About a week after my last post, I slipped and fell at home and fractured my ankle (November 2009). Needless to say, I missed my first week of teaching in the second semester and went back to school the next week. After 6 weeks of wearing a cast (one was green and one was pink:), too many taxi rides to count, lunches brought to my classroom, 3 weeks of using crutches without a cast, and one month of walking with one crutch, I'm finally free! I thank God for all the friends who helped me along the way. It was quite an ordeal, but I believe the Lord used it to literally slow me down and remind me that fellowship with Him is the most important thing in my life. Everything I do has to be an overflow of God's grace and presence in my life--otherwise there's very little meaning or purpose for what I do.
Christmas was full of celebrations with friends and sharing the real meaning of Christmas with Thai people. I had the opportunity to help my missionary friend with her Christmas program in the public school where she teaches English. We had a small Christmas program with a Nativity drama and Christmas songs and then divided the kids into groups to make Christmas cards, sing Christmas songs, and listen to the story of Jesus' birth.
My new Thai language teachers are the students in my Sunday school class at church. They help me when I don't know the correct word to use and they correct my pronunciation. Our kids' church team prepared a small Christmas presentation for them to perform. They dressed up in makeshift costumes, performed the nativity story and sang 2 Christmas songs. I thank God for the relationships He is allowing us to build with some of the children in our community.
On December 26th, I went to northeastern Thailand with some teachers from my school for a short missions trip. There was lots of delicious food because we went to our friend's parents home. We ate sticky rice for every meal, drank homegrown passion fruit juice and homemade soy milk, and ate homegrown tamarind. However, we didn't go for the food. We held a Christmas party for the children in the community and over 85 children came. We had a large dinner and then lots of games and songs. After those activities, I got to tell the story of Jesus' birth (through a translator and with pictures projected on a screen) and then we gave gifts to all the children. Some of the kids came from the small church there, but most did not. It was a great opportunity to share the love and truth of Jesus with them. The next day we went to two small provincial schools and had a similar Christmas program for them. The children enjoyed all the activities, but I pray that the seed of Jesus' love fell on good soil.
I had the opportunity to sing in 2 weddings in January. One was a Thai wedding and one was for my Filipino pastor. In February, we started preparing our students for their final exams and gave their exams. I finished all of my grades and written reports last week. Thank God that's over! I will work for 3 more weeks at school and then come home to the US for "summer" vacation. I'm looking forward to seeing snow in Colorado and of course, spending time with my family and friends there.
I heard an interesting language story this week. In our most recent round of final exams, the first grade students were asked to memorize their telephone numbers for their English speaking exam. One boy was very confident and said "My telephone number is circle, circle, circle, eight, two...
He may not have used the right words, but he certainly spoke English!
