What a great day!

This past week I had the opportunity to spend the day with some great young people. They came over and spent the whole day with me and we cooked cookies and brownies and played games. We also had a time in the beginning where my tutor did a Bible discussion with them. Basically she shared the gospel and then shared about some miracles in her life God had done. They asked questions and all listened very intently. Before they left that day one of them chose to accept Jesus as her Savior. Praise God!

He used the electric mixer. They all thought it was cool but scary. They had never seen one before.

The girls just jumped right in. They loved helping to bake.

We had to take a break and eat some delicious lunch!

After baking they were content just to hang out and talk. Then we played some fun games!

Afterward we went to a baptism. One of the girls was to be baptized and we all went along to be a part of it. It was a beautiful time of her sharing her testimony, the gospel being shared with all those there and hearing a commitment from her that she truly wants to walk with Jesus all of her days.

The one in the middle is being baptized.

We had a great time of worship at the baptism as well.

Baptism is a big sign of commitment here. It is the sign of commitment of marriage to Christ. So we honored her with flowers and had food like you would at a wedding reception. It was all so very special!

Our kids loved getting to be a part of all of it!

We love these people so much already!

Fun in Thailand!

Last night our kid's school had a family dance. The theme for the dance was "myths". So we all dressed up as a myth and took off. We had a great time with all the people there and building some new relationships. The kids had a great time dancing and playing and just having fun. Thai people are all about fun and so are our kids, so they fit in well here. Here are some pictures of the myths we went as, things that are not true!

Davis went as Big Foot as you can tell. Gotta love those Thai shoes.

Samantha went as Helen of Troy, any excuse to wear a pretty dress!

You have to guess what David and I went as.

Just in case you need a hint, here it is! Big Bang-definitely a myth!

More of life in Thailand

We only have one vehicle here in Thailand so when it is away from the house the next mode of traffic is the bicycle. I (Sharon) have gotten much exercise on my bike in the last month. I ride to my tutoring lessons, to the market to shop, to run errands and whatever else I need. Since we live in the city it is a little easier to do this. But the traffic is crazy. One day I will get a really good picture of the traffic but for now I will show you this one. There is just no way to really describe it. Now this picture is traffic on the Super Highway so it is not as bad as in the city where the roads are more narrow and have many Soi's that are like alleyways many times. Some are not even wide enough for 2 cars to go past each other coming either way. Those are a little scary! In this picture below you see that the motorbikes and bicycles ride on the outside lane as much as possible with cars in the others. But the motorbikes pretty much go wherever they want to and they are also weaving in and out of traffic. That's what you really have to watch for, especially when they are coming the wrong direction. Yes, it happens!

Traffic on the Super Highway

Then on some of the back roads, you may encounter something like this! Never a dull moment as I said.

Samantha just got a Thai bicycle and it has a 2nd seat. She is so kind to take us all for rides. We do wear helmets by the way. This is the bicycle I use to shop in the market because it has a basket. I am quite the site when I have all my vegetables and fruits overflowing from the basket and I have bags on both handlebars.

Life in Thailand

The kids enjoy seeing the live eel that are always in the market!

Life is always interesting in Thailand. There is never a dull moment and we kind of like that, most of the time. The beauty surrounding us is amazing and every day is busy with new adventures and learning and seeing new things. I thought I would post some pictures so you could see some of the things we see as we are about our daily routine here.

Samantha and I are shopping in the fresh market. We love all the fresh food.

This was a fun find at a night bazaar in the city where we live. Yes, it is a whole cow roasted and you can pick the part you want for dinner. Cool huh?



The pretty pink fruit is dragon fruit and of course they have apples!



 

Learning Language

Our family is going at it hard here learning the language. I have been studying with a language teacher for 2 weeks and David began today. The kids both have Thai classes in school as well. We are all learning a lot. Last week I began studying language for approximately 5 hours a day. Believe it or not it seems to go by really fast right now because I am learning so much and I want to learn it badly. After I have my Thai lesson and learn some phrases I can use, then I go to the market to try them out and see if I say them correctly. People are so kind here in that they let me speak to them even though they know I can't say a whole lot yet. So this last week I went into the market and every stand I went to I would talk to them as much as I could. I would let them know I was studying Thai. Some really enjoyed talking with me and one couple tried to help me say some new things. They would point to things in their booth and say the word and wait for me to repeat it. They were very kind and I will continue to go back to them. I am looking for people who will let me talk to them as much as I can daily so that I can learn. They need to be people who do not speak English so that is pretty easy to find here. As I went about the market the other day I ran into one really sweet lady who spoke English very well. At first I thought "I'm not suppose to be speaking English." But then I thought, "oh, she can speak English. I can share Jesus with her." So I did. It was good but hard. She really has some strong, wrong thoughts on it all but I am excited to know her and will go back again later. So now my language method is, talk to everyone and if they don't know English, try out my Thai and if they do know English, share Jesus. It's a great way to make the most of the day! Please continue to pray that we take the language in, retain it and say it well with others so that we can have those heart conversations soon.

A picture of the market where we shop and go to work on language.

Kids start to school

The kids and David getting ready to leave for school the first morning of school. Samantha says this is their bus.

Monday was the first day of school for our kids and David. David will be teaching in our kids school for the first 6 or 7 weeks until we begin language school at the University here. The kids have uniform shirts at their school this year so that is different and pretty much everything else about school is different for them this year as well. For the first time ever our kids go into their classrooms barefoot. It is a custom here in Thailand that when you enter a home or a place you would take your shoes off. So each class they take off their shoes and leave them outside during class. We do this in our home as well and the interesting thing is, you may find a critter in your shoe the next morning when you put it on so you always have to check that out before putting your foot in. It is really different that David teaches barefoot but I think he kind of likes it.
The kids are trying to figure things out at school. Schedules are completely different such as they only have PE one time a week but when they have it it is for 2 1/2 hours. They have Bible class which is new and they have Thai class. This is the class where they will learn some Thai language and they also learn much about the culture. We are excited for them to have this. Samantha is in the worship band at the school and they lead worship in chapel on Tuesday mornings. She also gets to be in drama this semester which she will love. Davis really enjoys his class as well. He has about 7 people in his class and they all get along well and have a lot of fun while learning. Both have adjusted pretty well their first week of school and David is learning the ropes of teaching there as well. He enjoys having the small class atmosphere where he can work a lot with students that need more help. They also have Thai lunch. So they may have noodles or rice or soup and they enjoy that most of the time as well. They really enjoy that they get 45 minutes for lunch so they have much time to spend with their friends. Here is a picture of their current school. This is just one row of rooms but there are several rows.

This was an old hotel they turned into a school. However as of next week they should have International status so they have had to build a new building. They hope to be moved in to that one in November.