Where They're Coming From

Knowledge changes me...

• she can't live with her parents because they have sent her away with the command to work hard and do the very best she can and they hope that she will have a better life than they
  


• he visited his parents last week...in jail...where they've been since he was five months old (about ten years ago) and they'll be there for ten more years



• he has a house key because he lets himself in and out on his own



• he is also separated from his parents because they live on the mountain, which means that he is in 4th grade and can't read in any language



• he's in 3rd grade yet actually should be in 5th grade but he's been held back because he's moved so much that he hasn't really been able to learn



• he is put down at home and basically told that there is nothing about him that is good or valuable and is publicly humiliated



• she isn't picked up from school because her dad is just not interested in putting forth the effort and her mom is just too tired to fight her dad anymore

"Teachers are their student's second parents." In a day we see them overwhelmed, victorious, tearful, laughing, mischievous, diligent, silly, serious. We see them hurt and insecure and we try our level best to convince them that they are loved, that they are valued, that they can persevere, and that they can overcome. The snippets of life written above are just that, realities of life that my students live with. Loneliness, rejection, abandonment, poverty, and abuse are not foreign to these children. The moments when their eyes light up or they share a crooked grin are worth more than gold. Many of them behave with a maturity far beyond their few years. They work hard to understand and learn and to make their parent's dreams come true. Their tender hearts look out for others and search for ways to be helpful. May God make me the patient teacher they need, the gentle encourager they deserve, and the person quick to see their worth that they desire. May my loving Father make me a loving "second parent" to these precious ones who know little to nothing of His love for them personally.

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

Home

"And wherever you are when you catch glimpses of heaven, you are home." ~ Ann Voskamp

Heaven can be seen in the beauty of majestic African mountains...

Or in the sweet face of a redeemed child...

It is in these moments even when you are a world away from the land of your birth, when you catch a glimpse of what heaven might be like and truly feel home.

Overview of Our Trip to South Africa

South Africa was absolutely beautiful, words and pictures do not do it justice. Even though it was a land of great beauty, like any land, it also holds much brokenness. During our time there we were able to see much of the beauty, the brokenness, and the ways God is bringing hope and light through His people.

The following pictures are just a few of the memories from the trip. I hope you enjoy seeing this land which actually felt much more like home than anywhere I've been recently.

This precious boy was one of the many kids in the hospital without family or friends. Just trying to survive. We were able to take some puzzles and toys and visit the hospital for awhile with a ministry that consistently visits the children and builds relationships with them, and shares about Christ's love.

This was one of the animals we saw on our drive through a game reserve. The weather was freezing!

This is from the sweet time we had at a Children's Village. They also have a school there for the children and they teach them in English. It was similar to what we are trying to do over here in Thailand.


These little girls are also at the Children's Village.

This is a gorgeous sunset at the game reserve.

I just think this picture is so funny. Please notice the man in the bright red cowboy hat with a white fuzzy rim.

This is the view from the Drakensburg mountains where we did some hiking and camping.

Another view of the moutains. The sky there was soooo blue. At night we could even see the stars!

This picture is from the beach near the airport right after our arrival into SA.

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. :)