Thankful Day

Thanksgiving Day English Class

pumpkin pie, red juice, and thankful hearts

"On Thanksgiving in America, everyone shares one thing they are thankful for, so we're going to do that today in English class."  I explained and gave an example, "I am thankful for patient Thai friends to teach me Thai."

The students followed with,

I am thankful for....

                          "living here at BJD."

"learning English."

    "my close friend from America."

"my teacher."

"my father and mother and my friends."

"safe airplanes."

           "lunch."

"no floods in our area."

Following our thoughts of thankfulness, we were thankful for the delicious taste of pumpkin pie.  

 

What Sets Us Apart

Gif and me enjoying fresh coconuts

"Oh, my elbow hurts.  I think it's bruised."  Gif said as she rubbed the sore spot.

"What happened?" I asked.

"While I was on the bus the ticket lady accidently hit me with her metal ticket holder.  But, oh, that's okay.  I'll be okay.  She spoke very kindly and apologized.  I could see she felt bad.  Then I started eating a snack on the bus ride, you know, those twisted bread cookies.  Well, I offered one to the ticket lady.  She was so surprised because she had just bumped into me.  She thought I would be angry with her, but I gave her a snack instead."

Gif's bus story filled my heart with joy.  The beauty of loving with Christ's love is that it's not dependent on how others treat us.  It's a love that really stands out.

Okay

Not okay, but around the corner.

God willing, our new and more than okay space.

"We are looking for a permanent place, so we would only like to rent for 4-6 months."

"Okay."

 "So we couldn't sign a year lease."

"Okay."

"We would like to teach English classes and have meetings here."

"Okay."

"On Sundays we will meet to study the Bible and worship God."

"Okay. I went to a Christian school as a kid."

"Could we possibly meet as soon as next week?"

"Okay."

If this wasn't a God prepared conversation between us and the owner of the temporary ministry space, I don't know what one would have looked like.  The space is just down the street from the university, on a student's walk from the sky train to campus, and on street level, just what we were looking for.

Flood Relief

As much as I would like to say relief from the flood is in sight, some predict the water take 4-6 weeks to drain from people's homes in northern Bangkok.  As long as we can, we'll be helping in whatever way we can.  Today it looks like packing food to be taken to those in need.

The work began before the sun was up so that everything would be finished for a team to take it out by 10 a.m.

We bagged rice from about 7 pots this size.  It seemed to be never-ending for a while, but with many hands to help, the work was fun.  

 Each day has had a different menu. Today it was rice and fried pork.  Some of the bags got brownies too!

 A Koren news channel from Bangkok came to interview a few people and find out what we were doing.  If anyone is watching the news in Bangkok, look for my smiling face!  :)

 The pork was cooked outside.  (Usually there's no brick wall there, but it was built in front of the church in case the water comes this way too.  Climbing over it in a skirt to go to church yesterday was...interesting.)

After the pork was cooked, BJD students put it in bags to go with the rice. 

Tomorrow...

Prep for tomorrow's food has already begun.  We'll begin cooking and packing again at 6 a.m. tomorrow.

Outside, things look different...

 Our area is prepared, with many stores sandbagging their front windows and doors.  

Many places have gone to the extent of building new walls to guard the water.  For a few weeks, professional wall builders (a.k.a. anyone with bricks and mortar) was busy.

 

 Some people are sure it will come, others are beginning to doubt it will reach our area.  This 7-11 is prepared on the outside.  Inside, the isles are bare except for the odd things people don't want a lot of, and there's no guarantee bottled water will be available. 

In northern Bangkok, the reality of the flood is much more tangible. A few guys from my team went to help last week and will probably go again this week.