My students come tomorrow!!!!

Tomorrow is the first day of school! I have spent all weekend and week getting my classroom ready for the kids to come! I wanted to post some pictures so you could better picture where I am going to be ministering all year long! Enjoy!
P.S. I have a fish theme! :)

                                                               view from the door

                                                                      reading corner

                                        my desk and student work bulletin board

   view from the back of the student's desks; the green bulletin board is more covered now, not a most recent picture

view from the side door

If you think of it...

So I have a prayer request for all of you! In August, we had planned on doing a girls retreat with some of the Burmese refugee girls. We were going to take them to a nice hotel, play games with them, do their nails and hair, have dance parties, and have a big pizza party at the end of it. We also were going to make it kind of like a church retreat and have worship and workshops and things. My roommate from last year, Eunice, was the head of the planning and I was going to come alongside and support her in whatever area she needed. WELL, Eunice is stuck in a hospital in Maryland, with no end in sight of when she will be returning to Thailand. She had a surgery in March that she is now having complications from. Please pray for her quick recovery!

However, that means that I have now taken up the responsibility of planning this girls retreat on top of getting my classroom ready for school. There is a lot that needs to be done, and there are people from the States coming to join us on this retreat who have already bought their tickets, so we cannot postpone it. Please pray for wisdom, diligence, and time management! I have never planned anything like this before and I really want it to be a special time for these girls. Also, we have no funding for this trip and the girls have no way of paying for it. On Sunday, I am meeting with the pastor to see if our church here in Thailand can sponsor at least a portion of the trip.

So in summary, please pray for a quick and complete recovery for Eunice, wisdom, diligence, and time management for myself, and that God would provide the funds for these girls! Thank you! :)

Pictures of Thailand floating market and crocodile farm

Week One Down...

So week one of orientation is officially complete! I have not been able to get into my room yet because they are currently holding summer school in there so I have done all of my bulletin boards, name tags, and planned out the first day. Life has been good here so far! I am completely moved into my room and I have made connections with the other new teachers. I am so excited though because one of my roommates comes tonight! I will not have to be in this big house by myself any longer!

Tomorrow we are taking a little "field trip" to the floating market and the crocodile farm. In Thailand, their value of life is not as high as in the states so I am sure we will be holding, petting, and who knows what else with the crocodiles tomorrow. It should be an interesting day! :)

Side Note: I have been able to reconnect with some old friends from last year, and they remember me! Even some of the hawkers on the street recognized me and asked me when I had come back. It is nice to see everyone again!

Please pray that everything would come together with my classroom so I will not feel stressed or unprepared for my first day. I have 25 students-the largest class in the school. They have capped it though so at least I will not get a class any larger than that! :)

I'm here!

I made it! I am back in Thailand...after the longest travel days of my life! We took off from JFK almost 4 hours later than planned! Our plane was delayed coming in and then we finally got on it almost 2 hours after we had planned. Boarding took FOREVER and then there was so much air traffic at JFK we got in a very long line. As we are waiting to leave, a woman passenger began to freak out that she wanted to stay in New York. She began to run up and down the aisle screaming she needed to get off this plane! Her husband and the stewardesses attempted to calm her down but she was slowly becoming hysterical! Finally they decided to go back to taxi the plane back to where we had started from and let her out. We went through that long process, then they had to go below and retrieve her bags. Now our plane needed more fuel. By the time this was all done, we got back into an even longer line of planes. BUT I made it through the travel experience. I got to go outside in Germany! So all in all it wasn't so bad!
  
I arrived in Thailand around 10:00 Sunday morning. I got through customs and got my bags no problem. I found Solomon (one of the school administrators) and we got in a taxi and made the long trip from the airport to GES! I have to say I had forgotten how hot Thailand was until I stepped out of the airport!
  
I must confess on the plane from Berlin to Bangkok I was having my first ever series of doubts since this whole experience began! I started to think, "why did I ever want to do this?" "PA isn't that bad!" But as soon as I got through customs, I was standing at the baggage claim waiting for my bags and I smelled it! Bangkok has a very distinct smell...kind of like dirty sewer water. Call me crazy though but I like it. It grows on you! As I was standing there I smelled that dirty sewer water smell and I was comforted. I knew that I had made the right decision! This is where I wanted and needed to be!
 
Now I am all unpacked (for the most part). There are just a few things that I need to get to be completely settled in. I am so happy to be back in Thailand...and to not have to go on an airplane for several months! :) Thank you all for your prayers!

Leaving PA

So today I am leaving for Thailand. Slowly but surely it is starting to set in. I am beginning to think of all my "lasts." Last time I wake up in my bed, last time I brush my teeth at the sink, last time I hug my mom goodbye. But with lasts come firsts too. This will be the first time that I am really on my own and I am ready for it! My whole life is packed up in two (extremely HEAVY) suitcases. I'm ready to go. I'll write again on the other side of the world! :)

God is good! :)

Tonight I was reminded through people lifting me up in prayer how blessed I am with the people that God has placed in my life! Thank you everyone! It was so encouraging and appreciated! God is good and faithful!

Side Note:
  Some people have been asking me what the title of my blog means. It's called Tuesdays in Pink because every Tuesday at the school we wear pink shirts in honor of the king. The color use to be red but a local group that is involved in some of the political unrest wears red so as not to be associated with that groups, the color was changed to pink.