In closing, I have to share two comments I received from students in their final essays last week.
Qiang, a young Chinese/Thai tour guide who's studying English as his third language wrote:
"For the past four years, I've been living alone in Bangkok and have struggled with loneliness. Sometimes it was very bad. But now that I'm at Santisuk, I've made new friends and feel like I belong."
Tanoy wrote that she once had a very mean English teacher in grade school and since that time, she didn't try to learn English anymore. Two months ago, she decided she wants to work as an au pair in America, so she enrolled at Santisuk. Since then, she says she's been so encouraged and has found that learning English is such fun. She has much more confidence to speak.
Pray for Tanoy and Qiang, who are continuing their studies this month, along with three of my other students. (Total enrollment in July is 22). Pray that their teachers and new friends will draw them to Jesus.
MORE GOOD RETURNS on your investment:
Thank you to all of you who supported us through prayer and financially in this work in Thailand. Because of your generosity, we had more money than we needed. On the Tuesday before we left, I followed up with Pat about the cost of 30 Bibles in the language of our prisoner friends in IDC. Guess what? The amount she told me was exactly the amount of extra US dollars I still had. I was pleased to tell her when I gave her the money that our friends at home were purchasing the Bibles. Please pray that they would arrive soon and get into the hands of the 84+ believers in the immigration prison. They will have to be brought in one or two at a time.
We praise God for all of the fruit of this trip in our lives and the lives of our new Thai friends. Please keep them in your prayers - and keep an open heart before the Lord about going with us to Thailand on our next trip. Stay tuned for more information! Right now, it's possible that I (Mary) will organize a group to go in January of 2017.
Friday, July 15, 2016
Some Final Photos
Christina's last artistic endeavor before she left - lots of quotes about language and love.
Working with Fai, a very talented young musician who's studying accounting but wants to study music. Pray that Fai would come to know Jesus.
Christina's finished work.
Cathy, our dear friend - and the main reason we got to Santisuk! Thanks, Cathy!
The cell group surprised Christina with a birthday party on our bike trip on July 3rd.
Tuesday, July 5, 2016
Whirlwind Weekend
Whew! It's hard to believe it's already Tuesday and I haven't written since last Thursday. The weekend flew by with sightseeing and parties. Here goes:
Friday, we joined two students at a large market that had thousands of beads for sale. Christina was in jewelry-maker's heaven! She purchased some great looking stone beads and is excited to make them into necklaces and bracelets. The market was about two miles long, stretching through what appeared to be an alleyway in the midst of the city. Little by little, we were approaching the Grand Palace, which is where we ended up at 50 minutes before closing - enough time to get a good look at the amazing detail that makes up the many temple and palace buildings. Take a look at some incredible photos by googling "Grand Palace Bangkok." Most of the temple buildings are completely covered in tiny 1" diamond-shaped pieces of glass or porcelain. We ended the day by fitting and purchasing a beautiful opal ring for Christina's 20th birthday, which was Sunday - at an incredible price, thanks to Pat's sister, who runs the family jewelry business.
Saturday, we were up at the crack of dawn, headed with 20 other students and staff to our first ever Santisuk English Center Rachada day trip. We went to a busy but nice beach south of Pattaya, where we had been years ago for AC Conferences. The highlight of the day was a cooking contest, in which the four Americans had to make a traditional Thai salad dish. There was even a good-natured judge for the occasion - a cook from one of the many food stands near the beach. My team lost the contest but had a great time joining in the fun. There was also a banana boat ride for us and a nice swim for Christina and me after the driver dumped us for the second time and we decided to swim in to shore instead of trying to get back on!
Sunday, Christina's birthday brought us out on the road once again to a special cell group activity - biking on the shore of the Chaophraya river at Phra Pradaeng, a peninsula with a 10 mile loop for bikes made mostly of concrete with a railing on only one side and a 4-5' drop into the muddy water on the other! It wouldn't have been so hair raising, except that our rental bikes were either wobbly or had flat tires or both. Add to that the fact that, although I think they're prohibited on the bike path, motorbike drivers were zooming along with their bikes on the path with the many weekend cyclists. Christina was surprised by a beautiful cake following lunch at a restaurant, and her favorite dessert in a cafe on the bike trail - mangoes and sticky rice.
Friday, we joined two students at a large market that had thousands of beads for sale. Christina was in jewelry-maker's heaven! She purchased some great looking stone beads and is excited to make them into necklaces and bracelets. The market was about two miles long, stretching through what appeared to be an alleyway in the midst of the city. Little by little, we were approaching the Grand Palace, which is where we ended up at 50 minutes before closing - enough time to get a good look at the amazing detail that makes up the many temple and palace buildings. Take a look at some incredible photos by googling "Grand Palace Bangkok." Most of the temple buildings are completely covered in tiny 1" diamond-shaped pieces of glass or porcelain. We ended the day by fitting and purchasing a beautiful opal ring for Christina's 20th birthday, which was Sunday - at an incredible price, thanks to Pat's sister, who runs the family jewelry business.
Saturday, we were up at the crack of dawn, headed with 20 other students and staff to our first ever Santisuk English Center Rachada day trip. We went to a busy but nice beach south of Pattaya, where we had been years ago for AC Conferences. The highlight of the day was a cooking contest, in which the four Americans had to make a traditional Thai salad dish. There was even a good-natured judge for the occasion - a cook from one of the many food stands near the beach. My team lost the contest but had a great time joining in the fun. There was also a banana boat ride for us and a nice swim for Christina and me after the driver dumped us for the second time and we decided to swim in to shore instead of trying to get back on!
Sunday, Christina's birthday brought us out on the road once again to a special cell group activity - biking on the shore of the Chaophraya river at Phra Pradaeng, a peninsula with a 10 mile loop for bikes made mostly of concrete with a railing on only one side and a 4-5' drop into the muddy water on the other! It wouldn't have been so hair raising, except that our rental bikes were either wobbly or had flat tires or both. Add to that the fact that, although I think they're prohibited on the bike path, motorbike drivers were zooming along with their bikes on the path with the many weekend cyclists. Christina was surprised by a beautiful cake following lunch at a restaurant, and her favorite dessert in a cafe on the bike trail - mangoes and sticky rice.
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