[month seven]

My sluggishness in posting this last month is due to the crazy nature of our "winter-break" and a lot of new changes with my life here. So, here is the 7-month catch up...

After a lovely Christmas (blogged about here and vlogged here) and after our trip to Laos (recorded in a 3-part installment that now has working videos!), we arrived home in Bangkok. It was early on Sunday morning. Turbo, one of our Thai friends at LifePoint, had invited everyone to his family's holiday home in the country. So, we left from church for our next journey... to Suphanburi! While there, we enjoyed western toilets, hot showers and home-made meals! His family was the definition of hospitality, and it was so fun to get to know them while also bonding with the folks on the trip. Some of the highlights? Getting to trek through a cave, hike to a waterfall, ride a water buffalo, and make home-made Pad Thai! Here are some of the pictures, and a video (!) from our time there.

Feeding one of the buffalos... nom nom. (video credit: Brittany)

[That's right... I can "Kii Kwaii" / "Ride a buffalo!"]

[A poor 5 legged buffalo. They have to tie up his extra leg so he can walk.] 

[Claire, Brittany and Nisa at the Smiling Buffalo Village!]

[The state park we visited... can't pronounce it, but it was beautiful!] 

[Nisa, Chao, Diane, Claire] 

[Outside the cave]

[Inside the cave]

[Turbo and his sweet girlfriend, Nam]

[Some of our group... what goofs we are!]

[Wading in the water to the waterfall]

January has marked the official beginning of a lot of new things... including a new position as guest house manager at the BSC! It's a lot like being an RA: helping manage rooms, unlock doors for folks when they leave their keys in the room, facilitate building community, etc. I love it! And not just because the position comes with the perk of an apartment.

So, over break I moved one door down the hall, and now have a fully functioning kitchen, furnished living room and bedroom. The apartment was in desperate need of some TLC and a fresh coat of paint. Which, ended up being one of my big winter-break projects... along with cleaning up the community laundry room area and the downstairs community lounge (which had been slowly taken over by extra furniture, dated books and dust bunnies). The kitchen and living room transformed from a pepto-pink into a nice ice-blue (kitchen) and oatmeal-beige (living room). I'm officially all moved in now and have been making use of the larg(er) toaster oven by experimenting with some new recipes!

[The finished kitchen!]

The guesthouse has some new folks who have joined our ranks for a few months! Five members of the Logos: Hope ship are staying here to prepare and scope things out for when their boat compatriots arrive Feb 20th. Marcell is from Germany; Madeleine is from Sweden; JongMin is from South Korea, and Jimmy is from Thailand! They're all around our age, and have been a fun and welcome addition... it's neat to be living in a place that is so international. What a unique experience to get to meet and eat with people from literally all over the world as one family in Christ!

Classes for Term 1 have begun! I had my first week of night classes last week, and this week I will begin teaching a Business course (hitherto referred to as my BMA class). The BMA course is designed for business professionals and is 4 hours of classroom time (plus breaks) twice a week in the mornings. Because of this course, I only have 4 night classes this term.

I've started attending a new small group with LifePoint this term, and I am thrilled about it. Today was our first "official" meeting and it was, in one word: refreshing. I love being spiritually led. And despite balking against it from time to time, I love being challenged and held accountable. The Thais and Americans leading my new small group are bold in laying out biblical expectations over our lives. I love (and need) that. 

And lastly, many of you have asked about running... am I still running, how's it going, etc. Well, the holidays (and spending days on end in buses and vans on my bum) were not conducive to running... but I'm back home and have picked up my runs again. And yes, I have entertained thoughts of doing another race for fun, we shall see!

Thanks so much for your prayers and financial support. If there are specific things that you would like to know (or know more about) always feel free to shoot me an email or comment on my posts! 

Laos [part iii]

The School

While we were visiting dTan, she took us to the village school. It had around 35 students in grades 1-5. If a student wants to study past grade 5, they have to travel into the city. 

[The entrance to the school]

[The school yard where the kids played]

[The school and the classrooms. There were only 2 teachers for the 5 grades, so they move back and forth between classes.]

We taught the kids "The Hokey Pokey", sign language to "Jesus Loves Me", played some games and then shared the Christmas story with them (dTan translated our English into Laos). After sharing about Christmas, which none of them had heard of, we gave them gifts. We had brought gifts for the students with us (pencils, erasers, rulers, mini globe-balls, candy, and matchbox cars/hairbows) and the kids loved them. Even the teachers liked the mini-globe balls... We were able to show them where Laos was and ended up teaching them a mini-geography lesson! Laos was a closed country until recently, so they know very little of the world. One of the teachers didn't realize that South and North America were different continents, so having the globes were very helpful in explaining!

[Playing a simplified version of "Simon Says"]

[Claire handing out gifts]

The kids singing "The Hokie Pokie"

[The 1st graders with their Christmas gifts]

[dTan in the middle, and the two village teachers on her right and left]

The first grade class was a little shy in the beginning. I don't think they knew what to expect, and dTan warned us that the kids might be scared of our pale skin and think we were ghosts! By our visit to the 2nd/3rd grade classes, they all started to warm up. And by the time we got to the 4th/5th graders, all the students from the other classes were peeking through the windows and cramming in the doorways to see what was happening!

After we shared in all three of the classes, we went outside and played with the kids. The students don't have any equipment, so the balls we'd given them became their entertainment. I turned into their circus seal... the kids would lob the balls to me and I'd bounce them off my head. Then we played soccer, but really it was just "keep-the-ball-away-from-the-farang." Getting to play with the kids was really the highlight of my time in Laos. It's awesome how far a smile goes when you don't know the language! I couldn't tell them all about Christ's love, but my prayer was that through the Christmas story and interacting with us, they would begin to understand God's great love for them.

[dTan walking back with the students after their morning classes]

This ends the "Laos" blogging trilogy :)

Laos [part ii]

My apologies for the delay... I was hoping to make a video to tell the second part of the story, but it ended up being as primitive as our time there. So, I'm sticking to words and pictures instead! Here's "part ii"...

The Village

We were the second group of foreigners ("farang") to ever visit dTan's village... it felt like stepping into a museum exhibit, or an early Native American village. The heartbeat of the village is the river, it is where you get water for drinking/cooking, wash your clothes and bathe. The village had 60 homes, raised up on stilts. This provided a bottom level of shade for afternoon naps, outdoor work, and the animals to rest under. Here are a few pictures from our "orientation walk" around the village.

[The entrance to the village. They have a temple, behind us, and a 1st-5th grade school.]

[Some families propped bamboo between nooks of trees as a clothesline, others made use of the ir fences]

[A rice-planting tool and a child's toy]

[dTan and Claire playing with the village puppies!]

[Everything was dry; a few sparse palm trees provided limited shade and greenery to the yellow and red dust.]

[This is the river we had to drive through, not over, through, to get to her village. It was also where we bathed , swam, and did our laundry. The adults would be down at the river in the mornings and the evenings, while the children would leave during their school lunch break to splash and cool off.]

[If you want food, you have to grow it or make it. Everyone in the village has sticky rice that they grow and then store for the year. The fields had already been harvested when we arrived.]

[The villagers occasionally sell a chicken or pig to get money for their families, but their biggest "export revenue" comes from yams. Here's a pile of yams that some of the women worked at chopping up in the shade under their home.]

While we were in the village, dTan introduced us to her family and friends. One of the couples in the village asked for her to come and visit, and we were invited to tag along. The husband has been sick for years. He was the skinniest person I'd ever seen, with only a papery layer of skin stretched over his bones. He couldn't walk, so he had to scoot everywhere... when he had the energy to move at all. It saddened us, because the village medicine is mostly superstitions and old wives tales. He currently only drinks beer and coffee and rarely eats because he thinks that water makes him sick. Which, is hardly a good combination for good health. dTan talked to them in Laos, and we just sat and smiled. This visit was such a good reminder that we (Claire and I) were not the missionaries to Laos. We don't know the culture, although some things are similar to Thailand, we don't know the language. But dTan is. This trip, we didn't preach or hold revival services, but I hope we did encourage dTan in her mission to reach her people... and also make Christ look attractive through our actions and countenance.

The second day, dTan's family gave us sarongs to wear so we'd look more "Laos." These are 2 meter swatches of fabric that are sewed into a tube and then you fold over the extra and tuck it in. I've never paid more attention to when I stood up than when I was wearing these!

A brief tour of dTan's home!

I had a lot of firsts in Laos: first time bathing in a river, washing clothes in a river, learning how to make home-made noodles, living in a house with no furniture, prolonged use of a squatty potty... having my fresh river-washed clothes being infested by ants as they dried (No one tells you about these things. Puts new meaning to "ants in your pants!")

It really makes you see how much you don't need to survive. These people had to grow their own trees to get wood for their homes. They eat sticky rice, that they grow themselves, for every meal. They have mats on the ground for their "kitchen table" and a coal fire to cook over. The coal is made by them as well. There aren't trash cans in the homes or the villages, because there isn't much waste. Everything is reused, and water is the universal cleaning agent... if your pantless child poops on the floor, just wipe it up and rinse it through the floor cracks. Problem solved! (Also, true story)

We, myself included, can get so easily bent out of shape if things aren't what we are accustomed to, or if a place doesn't have our favorite conveniences. But being here helped readjust my perspective (yet again!) and realize that I can live with a lot less than I think. It also gave me a new empathy for the disciples, who really were at the mercy of the hospitality of others... and were always walking into unknown places, languages, situations and cultures.

Please be praying for dTan, as she is the only believer and missionary to her village. Pray that her people and family would see the hope she has and seek the truth. Pray that the stronghold of false religions and superstitions would not hold them captive, but that Christ would give sight to their spiritual blindness.

...to be continued

Laos [part i]

The Journey

Our friend, dTan is from Laos, and works at the little coffee shop in the cafe area of the BSC. If you've ever eaten at the BSC, you've probably seen her smiling, laughing or sitting down at the tables during lags to talk with people. She is so sweet, and is also the only believer in her hometown.

She invited Claire and I to spend some of our Christmas holiday in her village (Yes, I do mean "village"). She left before Christmas and we followed her a few days later. It was our first "big trip" without a Thai guide, and needless to say, I was a bit nervous. dTan had given me some general directions: take an overnight bus, and then take a songtaew, then a van... I think. I could only follow about 75% of her directions. And in all fairness to her, Claire and I really didn't know what to ask, either. Everything happened so quickly, one minute we were at Immigration buying a re-entry stamp, the next minute we were making trips back and forth to the Mo Chit bus station to get our tickets (Yes, trips. It took us three tries... We were such newbies).

We boarded the overnight bus to Ubon, the only farangs, and left promptly at 8:30pm. This really was the last point during the trip when time really mattered. After this, time became a blur... and in true Thai/Laos fashion, irrelevant also.

Claire and I dosed up on our sleeping pills (I'm not going to become an addict, don't worry Mom) for our 8+ hour ride. I'm so thankful for one of my new friends here in BKK, Joanna, who warned me that the overnight buses stop periodically throughout the night for mandatory "get off the bus and stretch" breaks and "noodle stops". Without her heads up, Claire and I would have been completely at a loss when we were awoken from our drugged slumber every two hours with shouting and bright lights. Because we were the only foreigners, no one bothered to explain anything in English... so we never really knew what was happening. Halfway through the night, true to Joanna's words, we stopped for noodles. Buses full of people, dumping out in this little pavilion where stands were set up serving noodles and sausage balls. We tore off the stub of our ticket in exchange for a bowl of noodles and proceeded to stumble to a table to slurp down our noodles before being herded back into our bus. That's not actually true. There was no one herding. And no one head counting. Which, to my American thinking, was quite disconcerting. But Claire and I always made it back to the bus, and eventually we arrived at Ubon.

I wish I had taken a video of what it was like to get off the bus at Ubon. It was still dark and there were at least a dozen men, some in ski masks, crowded around the entrance of the bus. My sleeping pill had not yet fully worn off and as I exited the bus, trying to collect my thoughts, I was assaulted by "Hi, where you go??" "Tuk tuk ma'am?" "Where you going?" "I take you, only *** baht." Frantic, and overwhelmed, I looked around for Claire, clutching my purse and backpack tightly. I didn't see her. Walking away from the bus, some of the men followed me, repeating their questions. I could barely retrieve enough Thai from my foggy brain to respond to their barrage of questions. Finally, after realizing I would not be scammed by their over-priced transportation offers, I located Claire and we started to walk around to figure out our next step.

I knew we needed to get to Chong Mek, but wasn't sure how exactly we would get there. A nice Thai man directed us towards some vans which were 100 baht to our destination. I vaguely remembered dTan mentioning a 100 baht van, so we happily climbed in, ready to get to Laos. The van ride was not particularly comfortable, but it was (thankfully!) uneventful. The only delays were passport checkpoints by the police on the roads and letting passengers off.

At Chong Mek, we were again greeted with a barrage of transportation scammers, but still being in Thailand, we were able to keep our heads about us and avoid them. Chong Mek was where we expected to get our Laos tourist visa and cross the border. However, the place we were dropped was just a normal bus station, and no one spoke enough English to help us. They just kept telling us to walk down the road or get on a motorcycle. With all of our bags, we didn't want to brave a motorcycle, and there was no way we were walking. After checking my meager directions from dTan, I decided that we were at the "take a songtaew" part of our journey, as we'd already taken a bus and a van. This was the final mode of transportation until we were reunited with her (or so I thought).

We found a songtaew that took us to the border for 20 baht, went through Thai customs, crossed the border (through an underground cement tunnel), and proceeded to buy our visa stamp in Laos. (Which, should have been $35 USD, but as we had only baht, it cost us 1,500 baht, equiv. $50 USD). We also didn't have extra passport pictures, but they let us off the hook for an additional $1 USD. Sigh. Hello Laos. That should have been warning enough about how Laos people view farangs... as walking money bags.

We looked around for dTan... she told us she knew where we'd be dropped off and would be there waiting for us at the Laos Duang Market. I try to engage some people to find out the name of the nearby market was. Of course, though, we're in Laos, so they speak Laos... not English or Thai. Without going into detail about all the looks and head shakes I got, there we were. In Laos. No dTan, no phones, nothing.

At this point, I'm starting to panic. Which may be why I let the first Laos man to approach us help us... as he spoke a little Thai and brought a woman over who let us use her phone. We called dTan's house number and her dad answered. He spoke a little Thai. From our conversation, I could only understand "Pakse, dTan... Pakse." So, going on a limb, I decided we needed to find a way to Pakse. The woman who let me use her phone offered to get us a taxi. I should have been suspicious about the whole operation, but being a little lost and a lot concerned, I was just happy to have someone take care of things. We boarded the taxi and she informed us that it would cost 1,000 baht. For comparison, the most I've ever paid for a taxi in Bangkok is 200 baht... and things in Laos are much cheaper than Bangkok. Immediately, I realized we'd been totally scammed. Unfortunately, at this point, we felt a little out of options. So, after talking her down to 700 baht, we departed for Pakse.

Once arriving in Pakse, we called dTan's dad again and had him talk to the taxi driver in Laos. The driver dropped us off at a bus stop and informed us that our friend would be there soon. Then he left. We had no other options, so we set our bags down and waited, hoping that dTan was indeed on her way and that she had not given up on us coming and gone back home. Thankfully, though, she arrived in no time, and after apologizing for our tardiness and re-capping the journey, including our expensive taxi ride, and learning that there were 100 baht vans that made the same trip every 30 minutes (whoops) she took us via tuk-tuk to her cousin's home nearby to rest before heading to her village.

[A: Mo Chit, B: Ubon, C: Chong Mek, D: Pakse]

...to be continued

vlog: christmas

To: Encounter

<3: Liz & Claire

Thank you so much for the lovely, perfect package! In not-Thai-tradition we recorded opening it for your entertainment... if you are not from Encounter, feel free to skip to the end for a special Christmas surprise!

[Merry Christmas!]

christmas day.

[Disclaimer: What follows is the summarized rendition of my Christmas Eve & Day here in Thailand. Whether or not you have time (or interest) in reading all of it, know that I'm wishing you a very merry Christmas. Enjoy!]

Merry Christmas from Thailand!

The people walking in darkness

    have seen a great light;

on those living in the land of deep darkness

    a light has dawned.

You have enlarged the nation

    and increased their joy;

they rejoice before you

    as people rejoice at the harvest,

as warriors rejoice

    when dividing the plunder.

For as in the day of Midian’s defeat,

    you have shattered

the yoke that burdens them,

    the bar across their shoulders,

    the rod of their oppressor.

Every warrior’s boot used in battle

    and every garment rolled in blood

will be destined for burning,

    will be fuel for the fire.

For to us a child is born,

    to us a son is given,

    and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called

    Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the greatness of his government and peace

    there will be no end.

He will reign on David’s throne

    and over his kingdom,

establishing and upholding it

    with justice and righteousness

    from that time on and forever.

The zeal of the Lord Almighty

    will accomplish this.

These words from Isaiah 9 scrolled across the screen at ECB during the Christmas Eve service. It was a timely reminder, that in Christ the yoke that burdens us has been shattered. I love that image. The image of Christ not only coming as a baby, but as a warrior, destroying eliminating shattering the bar across our shoulders. The bar of "good works." The bar of self-righteousness. The bar that is so high that "all fall short" (Rom. 3:23). 

The evening was full of Christmas songs and Scripture, culminating in the candle lighting and a challenge to not only be the light, but also to carry and spread the light of Christ to the dark places and nations. Since LifePoint did not have a service, a lot of the LifePointers went to ECB to celebrate Christmas Eve. Among them, were Noo and Aom, who joined us for a chicken-pot-pie feast beforehand homemade by Claire!

[Claire, Noo, Aom and I at the ECB service]

[LifePoint at ECB!] 

After the Christmas Eve service, Claire and I went back to the BSC guesthouse to do a little pajama swap. I got Claire a cute pair of multi-purpose pajamas, and she got me Batman pajamas... complete with some polka-dotted shorts from Second Chance, a ministry to help provide employment for the women in the slums of Klong Toey.

Our division of labor this year was that Claire would take care of Christmas Eve, and I would prepare Christmas morning... so while she was dreaming of dancing sugarplums, I was wrapping, baking, and preparing for the morning! Here's the decorated living room (yes, the walls are pink, and no, they will not be staying pink for much longer!):

And no Swauger-run Christmas morning would be complete without Jewish coffee cake and a bacon-egg casserole! Claire also had made a request for fresh coconut milk, and, since this is Thailand, she got her Christmas wish :)

[Table decorations provided by Aunt Tammy!]

Christmas morning was so much fun! Claire and I exchanged gifts, and opened packages sent from friends back home. Claire surprised me with handwritten notes collected from people in America and Thailand... which was incredibly sweet and I loved having the letters to open over the course of the morning! After we ate, unwrapped and cleaned up, we met up with Meleah (an IMB journeyman and friend of ours) and headed over to the Lapos' for brunch!

[Me, Claire and Meleah riding the Airport Rail Link to the Lapos']

After a few hours at the Lapos' (and plates of delicious food later...) we headed back to the BSC for some down time. And, after a refreshing 3-hour nap, it was off to the VanDyke's for Christmas dinner with their family and the Hathcocks. Which was, as always, so much fun.

So many of you sent notes, packages, emails, texts wishing me a Merry Christmas... Thank you! You really helped make this Christmas (my first one away from home) special and memorable.

same same.

I didn't expect very much coming to Thailand, after all, expectations are the mother of disappointment. I knew that it'd be hard work and that being a missionary wasn't glamorous... but a few Sundays ago it struck me again how normal missions really is.

At LifePoint, we pray that God would use us where we are to impact the people He's placed in our lives. We hold each other accountable to be intentional in sharing the Gospel in our relationships with others. We even have to challenge one another as to whether or not we are investing in lost people. Sound familiar?

Before coming to Thailand, I heard a pastor share that you have no business going overseas if you're not willing to go across the street, because location fundamentally changes nothing. Whether we are believers in our hometown, homecountry, or abroad, our mission and prayers are the same: to carry the Name of Christ to lost people.

Our fears are the same: Will this compromise a relationship? Do I sound like I'm crazy? Will they feel uncomfortable? Are they understanding me? What if...?

Our struggles are the same: Fighting against sin, pride and self sufficiency. Sacrificially loving our neighbors and the hard-to-love people in our lives. Protecting God-time from the ever-encroaching infringement of ministry- and me-time. Practicing spiritual disciplines. Warring legalism. Dying to self.

Our questions are the same: Am I living an attractional life? If yes, then am I putting words to the difference they see in me? Am I making a difference? Am I doing all that I can be doing? Am I investing in the right people in the right ways? Am I "doing" instead of loving? Is this God or is this me?

There's an expression in Thailand, "Same same, but different." At first, being here felt very different from America. Ministry felt different; church felt different; work felt different. Now, with the sensory overload that is Bangkok beginning to die down, I'm seeing that it's all the same. I'm trying to "share the Gospel where I live, work and play" (credit: Doug) and so are all my brothers and sisters at Encounter, at Spotswood, at FCS, etc.

I'm not "the missionary" because I have a blog, or because I'm in Thailand or because I signed a dotted line... I'm a missionary because I am a Christian. The same is true of all my brothers and sisters in Christ, you are missionaries also. We are all working together, side-by-side, on the same field, for the same purpose and the same God. I thank God for each of you, wherever you are, who is faithfully and fearlessly making known the mystery of the Gospel.

"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." 1 Peter 2:9-10

[For an encouraging and powerful rendition of this passage, check out Matt Papa's song "1 Peter Song." The middle (2:25) is my favorite part!]

[month six]

6 whole months. You know what that means... time for another eclectic update!

I now have a new title, call me Aunt/ie Liz! My brother and sister-in-law welcomed a beautiful baby girl, Adalyn Christine, into the world on 12/10/12. Everyone is so excited... and needless to say, Nathan is tickled pink about being an "uncle" at 11 years old. My parents went to the hospital to hold her and take pictures, like the proud grandparents they are!

[My 'lil niece!]

Christmas is in full season here. While it remains a corporate holiday-- meaning that malls and businesses decorate in the seasonal trimmings-- it is not celebrated individually. I found out on Wednesday from one of my students that he's never had what we would consider a "typical" Christmas morning. Here, they still have class, still go to work, it's a normal Tuesday. Which is sad, not just because Christmas is loads of fun, but because they have no understanding of the true meaning of Christmas! So, believe me when I say, I've been finding ways to work it into every conversation!

I've made it a personal mission to bring a bit of Christmas cheer to the BSC guesthouse... and specifically my room. Which, Claire has dubbed "Christmas Town". 

[Our little tinsel-ed out Christmas tree/bush]

We also received a giant package from Encounter! It is currently sitting under our tree and awaiting it's opening debut in a week and a half. We have the best church and college/singles group. They were and continue to be a blessing, even from 12 time zones away. Love them all!

[After finding their package on my desk!]

Anddd, (we're still on the topic of Christmas) Claire and I went with Dani and our Thai friend "Tar" to a Christmas orchestra concert at ECB last week! The only thing that would have made it better would have been if Cynthia, Candice and Lauren were in the orchestra playing... but it was fun and a well done performance. There were over 20 different nationalities represented in the choir and orchestra! How's that for diversity?

[Claire and I on our way to the concert]

[The choir at the Messiah Performance]

This is the last week of teaching classes at the BSC until the January term (Term 1). It's bittersweet, because my classes this term have been phenomenal. I feel like I've clicked well with my students, and they seem to be learning and enjoying class... so thankful that God allowed me to have this combination of students this term! I loved being able to share not just English with them, but also, in many of my classes, the Gospel. Some of my students have even come to outside-of-class activities like Friday Night Life.

Tonight was my last night with my Thursday- Level 7 class, and they wanted to take a group picture! Which, I wish I'd thought of doing 6 months ago! Here are a few of the faces that have become a familiar and welcome part of my week.

Thai school finishes up on Tuesday... This module has been so challenging. I think I can feel my brain forming new ridges every day in class. Everything I am learning is so relevant to every-day conversations, it's just a matter of retaining four hours of information, and then adding to it day after day. My final test is 12/18 if you have a moment to pray for me. After a lifetime of taking tests in school, they still make me nervous!

For those of you praying for me, here are some other specific things to lift up:

- LifePoint is having a big Christmas Party on the 21st. There will be food and carols and a gift swap (typical Christmas shenanigans), but also a presentation of the Gospel. Please pray that God brings the people who He wants touched. Pray also that the believers who are there will be able to connect and reach out to all the new faces. Pray also that the Gospel will be clearly presented and interpreted in a way that will connect with lives.

- The BSC is having some upcoming events as well: The Christmas Fun Fair and the Big Hearted Christmas Party. There is always a big turn out for these special events- please ask that God would prompt conversations and place questions in the hearts of the Thais that come.

- Please pray for the girls in my life who I am trying to reach out with the Gospel to. God has given me opportunities to really get to know some of my former students better and spend time with them. One of them in particular is open to hearing about the Gospel and has even come to church a few times. Please pray that she finds satisfaction in nothing less than Christ. (And you can pray that for me as well!)

- Please pray for my walk with the Lord. It is easy to get busy for God, get busy in ministry, and just get busy doing. If anything, it's easier to be busy here because the field is so large and there is much to be watered and weeded. Pray that God gives me the power to protect my time with Him. That I be, before I do.

So, there's your lengthy catch-up re-cap! What a blessing each of you are in my life. I love being able to share what you are a part of by supporting me... and also hearing about how God is using you where you are (more on that in my next post!). Thank you so much for your love, your prayers and your faithful support... until next post! 

bsc website.

This will be a short post, I promise! In September I posted about helping the BSC in their efforts to build a new website that would be specifically geared towards English-speaking volunteers (be that prospective mission-trippers or longer term volunteers). Since posting that, I have slowly been making headway. It has been a big project, bigger because I'm learning as I go along, but! I'm happy to announce that while it is not yet completely filled out, it did have it's official launch today.

If you'd like to see one of the projects I've been working on, or what the BSC's been up to, check out our new site! And if you're particularly gifted in building websites, feel free to email me any suggestions you may have. It's still very much a work in progress, but I'm excited to see how God uses it to help aid in communication with prayer warriors and supporters stateside.

www.baptiststudentcenter.com

father's day.

"It's not Father's Day!" I hear you saying... but here in Thailand, Mother's Day and Father's Day are celebrated on the Queen and King of Thailand's birthdays, respectively. As the King was born December 5th, today is Father's Day!

Each day of the week is assigned a different color (ideally, that should be worn, but most people don't abide by that). Since the King was born on a Monday, his color is yellow. So, today, the entire country wore yellow in honor of their King.

[Proof. I took this while walking up the steps to the BTS]

It was something to see... and a little surreal, like being a part of some huge flashmob. In the morning, the King made an appearance, so everyone was travelling to see him (it was his 85th birthday, and as he has been hospitalized for quite a while now, it was a big deal). Truck-loads of people. Everywhere.

[Everyone gathered to see the King. Photo credit: Bangkok Post]

This morning, I took Claire to my favorite park (Suan Rot Fai) and as we were in our workout clothes, we weren't wearing yellow. We stuck out like a sore thumb. However, we did take a little post-run photo op with one of the shrines/monuments/things to the King.

Almost everyone in Thailand (including me!) had the day off today, so there were plenty of people milling around everywhere we went. After our run and cleaning up, I decided to try (take 2!) to find lanterns to light. One of the guys at the guesthouse graciously offered to accompany me on my quest so I wasn't wandering around Bangkok alone at night. (I share that for the peace of mind of my mom and grandma!)

And, after a cab ride, a run in with the police and a crazy tuk-tuk ride home, I'm happy to announce that I am back, safe and sound, with my 1st Thailand "Bucket List" experience checked off. (I only have 2 on my list, the other is to ride an elephant!)

[Bucket List Item: lighting a paper lantern]

If you've ever seen Tangled, you may be able to understand my excitement to light one of these lanterns... Well, here's my proof from the evening! Done in memory of Laura Landry (aka: LaLa) as she would have accompanied me had she stayed another month. Miss you, LaLa!

[The lantern... pre-lit]

[Anddd, after lighting it! Waiting for it to warm up enough to fly away]

[That's my lantern! Yay!]