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?

Lessons From Life Lately...

- When you are used to 18 hour flights you will wonder if the plane is crashing when it starts descending after what feels like 15 minutes

- It is best not to get the giggles while smooshed in a public mini-bus with fifteen random Thai men for three hours

- You will find it funny that your current concern is whether or not you can reach the airplane sandwiches stashed in your bag which at this point is not really accessible

- Also, in said vehicle you will be the only ones eating (trying to quietly eat an apple is kinda a vain endeavor)

- Apple juice that squirts on the window does not wipe off discreetly

- The man falling asleep on your roommate will wake up when you and your roommate are laughing and accidentally elbow him

- Although you understand some Thai you will have absolutely have no idea what the driver is saying from all the way up front and you just hope someone knows where in the world you are trying to go

- When nearing Monkey Island on a kayak be prepared to hold tightly to all of your possessions and rapidly row in the opposite direction

- Bring sunblock that did NOT expire 5 years ago

- In the midst of an earthquake the jury is out on how best to respond

- When running a summer school in Thailand be prepared for students to come in days after school has started (a week and a half past the registration deadline) and ask to enroll. They will then, after you tell them it is full, proceed to the two other people on the campus and ask them if they can enroll.

- When faced with a classroom of students whose names are some variation of Bim, Bem, Bam, or Ban calling any of those names doesn't necessarily elicit a response

- Be prepared to respond graciously when you are trying to figure out a student's name and you try to spell it in English and he shows you he does indeed write his name F4

- You will feel silly when you replay in your mind the string of names you've just called, "Ahm, First, Nack, Bim, Bem, Bami, Bim, Film, Ging nung, Oh Chawng, Tham, Jem, Tey..."

- While you are so thankful your car has returned from the shop after over one month of repairs since the car accident, you are not so thrilled that everything that used to work in the car no longer does: including the all important gas gauge (see next lesson)

- When you've run out of gas in the middle of a busy road all you can do is sit and grade papers

- When you are in the midst of being rescued and both the driver seat and the passenger seat break in the space of thirty seconds it is okay to laugh hysterically on the side of the road

- When your roommate insists on climbing the mango tree in your "lawn" (a brick patio) it is your job to stand under the tree and catch the falling mangoes

- When you are still standing at the end of the day it is just one more reason to praise the Lord

Flood of Kindness

Kindness: an expression of God's heart spoken into our daily lives. In the midst of the struggle, in the grit of everyday, through the mist of tears...a light shines through.



Kindness takes many forms and can be seen in the shape of...



Little known friends bumped into in a restaurant who send a special dessert to our table for Valentine's Day.



A Thai principal of our school who takes our car in the middle of the day to get our air con fixed so we can survive the heat.



A thoughtful handwritten letter from a friend in the States.



A roommate who picks up french fries as a special treat for us (because she knows how much I love them) even though she's already had a long busy day.



A man from a ministry down the road who gave up at least six hours to figure out and fix my computer.


Friends from Australia who are here working hard for our school, who have continually bought dinner for us even though we agree that next time will be our turn to pay.


My student and his mother and Khruu Ooy who all dropped what they were doing and came to help us after our car accident.

Our boss's wife giving us Honey Bunches of Oats when she got a two pack for a good price. (Cereal is expensive and so we only eat care package cereal).

Weeks like these when kindness floods over my life I'm reminded of the prayer of a young girl in Africa. A girl who prayed that the Lord would send that afternoon a hot water bottle to keep a motherless newborn alive and a doll for his older sister...just so she would know that God really loved her. Even though the missionary (Helen Roseveare) doubted that the prayer would be answered, she arrived home to find a box from her home country (the first in four years) that against all odds contained a hot water bottle and a doll, sent five months before so that God could answer the young girl's faith filled prayer. God cares about answering the prayers of His people no matter how young and has compassion on us and does wonderful things...just so that we know He loves us.

The cool thing is that we as His people are often allowed to share in His outpouring of love. Sometimes He allows us to be the vessels through which He shows His compassion, kindness, and love. The people mentioned above have shown me this week by their kind actions the nail scarred hands of my Savior and His love.

"It doesn't matter whether I travel 6,000 miles or just twenty minutes from home....What matters is whether the people we meet matter to us as much as they matter to God."

Helen Roseveare

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.

Things I Never Thought I'd Say/Hear

(Picture from the market next to our muu baan (neighborhood)...if you look closely you can see the whole chickens lying on the table.)

I've found that living in a foreign country your conversations change. They involve new topics and vocabulary that while at first are so unfamiliar but soon are spoken and understood without a second thought. Here are just a couple examples.

Do you eat blood?

A question I asked in all seriousness to our new English speaking students. The answer to that question determines if they get a typical Thai soup with congealed chicken blood or mixed vegetables for lunch (made for those of us who don't eat blood.)

Where is the Hafif?

Hafif happens to be a particular brand of lice shampoo that has had several uses in our house. Now the question of "Where's the Hafif?" is not an unusual question.

What's that familiar smell?


My roommate asked...a split second later our visitor from South Africa answered...burning trash. And my roommate instantly recognized he was right. However, I can't imagine sitting around in my parent's living room in the States smelling our neighbor's burning trash. And the fact that it is a very common smell is a little bit odd.



Here, have some seaweed and caramel goldfish.

I tell you this country does some strange things to a person's taste buds. Because these are actually a pretty good snack.



Let's go to the noodle shop and buy ice cream.

The fact that there is a typical Thai noodle shop on our school grounds (run by our landlady) is quite convienient. And that they now sell ice cream is pretty awesome for those outrageously hot afternoons after long days of teaching.

Do you want ice cream?

The only reason why this question is funny is because we know to ask it when the dogs in our neighborhood all start howling, howling at the same time. It never fails that about two minutes after their howling begins the ice cream motorcycle drives down our street. It varies as to the time of day that he comes and we can't hear the tune he plays until he drives by our house. However, the dogs must be able to hear him and they feel it their duty to announce his coming.

What does the moon not have?

Well the question wasn't as unusual as the answer...During Science class I asked Jabez what the moon did not have thinking that he would answer with something along the lines of water, light, air (you know the things I had just taught). Instead he looks at me and says, "Turkey?" I couldn't help laughing at his correct but oh so incorrect answer.

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.

Missing the Mark

Someone once said, "I bet it'd be great to go to a church filled with missionaries." One might think that because we're all here to spread the love of Christ. I mean that's our full time job, that's the desire of our hearts, and that's our call from the Lord. Sadly, we don't always do that very well. We're busy, we're stretched, and we're tired. We daily operate in a language we don't always understand, in a culture that we often feel uncomfortable in, in a country where life doesn't go as expected. Sometimes, we let that get to us. Sometimes, we go to church and don't even speak to anyone else. Sometimes, we talk a bit with the people we know and then leave. Rarely do we open up or reach out. Isn't that awful?

We recently met some people (at said church) who have become fast friends. Such good friends in fact that we spent Christmas day with them, have gone over just to visit, shared dinner, and have taken a day trip in the short time that we've known them. What makes them different? Well, they've said that the bar (the expectations God has) for believers is set high and they claim to be much lower than that level, but in my eyes they are so much closer to that standard than myself and many other Christians I know. They live intentionally, they reach out, they share with anyone who needs some help, they listen, they love you for who you are, they don't condemn, they don't preach, all this while living in a smallish apartment with five kids, one being a brand new baby. They are one of the greatest pictures of the love of Christ I've seen in my life.

They said, "You know, when we were younger, even newly married. People adopted us. They invited us into their homes, they fed us, they loved us. And we remember how much that meant to us and we try to do that to whoever we can, whenever we can." I've been so blessed to be "adopted" into their family for the time they are here. More than that, I hope to live like they do. To have an open heart and open door policy.

Sometimes, I think it gets too easy to get caught up in our own lives and ministries. To consider the things God has blessed me with on this earth as MY time, MY money, MY energy, and MY comfort. This friend said he met a Asian man and when they discovered that they were both believers the other man gave him a big hug. Sadly, to us that might be weird. I mean how many other fellow believers have I met here and I've never done that. These two men realized how great it is to be on the same team. Really, for those of us "missionaries" over here it's crazy that we can meet, have less than mediocre small talk, and then walk away never to remember the other person's face or story. We're here for the same purpose, we face the same struggles, we fight the same attacks, and feel the same sense of loss. Why don't we band together more?

I'm sorry Lord that I daily miss the mark. I'm sorry that often I don't love like You do. I'm sorry that sometimes I don't even try to reach Your standard, that I quit before I begin. I'm sorry for those of us called by Your name who often lose sight of what You've called us to do. I'm sorry that we don't have love for each other, the kind of love that shows us to be Your disciples. I'm sorry when I care more about my worries than about listening to, helping, or loving my brothers and sisters. I'm sorry that I sit in church and then walk out to serve You without even considering the person in the seat next to me. I'm sorry, Lord when I give up the opportunity to talk with others who speak my language because I've gotten so out of practice and I'm scared. I'm sorry for the really terrible excuse for a follower of You that I often am.

Thank you for your never-ending forgiveness. Thank you that I don't have to hit the mark on my own. Thank you for your promise of help and strength. Thank you for grace. Lord, help me to love you more and love others better. May I take the time to reach out to everyone I can when I have opportunity. May others never leave my presence feeling unheard, unloved, or unwanted. Lord, help me by your strength and grace to come much closer to hitting the mark.