On Beauty in the Ordinary

Today struck me with the beautifulness of life. Kind of. It's a Wednesday which means it I am at school earlier than I need to be because one of my roommates has monitoring duty. That happens on Mondays and Wednesdays, I love those days. They allow me to grab my Bible, journal, and prayer list and head to "my" bench (which I discovered today I'm pretty sure I share with a mouse). The space that has heard my prayers for the people I love, the space that has seen my tears, and the place where I gaze into the sky knowing that my God is out there and is listening. As I pray I see the huge green trees, the blue sky sometimes angry sometimes calm, and the rooftops of the nearby houses that remind me I'm not in the States anymore. I hear the children chattering in a language I don't claim as my own. I walk down the stairs to pray with our team to the beat of Thai music from the community loudspeaker. I sing praise songs in two languages. As I'm walking back to my bench for the remaining fifteen minutes or so until the official start of the school day, I pause to be still for the national anthem/king's song that is played over the loudspeakers every morning. All motion stops for those minutes and then the hustle and bustle starts up again.

As I travel to the cafeteria for snack time I stop for a conversation with one of the Thai teachers. A conversation switching between Thai and English sharing hearts across cultures. In the cafeteria I discover our cook frying chicken and she asks if I'd like to help. I wash my hands and then pick up slimy raw chicken pieces and roll them in bread crumbs. Khruu Ooy comes in and sits for awhile asking Joy to make som tam with lunch. As Khruu Ooy speeds off on the motorcycle to buy the ingredients for the papaya salad I'm summoned to a meeting. A meeting with a generous Australian woman who has come to teach us some of her plentiful knowledge gathered from decades of teaching children just learning English.

Upstairs in the heat of our teacher room our boss creates some visuals for class which he is now teaching. As he struggles with our finicky laminater, paper cutter that doesn't cut straight, and the everlasting problem of the necessary fan blowing papers in every direction we laugh. It's terrible but we laugh, and good man that he is, he laughs with us. At one point he comments on how the laminater sounds like a whole colony of insects being slaughtered. The day is not yet over. There is still dinner with a Thai friend, some more lesson planning/preparation for tomorrow, and blessed sleep on the horizon.

Today...is beautiful. Beautiful because of the unfamiliar becoming familiar. Beautiful because of friendships created through intentionality and hard work. Beautiful because of the peace in the lack of comfort. Beautiful because of shared struggles. Beautiful because God in His grace has redeemed us and called us His own. Beautiful God has brought us together here to learn how to love Him and love each other. Beautiful.

Funny Story

After eating lunch at school everyone does their own dishes. Teaching responsibility: yes... making less work for our cook: yes... sanitary: maybe not. However, my girls often end up playing in the water more than they wash their dishes, such was the case today. I teasingly told one of my girls to "move it" because she was playing with bubbles and we were all waiting behind her to wash our dishes. Amy (the 2nd grade teacher) started singing, "I like to move it move it." My little first grader started singing "I like to move it move it" while bobbing her head. Too funny.

Bringing Light

"The brave who focus on all things good and all things beauty and all things true, even in the small, who give thanks for it and discover joy even in the here and now, they are the change agents who bring fullest Light to the all the world.”

~One Thousand Gifts, A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are by Ann Voskamp

May the joy

on their faces

bring you joy

and encourage you.

They are already changing the world one smile at a time.

Royal Flora

Saturday some of our team took a trip to the Royal Flora Gardens. The Royal Flora is in the foothills of mountains that border Chiang Mai. A tram takes visitors to various stops around the garden where people can walk around, enjoy the scenery, and take pictures. They have gardens decorated to represent various countries around the world, a huge temple up on a hill, different greenhouses, and various other attractions. As always I'm amazed by the beauty of the land in Thailand, it points me to our artistic creator God who has blessed us with such beauty.

Some photos of the day...

What I Learned from the Laminating Machine

I learned that the constant high pitched squeal of the laminator makes my roommate want to do this...

But seriously, today, while laminating sticker sheets for my students' desks to encourage better listening and careful work I made a mistake...I thought. I thought if I just cut off an unused part of the laminating sheet I could save a half a sheet (laminating film is quite the commodity over here). About a half a second later when the paper was all jammed into the whining machine my heart dropped. In trying to save a half a sheet of paper I had ruined the machine. After a confession of my mistake to my kind roommates and my efforts at yanking an extremely hot piece of plastic out of the unyielding jaws of the laminator, I finally succeeded in righting my wrong and I breathed easy once again.

As this happened for some reason my mind made the connection between my obstinate laminator and my obstinate self. Sometimes (or most times if I'm honest) I think I know what is good for my life, I think I know what is best, I think I know how I can serve in the way the Lord desires. And then it comes crashing down around me what I thought would be good actually ends up causing more problems. Mostly because it is centered around myself instead of the Lord. When will I learn to wait on the Lord? When will I learn to follow at His pace? When will I learn to trust that He is faithful, that He loves me, and that His plan is good? I would like this lesson to only appear once (too late for that) and I would like to master it in about an hour (too late for that too). Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. God takes His time in growing us because He cares how we turn out, and possibly because we struggle a bit in the process. We are His workmanship, the clay in His hands. It is our purpose to submit to His design, to be willing, to be still.

Maybe if I learn to trust and obey I'll make it through the "laminator" of life and end up on the other side useful for the purpose I was created for. I'm so thankful that the Lord's grace covers my sin, my efforts, my mistakes, and my "successes." I'm thankful that it is through His strength and ability I am made into a vessel for His use.

Week at a Glance

This week in Thailand...

...We agreed to help out a friend, which entailed teaching for an English camp at a nearby school to about 140 students. It was nice to have a change of pace to break up a sometimes monotonous routine. The school was hospitable and the day was smooth. In fact they took such good care of us they even dug a bee stinger out of my foot when I happened to get stung. During the day we met a man who was there living and working at the school for several months. As we tried to explain to him what we did and why, he asked us, "Are you guys like modern day nuns?" The half-funny half-sad thing was he was serious. He didn't really understand how we would think there was such a thing as the Lord's call on our lives, much less obey it.

...We had our weekly Monday night dinner with a special meal and boxed birthday cake (all the way from the States) for one of my dear roommate's birthdays. My boss's wife works hard every week to make us delicious American dinners, which we greatly appreciate.

...One morning as I walked into my stuffy classroom I was greeted by a humongous creepy spider. *Just for the record I am one of those girls who would ask her dad to kill crunchy bugs that happened to interrupt her life. Thank you dad!* I tried to be brave, because sometimes I can be, but this spider was too much for me. So I did what any good teacher would do...I asked the fifth grade boy to help me kill the spider. And by "help" what I mean is that I watched him chase it around the room, stomp on it several times, and when it refused to die...catch it with his hands. Only later did I wonder if it might be poisonous or dangerous.

...One afternoon our school cook, Phii Joy, brought me a bowl after school. As I gave her a curious look she told me that she had made som tam (spicy papaya salad, one of our favorites) exactly the way we English teachers liked it. What a thoughtful lady. She also made guidteaw for lunch on Friday. Rice noodles in broth with pork, garlic, dried chili peppers, and a random assortment of sauces. Oddly enough it is becoming quite the comfort food, which was great Friday because we were all struggling a bit with various levels of sickness.

...As I visited with one of my student's mothers after school, she shared with me about her husband's and her ministry here in Thailand. It was really neat to hear about. As she was talking she shared that there were still several things up in the air and things that they didn't really know how they were going to work out. She said she had been encouraged on Friday when her child brought home our craft project from Moses and the Red Sea on which their little hands had written "God will make a way." Even though her child didn't understand the words it was an encouragement to her to remember that God does provide.

...I spent three hours in a hospital waiting room which was gloomy and too small for the number of people. I had driven my dear friend Khruu Ooy to the hospital after she had suddenly gotten quite ill at school. I have to admit that I felt quite a bit of accomplishment that I knew how to get to the faraway hospital (unfortunately I'd been there before) and then back home after I had dropped her off at her husband's house in the city. For those of you who know my sense of direction and the moat area in the city of Chiang Mai you will understand the feat that this was. For a little while I didn't feel like a foreigner or outsider (odd considering I was sitting in a room in which no one shared my skin, hair, or eye color.)

...Last night my roommate suggested we put Nutella on cereal. It is our usual practice when lesson planning at night after the time we have to ceased to be genuinely productive to think of what snack we can make to get us going. Pretty much anything with Nutella is always an option (for those of you who don't know Nutella is a chocolaty hazelnut mixture with a consistency sort of close to peanut butter.) I have to confess one time we actually ate Tim Tams (a chocolate wafer cookie thing from Australia) with Nutella on top only several minutes later followed by a piece of chocolate candy with Nutella on it. Anyway this time we decided on cereal minus the Nutella. I have to say cereal is one of my favorite things in the world. Thanks to the sweet friends who brought cereal for us all the way from the States!

...Today, the first Saturday in a long time that we haven't had anything to do, we broke out our scrub brushes, soap, and laundry buckets (which thankfully haven't seen much use since our generous landlady gave us a washing machine) to clean our house. This is an endeavor that always produces a lot of sweat, but the results are worth it. In an effort to keep our kitchen clean we are having dinner tonight delivered for about $3.13 per person.

So there it is...a glimpse of this thing I call my life. Never quite predictable, not always easy, but with, oh, so much to laugh about and be thankful for.

Repeat

Well, it's universal...kids say surprising things. Here are some of the highlights from today...

It started off this morning with one of my little girls as we lined up in the hallway to go to class. She asked me in Thai, "Teacher, for Christmas, what are you going to give your children?" (Meaning my little band of five and six years olds.) My thoughts...1) What! It's only August and 2) Most Thai people don't even celebrate Christmas...where did that come from? Although our kids did start randomly humming/singing Christmas carols at least a month ago.

During English class I asked my kids if they knew what today was. After they replied "Tuesday," which is normally a pretty good answer, I told them that it was Miss Brittany's birthday. They didn't understand in English and instead of just saying the word in Thai I decided to sing a bit of "Happy Birthday" which was actually just as effective, they caught on quickly. Brittany told me later that they went up to her during break time, sang "Happy Birthday," and gave her hugs.

My kids have been struggling to pass a math facts speed test for a couple weeks now. The first student passed last week and this week another of my students finally passed. The other students sat a little sullen as they failed, yet again, to complete the test in the allotted time. I could see the disappointment on their faces, yet out of their sadness one of the little girls looks at the two students who passed the test and says to each of them in a sweet voice speaking in English "Good job. Good job." I was so proud of her.

My kids have been struggling with how to be good friends, with including everyone and being kind to each other. I have a hard time combating this as I can only talk with them a little about it. We had a discussion as were lining up for lunch because we were having some problems in the classroom. As we were eating I heard them start talking about it again. I turned around from the table I was at to look at them so I could focus on what they were saying because I was concerned the conversation of ten minutes ago had been forgotten. So as I watched them, sure they were about to start fighting, I saw them all put their hands in the middle of the table on top of each other's after the fashion of a sports team about to yell "break." They said something in Thai and threw their hands into the air broad smiles on their faces. They showed such unity which I was quite thankful for.

After lunch as my kids were once again lining up in the hallway, one of my little girls was filling my water bottle for me, as she came back another of my students said (in English) "Thank you, dear." You can always tell what you say a lot when your kids start to repeat it. I got another taste of that a couple minutes later when we were upstairs going to computer class. Walking into the class I realized that I had left my computer vocabulary flashcards downstairs. I did say out loud, "Oh, darn." (I know, what a terrible example). One of my students was at that time walking behind me and said, "Oh, darn." It was then that I remembered, they will repeat, even when they don't understand. I don't know why the repeat button was turned on today, but it sure was.

Just thought I'd share a couple of stories from the day, moments that made me smile and laugh out loud. I never cease to be amazed at what my kids say in Thai or English. I'm thankful they are becoming confident enough in English to speak it on their own initiative and in different situations. I'm also thankful for their character development, I pray they continue to grow in love, selflessness, and encouragement for each other.