So...Yeah

Many of my friends and family hear me say the words "so...yeah." When I can't think of what else to say at the time. That's the phrase I usually employ to break the awkward silence.
And since I haven't written a new blog update in so long I feel like there has been an awkward silence between us. (Between whoever is reading this blog and I)

So...yeah.... I'm sorry I haven't been keeping up to date as much as we'd both like but here's what the past month has looked like and can give a few clues into why it's been so long; (I promise I'm going to get better at this updating thing)

If I summed up this last month into one word I'd prolly say "SCHOOL." Lots and lots of school! Here's why:

-the last month I've been taking a class called Intensive Thai at Payap University just outside downtown Chiang Mai; so for the last month every Mon-Fri morning I'd wake up around 7, eat some breakfast, have some time with the Lord, hop on the scooter and drive the 20-30 mins to class. Sounds like a typical day of heading to work or college for the most part; except here's the catch...I'm learning how to READ. I still feel like I'm a 5 year-old trying to "sound-out" words and phrases with the teacher standing over me correcting my (many) mistakes. And for 3 hours every day we'd drill over the Thai alphabet; 44 consonants and the 18 vowels. (And you thought 26 letters total was a pain!)
I first described it as "trying to read an art class" because literally the letters ก ข ค ย ะ ๊ ็literally look like squiggles or something you'd doodle when bored in class.
But thanks to God and the perseverance and ability to learn languages he's given me, I can honestly say that after a month of intense studying and lots of homework I can read/write Thai. (We won't go into details of how many words per minute that means.)



The title of the book is "How to read and how to write"

-The other reason is because after Thai class I'd drive back home, eat lunch with the 6 Thai staff (plus Lydia the precious 2 year-old), then teach English classes for 2 hours.



(We're working on commands in the beginner class)

By the time English classes are finished it's usually around 3:30 or 4 o'clock. With the remaining hour or so before the girls get back and dinner happens I'd squeeze in some emails and maybe run a few errands if it were possible.

-After dinner I help out with ChatChai's devotionals by playing guitar every once in awhile and leading worship with a few English songs they know and then we all hit the homework. Its pretty awesome that I have so many Thai experts to help me with my homework and then they come to me with their questions on their English and math homework.

So there's this month, well the weekdays anyway. In between the busy school days and nights God has been blessing me incredibly with community! I've been hanging out with friends I've met on the Southern side of the city and going to their home church on Sundays after playing soccer in the mornings. I've also been able to go to a night of worship that happens once a month and also randomly found out about an annual Ultimate Frisbee tournament in which over 60 people came and had a blast at! God's been blessing me extraordinarily with all these things and allowed me to make friends (both westerners and Thais) and continue to invest in the different relationships and have begun to have real accountability with a few guys.

All in all I can't get over how awesome God has been this month! It's been a lot of work and I'm always exhausted by the time Saturday finally rolls around but always ready to hit it again by the time Monday morning's alarm goes off.

One of the major responsibilities included in my job description is acting liaison for the One Girl sponsorship program we've launched. We're trying to get the sponsors more connected with their "adopted" girls with updated photos, videos, bios, etc. rather than the one photo they received when they first signed up to be a sponsor. This is a major undertaking but seeing real fruit come of it ready.

Well that's it for this month, next month should be a little less fast-paced as far as school goes because I'm done with the Thai class and will start taking private tutoring every other day or so instead of EVERY day. Thus enabling more time to work on the projects going on at BHJ and stuff happening this summer.

As always thanks so much for the prayers and support, one big prayer request that you could life up on my behalf is roommates. I'm looking for a place near BHJ but a little closer to the city as to be able to still go to tutoring and community things. I've found such places at extremely affordable prices, the only problem is roommates. I'm having difficulty finding other guys in the city looking for a place in the same area as me. But I'm not too concerned, just need to be patient.

Location:Nong Pa Krang Soi 3,Nong Pa Khrang,Thailand

Year 2010 Wrap-Up

Alright, here's an attempt at wrapping up all that has happened here in the last month of December which I've hardly written anything about...

I had just gotten back from Vientiane, Laos with another 90 day visa thanks to a lot of prayers, research and filling out the correct forms. I had about a day to unpack from the previous travels and settle in before BHJ's founders Uncle Bill and Auntie Mary Lee flew in for about 10 days. They spent the first few days adjusting to the time change and visiting with the girls, while I did a little scooter shopping. With extreme thanks to very generous supporters I was able to purchase a used Honda iCon scooter with which I am extremely pleased. The price was right and even came with a 1 year full guarantee and free maintenance work. So from then on I was mobile and able to go to meetings, start making and visiting friends and basically stop relying on the staff or Matt to get me into at least Songtaew (local taxi) or TukTuk range of where I had to go. (Imagine the excruciating several months before you turned 16 and got your license when everything REQUIRED you to drive and then the glorious days after your birthday when you were ABLE to go to the grocery store or visit a friend by yourself without bugging your parents or older sibling to take you there.) Hence the feeling of immense accomplishment that soon followed the signing of the dotted line.


Ok, so back to Bill and Mary Lee; they had come to really grind out some big plans and goals for the ministry as a whole in the future and spent a lot of time typing up job descriptions and future aspirations and restructuring the board of directors a bit. This involved me a little because Bill offered me a full-time position rather than just an intern with the ministry and am now "officially" connected with New Horizons Foundation (not like I wasn't beforehand; it just wasn't on paper). The several days with them I continued teaching English to the staff, acted as translator and chauffer for them a few times and eventually said good-bye when they headed back to the States.

One week followed which would have been somewhat of a respite, however with the new visa I had obtained and also thanks to the funding I received, Chat Chai and I met up with a paralegal and began the immense task of filling out all the required paperwork for getting a Thai Work Permit, which is basically my ticket to staying in the country indefinitely. Without which I would have to be border hopping every 3 months (and losing quite a bit of money with each trip), and never being able to have a set foundation in this country. So fast-forward past all the mundane trips to the office supply store for more printer ink, back and forth emails between previous employers, tedious translating of resumés and trips to passport photo shops (thankfully extremely affordable at 100 Baht ($3) for 4 photo compared to $10-20 for 2 in the States), we finally got the paperwork together and submitted the application to the Government.

By the time this was finished another 8 days had passed, just in time for two long-time and basically co-founders arrived from Washington state. Uncle Scott and Auntie Rosalie came to spend time with the girls and enjoy Christmas with everybody out here. With Matt having his parents staying at his house, I spent most days teaching English in the morning and then enjoying the company of the two visitors. We spent time with the staff and running errands into the city and back; in the end we put together a great celebration for Christmas complete with a new thick blanket for each girl and even a new TV to watch their favorite shows on the weekends! (Imagine the squeals and screams when the secret got out!) Scott and Rosalie went back home on the 26th.

The last week of the month was spent with a little rest for everybody; all the staff took a day to stop all the errands completely and breathe for a minute before the next holiday happened. New Years Eve was spent on the lawn outside cooking over small fire pots and shooting off home-made fireworks. (Literally made out of grass and gun powder!)



Now the holidays are over and this mon
th things are gearing up for a lot of different things but at a slightly slower pace. The Parkers and I are heading for Thai class, I'm continuing to teach English to the staff and helping out with the every-day errands, and all in all its a pretty good start to the year 2554, or 2011 rather.