We are back home!

Today, ends our 2014, life changing, nine week Intercultural Studies trip.   Our last five days were at Camp Homelani (Salvation Army Camp) located inWaialua, Hawaii.  This gave us time to relax, rest, and reflect on what we have learned through our adventures in Albania, Thailand, and Japan.  In addition to our debriefing and planning time for our future we did some site seeing at the Hawaii Surfing Competition, Polynesian Cultural Center, swimming, shopping, climbed Diamond Head, and visiting Pearl Harbor.  Thank you very much for your prayers and for us during this amazing opportunity to travel together and to see God working through our lives.  Let us know if you are interested in hearing more details regarding this amazing travel experience and all that God was teaching us. 

Greetings from Japan

On Nov 28 we arrived in Sendai, Japan.  We went from 90 degrees F. to 50 degrees F.  Many felt that it was a refreshing change from the hot humid days in Thailand.  Our 12 days in Japan were filled with home visiting and a meal with Japanese families; ministering in the Baptist church with song and testimony; ministering at several temporary housing sites for the tsunami victims; helping a local farmer in the tsunami area harvest her lettuce and prepare her field for plowing; visiting a local shrine; going to a local bathhouse; walking through the Aizu Tsuruga-Jo Castle; and just relaxing.  The Japanese country and people are beautiful.  Although fairly reserved, they are also very kind and gracious.  

As part of our orientation, we learned not only some of the cultural do's and don’ts but also how to use chopsticks to eat all our meals.   A few of the students even learned to use chopsticks to eat peanut covered popcorn, a very nice way to keep your fingers from getting oily.  We viewed this humorous demonstration in separating and using chopsticks http://youtu.be/t4y5uOSOJa0  
 

Goodbye Thailand "Thanksgiving Day"

It is time for us to leave Thailand, our next stop is Japan.

We spent Thanksgiving Day in Thailand, and then we travel to Japan.  Our last day in Thailand began the same as any other English class day, but it had a few added perks.  All the UNW teachers taught their four hour classes, had a Thanksgiving dinner at a local restaurant (turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and...), hung out with students, did last minute shopping and headed to the airport at 8:30pm after the last English classes was taught.   The below photo is the Thai send off from Santisuk English School staff, students and friends we made during our four week Thai visit.   It was difficult to say goodbye, to all our new friends.  Now we are in our new country Japan.  Updates on our Japan visit will follow this blog post. 





 

Ancient City and then the Crocodile Farm

On Saturday November 13, the UNW students and Santisuk English School (SES) students boarded onto a double decker bus and spent the day at the Ancient City and Crocodile Farm (a zoo with Elephants and other animals).   The Ancient Siam city preserves the true Siamese heritage.   At this amazing cultural center we all rented bikes so we could easily visit the 80 acres Ancient City.  We visited some of the buildings with amazing gold wall and ceiling architecture and wall paintings that depicted the Thai culture.  Later we found a local restaurant to eat our meal, and finished the afternoon by biking around to more sights before leaving for the Crocodile Farm.  The Crocodile Farm was actually a zoo with all kinds for animals. 

Youtube from the Ancient City and Crocodile Farm

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kLLWssOXkBc&feature=youtu.be

 

  Ancient city buildings

 Ancient city buildings

 Than and Alison

 Alison

 

 Ruth

 Ancient drawing on the wall

  Ancient drawings on the walls

 

 

 Than and Ruth

 Peacock head emblems on the peak corners

Ruth playing a xylophone

 Large river boat

Buddhist temple in the Ancient City

 

At the Crocodile Farm we visited many areas. For example, the elephant section of the zoo.

 Meagan and Allie riding an elephant

 Than feeding bananas to the elephant

 Torsten with an elephant

 Alison and Selena riding an elephant (the trainer is riding behind Selena)

 Moriah and Brynne on the elephant

 

 Allie and Meagan bottle feed a baby tiger in the tiger section of the zoo.

 Meagan feeding a baby tiger

Allie feeding a baby tiger

Dr E's quick round-trip from Thailand to Taiwan to Thailand

On Friday, November 7th, I (Dr. E) took off in the morning at 1:15 a.m. from Bangkok to Hong Kong and eventually changing planes to Koahsiung, Taiwan. I left my ICS students in the capable hands of my co-leader Ruth, so I could spend a long weekend with my daughter, a second grade teacher at Dominican International School. After Miriam finished her studies at Campbell University in North Carolina the summer of 2003, she has lived outside the United States.  Most of this time has been in southern Taiwan as a teacher.  Below is Miriam with her 18 scholars. They are all wonderfully bright children with supportive parents too!

Miriam with her 2nd grade class at Dominican International School

Miriam is a really good teacher and loves her students. They love her as well.

On Tuesday I returned to Thailand, and we had a birthday party for Alexandria (Alex) who turned 20. She had 4 birthday parties on her birthday! I guess that means she is loved as well. It truly was a day to celebrate.

Keep praying for the ICS team in Thailand as they make a spiritual impact on the students in the Santisuk English School.

Dr. E

 

Thai Peace Foundation

Hello from Thailand!

 My name is Meagan. I have been working alongside my teammate Allie doing a few different things than our teammates and would like to share a bit about what we have been doing in our time here. Each morning we teach an English class at Santisuk, but that is just the beginning of our day. We are both majoring in Non-Profit Administration, so we were given an opportunity to work with the Thai Peace Foundation. Their focus is on church planting and community development in slum communities in Bangkok. When we arrived we had very little idea of what we would be doing here in Bangkok. A couple days after arriving, we got to get an idea of their ministry and how we will be involved in it during our month here. One of the things we are doing regularly and have never done in the past is teaching English. This is something that Allie and I both were not expecting to be doing, but we have been really enjoying so far.

Building relationships has been the primary focus in each of our ministries. This is done with the hope of planting seeds in the hearts of those we interact with and that they will desire to know more about Jesus. We have been able to glimpse this through one of the missionary families that lives in the slum they work in and showing what true incarnational ministry looks like. Our Sunday mornings are spent in this slum community helping as best as we can with a children’s program run by volunteers from the church plant nearby. The goal of this time is to open up a room for the kids in the community to come and have a place of quietness. Most of the children here do not have their own space and this ministry provides that space for an hour every week. During the quiet time the kids are able to read or color by themselves. The second hour is a time of fun worship songs and games played together. These kids are so sweet and we pray that they feel the love of Jesus through each one of the volunteers there.

 A couple times a week, directly following teaching at Santisuk, we hop on a bus and head out to the same slum community that the Thai Peace Foundation is involved with. There is a preschool in the community that the church has sent volunteers to in the past, but it is not a Christian organization. We arrive at the preschool and are greeted by welcoming teachers and about 30-40 adorable three, four and five year olds smiling up at us. While there we teach some English, but mostly love on the kids. We sing songs, read stories, color, and teach some English words. Allie and I have really enjoyed our time there so far.

On Mondays and Thursday nights Allie and I teach English to a family in a nearby community. To be honest, we are not sure how the Thai Peace Foundation is involved with this family, but we are so happy to get to spend time with them. The husband is a health services activist and has a lot of influence on the community. This gracious family has made Allie and I feel so at home in their house as we teach them English. We follow the curriculum used at Santisuk, which is awesome by the way. We are there for two hours each night and we have already seen them improve in our first couple days. This family is Buddhist and we are hoping that through the Christian curriculum, our words and our actions, they will desire to know more about Christ. Though we are only here for a month, we know that Kevin and the other missionary family will continue to be involved with this family.

This week, many of those on our team have been able to receive some feedback from our students and have been very encouraged by this. The students at Santisuk have been such a blast to begin to get to know and it will be hard to say goodbye. Thank you for all of your love and prayers you have sent our way. We have already seen God working in and throughout the challenges we have faced and his protection all around us

Thailand Santisuk English Classes

Hi from Salina, Welcome to Santisuk English School

Each UNW student teaches two-two hour classes, except

for Allie and Meagan who teach one-two hour class and minister at the Thai Peace Foundation.

 Dandan and Ruth teach Level 1 English

Alison teaches and Becca co-teaches Level 1 English

Salina teaches Level 4 English

 Meagan teaches Level 2 English

 Level 2 English students

 Allie teaches Level 2 English

 Level 2 English students

 Than teaches Level 3 and Alex is his TA (teacher assistant). 
At another time Alex teaches Level 4 and Than is her TA English

 Becca teaches Level 3 English

 Brynne teaches Level 2 English

 Moriah is Kwan's  (Thai teacher) TA (teacher assistant) for pre-level 1. 
They use Thai and English at this level.

 Torsten teaches Level 2 English and Steph is his TA. 

 Torsten teaches Level 1 English

 Level 1 English Class

 Stephanie teaches Level 2 English

 Level 2 English

 Isaac S teaches Level 6 Advance Conversation

Level 6 Advance Conversation

 Mechelle teaches Level 3 English

 Level 3 English

Isaac G teaches Level 3 English

Level 3 English class
 
 Moriah Teaches Level 4 English

Level 4 English class

Social and friendship area in the Santisuk School

 Friendship building through playing ROOK

Than, Alex, Brynne and Alison sitting outside making

flower arrangements for the Loi Krathong Festival (lantern festival)

small lotus-shaped baskets or boats made of banana leaves containing flowers, incense, candles and a coin are floated on the Thai rivers, lakes and canals. 

Community room at Santisuk English School

Community room at Santisuk English School