Fifteen eager students showed up at the school yesterday. More are scheduled to arrive as soon as New Year’s celebrations are over, including three more from Burma. Our spot in Northern Thailand is a wonderful strategic position to reach into the countries closed to the gospel. One of the best ways is to train the native citizens so they can go back and teach their countrymen at home.
One of the most promising of the new students is from Burma. His La Hu name is Nio Chai, but, like many of the Christians, he has chosen a Bible name. We’ll call him Philip. He knows English better than any of the others, other than Anond. That, in itself, is a huge plus! Even better, he seems to have a better knowledge base of Scriptural things and eagerly responded to the teaching. He apparently already believes and is strong on sovereign grace. Please pray for Philip, that the Lord would raise up another strong worker in this man.
The students, as a whole, are attentive and interested, hanging on every word of the teaching. I can hear the teaching from the room where I tried to work (but mostly dozed) and could hear their eager voices in discussion. The teaching is a blessing, too.
As for my class — well, we soldiered on! Ja Hay is enjoying the novelty of being the advanced student. Isa is beginning to catch on, but has a really hard time remembering. And, of course, I am learning, myself. Yesterday I made the mistake of drawing stars on the white board to illustrate numbers. They both painstakingly drew stars on their paper — when what I wanted was for them to write the numbers! And I had no way of explaining and they couldn’t figure out what they were doing wrong.
Today we are combining classes for English and working together to teach them a dialogue. I have a set of “learning Thai” CDs that have been helpful to me. We are going to try that method to teach English.
I also hope to clean the room and get ready to move in. I am excited about it and think I’ll be able to accomplish a lot more if I am there. Maybe a nap at an appropriate time would help me get over this pesky jet lag.
I’m not sure where I will put everything, but am already wishing for some of the things I took out of the suitcase. Like children’s books. I brought a couple and the two three-year-olds, Arlong and Samuel, who live at the compound, and I have been reading those over and over. Arlong is Anond’s adopted son. Samuel belongs to Sabat and Se Me who are houseparents for the Children’s Home. Both are incredibly cute, by the way!
Prayer requests:
For the Lord to bring the students and open their hearts and minds to the Word.
Recovery from jet lag!
Blessings from Thailand,
Susan