. These words are life and truth and are spoken in Thai and English in our school and many languages across the world because they are meant for all people.
Hope you enjoy this video of two of my students reciting the most recent verse complete with hand motions. Notice the precious smile missing teeth, the fact that the word righteousness is super hard for a six year old who is just learning English and the Thai alphabet chart on the wall behind the girls.
May we all be as enthusiastic as these little ones when speaking the words of truth and hope.

School of Promise Video

This is the fantastic new School of Promise promotion video. I hope it gives you a glimpse of the mission and vision of Hope International Schools and the School of Promise. I hope you enjoy seeing the beautiful faces of the students and hearing from some of the teachers.

First Week of School!

The School of Promise had its official first day of school Monday! That is such a huge praise! All those hours of scrubbing, painting, building, and planning have finally paid off! I now find myself in a much more challenging role, that of teacher. I am again getting used to the fact that during the day I have five small people who depend on me to teach them and love them. Children who I remind to wash their hands and whose skirts I continually fix because they are about four sizes too big. I pray that I can teach them to speak and understand English, add 2 +2, and know how a plant grows. But even more than that is the responsibility to share with them about the Lord, to speak grace and love into their lives, and to trust the Lord to cause hearts to soften and change. It is times such as these that I see how inadequate I am and how desperately I rely on the Lord's strength.

This poem by Amy Carmichael has been an encouragement to me recently.

God of patience and endurance,

Steadfast as the steadfast stars

Stands Thy promise, Thine assurance

Unto Thine ambassadors:

"I, thy God, will strengthen thee...

Where I am, there thou shalt be."

Lord, we would endure; O sift us

Clear of weakness; make us strong.

Lord, we would endure; O lift us

Into joy and conquering song.

Cause us in Thy peace to dwell,

Seeing the Invisible.

Let us welcome all life's weather,

Whatsoever it may be;

And, or singly, or together,

Find our heart's delight in Thee,

Our Redeemer, our Adored,

Lover, and beloved Lord.

Anyway... more about the students. It is always amusing when you ask a question to have the question repeated instead of answered. This week we are learning about living and non-living things. I said a statement that the students were supposed to repeat and then I said, "That's a hard one isn't it." To which my class parroted, "That's a hard one isn't it" which caused me to smile.

My poor lone boy sometimes has a hard time focusing on our lessons. Apparently that is the case when my Thai co-teacher is teaching as well. Amy and I were standing outside the classroom waiting to help with dismissal time when my student looked up and saw me standing outside the door. He had been looking around and not focusing. When he saw me he did the gesture for our classroom rule #2 "Stay on Task." Which as he was not on task appeared as if he was turning himself in.

I have been experimenting with Whole Brain Teaching strategies and they suggest having a gesture for each vocabulary word you teach. Great! If only teacher could remember all the gestures. ;) In all seriousness I think that is necessary especially when teaching ESL or what we jokingly call ETL (English as a third language). Instead of thinking of my own gesture I did what the program suggested, which ended up backfiring a little bit. The word is green and the gesture is to point to the ground and say 'achoo' because the picture is of grass. A little odd I know. Well now I have the situation of anytime any of my students see anything green whether in the classroom or outside they starting pointing and sneezing. I'm sure the other teachers think all my students have a cold.

Here are some pictures to give you a taste of what the school is like and what we do everyday.

These are our 12 students Grades 1, 2, 4, and 5 with our director Joel on the first day of school.

This is FUN reading time. The next to last period of everyday we spend thirty minutes reading. I normally read two stories and then let the kids chose a book to look at. Often times they bring it to me to read which is what is happening in this picture. I can't tell you how many times I read Goodnight Moon and The Three Little Pigs this week.

These are Amy's three boys (and Amy with her head cut off.)

My five 1st graders are working on writing the letter Nn on whiteboards.

Everyday we start school with an assembly where the students raise the flag and sing the national anthem.

Recent Happenings

In searching my brain for stories of things that have happened in recent weeks, most of what I remember are the times we spent painting our building, scrubbing the floors, and cleaning the bathrooms. I now have a greater appreciation of Cinderella after scrubbing our entire building on our hands and knees; a product of the statement "Who needs drop cloths?"

(You can't really see how much dirt is caked on our legs from crawling on the muddy floor.)

I was so thankful to learn how to tile after two days straight of scrubbing floors. I was taught by our great friend Rob who selflessly comes to our school building most days and slaves away doing hundreds of jobs that we have no idea how to do. After a bit of a safety lesson he even let me use his special hand saw tool. (Daddy aren't you proud. ;) )

In preparation for our upcoming visits to the States(yay!), we made a trip down to the Walking Street/Sunday Night Market. Before we were even half-way there our approximately thirty-three year old car began to overheat. While this is not unusual it is still a bit of an annoyance. We pulled over into a gas station where Vente (our car) has overheated before. We put water in our radiator at least once a week (maybe we should try actual radiator fluid) so we carry a big bottle of water for the sole purpose of cooling Vente. Disclaimer: while the things I'm about to mention are probably not bright ideas we were told to do them by people who know more about cars than we do. Anyway we pour water on our boiling hot radiator but that soon gets old so one of my roommates touches the radiator cap. We all say "No! Don't take the lid off the car is too hot and it might explode!" However, our roommate says, "The lid isn't hot at all" and proceeds to twist it off. About a second later a geyser of dirty brown liquid erupted from our radiator. All of us who had previously stepped away from the car jumped even further back almost falling into a weird canal thing. Thankfully no one was hurt and we cooled Vente down with more water and were able to make it to the market after all. Lesson learned: really...don't take the lid off of the radiator when the car is still hot.

Yesterday, we had a special English as a Second Language training session with a woman from Australia. We are so thankful for all of her hard work and the time she has taken to help us. It will be invaluable. The training began yesterday morning and a headache that I had gotten a couple days before just continued to get worse. Thinking I might find some medicine I ran to the little shop next door. The one that when we sing our praise songs every morning we are able to watch the man and woman in their kitchen as they prepare food that they sell during the day. We share a wall and our buildings are extremely close. When I walked in I was so excited that he understand my question (I was speaking Thai) but he didn't have anything I could read the label for which made me a little uncomfortable. That was sad, but it necessitated a trip to the 7/11 which is exciting because that means...motorcycle! The trip is fairly short but is a pain to make in the car and takes twice as long. So, because Khruu Ooy wasn't there to stop me I borrowed Gordon's motorbike and headed off to 7/11. After a bit of a wobbly start I did pretty well, I even drove past the cars at the stop sign and pulled up next to the other bikes at the very front. I was nervous about having to cross traffic several times but the Lord protected me and it was great fun!

Today at the Thai school that Amy and I teach at our classes went pretty well. Although they were interrupted by the principal coming and taking pictures of us, which when you are either talking or making exaggerated faces to keep the students' attention are not very flattering. Then, he asked if we could Skype with a couple from Australia who often visit Thailand and volunteer at this school. We had actually heard about them before from the teachers at this school and some mutual friends (Rob the guy who helps at our school being one of them.) We had a nice visit with these people and look forward to meeting them in May. We also had a long talk with our principal today over lunch, he is trying to learn English and is doing really well! There is still some confusion about whether certain words are in English or Thai because the Thai speakers think he is speaking in English and the English speakers think he is speaking in Thai. However, after him saying "What?" when I'm speaking and me saying "Aray na?" when he is speaking we are able to understand each other pretty well. Which reminds me of something very exciting. This last week I read my very first sentence written in Thai letters. It was..."The crow has large eyes." well in English anyway. :)

After teaching we headed back to our school to continue our "manual labor" which the teachers at our Thai school think is hilarious. We began painting the front fence which at two o'clock in the afternoon receives direct sunlight. Amy and I began working with a bucket that had a hole in the bottom and had to be held in just the right way and with one pair of flip-flops between the two of us. Things such as shoes can be forgotten when one takes three bags, a change of clothes, and random things such as water bottles and coffee mugs to work in the morning. So we stood on one foot because the pavement was burning hot. After a little bit Brittany joined us and we continued the painting. We must have looked pitiful with our bucket and lack of shoes because our neighbor lady brought out three straw hats for us to wear. We thought it was so sweet of her to notice our dilemma and act on our behalf.

Last story for this extremely long blog. On Tuesday mornings Amy and I sit in a meadow for a little while and have our quiet times. (We drop our roommates off at another Thai school and then have some extra time in which it would be pointless to drive back to our school just in time to turn around and drive the Thai school where we teach.) Anyway last time we were in the meadow we saw this crazy dog run and stick his head through two rails in a fence. He started howling and Amy and I felt so bad for him. We were deciding how we could rescue him as he squirmed and struggled. Just then he was able to pull his head out of the fence. We were relieved that we didn't have to help him and went on with our time. About half an hour later later the same dog came and rammed his head through the same exact spot on the fence. This time we didn't feel so bad for him because...well... he should have learned his lesson. We joked about how sometimes we feel like we are that dog, trying to accomplish something that just cannot be done. However, today as we sat in that meadow that same dog came and jumped into the fence again! As we were laughing at his stupidity he was able to squeeze through the fence. We were quite surprised. I'm not sure how he was able to manage that feat, but we took it as a sign from God. ;) Sometimes those impossible things really are possible, we might just have to try what seems stupid a few times before we get it right.