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Monday, 07 April 2008

Tee Kee Kay Bible camp

    I survived my first week in Thailand! I arrived Saturday evening about 6:30, got a good night of sleep, went for a prayer meeting for our Bible camp, and headed out at 1:00 PM for the Karen village of Tee Kee Kay. A lot of you know that I wasn't too sure about how this week was going to go, especially because I knew I had no time to get over jet lag! Well I sure felt the prayers you sent up for me, because I had a wonderful week. Jet lag didn't have a chance to get me down. We were really busy and had a strict schedule, which forced me to switch over to Thai time.
   This was the first time a Bible camp was held in the Tee Kee Kay village. About 80 village kids registered for a week of Bible classes, workshops, English classes, relay games, and competition.
To get back to Tee Kee Kay, we drove 4 hours from Chiang Mai, and then unloaded our vehicles and repacked everything onto pick up trucks. We had another 2 hour drive on the back of the trucks on dusty dirt roads up int. We thought our truck was full already, but somehow we found room for the woman with her little baby that wanted to get a ride. After agonizing over bumps and through clouds of dust, we arrived about 8:00 Sunday evening.
  I slept in a long hut-type house held up by bamboo poles. It was the girls' dorm for the week. Three of us camp counselors slept there with our group of girls, so there were about 35 of us in the house.  The roosters woke me every morning at 4:00, but I slept again until 6:00 when the lights went on.  The shower house was an outhouse with a big barrel of water for dip showers.  We ate Thai food (usually rice or noodles with chicken or pork) for breakfast, lunch and supper.
    The schedule in the morning was Bible classes and English classes. A Thai pastor taught the Bible classes, and we taught the English classes. I can clearly see the looks on my girls faces as I introduce "kitchen, living room, dining room" and "I am in the kitchen; I am in the living room".... etc. How do I teach these village girls what a kitchen is when their kitchen doesn't resemble ours at all. And how could you keep an extra room in the house just for entertaining guests? A living room is unheard of in this Karen village. About half way through the week I felt their confusion and gave them breaks randomly by teaching them the colors and basic things like "Hello my name is _____. What is your name?"
    The afternoon was for workshops, which the kids loved. The workshop options were hockey, volleyball, cross-stitching, card making, cooking, tin punching, and string art. I had the great privilege of teaching the cross stitching class. You probably think that wouldn't be a problem for me, because I'm a girl.   Well I know as much about cross stitching as I do about karate. (OK maybe I know a little more.) I have vague memories of doing it when I was a little girl. That was the simple cross stitching. And then I was up at my Grandma's house the week I left, and she gave me a few tips. But this counted cross stitching was something I knew nothing about. Someone had gotten the supplies together for me. I asked a few counsellors to tell me what they knew about it. I learned what I could on Monday, and taught my girls and even a few boys, through a translator, how to cross stitch. They picked up on it really fast. These people love embroidery and that type of work. At the end of the week, they were enjoying it and even doing it in their spare time.
     Friday evening we had a closing program. By the end of the program there were girls crying because we were leaving, and of course I was crying too. I hope to go back to Tee Kee Kay sometime. How can the love of Jesus be passed on from one person to the next without either understanding each other's language? How many of them went back to their non-Christian families, and will quickly forget all they were taught? How many of them will hear the Gospel again when they are old enough to understand, and then they will look back on this week and connect our time there with Jesus Christ?  I'm not asking you to reply to these questions... These are questions I might not have answers for until I get to heaven.
     This week my goal is to organize my life. That will start with unpacking the rest of my suitcases, organizing my room, buying a motor bike (my transportation), and learning my way around Chiang Mai. I got a little practice on Eric's bike tonight, so that's a start. I also hope to find out a little more about how and where to start this ministry, and how much to focus on language study.
    Thank you for your prayers this past week. You are blessed, Americans, did you know that? You are some of the most blessed people in the world. I wish all of you could have the opportunity I had this past week to live in the village of Tee Kee Kay. Slow down, simplify your life, and thank God for what He blessed you with.
    Thanks for taking time to care about the work here in Chiang Mai. I am here because you are supporting me. THANK YOU!

    I'm very blessed and glad to be alive.

Tuesday, 26 February 2008

Well folks I just had to add some color to this drab winter-ness that's got PA draped in its grey fog. I just wanna say, Happy Spring! But I know that everyone would look at me like I'd grown a third nostril, because it's not Spring at all.
Some of you might know that I'm leaving for Thailand in about a month from now. I'm going to help IGO (Institute for Global Opportunities) start a new ministry working with young women and teens in Chiang Mai. I'm so excited about what God is going to do there, and I feel really small, and at the same time, really honored to be a part of it!
Psalm 3:3 "But you are a shield around me, O LORD; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head." Isn't that beautiful? There is no better way to face the battle with courage, than to have the King's shield around you, his glory poured down on you, and with no fear, your head is lifted up!

Friday, 11 January 2008

Binx, Phil and I at the TSO Christmas concert. The best seats yet, great music, and my favorite brothers!

An intense game at the New Year's Eve party at my house.... well, how else do you think we stayed up all night?

Kayla, Arlin, and Binx. Got to see my cousins and lots of IGo friends in IN last weekend! The best times were... Main St. Coffee shop, great times with my cousins, music by "the band," playing Apples to Apples, a mudslide at Hacienda's, getting to know Jackson, and hanging out at the Berkshires (gotta get used to carrying a camera around, I didn't get many pictures).
here's my dog Madge-Padge-Wadge-Dadge (or just Madge for short)

Saturday, 29 December 2007

Currently Reading
The Barbarian Way: Unleash the Untamed Faith Within
By Erwin Raphael McManus
see related

If you need a challenge, read this book.
Thanks to my friend Sylvia, who recommended it to me!
from "The Barbarian Way" by Erwin Raphael McManus:
Two thousand years later the call to follow Christ has been repackaged to be smooth and trouble-free, filled with opportunity and promise but lacking risk, passion, and sacrifice. Is this really what Jesus died for? If He chose the way of the cross, where would He hesitate leading us? Is it possible that to follow Jesus is to choose the barbarian way?
Jesus never made a pristine call to a proper or safe religion. Jesus beckons His followers to a path that is far from the easy road. It is a path filled with adventure, uncertainty, and unlimited possibilities - the only path that can fulfill the deepest longings and desires of your heart.
This is the barbarian way: to give your heart fully to the only One who can make you fully alive. To love Him with simplicity and intensity. To unleash the untamed faith within. To be consumed by the presence of a passionate and compassionate God. To go where He sends you, no matter the cost.

Monday, 08 October 2007

I the Lord of sea and sky. I have heard my people cry.

All who dwell in dark and sin my hand would save.

I who made the stars of night, I would make their darkness bright.

Who will bear my light to them? Who shall I send?

Here I am, Lord. It is I, Lord. I have heard you calling in the night.

I will go, Lord, as you lead me. I will hold your people in my heart.