Another surprise call comes in from the education department of Tak asking for a foreign English speaker to come and teach at a seminar for supervisors of educators. It is school break and I am available. This time I will be joining two English speaking Thai teachers for 3 days of teaching English.

There are a few things that stay in my mind after today’s visit into the slums, where our students in Mae Sot live.Some I wish I had taken a photo of, some, I wish I could do something about.

A little smiling girl, cheeks smeared with white powder, playing with tiny lids from juice bottles. Pretending to cook, she doesn’t know of colorful plastic sets of kitchen utensils that other children play with. For now, she contentedly stirs a small plastic stick in a lid smeared with sauce.

We come to the slum community once again. San stays behind to play with the boys and I, along with uncle Victor and our two students go to see the other children. We walk along the road, picking up kids as we go, Somying handing out candy. We come to the first community and are greeting with smiles. Wer’e not sure of what we must do, so we wait around and play with the kids. Our goal is to build relationships with the parents, but we don’t see many around. Soon after, our friend, a young Burmese man who speaks English very well, comes by with his friend. “Were having a celebration tomorrow,” he says. The kids start to blow balloons and hand them to us as we look for a place to hang them in the little shack. “You’re invited to come,” he invites us.

DEAR FRIENDS! PLEASE PRAY ABOUT MY SISTER FAMILY AND THEIR DECISION!
“ Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Hebrew 11:1
This year we celebrated our anniversary of 7 years and of joy being together. With two kids and our tenth move to another place of residence, God gave us wonderful lessons to learn. Humbleness … thankfulness…. Continual service to Him in spite of people failing you and laughing at your failures, the doctors promising a child with Down syndrome; plans falling one after another; the husband getting into an accident, and the country erupting into war. God taught us to trust in Him alone. Only He is faithful, and He alone will not fail. … “Look at life from the perspective of eternity” … and “BELIEVE!”…

Dear Church, and friends,all around the World!
We are blessed because of you!!!
Your prayers, your support, your encouragement…

Черная кобра
Маленькие сокровища, которые можно найти на территории нашей школы :))
Но, к сожалению, они не всегда безопасны – змеи и ядовитые сороконожки на детской обуви, улитки поедающие паука, ящерица тукей в 30-40см, которая прогрызает в потолке дыры и сбрасывает к нам в комнату своих детенышей, множество летающих тараканов и позающихбукашек – не самое приятное, что можно встретить.

Волонтеры.
Волонтеры нужны везде – в Украине и в Таиланде, России и Грузии, Вьетнаме и Индии. Потому значение этого слова знакомо многим.
В христианских кругах оно больше связанно со служением Богу, альтруизмом. Если вы понимаете, что Бог вас призывает на служение – не будьте Ионой, ибо он поплатился своим эгоистичным желанием трехдневным пребыванием в животе у кита.

“The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners” Isaiah 61:1

I never realized it would take so much patience and time in building relationships. I learned this here in Thailand. To build trust does not take one week, but months and years.

The Lord has blessed us with a few relationships that are starting to blossom. Recentlly, two ladies and a teenage girl started coming to Avoda to work. Every morning worship time,  they join us. They read the Bible with us and even went up to share what verse they like. I could see their hearts open up as they participate in discussion of Gods Truths! We have also reached a point in the relationship where we can joke around with each other and exchange gifts. Praise the Lord for these women!

Last  week we found one of our cows in a well! It had fallen in searching for grass…we don’t know how long it was in there. The whole team of boys came to save the cow. San went into the well down the ladder. Her neck was turned and it seemed she struggled to breath.