[day one]

Today was a long day. Good. Full. Helpful. Long. It started off as a relaxing morning. Claire and I had breakfast in my room and then I was able to skype with my mom and sister (yay!). After getting ready for the day, having my quiet time and knocking out a little more of Empty Promises, we met with some of the BSC staff.

John, Lorena (a 91-year-old woman who has been teaching at the BSC for... years), and Khun Noo briefed us on teaching at the BSC and our schedules until our "official teaching semester" begins July 2. Matt is the BSC-English coordinator. He also met with us to discuss the classroom, introduce us to more of the staff and show us our desks. He graduated from VT and lived in Madison (Laura-Michal: shout-out to your hometown!) so he was very familiar with Fredericksburg. It was nice to meet someone who is familiar with our area.

Lorena has been having some trouble with her vision, so Claire and I are going to be helping her finish out the semester with the students she tutors and with one of her classes. Because this was unexpected, we started taking over with her students today! Please be praying for Lorena, that the doctors can figure out what exactly is going on with her eyes.

I taught my first class this evening-- there were only four students, but they were a lot of fun. I am curious how long I can blame jet-lag on my scatterbrained-ness, though. I'm hoping at least a couple more days... The Thai people are very gracious though, which I appreciate! After class, Claire and I had dinner with Dylan, one of the other young teachers at the BSC. He invited us to go with him to visit some refugees, but because of a tutoring appointment, we were not able to go this time.

We tutored a 15-year-old girl named "Fourth" tonight. (She is the fourth person in her family, so her parents gave her that nickname!) She will be an exchange student somewhere in America this fall. I will be tutoring her until she leaves in August. She was so sweet and a lot of fun! We showed her how to use a knife to eat (they don't have knives in Thailand) and also explained currency/tipping/pricing of American meals.

Claire and I also ran into Archan Thongchai, Archan Ponsak and the missionary couple (Jack and Gladys Martin) who the building we're staying in was named after! Everyone is so excited to have us here for a year... and to have the short term team come in August (56 days! But who's counting?). Archan Ponsak was especially excited to hear about the construction-crew Jake will be heading up to paint/repair his home. Jack Martin even offered to donate some paint brushes to the cause :)

So, that is the short of it! I'm trying to stay up a little later tonight to help regulate my schedule-- so blogging is keeping me up until bedtime :) Claire has to leave at 8am in the morning to go to Ampa Wa with New Vision Church to teach English-- but since I'll be teaching and tutoring at the BSC, I will get to sleep in a little longer. Yay! Thank you for all your prayers-- please continue to pray that Christ is glorified through our time here and that He leads us to develop strong relationships with the Thai people.

Happy Thursday!