Thailand Orientation

UNW and SES students at the Loi Krathong Festival (Dandan is taking our photo)
SES's Teachers made Gratong in Loy Gratong festival (Thailand) cilp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4Wwe3t4BIg

 

Hi this is Alex.

English classes are now in session! Tuesday November 4, we started teaching English at Santisuk English School in Bangkok, Thailand.  Although we miss Albania and wish we could see the many friends we made there, we are excited to see what God has in store for us while we stay in Thailand for one month.
            The first few days in Thailand were incredibly busy with cultural and teaching orientation, Thai fellowship, cell group meetings, English church and connecting with new friends.  We've been so busy that it was hard to find time to write a post to update you on all the wonderful things that we've been doing and learning. 
            We made it to Thailand safely, and had no complications with our travel!  Almost as soon as we arrived on Thursday evening, the wonderful SES (Santisuk English School) administrator showed us around the neighborhood. SES is the school we are teaching English during our month stay in Thailand.  We walked down the  extremely busy city street where we were shown the school, several other areas and the Bangkapi Mall where we had dinner.   
            The mall has four floors and is like a mini American mall.  On the fourth floor of the mall there is a cinema, water park and arcade.  There are also places where you can get food.  There's the food court on the first floor, KFC, McDonalds, KrispyKremes, and a Dairy Queens on every floor in the mall.  Except for the fact that everything is written in Thai and that this is an Asian country, the mall could easily passed for an American mall. 
            Cultural orientation this past weekend was really interesting to learnthe many differences between our culture and Thai culture.  For example, pointing your finger at a Thai can be considered offensive, so we have to use our whole hand instead if we want to get some ones attention.  The Thai people have great respect of their Royal Family.  Therefore, if you point at any member of the Royal household (King, Queen, children), and if it is reported to the police, you may end up being arrested. 
            English Classes started on Tuesday, and we have already finished our first week of classes!  Each English class is two hours long, and we can have students from age of 11 to 56 in our classes.  Many Thai only speak Thai, and they are discovering that they need to learn other languages and English is one of those languages.  Santisuk English School is a school where they bring teachers who know and speak English and have them teach English.  Most of the teachers are volunteers, missionaries who come over from their respective countries to help for at least one month. 
            We're all having a great time here, and each new day is an adventure.  We thank you so very much for praying for us while we are in Thailand!

Some More Specific Requests:

1.      Pray we stay healthy; we don’t want to miss any ministry opportunities and teaching. 

2.      Pray that we touch lives for the Lord.  It is common for Thai people to slowly come to Christ, but when they are fully committed, they live out their lives for God.  We may not see any people come to Christ this month while we are here, but pray that our lives will reflect our love for Jesus.

3.      Pray that we enjoy this time and that we make a positive impact on the lives we come in contact with. 

More Church Wall Construction Photos

 

 

 

 

English Class Group

 

Middle School Class

 

Hi!

My name is Salena and I had the privilege of teaching English this past week in Albania. We were in the same village of Sheqeras (Shay-chair-ess) where a lot of ministry has been going on. Each day myself, Dandan, Brynne, Alex, Alison, and Ruth would ride a bus with enough sandwiches to feed the construction team and our translators/local friends Angelea, Valentina, Lenea, and Taulant. We spent time and taught in the one room church. At around 3:00 o’clock, middle school students would go to the church and high school students would go to a local coffee shop to learn English. The first half hour was games and connecting with the Albanian people, then the team would teach for about an hour with directions interpreted into Albanian.

 

High School Class

[Co-written by Salena & Isaac G.]
It was easy to become friends with our students when smiling is a universal language; however, we had to be careful when smiling at people on the street because in Albanian culture that can sometimes give the wrong impression. It’s amazing how much one can learn by simply walking around and observing the people of a different culture. Albanians carry around everything in a bag. It doesn’t matter how small it is. They will always have it in a bag.

On Saturday we had the opportunity to host a church service to the people of Sheqeras. We got to share a couple of our testimonies from Ruth and Dandan. Our team had an awesome experience singing worship songs in English, and being sung to in Albanian. One of the moments we will certainly never forget is when the whole church was singing the same song in both Albanian and English. During the service, 5 people from our team performed a skit for the people. The star of the skit was Isaac Giese. He has outstanding juggling skills which really helped in getting the attention of the people. The skit showed how we try to juggle all the things in our life including sin, only to end up failing over and over. Jesus comes and takes those struggles so we might be at peace. This is not to say we don’t struggle as Christians, but having Jesus with us changes the way we try to juggle things. During the week, the missionary we had been working with, Amos, said a lot of kids came “out of the woodwork” to attend English class. This was good for the Sheqeras church plant because Amos and other nationals will be able to more easily connect with families in the village via these students, after we left.

Something to pray about for the Sheqeras church is that there won’t be a stigma that church is just for kids. There have been a lot of kids programs and ministries for the simple reason that kids are more accessible and have more free time. That was something we were praying about for the Saturday church service was that adults would also come. Thank the Lord that 120 people came to the service and a good number of those people were parents and 60 children!

Thank you for praying for us while in Albania. Please continue to pray for the missionaries in Albania, especially Amos, Meredith, Andrew, and Rebekah, who we had the most contact with.   Pray that their passion for Jesus would continue to blossom and that the Albanians they come in contact with would be receptive to God’s Word.



 

Saturday Evening Meeting

 

Right now we are driving to Tirana to take a plane from there to Istanbul to Bangkok. Our trip is not even half way over and yet so much has happened. Pray that in Thailand we may have a renewed ministry with fresh eyes and an energized body. We love you all.

 

More pictures from the Day Center...

Update from Becca

Ckemi! Me emrin e Becca.

Hello! My name is Becca. I was a part of the ministry team that worked at the Day Center. The Day Center works with at risk, gypsy children in Albania. The kids come from extreme poverty, and often face verbal, physical and intense sexual abuse. The kids come to the Day Center three days a week and they get to shower, receive clean clothes, eat a home-cooked meal and experience God’s unconditional love.

Our team week assignment at the Day Center was to spend time with the children. They loved to climb all over us and enjoyed playing Talaash (tag). The kids also fought over who got to give us the next hug and I don’t think I have every given so many piggybacks in my life, which is saying something because I worked at a Bible camp for two years. We also got to make crafts with them throughout the week. The kids got to make their own play dough, lava lamps and bracelets. At first, the kids didn’t know how to use the play dough, so they stuck it up their noses since they thought it smelled good.  The kids loved making the crafts and playing with us Americans.

Along with working at the Day Center, we also got to help paint some of the houses of the gypsies. In Albania, appearance is everything. Even when they live in poverty, they will always make sure that they look good and their house is presentable. By painting their house, we were allowing the families to gain a sense of pride in their homes. Most of the homes we painted were either abandoned communist apartments or neglected shacks. It was tough painting the walls since they often crumbled a part as we tried to cover them, but regardless of the quality, the families were so grateful for our work.

It was such a blessing to spend the week with the kids and I think leaving them will be the hardest part when we depart from Albania. I am excited to hear how God continues to work in Albania and I am so grateful for this opportunity.

Update from Torsten

Sheqeras Construction

My name is Torsten and I have been a part of the construction team this week along with Isaac, Allie, Meagan and Dr. E.  In the morning, we have been working in a village called Sheqeras (Shay-chair-ess) with a couple of the locals there.  The main builders name is Mondi and the two other guys are Zero and Theisty.  The project we worked on was building a wall for the new church plant in Sheqeras.  We have done everything from moving cement blocks to picking up bits of trash in the yard.  Our team leader, Amos, knows the locals very well and it was quite a treat to see him interacting with the workers so well.  On Wednesday I had the privilege of taking out the trash from the church yard.  This meant loading up a trailer full of garbage, which was hitched to a tractor that sounded as if it would explode any moment, and then driving with a local named Gleris to the outskirts of the village to dump the trash at a dump.  Well, we have finished the walls for the church and it has been such a great time working together, and seeing God work through us in Sheqeras.  In the afternoons, we help with the two ESL classes.  The ladies are working with the High School students with Ruth, Brynne and Dandan.  Isaac S. and I have volunteered with Alison, Alex and Salina. 

Update from Albania -- This update is being posted States side due to computer issues

First Impressions: Albania!
    After a long two days of traveling and one overnight stay in Tirana, Albania, the team is finally in Korce!  We arrived at our final destination on Saturday, and we are settling here in Korce nicely.  We all live together in a rented house inside Korce.  It's a nice gated house to the street (gated houses are incredibly common in Albania), and we are enjoying living here.  The team has taken advantage of Saturday and Sunday to bond through playing games such as "Catchphrase" and exploring Korce.
    On Sunday we all went to the church we were going to be helping.  The church has about three hundred people attending regularly, which is considered a mega church in Albania.  We are working with Amos who is one of the local missionaries and a Northwestern graduate. He told the team that there are about 12,000-14,000 believers (not even 1% of the country) in Albania, and most of the churches here are house churches.  Before communism fell, the state was declared an Atheistic state, and all religion was banned in the country.  When communism eventually fell, only five people in all of Korce, the second city in the country, were believers. 
    After church we had orientation, where a few of the local missionaries were able to tell us about the culture and what to expect during our stay in Albania.  For instance, Albania stresses relationships more important than time.  The team discovered this on Sunday, when Amos was talking with a friend downstairs and we waited to start orientation upstairs in one of the upstairs rooms.  During orientation, one of the missionaries told us that beggars are a common sight, but cautioned us that money is perhaps not the best way to show compassion.  Many times they are working for someone else, and they don't receive much of the money.  Instead, Amos suggested to pack a few snacks and to give food to them if we didn't have the heart to simply ignore them.
    Amos also talked about what we would be doing while we are here.  There will be three teams.  Two of them are working in Sheqeras, Albania, a village outside of Korce.  One team is building a wall around the property of a one-room church to help protect the building and mark the boundaries. The people working on the wall are: Michelle, Torsten, Allie, Meagan, and Isaac S.  The second team is English teaching, or ESL.  Those who are in that team will be using a coffee house and the church building to teach English to the students for a week.  They are teaching to Middle School students and High School students.  The students teaching English are: Ruth (team leader), Brynne, Selana, Alison, Dandan, Alex.  In the afternoon, Allie, Meagan, and Michelle will join them to help teach English.
    The third group is working at a day-center inside of Korce serving the needs of the poor.  This group will be helping kids who have been abused, neglected, and often unloved. Those who are working with the day-center would be: Becca, Moriah, Isaac G, and Nathanial.

Please pray for:
    1) Health.  We have a few members on the team who are coming down with the cold and who would love to get better. 
    2)  Team Unity as we do our work.  Please pray that we would all be become even     closer as we head out to do God's work.
    3) An effective ministry.  Please pray that the hearts of the Albanian people we come in contact with would start to see God's light and the work of the Holy Spirit as we work.
    4) Saturday meeting. This week we worked in a small village and taught 60+ children English (English as Second Language).  Please pray for our final community meeting today for families in the village through song, testimony (Dandan and Ruth) and an evangelistic message.