Jamie and I bonding with a local at the crocodile farm.

 Last week when I found out I was teaching a level 1 class from 7-9 p.m., I was discouraged. From what many people told me, many students in the 7-9 classes work all day, so they can't hang out very much (which is a big part of the ministry). Also, their English is generally ok or very poor. I was excited for my 2nd grade class though since I love kids, and I kind of miss my six-year-old baby sister.

Well, I was right and wrong. Yes, my students are very busy, but they're all very smart and can communicate well. And the kid's class was ting-tong (which means crazy in Thai). As it turns out, elementary students can't wrap their minds around the fact that someone can't speak their language, so it is very hard to teach and control this class of 12 energetic Thai children! I am so thankful for Pear, my translator, but we still had a hard time controlling them as a team!

By the end of last week, I was feeling pretty discouraged about building relationships with students in both of my classes. How was I supposed to get to know my ever-busy adult students and love on my adorably naughty Thai kids? I didn't know, but I just kept praying that God would open their hearts to the Bible stories they learn in class and that the language barrier wouldn't stop me from showing all of my students God's love — something I've been praying for since I began preparing for this trip.

Me with my hipster bike in the park after cell group on Sunday.

This weekend was great though. As you read in Angela's post from the other day, we went to the Ancient City and the world's largest Crocodile Farm on Friday with a group of students. On Saturday, we went to JJ Market with one of Natalie's students, Bow, and her boyfriend. Both of these trips were great because I got to bond with students, even though they weren't my own. While we normally have cell group (similar to Bible study) on Sunday mornings, my and Angela's groups went to a beautiful city park together for our group meetings. It was so nice to get some fresh air and spend time with other people from the church!

Yesterday was Natalie's birthday, and we wanted to do everything we could to make her feel special! We woke up "early" breakfast — a meal I think we've all been missing after a week and a half of having instant oatmeal every morning. Then Angela and I went to the school to prepare our lessons for the day. Jennie and Rung sneakily went to a bakery to buy Natalie a surprise birthday cake, and Jamie and I taught our first dance class with the little girls from the kids' classes. Since we've both seen how these cute kids can behave, we were kind of dreading having to entertain them for an hour.

But God works in mysterious ways. The girls all caught on to the dance pretty quickly, so we gave them free time to dance. Jamie turned on worship music and we danced with the girls. It was such a cool experience for us to be able to worship God with our bodies and pray over the girls' lives. Plus, we were all having fun, so we bonded with them. Hopefully it'll make our Thursday and Friday classes go a little smoother this week :)

After dance, I only had a few minutes before my level 1 class. It was monsoon-ing outside, so they warned us that we might have low attendance because of bad traffic. Sure enough, I only had one student show up (at first). Her name is Gee, and she is such a sweetheart! She is very intelligent, but she struggles with pronunciation. We were able to practice by conversing about our weekends. All of the sudden, she said (in broken English), "Teacher? Do you like go to movies?" I told her I did, and she responded by saying she wanted to take me to the movies. It was music to my ears!

The story gets better. She is a lawyer who is taking weekend classes to become a judge, so she literally has no free time other than Friday evenings (we only have class Monday through Thursday). But I have to go to church on Friday night. I told her I had to go to worship service but that there was dinner beforehand and she should come. AND SHE AGREED! I was jumping for joy inside. It's so sad to me that so many people here don't know Christ, and just knowing that one person is willing to come hear about Him gives me so much hope for her life, this ministry, and this country! Praise God for the work he is doing in Thai people's lives!

After class, we had a mini birthday party with some of the Santisuk teachers and staff. We had pad Thai, spring rolls, donuts, mango with sticky rice (Oh my goodness... this is my favorite thing about Thailand), and cake. It was so fun because everyone's ting-tong side is starting to come out! (That means "crazy" in Thai, and it's our favorite thing to call our friends haha.) I can't wait to post pictures of that night! But until then, here's a picture from our Sunday trip to Asiatique, or as I like to call it, little America.

Back: Jamie, Natalie, Anna, Jess, Angela, Erica. Front: Joy(ful), Awe, and Pear.

Yes, I am holding a Chimpanzee's hand :) No, zoos in Thailand are not anything like zoos in America.

Hey everyone! This is Angela.

Today I... crammed into a 16 passenger van with 21 people, sweated more than I ever have in my life thanks to humidity, rode bikes around The Ancient City with our Thai friends, watched the strangest Elephant show imaginable at the World's Largest Crocodile Farm, sat on an elephant's back, held a chimpanzees hand, stood 10 feet from a crocodile without a fence, ate dinner at our host church, worshiped in Thai and ate Thai donuts. I think that's a good day. Most of those things that we did seem quite surreal. While we were in the Ancient City we ate lunch at the replica of the floating market. Natalie was having a great time feeling like she was actually in Thailand, real Thailand, for the first time. However, I couldn't get over the feeling that I was just eating dinner in one of the countries at Epcot at Disney World or something. Hopefully when we go to the actual floating market it won't feel like that, I have a feeling it won't because there will be a lot more people and sounds and smells to make it feel very real.

Jamie, Jennie and Angela on the stairs of a replica of a temple in Cambodia at the Ancient City

The Crocodile Farm was probably the first time I truly felt shocked since I have been in Thailand. They have such different standards for caring for their animals that it kind of made me feel sick. I had an eery, uncomfortable feeling that the only time the animals got fed or got attention was when people paid (overpriced) amounts to feed or pay attention to the animals. Still, they had some really cool tigers, monkeys and crocodiles and a couple of the girls got to take a picture holding a baby tiger!


The other thing that I want to share with you all about is something in my class. For Level 2, the level that Jamie and I are teaching, we must have a half hour interview with each person in our class to test their comprehension and ability to speak English clearly. I had my first interview with one of my students on Thursday before my class started. She is the oldest student in my class, she is a mom, wife and is 48 years old. In the interview is our opportunity to talk to the students about Jesus, because we read stories about Jesus in class and then ask them if they want to know more in the interview. So in my interview with this particular student, I asked her if she would like to know more about Jesus and she said that she was given a Thai bible by a teacher last session and she has been reading about Jesus in the Gospels, so she doesn't have questions. But to her, they are just stories, they are not truths about the Son of God. I want to ask for special prayers for this student, God promises that his Word does not turn up void and I want to ask all of us to pray that truth over my student. I know that Jesus can open up her blind eyes to see the truth about him in the Gospels and I want all of us to pray for that to happen. And to be in prayer for all of Jamie and I's interviews to plant seeds with the students, that they will desire to know more about Jesus.


Prayer Requests:

• Continued prayer for Jennie's allergies, that she will be kept out of fear and out of danger from her allergens, especially nuts
• Praise that I (Angela) got over my cold quickly and now feel back to normal except for a small cough! 
• Our conversations and interactions with our students both in and out of class would be exemplary of Jesus' love and would incite questions about who Jesus is 
• Our students would join us in our weekend activities to have the opportunity for conversations about God--that we would be bold and courageous in our conversations! 
• The staff of the church we are partnering with would be blessed and have the stamina to be strong through pastoral changes, team changes and different sessions of class every month. 
• That God would protect our sleep and our dreams because a couple of our team members have been having nightmares. 

Erica, Jennie and Jamie ready to kick butt at badminton.

The team at our best ;) ( The photos for the board were taken just after we got to Bangkok!)

We were so excited to leave!

Cheddar cheese ice cream they gave us on the plane! It wasn't bad until I got a chunk of cheese :P

Why Thailand, Why Girls

While Thailand is a land of exotic beauty, it is also a place where women and children often taste exploitation and extreme poverty, particularly in the hill tribe region of Northern Thailand. With the sex industry booming in this part of the world, oftentimes it is the uneducated girls who become trapped in lives of prostitution, sometimes at very young ages. Our path for fighting these injustices is a pre-emptive one, offering a girl life-skills, spiritual guidance, and an education which would be impossible for her to obtain otherwise. In doing so, each of our girls has the opportunity to rise out of poverty, to avoid the sex industry, and to positively impact her community.

A Refuge

Breanna’s House of Joy is a Christian Home for the hilltribe girls of Northern Thailand {read the powerful backstory of it here}. Located outside of Chiang Mai, the orphanage provides a haven for 44 young girls, ages 6 through 20. Some have lost both mother and father, while others have been rejected by a remarried parent. While some have suffered abuse and others have been abandoned, they all have tasted the harsh realities of poverty and hopelessness prior to their coming to Breanna’s House.

Desiring to care for the entire child, body, mind, and soul, the staff of Breanna’s House seeks to encourage healthy lifestyle choices, a successful education, and a grounded knowledge of God. Above all, we want our girls to have a character and heart that reflects Jesus Christ. We are in the process of assessing our current programs and launching new ones, including the development of a life-skills program, English tutoring, and Bible studies.

Transitional Program

We desire to give our graduates the support and guidance needed for a successful life--even after they leave our direct care. We are just beginning to develop this program with two girls at present, but eventually we hope to include further educational opportunities, continued mentoring, money-managing training, and involvement in a volunteer program out at Breanna’s House.