Call me "Nong LaLa"

Two weeks of teaching English down, and I'm starting to feel like I'm not just "playing school" when I walk into the classroom. Some of you have asked what daily life looks like here/what I'm up to generally, so let me take this opportunity to share!

I live in a room with just about everything I need - mini fridge, toaster oven, desk, bed, bathroom - in the BSC guesthouse, which is a building directly behind the 5-story BSC office/classroom building. So my commute to work takes about a minute and a half - from the door of my bedroom to my desk in the staff office. I have a cozy little desk there that I tried to make feel more like home with some pictures of family and a little paper elephant that Claire cut out for me in a nice pale pea-soup shade. However, I find it very difficult to accomplish things in this office, because I work with wonderful, sweet people who highly value relationships, AKA we are all far too chatty in there. It is from my wonderful officemates that I received the nickname "Nong LaLa." "Pe" is the Thai fixture placed before someone's name in order to call them "older sister," and "Nong" is the alternative term of endearment for someone who is younger than you. Given that I am the youngest person working in the office, and Rs can be difficult for Thai speakers to say, a nickname was born. Today I decided I wasn't up to the usual cross-town trek to "my spot," because I'm meeting up with some friends later this evening (I'll get back to that later!), so I'm working on MiniCourse (I'll touch on that later, too), from my "home office."

I teach English to "young professionals" - in reality my students range in age from 19-53 & all have different reasons for taking English classes - on Monday and Wednesday nights here at the BSC. The BSC provides curriculum that outlines the specific learning objectives for the different classes, and I merely do my best to make the classes engaging and a little entertaining. One of my classes thinks I'm hilarious, and the other seems to think I'm just plain ridiculous. Either way, at the very least they are learning how to use the vast number of idioms that I was previously unaware make up such a substantial part of my day-to-day vocabulary.

On Wednesday mornings I go the Women's Ministry called Oasis at the church where I am attending while living in Bangkok - from 9am to noon I get to spend time soaking up good teaching and encouragement from women that are a little bit ahead of me in life. God is really using this time to teach me about setting prayer as the foundation for my adult life and ministry. I previously mentioned that prayer has been a theme which God has focused in on in my life since I arrived in Thailand; He is opening my eyes up to what prayer truly is to Him, as opposed to the comfortable conversations we have with Him on occasion about what is going on in our lives and what we would like to happen next.  I'm learning how to make prayer laborious...to see it as the only means through which I can open myself up for God to be at work in my heart and my life...to be devoted to not just lift up a request, but to return again and again to petition God and to have faith in His sovereignty. The more I learn, the more that I am convinced that prayer is the most challenging of the spiritual disciplines, and my daily prayer is that the Lord would just "teach me how to pray."

Right now, Tuesdays and Thursdays are my "free days," in the sense that I'm "free" to prepare some of the bigger projects that I'm working on while I'm here. MiniCourse is a program that the BSC runs during the "winter" break (we all know it does not feel like winter or anything close) from school here in Thailand. It runs for 3 weeks - from October 8th-26th, and is open to all students in 1st through 9th grade. I will be teaching 9am to 3pm (or so) everyday during those 3 weeks, so I have a lot of material and many an engaging activity to get ready. I'm intimidated by facing such a vast range of ages and English-proficiency levels, but my main goals are to present Jesus, and for the kids to have fun. If any of you with more experience than I have any suggestions for activities that work well - I'M OPEN. :)

On Friday, the BSC runs a program here called "Friday Night Life," which is when anyone can come and participate in a free English class, play a game, sing a song, and hear about Jesus. It was designed and is run by a missionary who used to work at the BSC, and every week there are between 40-60 people that come. Last week I led everyone in a game that went surprisingly well, and I was impressed by the Thai people's familiarity with Lady GaGa, Donald Duck and Facebook. It's a great opportunity for us to meet Thai people and invite them to become involved in other things that are going on at the BSC.

On Saturdays & Sundays, I spend time with the Clarkson's - a Spotswood family who moved to Thailand about 4 years ago. My goal when I came was to try to spend time with them and encourage them while I'm here, but it's really been more of them taking care of me and buying me food. Isn't it funny how that happens? I love it. They have so quickly become so precious to me, and it is going to be so hard to leave them when I come back home. I wanted to encourage my extended church family and just be a piece of home for them, and they have welcomed me into their American home and made me Mexican food and quite frankly I feel like part of the family. Pray for them. It is hard to be an ex-patriate - living for an unknown amount of time far from everything comfortable, friends and family members - they handle it with such grace, but I'm sure it never really feels like home.

Another benefit I reaped from being friends with the Clarkson's was that I got to have high tea at the Oriental Hotel here in Bangkok last week! Molly recently had a birthday, and her sweet church friends here invited her to go to tea to celebrate - and Molly invited ME! It was beautiful...gorgeous tropical flowers everywhere, little fancy sandwiches, mini-creme brûlée, warm scones with rose petal jam! We got dressed up and took a boat over to what was at one time the best hotel in Southeast Asia, and we found our way through the garden to to step back into the 1930s - I wish I had had silk gloves and a sun hat! Here are some pictures...

As I sat around the table with Molly and her friends, I thought back over the process that brought me to Thailand, and what I thought I was walking into. I turned to one of Molly's friends and said, 

"It's so unbelievable to me that I signed up to come to the other side of the world to serve on the mission field, and here I am having tea in a fancy hotel with a bunch of wonderful and encouraging fellow Americans."

"That's the way God works, sweetie. He knows exactly what we need and when to give it to us. When we are obedient, He rewards us. It's not always physical like a beautiful afternoon like this, but He is faithful to encourage our hearts when we are faithful."

How true was her response! I cannot think of one time in my life where God has not abundantly blessed me when I was found to be in the center of His will, by His grace. Time and time again He has given me relationships that encouraged my heart in what could have been the emptiest and loneliest times for me. It begs the question of why I struggle so much to be faithful, when He asks so little of me, small, simple, sinful man...but that's another blog entry! The short of it is that I am grateful that I serve a faithful God, and that He gives me glimpses of the place for which I yearn, where there will be no more tears, no more strife and no more suffering.

While I'm on the topic - just 2 more quick blessings I have to share!

The first is another friend, or friends rather, that God has given me here in BKK! I could list them all and explain how great they are, but I'll just pick one since this entry has already gotten to be longer than I intended for it to be. Her name is Carter, and we met through the Clarkson's. Of course. She is an MK who grew up here in Thailand, recently graduated from U of Richmond, and is now back in BKK working for a fantastic organization called Urban Neighbors of Hope. Her parents have served here in Thailand for the last 28 years, and they seem to know everyone who works or serves here and in the entire surrounding region. Carter and I have become fast friends, and God has already used her to affirm some of the specific revelations He is giving me about His calling over my life. She has shown me around and introduced me to "my spot," and she has encouraged my heart. I praise God for so readily giving me what I need, when I need it - a beautiful new friendship. And I can't help but believe it's not a coincidence that I have met her family - they have already expressed how happy they'd be to help in getting me connected to the right people should I end up back in Bangkok, and they have encouraged me through sharing some of their experiences from a life on the mission field.

Ok, and one quick last story.

The other day on my way to meet Carter, I got off the BTS (the metro in the sky, as I like to call it), and hopped into the first open taxi I saw. I gave the man my destination, he shifted his car into gear, and we slipped into hectic Bangkok traffic. As he sat back in his seat and shifted from 3rd to 4th, he reached to turn up his radio. I looked out the window and took in the sights of yet another Bangkok street that I had never seen before and will probably never see again, and tuned out. After another minute, I caught myself humming along with a familiar tune, and caught a couple of words that I recognized from church services in Thai - "Pra'jow, Pra'Om" - "Are you a Christian?!" I blurted out in excitement! The taxi driver, shocked, turned and squinted at me. I repeated my question more slowly and calmly, as I looked around his taxi and realized that it wasn't sprinkled with all of the Buddhist idols and symbols that normally litter the dashboard, ceiling and windows of taxis in Bangkok. A smile came across his face. "Christian...Christian," he said as he point to his chest. "Me too!" I said in excitement. I tried to ask him a few more questions in English, but we quickly exhausted both his English and my Thai, and all I gained was that he recently came to the faith. The rest of the ride was normal - I sat looking out the window, and he shifted and braked with the flow of traffic, until we arrived at my destination. "Ok, here it is," he said, "50 baht." "Here you go - God bless you," was my response.

"In the name of Jesus, go in peace," was the last thing he said to me as I climbed out of the taxi.

I snapped a photo with my phone of his taxi ID - Mr. Tanoo - if you'd like to add him to your list of people to pray for.

Thailand is so deeply Buddhist, and less than 1% of the population is Christian - but the church is here, it is alive, it is growing...the message is spreading. One of the wise women in my Bible study pointed out that Thailand has been given over to idol worship and demonic forces for centuries upon centuries - a concept that is difficult for an American to understand being from such a young country - and thus the bonds of spiritual entrapment run ever more deeply. Please pray for Thailand.