Kanchanaburi

Here's a photo trip of our visit to Nid's home province...

We left early in the morning to catch a train to her aunt's house. 

 

On the 4 hour train ride, we slept, enjoyed the views, and sang/learned fun songs.  The kids on the train had free entertainment on this ride.  :)

 

 

The sights were beautiful and riding the train was a perfect way to see them.  Nid would ride this train everyday to go to school through middle and high school. 

 

Us and the family we stayed in front of their house.  

Don't they have a great view?!

 

We set up tents inside to sleep.  I would have chosen outside under the bright stars, but we were the guests and they wanted us inside.  

Out of this simple kitchen came a lot of great food.

 

Two of the boys went snail collecting for dinner one night.  

  

Here's what we gathered from the fields, papaya, bananas, lotus flowers, green eatable leafs, and the boys' contribution...snails.  The snails were cooked up in rice porridge and didn't taste fishy at all.  :)

 

The family wanted to make sure we ate well, so the boys were in charge of catching, killing, and defeathering 3 chickens.   They tasted good. 

  

 

The family we visited is still Buddhist, but the kids joined us for worship and Bible reading under a tree in the front yard. 

 We spent one afternoon at a lake near the family's house. 

  

Another day we went to "climb up the mountain."  

But...

We only got about an hour into it before people were joking that we were about to cross the Myanmar border and needed to head back.  :)

 At least we found a rock to climb,

 

jungle vines to swing, 

 and lots of great views.

 

Another day brought us to a Thai-style water park.

(a.k.a. waterfall)

 Gorgeous and giant!

 People were floating, splashing, jumping and exploring over the whole side of the waterfall. 

 

Near Nid's house is a clearing with a lot of wild monkeys.  I don't know why they gather there, but it was fun to see.  

 

One of Nid's neighbors was making these very intricate, traditional Thai hats. 

I'm glad I don't have to dance with this on my head...the Thai women who do are very talented!

We enjoyed fresh coconuts that were cut down by the aunt from a tree near her house.  They were filled with refreshing coconut water and soft flesh that could be scooped out with a spoon. 

 Even our Thai friends said they had never seen a bug so colorful.

 The fruit on some of the fruit trees is kept covered to keep bugs and birds out.

 Kids and puppies brought smiles to our faces the whole trip! 

English Camp

 

 We spent the day with 35 students, one teacher, and 3 alumni who were helping with the camp. 

 Our focus was conversation.  One activity included each table of students coming up with a question to ask "the foreigner."

 

This teacher has been teaching at the school for 28 years.  She is now the counselor and helps students think about and apply for university.

 At the beginning of the day, students were very hesitant to talk to me.  Sun said they are scared of foreigners.  I laughed and asked, "Am I sacary looking?"

 By the end of the day, I don't think I was as scary to the students. How could a teacher like this be scary? :)

 Op and Sun in front of another school building.  Op and her husband (below) do campus ministry in Bangkok. 

Supot went to this school as a kid.  He was really grateful to have the opportunity to come back and pour into the students.

 Listening attentively.   Even the teacher (bottom right) was repeating the practice conversations after me. 

 The students were quite attentive while Sun shared about her journey to know Christ.  She also invited any students who might study in Bangkok to come visit us at Baan Jai Diaow.  Wouldn't that be awesome if God used this English camp to bring more students to live at the dorm with us?!

 

I was so grateful Sun's exams were finished (the day before we left), so she could join me.  It was a great experience for her, challenging, out of her comfort zone, but so good.

 Here's the school.  About 3,000 students between the ages of 12 and 18 are enrolled.

We enjoyed lunch together, but before eating we all had to raise our arms, crossed at chest level and repeat in loud voices after the leader something that included, "I will eat all my food and not waist any." 

Dirt Cake Mind Explosion

Celebrating Karl's Birthday

Most of the students I live with have a hard time thinking outside of the way things have always been done.  If I try to cut the watermelon the fat way instead of the long way first, my knife is taken away, and I'm shown how to do it "correctly."

I decided to challenge their ideas of brownies for my friend's birthday.  Brownies are the students' favorite dessert, so to mess with a favorite, could have been a bad idea. 

We began by baking two pans of brownies as usual, and then we made "chocolate yogurt" (a.k.a. pudding).  I don't know the real word for pudding and none of my Thai friends had any better word for it so we settled on "chocolate yogurt."  Sounds gross but tasted delicious.  Next we crushed the Thai version of Oreo cookies into dirt-sized pieces. When no one was looking, my American friend and I sneaked (I really want to write 'snuck' but I don't think it's correct) away with the brownies and pudding. 

In a room with the door closed and locked, we crumbled the brownies (how dare we do such a thing?!) and layered them with the pudding in a plastic flower pot.  The cookie dirt was sprinkled on top making it look surprisingly a lot like a pot of soil. 

Gummy worms couldn't be found, so we settled for gummy french fries.  (Who knew such a thing existed!?)  They looked enough like worms though.  To top it off, we picked a flower from a bush next to the dorm and stuck it in the middle.  

When the happy birthday song was being sung, I brought the cake out.  Laughing broke out, mouths dropped open, fingers pointed, and everyone began asking, "Is it real?" 

 

I think the cake went over alright because this is what was left after about 10 minutes, even though the brownies weren't in the pan as they should have been. 


My primary goal is to glorify God by making his name more known here in Thailand.  Sometimes that looks different than I would have guessed.  Sometimes it looks like challenging people to think outside of what they grew up thinking.  I tried this with brownies, but the same thing goes for traditional beliefs.  The step from thinking the God of the Bible is a western story to thinking He might really exist and change lives is enormous and something to celebrate.

Urgency

 Baan Jai Diaow Girls

Days come and go.  English classes, meetings, dinners, market runs.  Semesters begin, exams end.  New students join the dorm community. Days come and go.

Then one day, by the front door books were stacked next to bags of clothes, a lamp, and a basket of shampoo and soap.  I pitched in to help load all the stuff into a truck, then I waved as Bia climbed in the back to balance the pile of old textbooks as the truck drove off down the road. 

Later that same night, Aon shared something with me. 

"Julia?" She called quietly over the three-quarters high wall separating our rooms.  "Are you sleeping yet?"
"No, not yet."
"Do you want to know something?"
"What?"
"If I pass all my exams, at the end of the month I won't live here any more."
"Where will you go?"
"To work downtown and live with my younger sister."
"Wow." I didn't have much more to say.  In the back of my mind, I knew some of our girls would be graduating soon, but the reality of it coming hadn't crossed my mind recently.

"Are you excited?" I continued.
"Yes, I want to work, but I'll miss all our brothers and sisters here at BJD."
"We will miss you too....you'll come visit us, won't you?"
"Often."  Aon was quiet for a moment as we both considered the sentences that had just been exchanged.  "You're the first person at BJD I've told."  She added.
"I'll let you tell everyone else when you're ready." I assured her.


Both of our rooms went silent for a while.  My heart was sad as I pondered the repercussions of time passed.  Moving on is good, but it's never easy to see someone go, especially when that someone has become a sister.


"Julia?"  The voice came quietly over my wall again. "Don't for get me, ok?"
"I won't forget you, for sure."

It was almost more than I could take.  I'm not ready to see these young girls confidently stride off into their next season of life.  Both Aon and Bia I first met three and a half years ago as awkward freshmen, unsure of what their first semester at university would hold.  Coming from villages in the far regions of Thailand, the Big City left them wide-eyed and overwhelmed.  Now these women are making plans and stepping forward into a new life.

Have we taught them enough?  Did discipleship from the past years reach deep enough into their hearts?  Will the Bible studies come back to mind as they make more life-changing decisions?

Ultimately this leaves me with the opportunity to pray, trust, stand alongside and encourage.  But it also leaves me with a renewed since of urgency.