Saturday, July 26, 2008

Mixed Emotions

So as I look at today's date, I realize that I only have about 17 days left in Thailand. I just can't make up my mind how I feel about this. I love Thailand and the people here, so I don't want to leave because I don't know when I'll be able to return. But I also want to see everyone back home, not to mention the food I have been craving that I cannot find here. And it's almost football season and I want to get my last full year of school started. But then there are students who I feel would be more interested in learning about God if I could be here longer to teach them.

What have I learned from this so far? I've learned that it's not the work that I'm doing that matters, but what God is doing through me. I've planted and watered a seed and others can continue to water it, but only God will make it grow, in His time. I've learned that my needs and wants are not what are most important.  David writes in Psalms, "the Lord is my shepard, I shall not be in want." God created us as people of who need and want, and He will provide those things for us. But those wants, should not be greater than our want for God. I am learning to trust God that he will provide for me.

I don't know when I'll ever be back in Thailand, but God has so much planned for me back in the States.

Tomorrow night during evening worship, I will be given the opportunity to preach again. Please pray that God will speak through me.

Please pray for Koon, one of my students. He is a very advanced student and enjoys reading the Bible in English. We only have a couple more classes together so we won't be able to read much more in class. I gave him my Thai-English Bible so he could read on his own. This is the first step in a tough journey for a Thai Buhddist to take towards Christianity. As he continues to learn, if he believes and wants to become a Christian, he'll have to make a tough decision. Becoming a Christian is like abandoning the family. Some parents will disown their children for making this decision. Thai people are very close to their family and don't want to upset the family. Some Thais believe that all Thais should be Buhddist so if they became Christian, they would be less Thai. These are just a couple things that Thai Buhddists struggle with when learning about Christianity.

Pray for us all these last couple of weeks. I will be arriving in Dallas on Aug 11th, at 10:35 PM. Because it is so late, I will have to stay the night in the airport to catch the next flight from DFW to SAT at 7:30 AM. So I should be back in Jourdanton before noon on the 12th.
Posted by Amos in Thailand at 03:23:21 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Sunday, July 20, 2008

English Camp!!

Friday morning, I took a van along with 8 students to Cha-Am Beach for English Camp. It is about a 3 hour drive to Cha-Am and because I had to wake up at 6 am, I slept all the way there. We got there just in time for lunch, and spent the first couple hours just playing games with the students and the Christians. In the afternoon, we played several "get to know you games" to try and get the students more comfortable with each other. We then taught what a homophone is and talked about several words that are homophones.  After this, went out to the beach to play a couple of games. Justin taught the students how to play a game called "Steal the Bacon" and I taught "Horseshoes." After we were nice and toasted from the sun, we had a little bit of free time before dinner. Later that evening, we divided everyone into groups, and each group was assigned a skit they had to write and perform the next night. The skits assigned were: KungFu Panda as a horror, Indiana Jones as a chick flick, Prince Caspian as a musical, and Batman as a comedy. The groups were given time to work on their skits and to get ideas and props ready for their performance.
Saturday morning we taught more homophones and had each group write as many sentences as they could using the homophones. After lunch, we gave more time to work on their skits before having a sand castle building contest out on the beach. At night we had the skit show and karaoke.
Sunday morning, we had a worship service with the Christians and students. I preached and one of the Christians translated for me. I talked about having a common love, peace, joy, and gift of salvation. I did this to explain that God doesn't care for just some people; he wants everyone to share in His love, peace joy, and salvation.
Overall, it was a great weekend. It was very tiring, but it was very fun. We will have today and Tuesday to regain our energy before we start teaching again on Wednesday.

Please pray for our students. We hope that camp was a way that they could see better how Christians live and act and understand more what we believe. We hope that they got to know the Christians better and built relationships with them that will continue after we leave.

In Him,
เอมัส (Amos)
Posted by Amos in Thailand at 18:50:23 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Sunday, July 13, 2008

A busy week...but a great one!

As I'm writing this, I am exhausted. It has been a very busy week with classes, planning for Sunday Activites and planning for English camp. 

Wednesday morning, I went to the airport to pick up a group of 8 AFCers who will be teaching English in Northeast Thailand, and I also taught a few classes in the afternoon.  I had an advanced student come in the evening for his class. He said he had gone to the hospital earlier in the day because he had some type of stomach problem that was most likely caused by missing normal eating times, stress, and little rest. He said that the doctor told him that he should rest more and try not to work more than he has to, so that he can get better. It was interesting that we started talking about the importance of rest, because the night before, I listened to a podcast sermon over Psalm 23. In this podcast, the preacher talked about the important of rest and how God "MAKES us lie down in green pastures." We read Psalm 23 together and talked about how God knows what is best for us. We then started to explore certain passages about Christian living, because he wanted to know if Christians were supposed to live a certain way. When Thai people think of America, they see it as a "Christian" nation. So anything that comes from America must in some way reflect Christianity. When they see movies that are filled with cursing and other awful things, they think that its ok for even Christians to act or talk this way. After we ended class, he told me that he would like to learn more from the Bible. I would ask that you pray for him and that you pray for me as we study God's Word together.

On Thursday, I took the Kranuan team, 1 Thai Christian, and 1 Non-Christian, to the zoo here in Bangkok. When we got back, I went with P'Rung to pick up our T-shirts for English Camp, before I had class in the evening. Friday and Saturday were just normal teaching days so we really didn't do anything more than teach.

Today's English Activities was about American Idioms. We a game where the students were put in groups of 5-7, and had to match an idiom with its definition. After the game, we explained idiom one-by-one. There were a total of 21 idioms that we taught. After we finished our English lesson, we taught the students the song, "I will enter His gates," then sang the songs we learned in the past activity days, so we sang, "Hide Me, Away," "Sanctuary," "Soon and very soon," and "I've got peace like a river."

Tomorrow and Tuesday are our off days, so hopefully we will be able to regain our energy for this next week. We will teach our Wednesday classes, but then we are leaving Thursday to go set up at Cha-Am beach for English camp. English camp will be held Friday-Sunday.

I meant to post more picture slideshows, but I have not taken as many pictures this year, mainly because I have so many from the past years, but also because my camera isn't real easy to carry around everywhere. When I get back from English Camp, I'll have plenty of pictures to make another video.

Thank you for your prayers and support.

In Him,
Amos


Posted by Amos in Thailand at 18:20:59 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Back to Teaching

Well the past couple days have been pretty interesting as far as teaching schedules go. We lost 2 teachers from the first half of the summer and gained 1  teacher. The only thing was, that the one we gained, went to Singapore to try and get a new visa. Then there is Neale, the teacher who lives here in Bangkok. Neale has been out for 2 weeks because his wife was supposed to have a baby a couple weeks ago. She ended having their baby girl, Eleanor, Wednesday morning. This meant that we had students from 4 teachers coming to study but only 2 teachers were here. We had to combine all 4 classes with 4 different English books at 4 different levels. We were able to get through the 2 days of that. I met with an old student of mine, Bam, from a couple years ago. She has gone through a couple rough things lately and asked me today if I would be able to study the Bible with her again. Please pray for her and pray that I may be able to show God's love to her.

We will be getting ready for English Camp which will be July 17-19. That means the next couple weeks will be very busy with preparation and teaching. Thank you all so much for everything!

In Him,
Amos
Posted by Amos in Thailand at 18:02:44 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Saturday, June 28, 2008

End of the 1st Half

This past Sunday was Jacob and Rachel's last Sunday here in Bangkok, which meant it was their last Activity Day with the students. We had a picture scavenger hunt that led the students all around the area that the church is located. The winning team of the scavenger hunt won the opportunity to sing a song in English in front of the auditorium. Everyone had such a fun time. After activities was over, students started to get pictures with Jacob and Rachel and some students had gifts for them. Monday morning, we took a taxi to the airport and jumped on a plane to Phuket. We had a nice hotel across the street from the beach. We got to hang out with Caleb Henderson, who grew up as a missionary kid in Bangkok. He spends a couple months in Phuket every summer. It rained quite a bit while we were there, but we still enjoyed our stay. Thursday, we checked out of the hotel and went into Phuket town to spend some time at the church with the secretary, preacher and AFCPhuket team, before our evening flight back to Bangkok.
The AFCO group is in Bangkok for a few days before they return to the States. I went to a nursing school with them where they were putting on an English camp. Last night, we went to another English teachers house, to eat pizza and drink Dr. Pepper. It was amazing to have a Dr. Pepper. When we got back to the church, me and Jacob played cards with some of the youth group. I got a call this morning from an old student of mine. She is one who has always shown interest in Christianity, but there was always something holding her back from really learning. Hopefully that will change this year. Please be praying for her and other students who show interest in God.

In Him,
Amos
Posted by Amos in Thailand at 02:11:12 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Thursday, June 19, 2008

So yesterday's classes in the evening went very well. My morning classes could not make it because of school work, but they were able to make it today. In the evening, I was asked to speak at Bible class. I had a student during the time Bible class went on, but he joined the us in worship. I talked about how the work here cannot be done by just our team. It is a partnership between you all back home, our team, the Christians here, and God. Our team plants the seed, the church waters it through fellowship and prayer, and God makes it grow! It's amazing how we all work together as one to do God's work.
Today, was a great day as well. After some very fun classes, P'Hui, a deacon's wife, made spagetti for everyone.
Tomorrow, I am going to buy ingredients to make Tuna salad for my last class of the day. One of my students is also going to make a Thai version of tuna salad. After dinner, our team is going with the youth group to go ice skating. I've only been about 2 times my whole life but I'm sure we will have a blast!

Here is one of my favorite pictures from our trip to Chiang Mai.


This is from the Queen's Rose Garden at Bhuping Palace.

Posted by Amos in Thailand at 18:19:18 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

What An Amazing Week!

It seems like only a couple days since I last made posted on here. This week has just flown by for us. We spent lots of time outside of class with different students. We started our week of teaching on Wednesday. After classes, the team went to Big C with a couple Christians (P'Tdon and Amnaht) and a couple students (P'Lynne and Kong) to go Karaoke. People here in Thailand love to karaoke. The karaoke place they went to was closed so they went to a arcade room that had a karaoke booth in it. On Thursday, night we went to watch "The Happening" with P'Sam, and our students, Ah, Dew, and Keng. On Friday night, we went with a couple students (Poy and Tarn) to eat dinner at a Vietnamese restraunt.
Saturday afternoon, we hopped on a plane to Chiang Mai, Thailand. We were picked up at the airport by one of the Christians, Bay. We went and took a nap at the church building before going to eat dinner and then going to the night bazaar. Sunday morning we went to church at a church on the edge of town. Five churches from the city worshipped together because the AFCO group was there in Chiang Mai. Kelly Davidson preached the sermon in Thai but there was no translator for all the Americans. After service, the AFCO group sang about 5 or 6 songs. After they sang, we all had lunch there at the church. We got to spend time with the AFCO group and getting to know some of the members of the churches there in Chiang Mai.
Sunday afternoon, we went up to the top of a mountain to Bhuping Palace (the King's winter palace). While we were driving up there, I recieved a call from P'Rung in Bangkok, saying that P'Lynne (one of our students from the past 6 years) was baptized!!! What amazing news to hear! I've known P'Lynne for 4 years. She was so involved with the youth group and church activities, I thought she was a Christian at first. She started studying the Bible with P'Rung last year while I was in Bangkok.
Monday morning, we rented a van to take us to Chiang Rai, which was about 3 hours north of Chiang Mai. We pretty much used our time in Chiang Rai to relax some. We stayed at a resort on the edge of the Maekok River. We rented a small boat to take us up river to see what we thought would be a Longneck tribe, but it wasn't. When we got back, we relaxed at the resort for the rest of the night.
Tuesday morning, we loaded back into the van to head back to Chiang Mai. We were locked out of the church building when we returned and had to wait for someone to come let us in. After we put our stuff up, we went to eat lunch and then go to the Umbrella Factory to get our Bibles and other things painted. In the evening, we had a Bible study there at the church with the AFCO group and some members at the Chueng Doi church where we were staying. After the Bible study, one of the missionaries took our team to the airport to fly back to Bangkok.
Sorry for waiting so long to post all of this. Please continue praying for our students, and for our team. Pray for P'Lynne that she may grow spiritually and be an amazing Child of God!
Posted by Amos in Thailand at 03:42:57 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

A long week done...A new one to begin

This past week has been very busy, which is why I haven't made an update in awhile, so I apologize for that. Our classes this past week went very well. I continue to hear lots of positive feedback from the students so that is something to be very thankful for. To go this long with only a few number of students dropping out has been amazing. Sunday was Larry and Pam Henderson's last day with us here in Thailand. They left very early Monday morning back to the states. It was great having them here for the first couple weeks. We were very encouraged by their presence and their amazing love for God's work here in Thailand.

Sunday afternoon, was our second Sunday Activities Day, in which we held a "fashion show" to teach about clothing. The students had lots of fun as did we. After the fashion show, we sang "Hide Me Away," the song we learned last week. We then taught them the song "Sanctuary."

Sunday evening, I preached about God calling us to do His work, even when we don't feel like we are qualified to carry out His work. It was great to see four of our students that stayed after the activities to join us for evening worship, and dinner to follow. I pray that this be a beginning to these students' journey towards Christ. The Christians have done a great job in welcoming the students and making them feel accepted and loved here.

Monday morning was used as a much needed time to rest. Sleeping until almost 11:00 was excellent. In the afternoon, we took a trip to the Grand Palace/Temple of the Emerald Buhdda that was interrupted by a nice monsoon rain. After we finished looking at everything that we wanted to see there, we tried to catch a taxi back to the church, but none of them would take us. So, after standing in the rain for about 10 minutes, we jumped on a bus that took us where we needed to go. It was the first time for me to ever take a bus anywhere. It was actually pretty cool. Later that night, we went to Central World Plaza to eat dinner and watch a movie. Because that was kind of late, we didn't get back to the church until about midnight.

It wouldn't have been so bad, except that we had to wake up around 5:45 so that we could leave the church at 6:00 am. We took a trip along with a few Thais to Khao Yai National Park. We were in search of a waterfall that we could go swimming at. We arrived in the later morning, ate lunch and then began our 3.1 km hike to the waterfall. After about 1.5 km, we noticed we took a wrong turn some where, and turned back around to find the right path. It was about this time that it started raining as well. We found the correct path and 1.5 km later, we made it to the waterfall and that trek through mud, forest, leeches, and riverbeds, was totally worth the trip. The waterfall was amazing!

On our way back, we stopped to eat dinner with a member of the church who lives in the Nakorn Nayok province about 100 km outside of Bangkok.

Tomorrow will begin a new teaching week for us. I hope I will be able to make more updates when I have some free time. Please pray for us and for our students. Thank you so much for everything!

In Him,
Amos
Posted by Amos in Thailand at 18:04:11 | Permanent Link | Comments (1) |

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Week 2

Monday was a great day of relaxing after a long week of teaching. Jacob and I were able to get all caught up on our laundry, and in the evening, we all went to a fancy mall to walk around and eat dinner. We found a Japanese hamburger place that was really not that good. Afterwards we walked around to find ice cream. This is when I saw one of the greatest signs, Famous Amos Cookies! I showed my driver's license to the two ladies who were working to show them my name, and after I paid for my cookies, they gave me an extra bag of cookies for free! Sarah and I then walked around looking for a gelatto stand that we saw earlier. It turned out that the gelatto stand we saw, was also the Famous Amos cookie stand.

After our dinner and dessert, we decided to go watch The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. After the movie was over, we took the sky train back to the church.

Tuesday night, we went to Na'Sao's house for dinner and Bible study. As usual, the food was amazing and spending time studying with and fellowshipping with the family was so great.

Today's classes went great! I got to talk to a couple students about Christianity a little bit, and invited them to hear me preach on Sunday night. Hopefully they will stay after Activities to attend worship with us.

It is bedtime, so I should probably get some rest.

In Him,
Amos
Posted by Amos in Thailand at 17:18:54 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Monday, June 02, 2008

Video 1

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Posted by Amos in Thailand at 10:39:00 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |