It's been way too long since I've posted a blog. I decided that it's time for an update. I've been having fun teaching my 3rd grade boys. They call me Teacher Emily, which is the appropriate way to address teachers here. I had to teach them about punctuation and how to use periods. One way is to put a period at the end of Mr. or Mrs. To help them understand, I used my name as an example. They'd never heard of anyone with the last name Green, so they thought that was very funny. One boy especially liked calling me Miss Green and now his whole class uses it when they greet me at the beginning of class. Who knew that my name would attract so much attention?
Lots has happened in the last few months, so I'll just try to mention the highlights. My birthday was August 27th and I couldn't believe how many people remembered and greeted me at school and church, but also on Facebook (those little reminders are great). The day ended with a dinner at my house with friends from church. My Nepali friend made burritos, which made the night! They were fabulous! I also did another Thai dance in August for our school's 157th anniversary. It was lots of fun.
I started attending a Thai church on Sunday mornings in January. I don't fully understand the services, but I'm getting a lot of practice reading and listening to Thai. We've started a children's church and we have some kids from the neighborhood attending. They're very open to the Gospel. Praise the Lord! I think they are hearing it for the first time!
There is a Lisu church that meets after the Thai church and before the international church that I'm a part of (they all use the same building). Lisu is a tribal group of people living in northern Thailand and Myanmar (formerly Burma). They asked me to speak in their service at the end of August. I had a translator, of course, and I didn't understand any part of their service except the two English songs they sang. Still, it was a very rich experience. Thank God for the opportunity to share His Word my Lisu brothers and sisters. Their written language is composed of English letters, but many of them are backwards or upside down. It's very interesting to look at.
Last weekend, the international church (mostly Filipino) I attend took a mission trip to Koh Si Chang, an island east of Bangkok. We led the activities in an English camp for middle school and early high school students on Saturday and attended a local church on Sunday. I had the privilege of bringing three Christian American friends with me who are student teaching at my school in Bangkok. It was good for them to see what life is like outside Bangkok. They were really sports as we truly "roughed it" by American standards. On Sunday morning, the four of us got to sing a song in the service. I was really stretched that day because my Filipino pastor asked me to translate his sermon from English to Thai. I would not have volunteered for that position, but I guess my Thai is better than most people who went on our trip. I didn't come close to translating it perfectly, but the Thai people understood me and said "Amen" to what the pastor was saying. Thank God for using me and allowing me find out that I can do more than I thought I could.
The end of the semester is quickly approaching. This is our exam week. We have one more week of teaching after this. I'm looking forward to my two week vacation in October.
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