WE GAVE IT OUR BEST

We gave the project our best, the Lord sent us good readers and now it is in His hands. We had our last party on our last day of readings. Each student brought food for sharing. Try explaining “potluck” to Thai speakers! They kept asking what they should bring. They did great. There was a lot of Thai food and the LST Team furnished Pizza Hut Pizza. We then had to teach them the Pizza Hut Song, our USA contribution.

Pizza Hut, Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut.
Pizza Hut, Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut.
McDonalds, McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut.
McDonalds, McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut.

As we presented participation certificates to each of our students, we were saddened. We were relieved knowing that the RCC staff will continue to follow-up with our readers.. All of our faithful readers were able to attend and expressed such appreciation for their increased English skills and for all we had taught them. We will continue to keep these new friends in our prayers, that their hears will be receptive to the Lord.

LAST WEEK OF PROJECT

This is a week of good-byes. It is the last week of our six week project at Ramkhamhaeng Christian Center. Our experience has shown us that the last week is usually the most consuming and hectic of all. This is no exception. Not only have we gained 7 students since last week, but we are planning a farewell potluck party, arranging for the continuation of reading with many of our readers and making plans for a few days of relaxation and our trip back to the US. Our readers ask us when we will return and we have to tell them that we do not know. Some of our most promising readers were invited to Patinya's home for dinner and a good conversation about the purpose of our visit and we shared our love for our readers.

Many of our students have shown a marked improvement in their ability to converse in English. That may mean better jobs for them when they graduate from Ramkhamhaeng University. That prospect is very gratifying for us. They have gained a better appreciation of our Christian faith and who Jesus is. Some of them have shown great interest in learning more about Jesus and are asking many questions. Some have said, "I beleive that Jesus is the Son of God". The staff at RCC will continue to study with our students and we pray that someday we will hear that they will recognize Jesus as their savior and God as their Lord. Please continue your prayers for this project as we finish our last week of reading. We have been blessed by our association with these students. Also continue to pray for the staff here at this work with such great potential; Yai and Nong, SuJin, Lydia, Kathryn and Andy.

BEING WITH OUR STUDENTS IS GREAT!

Mondays have been filled with contact with our readers, English conversations, and discussions about faith. When we first arrived our hosts asked us to reserve Mondays for activities with our readers. At first we were hesitant to give up that reading time. But we are so thankful that we submitted to the request of our hosts. It has been a blessing to us, to the building of relationships and has increased our undertanding of our students. We have visited the Ancient City, the King's Park and the Teakwood Mansion. All of these places honor the past kings of Thailand and Buddha, as do most of the historical sites in Thailand. There were photos in the Teakwood Mansion of the present king of Thailand being confirmed as monk in the Buddhist faith. The kingship is transfered within one family in Thailand and the Buddha's appearance seems to change as the king changes. Our readers are able to visit with us about what all of this means to them and we also are able to share our faith. There is great respect shown for the king in Thailand. Even in the movie theater everyone stands to honor the king and sing the national anthem before the movie begins.

Our readers also see us in a different setting than 'reader/teacher' as we experience scenes here. We have enjoyed that so much and so have our readers. This week will be a very different event. Our readers are going with us to the largest marketplace in Bangkok to show us what it is like. They have given us the appropriate warnings about what to wear, what not to take, the crowded aisles and bargaining for the right price. Our students enjoy being able to tell us about their lives and their country.

We have also enjoyed taking our students to the street cafe's (I guess you would call them that) to eat and visit. They like to tell us about the Thai food. We are very leary when they tell us that a food is "just a little spicy". That usually means that it will burn all the way down.

Please continue to pray for us as we begin our last week with our students. One of Gary's students plans to join us for worship services in Watcherapon this Sunday. He has really been questioning Gary. We will also be taking some of our most interested readers to the home of P'Patinya on Monday. He is the preacher and a great leader for the church there and has become a good friend during our times in Bangkok.

HAPPY DAY

This is Sunday, worship day for us at the Watcherapon Church of Christ. That is a special day for us to see the friends that we have made here in the past 3 years. We feel so welcome. The congregation has a translator and earphones for us as well as English and Thai on the screen as we sing the songs. We sing so many of the same songs and it is inspiring to hear Thai and English singing together.

Today was special as a Thai woman indicated that she was ready to put on her Lord in baptism. The baptism here is a little different than we are accustomed to. All of the church members walk right up the baptistry to watch the baptism. What a personal feeling that gives. They sing together and pray together and welcome the new Christian.

FIRST PARTY FOR READERS

LST will host parties for their readers and others every Thursday evening in February. Readers get to know the Christians at the center and each other. The first party was February 5 and was game night. Paper Airplanes, javelin toss, cracker whistle and an unusual form of Scrabble were played. The evening ended up with a song and scripture followed by Coke Floats. A large percentage of the Thais had never had coke floats and wondered how we got the foam on the top of the drink. The first photo shows the 3 groups working to form English words with scrabble tiles. The second photo shows the 3 teams ready to eat their cracker and try to whistle. We found that many Thai's do not know how to whistle, but they had a good time trying. We were able to sign up several new readers after the party and many stayed for over an hour visiting and getting to know each other.

CONTACTING STUDENTS OF RAMKHAMHAENG UNIVERSITY

Graduation is over and the search for readers has increased. As you can see the front of the Ramkahmhaeng Christian Center is well marked and shows that they can study English. That has brought in students. Our present readers have told their friends. Notice the picture of the table with 'RCC' above it. These tables are scattered all over the campus. Each club or group on campus is eligible to claim one of these tables for a gathering place and the Christian Center has one. We started there and walked around campus delivering flyers to students. We tried to have one Thai and one Farang (foreigner) walk together to deliver. We are told that it adds to the effectiveness if an obvious foreigner is delivering as they know that the English is from an English speaking country.

VISIT TO ANCIENT CITY

On
Monday, February 2, we went to the "Ancient City". It is a park in which replicas of historic events, buildings and symbols are displayed. Four of our readers accompanied us which made the visit so much more enjoyable. They told us about what we were seeing. Much of the display told about the history of Buddha in Thailand. One admitted that she believed that what we were seeing was a myth (a word that we study in Lesson 1 of our readings) although she says that she is a Buddhist. We rode the Bangkok buses to get to the location. It took 2 hours to get back to the center on 3 different 'buses' (1. the back of a truck with benches on each side for 8 baht each (25 cents), 2. the free unairconditioned bus and 3. the airconditioned bus for 14 baht (35 cents) each.)

Mondays are special days for building relationships with our readers. We feel like this is a valuable thing to do. Some of the christians from the center help us plan and go with us on these activities. We plan to visit the Teakwood Mansion next Monday.

READING HAS BEGUN

Reading has begun. Each reader usually comes twice per week for one hour each session. Most of these readers have never read from the Bible before. When we tell them that we will be reading from the book of Luke, they don't really get the picture. They don't know who Jesus is. While most of our students are college students, we each also read with some professional adults. Our students enjoy seeing photoes from our home and they also share picture of their families and things of interest as well. Ple feels she has a lot to learn about English.





Wirhrt, Gary's student, is a sister to one of the christians here. She works in the area and is a new student to this program.





Helen's pictured student knows English well. Ying is anxious to learn how to pronounce her words better. She comes prepared with the answers in her book at each meeting.




Nae, Joanne's student, graduated from RAM University this year. We were able to attend her graduation party. Nae has brought friends to the center to begin reading. She wants to increase both for her English skills and to increase her Bible knowledge. We pray that she will also want to commit to Christ.



Kathryn Miller teaches a Beginner English classes at the Christian Center (RCC) every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday evening from 5 to 7. We have been joining that class to add a few more English speakers with different accents to the mix. Kathryn is from Texas, Norrises from Kansas and Nadings from Minnesota. Lidya Robinson, an intern from Let's Start Talking, also helps with the class. We and the students really enjoy the class, the interaction and do a lot of laughing.

FINE EATING

As in the past, we are enjoying the food in Thailand. It appears that few people eat in their homes, unless they carry in food. There are vendors everywhere on the streets. Sometimes it is difficult to walk down the streets because of all the vendors. The photo here shows a vendor that sets up very close to the center where we do our reading. She sells either rice or egg noodles with chicken and your choice of vegetables. She puts broth in a small plastic bag and the noodles, chicken, and vegies in another bag, fastened with a rubber band. You can carry that with you. This soup costs us 25 baht (about 85 cents each). It is quite tasty. This is a very common meal for Thais.

Fruits and vegetables abound. This is a photo of ramputant is an unusual fruit that is in season now. You open it up and peel off the soft hairy skin and it is a tasty sweet fruit. We eat Thai food most all of the time. It is very good and cheap to eat. I wish that all of you could experience the vendors and the busy streets. It makes me thankful for the tranquility of country living.



Last evening Joanne had a craving for American Food. We went to McDonalds which is only about a block from this center. Our eating needs are being met.

Yai and Nong prepared a meal for us and the students at RAMCC.

We were thrilled to be greeted by our hosts at the new Bangkok airport. We always try to pack 'light', but as you can see that didn't really happen. We wondered if they brought enough vehicles to handle all of our luggage. Fortunately, much of this will stay in Bangkok and perhaps the trip home will be 'lighter'.

We arrived in Bangkok at 1 A.M. in the morning local time. By the time we got out of the airport and to our apartments it was 3 A.M. We got up and had a late breakfast.

Saturday night we took a taxi to the Watcherapon Church. We travel half way around the world to hear a farm boy from Kansas preach in Thai. Loren and Penny Hollingsworth are in Bangkok at this time. We were glad we had earphones and an English translator. Loren and Penny are doing great.


We have good living quarters and are very grateful to those who worked to make our stay here comfortable, and thankful to God for a safe trip.

Monday, January 19, we met our new readers, played a game and talked. We look forward to reading sessions beginning tomorrow.


Tonight we experienced Bangkok culture with

RAM University students! They asked our LST Team to accompany them to supper. We walked several blocks down a crowded, vendor filled street to a Night Market Outdoor Eatery where we had a choice of barbequed pork with rice or pork in soup with Morning Glory vegetable over a rice wonton-like noodle. Much to Gary’s delight, they had ice cold cola, AND a metal cup of ICE! We are enjoying the Christian Students that come to the RAM Center to “hang out.” God has blessed us with a wonderful group of people here, and we feel, that with prayer much good will come of the time spent here by our LST Team.

Getting Ready

The Nadings and Norrises are busy preparing to go to Bangkok, Thailand. We are looking forward to renewing relationships that were made 3 years ago when we were there. We will be building new relationships with college students at RAM University as well. Preparations are as stressful as traveling. There are many questions??? What do we need to take? What will our living arrangements be while we are there? How many people will want to read with us? How will our social events go? We are thankful for all of the support that we have received from our friends and relatives. Thanks to all of you.