Overnight Camp

Phew! What a long two days! Overnight Camp has come and gone. This year our theme was the Olympics. I really felt like we were there! The kids LOVED it! It was a long day. It started at 5 am on Friday morning and I didn't get to bed until 11. Then it was up at 6 on Saturday and the students FINALLY went home at 12 that afternoon. I came back, passed out in my bed, woke up got a massage and nice American dinner and then I graded papers. Thinking back over all the work and prep and sweat that went into these 36 hours it seems silly. Why waste so much time and effort to make something that only lasts for so long? All the work was justified though in seeing the joy on the students faces, hearing their laughter, and being with them in this relaxed environment. A missions team from a University in America has been here in Thailand for 2 weeks, staying at our school and ministering to schools in the area. They helped us out at the camp and I was SO disappointed in their attitudes. They complained about their sleeping arrangements, the food, the students, the work they were doing, they were bored, they were hot, they had to fly a long time to get here, and the list goes on and on. I was getting very frustrated. This is my home and I am proud of it. To hear it talked about in such a way upset me. Then I started to think though that it is all about your perspective and where your passion is. To them, Thailand really is a 2-week stint. They have no plans of coming back and no real desire to. They are fine to experience it and go back to their lives in the States. To me this has become my life, my ministry. I even dream about school and my students. So vividly in fact that when I wake up I don't know if it really happened or if I just dreamed it. Because my heart is here, I am able to look past the heat, the bugs, some of the strange food, etc. I have also been trying to be intentional about waking up, and being thankful for having one more day. One more day with these students, one more day in Thailand, one more day to be a part of something bigger than me. It has made all the difference in my attitude this year. By looking at each day as a blessing, it makes my hardest days seem profitable instead of arduous. It was great to see the contrast between who I was a little over a year ago and who I hope to become in the future. For that, I am grateful for the time I spent with the missions team this weekend.

Another exciting piece has been my students. The more I get to know them the more I see how tender their hearts are towards the things of God. They LOVE to read the Bible, they sing to God when they are scared, they ask for prayer on a regular basis for one of their classmate who has hand/foot/mouth (which is spreading around Thailand like wildfire!). God is seeking them and they are allowing Him to work in their hearts. At the beginning of the year I thought I was going to really struggle. This is SUCH a sensitive class! I do not do good with sensitive/needy children. I don't have a strong memory of what I was like as a child but from what my mom has told me I was extremely sensitive. I must have used it all up as a child because while I am sensitive about certain issues, for the most part I would not classify myself in that manner. Regardless, I have little patience for sensitive, needy, easy to cry students. This class is sensitive to the MAX! Everyday someone is crying, someone is upset---it is exhausting! I think it is a blessing though. I think their sensitive nature is what fuels their interest in God. Their sensitive hearts are receptive to the Holy Spirit's prompting. Just continue to pray for how God is working in their lives. I can't wait to see how his spirit will move this year in Thailand, in GES, and in grade 3. Enjoy these pictures from the weekend! :)  

Also my mom dad and Adam come in 4 days! I can't believe how soon they will get here! I hope they enjoy their time here and I will be sure to post pictures of our time together!

a little evangelist

My heart is so full! This week on Thursday we had open house. One of my girls, Taya, is a believer. Her dad came to talk to me at open house and he asked me if any of the other students knew the Lord. I said no, that I am pretty positive that it is only Taya. He then proceeded to tell me that she was really burdened for her friends. She started praying with them at break and reading them Scripture. They are very interested in having the relationship with Christ that Taya has. Praise the Lord! This little girl is moving mountains in my student's hearts! I am just glad that I can encourage her and pray for the little ministry that she has started! Please join me in prayer for her and the effect she has in her friends. If you knew this little girl, you would be so blessed! She is so precious and she loves the Lord SO much! Her face comes alive when she talks about God!
This Friday night and all day today (saturday afternoon) I spent the day at parties with my parents. How nice to be in the culture. To be hanging out with Thai people. They are so precious and so fun. My heart is overflowing with love for my students, for their parents, for this precious country that God holds so close to his heart! I can feel Him here so strongly right now. His Spirit is moving!
"Call to me and I will answer you, and show you great and might things which you do not know." Jeremiah 33:3 :)

happy exhausted

It is so easy to become consumed by the negative events and hard things that arise in our lives. I was struck with the fact that so often I am more willing to turn to the negative because it is "easier" to be negative than it is to change my point of view. I began tutoring this week. That means I have to wake up a half hour earlier because I tutor before school and I am tutoring for 2 hours after school. I worked a 12 hour workday yesterday. I was exhausted and needed to blow off some steam, so I went to the gym to just escape from school, to escape from work. If I had stayed at school, I would have ended up doing more work, so I grabbed a bus and made my way to the gym. As I was riding the bus, I thought about my long day. I thought about how I had 36 or so more weeks of these long days. It would have been so easy for me to get frustrated and negative about this work and long days. Instead, I changed my point of view and started thinking about the relationships I could build with the students if I tutored them after school, the extra money I would be making to pay for my eye surgery I am getting this year, and the push to be diligent in getting my work done during the day. There is much to be positive about. I truly have a love for these students, this school, and this administration that I did not have last year. Regardless of the extra work, the long hours, and the tired days I LOVE my job, I LOVE my students, and I LOVE being in Thailand. I have a joy that goes beyond my circumstances. I'm telling you this to help hold me accountable. If I complain in the future, please bring my attention back to this blog, to this mindset that I had. I can already foresee that in the future I will be needing a reminder.

a heart like Ephesus

I apologize in advance for the sporadic nature of this blog. There is so much going on right now that I have a lot to share!

First, I am struck by how incredibly God provides insight in the smallest areas of our lives. My roommate made me a BEAUTIFUL cake for my birthday! The only problem was that I also got 6 bags of chocolate/candy treats from America, lemon bars, brownies, and ice cream cake for my birthday. Needless to say, our house is swimming in sugar goodness right now. I am trying to exhibit self-control, so I thought that I would share with some of the other staff. I gave my ice cream cake to the girls who live 2 doors down, froze most of the chocolate I got as a gift so I could eat it over a longer period of time, gave away my brownies to staff members, and decided to cut up my cake to dish out to various houses. A young mother here on campus had helped my roommate come up with decorating ideas, and had loaned her some supplies so we decided to give her a big piece to share with her family. My really good friend has her mom staying here so we cut up a large piece for her, her mom, and her roommate, but then we still had one considerable chunk left that had no designated home. I decided to wrap it up and I had 2 different ideas on who to give it to and I just thought when I started walking in that direction I would make up my mind. I walked out of my door and who is standing in the cafeteria but my thai teacher. The very one that I have been praying and thinking about how to show her I care and appreciate her. It was so perfect! I gave her the chunk of cake and she was so touched and appreciative. I know that it seems so small, but these small acts of love speak volumes in our relationships with the thai staff. God knew that that small piece of cake would just bring us that much closer. I am so glad I was not selfish and decide to keep that cake for myself!

On a secondary note, I was also really convicted today in church. There was a video series that they started today because they did not have anyone available to preach. I was not really that excited about it and I was started thinking of other things like all the work I needed to do when I got back home. As I slowly started tuning in, I realized he was speaking to me! The series is on the seven churches in Revelations. It focuses on one church in every message so this week it was on the church in Ephesus. I realize in many ways my heart matches the heart of this church. He was saying on paper it looks like they have it all together. They have sound doctrine, the give generously in church, they know the Bible/Sunday School answers, but they are dealing with the sin of a lack of love. He continued to talk about how when we get easily annoyed, frustrated, angry, etc. with people, we are sinning in responding with those emotions instead of responding in love. I was so convicted in thinking about my relationships with people here at the school. I find it very easy to love my students and to love the thai teachers, my thai friends at the gym, even my friends at the restaurants I eat at. It's because they don't know God. I have so much more patience and love for them. However, the people I work with I struggle with many. I am easily frustrated, I get annoyed with them over little things, I have no patience. I think this is because I don't feel like I need to love them in the same way. I don't feel like I need to extend God's love to them because they already have it. They are aware of the love of God in a way that my non-believer friends are not. I suffer from a sin of with holding love. I know that Paul writes about how his love abounds for the believers in Philippi with knowledge and depth of insight. I was struck that the people who I have the hardest time loving are the ones that I know the least. The ones that I don't have the patience to get to know or even the desire to get to know. I know that I do not have to be best friends with everyone, but in Thailand where the body of Christ is so spread-out and few and far between, I am not doing much to unify it. I would appreciate prayers to deepen my love for my brothers and sisters in Christ. So often I pray to see the Thai people through God's eyes but I have never prayed to see fellow believers through His eyes. Last year I learned how to love transcending culture, and I think this year God is trying to teach me how to love within it. 

and so it begins...

One week (or rather two short days) of school down, and a full week starts up tomorrow! My class is SO different from last year. They seem so little and they have SO much energy! I have had to be pretty strict last week and that is true even more so tomorrow and all this week. I feel like this first month is going to be very important to establish clear expectations and behavior in the classroom. I know they have been a problem for teachers in the past and I am trying to keep that at bay this year! They are so sweet though and I am really excited for all this year holds.

As some of you know I have really been struggling knowing what to do about a church and the youth group I was helping out with last year. After a lot of talking to others and really praying about the decision, I decided to not help out anymore. I feel at peace with the decision. I found I was pouring myself out SO much and I was never really being filled. You can only give so much for so long until you are dry. Last year I ended the school year bone dry, weary, and extremely frustrated. That was not fair to my students, who are my first and most important ministry.

New teachers this year are really struggling to adjust to the culture. They don't like the food, the heat, the "Thai" way our school is run, or the expectations of the Thai parents. Don't get me wrong, each one of these things (expect the food of course!) has been a source of struggle for me at some point in my time here. Just pray that they would adjust and that God would make them culturally sensitive and aware. Once you start to have a heart for these people, it is so much easier to avoid feelings of frustration over little things.

On a happy note, I have made a really strong connection with my thai teacher, Kru Pon. On Friday, we sat after school for an hour and talked. She told me in her broken English mixed with my broken Thai the story of how she and her husband fell in love. Thai people don't let you in very easily, you have to earn their trust for a long, personal story like that. I praise God that we are bonding! I just hope that we can continue to deepen our relationship. She is such a special woman, and she has such a special heart. God is big enough to reach her where she is, and I pray I am here to witness it.

Sorry I know that this post is sporadic but so much has happened in the two weeks or so that I have been back. God has really put this verse on my heart for this year and I would like to share it with you. "My heart and my flesh may fail, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever!" Psalm 73:26

finished product!

Here is that video that would not load yesterday. I have more pictures for all of you though because my room is pretty much DONE! YAY! And I still have tomorrow to do last minute details! AHHHH!!! I love not being stressed! So here is my lovely room! :) I am very proud of it!

I'm back!

So I have been back for almost a week! It was really hard for me to adjust back to the time difference. I probably slept a total of 4 hours the first 3 days! It was rough but the last few nights I have gone to bed at 9:00 and gotten up at 6:30 the next morning so I think I am making up for lost hours! :) I've been working hard on getting my classroom ready! I forgot to take a complete before picture so I took pictures this morning before I started working and then I just took a video of my progress so you could see what I accomplished today. If you can't guess, my theme is owls! :)

My video won't load! :( Maybe I can try again tomorrow!