Khawjai!

Khawjai means to understand in Thai.
Every spare moment I have is spent studying the Thai language. Four days a week, three hours a day with a teacher at home plus independent study and practice with Thai people. Thai is a challenging language, especially for someone that has spoken a western language their entire lives. They have sounds that we don't even have in english and tones that change the meanings of a given word. Not only is it hard to learn and remember all the things we are learning but understanding and being understood in a conversation with Thai people is challenging too. They talk really fast and once they hear you speak a small sentence they assume you have a fluent understanding of the language. And my American midwest accent doesn't help them understand me either.

The Face of confusion...
I have been discouraged because I'm not learning as fast as I want to and I'm not understanding or being understood in this language when I converse with locals. But today in class I was encouraged when I was able to understand our teacher giving us direction in Thai. I could pick up words I knew and get the idea of what she was saying to us. Also understanding people at the restaurant we went to for lunch was exciting. I was able to order, talk about the food and pay for my meal all in Thai. My trip to "seven" (as they call 7/11 here) for orange juce was encouraging too. The girl behind the counter asked me if I had eaten today which is a common greeting here, it's like asking "how are you?". I wasn't sure how to respond...but when I got home I asked my team mates and now I know for next time. Learning this language is going to take time and grace from the Lord to persevere. Pray for me and my team that the Lord would give us supernatural understanding to learn Thai so we can communicate His glory and love to them in their own language. Grace and peace to you from the Lord Jesus Christ!

What can I do?

I've lived in Thailand for almost three weeks now and I'm learning so much about the Lord, this culture, these people and their language. At times I feel overwhelmed but God gives us GRACE for the things He calls us too and it has been amazing.

For someone with the spiritual gift of MERCY, this can be a hard corner of the world to live in. I know that in America some of the same things happen but it is so much more blatant and obvious here. Things like prostitution, beggars, poverty, corruption, injustice and false religion are so visible here. One of the roads that we frequently drive down on our way home from down town has at least five or six very obvious brothels on it. The markets are full of beggars, maimed and crippled, some of them young children. And even in the grocery stores you see Buddhist monks with their orange robes and shaved heads, some of them very young boys, probably about seven or eight years old.

I don't want to paint an over-dramatized picture, there are some parts of the city, like the mall, where it feels totally western with Thai people and Thai food. But the Lord has really opened my eyes to the poor, unlovely, unwanted and ignored people of the world. Like I said before, it's not easy living here seeing these things. I feel so overwhelmed sometimes, especially knowing that this is only a fraction of the human suffering in the world. I want to fix it all, to change everything right now and it is so impossible. It is a heavy burden to bear, the suffering of the world.

But then I remember I don't have to. I've been reading through the gospel of John since I've been here and the Holy Spirit has really highlighted Jesus' relationship with His Heavenly Father. Over and over Jesus talks about how He is doing the Father's will and following the Father.

"...I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me." (John 8:28)

When Jesus walked the earth He didn't heal every single sick person, He didn't raise from the dead every widow's son and He didn't deliver all of the demon possesed. But He walked in obedience to the Father. That is all He is asking of us. This morning I was having a hard time with all of this and I was asking the Lord, what can I do? And it was like He said,

"Listen to my voice and respond"

I don't want to just accept and be okay with the fact that there will always be suffering in the world until Jesus returns but I, we can't live life miserable and depressed because we can't save the world. That was Jesus' job; it is our responsability to follow Him. To take up our cross daily, to die to ourselves and do whatever He asks of us.

We can't do everything...but we can do something.

I made it!!

Here I am in the land of Thai!
I've been here since Saturday April 25th but we just got internet in our house yesterday so this is the first chance I've had to post about my new home.

Right now we are just in the middle of country orientation; learning our way around the city, a little of the language and settling in to our new house.

This is our team with our leaders Mindee and Jasmine
From left to right: Mindee, Sasha, Brianna, Me, Michelle and Jasmine
Front row (all by his brave self, our only man): Jarred
This was during a trip we took around the city that took us to a coffee shop, the zoo, lunch and finally to one of the largest buddhist temples in the area. The picture was taken from the temple - its about 2/3 of the way up a mountain overlooking the city. It was a sobering experience to see such beauty dedicated to something so empty.
This is our front gate - all the houses in our neighborhood have gates around them and most of our neighbors have dogs - the only thing I don't like about living in this country.

This is our little pink house...it's actually not that little. I'm pretty sure it is larger then my parents house back home.

I will be posting videos of the inside soon so stay tuned!

The most meaningful part of our time here so far has been our team meetings together everyday before class. The Lord has been giving all of us vision and passion to see Him glorified in this land so trapped in darkness. We are super excited to join with Him in what He is already doing here. Keep us in your prayers as we continue ajusting and begin learning a very challenging language. Much love!!