Sunday – Janna and I sharing about DRIME at Prakanong Baptist Church and Rangsit Church

Sunday was GREAT!!! I don’t know HOW I had the energy for it… It was a very long and packed day, but so great! But my energy definitely came from God because it didn’t come from me!!! We started our morning by walking over to the TCCC where Ning and her husband Nu came and picked us up. They took us to their church. We met their pastor and he invited us to join their prayer meeting before the service. It was in Thai but it was still cool to be a part of. He asked if we had any prayer requests and so they prayed for my ear! He even put his hand on my ear when they were all praying. After the prayer meeting Janna and I got set up and prepared for speaking that morning. I definitely enjoyed the service. Worship here is amazing! I feel like there is just enough familiarity amongst the differences. If that makes sense. Basically I recognize a couple songs that I can sing along to and then I just bask in their voices and their language ringing out if it’s a song I don’t know. I think in the choirs of heaven, its going be sung in Thai ;) Maybe. We spoke about DRIME near the end of the service and I think it went well. I did blank on some of what I had prepared but I think what needed to be said was said. And I wasn’t the only one speaking; I do have my teammate that I can count on! J We definitely got some leads on potential members and/or leaders. That’s good news! J We also got to eat lunch and share about the ministry with another lady who wasn’t able to be in the service at the same time! Haha. And at lunch, they were making some homemade drinks – so I found a new favourite! Lemon Tea! J

Next adventure – We took a taxi by ourselves for the first time! We needed to get to Rangsit Church so Ning got us a (blue) taxi, gave us a map, told the taxi driver where to go and we were on our way! A little over an hour later we arrived at Rangsit Church. We were early, so we were chatting with Hack for a bit… Then Por came and showed us where we would be talking and training the drama. There was a Hip Hop class going on!!! Super exciting… I kinda wanted to learn too… But I felt embarrassed so I just was learning on the side… But everyone kept encouraging me and inviting me to join in… So I finally did J for a while. I knew I still needed to be able to have energy to train so I stopped cuz I didn’t want to push myself too hard. At 4pm we had a group of students that we shared with about DRIME and started teaching them “In the Light” (one of our dramas). Alot of people were interested in the ministry from that session as well. We have a lot of people we can follow up with J

After the session with the people from Rangsit Church, Matt took us out for our first Western Food dinner (since we’ve been here).  So appropriate that the other “farong” takes us farongs for farong food (farong = foreigner). Janna even got to ride with him on his motorbike. She’s been DYING to ride one! My “chariot” as Matt called it was with Por… He drove me to the restaurant in his truck. I had to get across 2 lanes of traffic of a busier road than I’m used to around our place, so Matt came out to meet me so I could safely cross! I feel so taken care of here! Everyone is so great!!! We had a great time at dinner and were able to get some more insight from Matt! It’s good that we had the opportunity to meet with him because our last scheduled meeting was postponed due to my ear infection. After dinner he was so kind as to get us a (green) taxi and tell them where to go (so helpful that people can speak Thai!) and so that was our second taxi ride in one day! I was so exhausted by this point so when we got home I went straight to bed (I was going back to the doctors in the morning).

Keep praying for healing for my ear infection as well as for wisdom and discernment through all of our time here. Pray also that our leadership team comes out of some of the connections we are beginning to make!

Khorb Khun Ka!

(Apparently my photos don't want to upload today so check out my facebook for pictures from Sunday!)

Blog Number Si (4)

So as some of you are aware… I went to the doctors on Thursday morning. In Thailand, they don’t have walk-in clinics, they just have hospitals. So, Natti took me to the hospital. Before I saw the doctors, they weighed me, measured me, took my blood pressure AND my temperature. All that for just an ear infection??? But I guess it’s better to be safe than sorry, right? They took me into a room to see the doctor and I kind of felt like I was in a “movie”. They asked me to lie down on the table and a machine came down to look in my ear. I think it was just a light so the doctor could see. When the doctor walked in, I tested the waters to see if he spoke English or not. I said “Hi” and waited to see if he responded with Hello or Sawatdeekrap. Thankfully he spoke English which made me feel more comfortable. He told me that my ear was swollen – I had an ear infection. So he gave me some medicine for it and told me to come back and see him on Monday. He had put some cotton in my ear that he needed to take out then. He gave me pain-killer, anti-inflammatory and antibiotics, which really helped me to be able to sleep at night. I slept most of that day on Thursday, and that night I could sleep through the night. I didn’t wake up for long periods of time in pain like the last two nights. Progress! Thank you for your prayers!

I went back to the doctors on Monday for a follow up appointment… I still couldn’t hear but I half expected that when he took the cotton out that I would miraculously be able to hear. That unfortunately didn’t happen. The swelling had gone down and the pain (I had weaned myself off painkillers) wasn’t there anymore but my ear was still plugged. He cleaned out my ear with some sort of vacuum type of instrument. It felt really weird lol. He was now able to see farther into my ear because my ear canal wasn’t swollen anymore. He told me that I have 2 infections! That’s just lovely. :P One in my ear drum and one in “middle ear” or something like that. I’m not sure what that means. So I was given more medication and another follow up appointment. Natti said that if I feel better I don’t have to go back, so I hope I do feel better.

This has definitely been a frustrating experience with my ear because it’s been over a week and I’m so thankful it’s in the process of getting better and that we are in a place with good medical care but I still feel not at my full potential. You know? I want to be fully in this project and not miss out on anything. But that being said I am so blessed to have P’Natti and P’Kung looking out for me and for us! Taking time out of their busy schedules just to be able to take us to the hospital! They are so wonderful! We’ve been taking it day by day. It is definitely good that we are able to do that. I’ve definitely been a lot more exhausted than my usual self. It’s not jetlag. Didn’t really have too much of that, Praise the Lord! Janna’s been reminding me that it’s okay to rest. In my head that’s not always clear. I never allow myself to be sick and when I am, I just need to keep on keeping on. (Maybe one of my strengthfinders should be achiever? My 6^th one maybe? lol) God has definitely shown me in the past that I need to learn to say “no” to things. I’m still not very good at doing that. Saying no to things when I need to rest and yes when I’m actually able to do some things. I’m still figuring what I can learn from or through this situation. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

Even tho I’ve been so exhausted, we still had a lot to do last week (in general but also) in preparing for Sunday. Janna went into the office a couple days while I was resting. I did most of my work from home because I was always exhausted! It’s so good that we have a place to work but also that we are able to work from home! On Tuesday I went into the office.  Even though I didn’t feel the greatest; I lasted all day! It was so good!  People definitely energize me!

Aside from my ear and even despite my ear, things are going amazingly over here. I love living here! I’ve felt so comfortable and at home since I got here. I get to see so many familiar faces of people I miss, as well as meet new friends! We are even picking up some of the language. Yin dii thii dai ru jak ka!!! (Nice to meet you!) The people here are so friendly! And helpful! As we have our Thai lessons there is always someone we can practice speaking with. Even if we think we sound silly! And I feel so taken care of! Our contacts over here are literally the best… They just keep blessing us! I feel like the luckiest girl in the world! I get to live in Thailand and still have ppl back home that are praying for me &  Janna and just being so supportive and encouraging! Doesn’t matter that I have an ear infection, I’ve still been so blessed! (I still hope my ear heals quickly but the pain is gone and it’s just plugged. I’m still so blessed) J

Blog Number Sam (3)

Neung, Song, Sam – 1, 2, 3… 3 blogs! J

This one will be a bit shorter… Just a couple days to fill you in on… Tuesday was good we were able to have a Thai lesson with P’Ning from 10am to 12pm… Our brains were so full after that!!! Haha! We got a chance to work some more in the office and after the work day, P’Natti took us to a place we can eventually come to on our own… It’s a mall called Esplanade… And it’s great! If we need groceries or hair supplies and so much more, it’s there… If we want to do something fun on our days off it has a BOWLING ALLEY, a SKATING RINK, AND a MOVIE THEATRE!!! IN the mall!!! And there is a cute little Starbucks there, sort of surrounded by water. There is this wooden deck that lets you get to the patio/inside… Janna and I were thinking it’d be a nice place to get away and read or something some days… (we’ll see) By the way… This mall, esplanade, is considered one of the smaller malls in Bangkok… apparently… Didn’t seem small to me!!! Janna and I came home and finished up a few things… We organized our new shelf (for our food and dishes) SO HANDY!!! I love it! Set up a meeting with Matt for Thursday, shared our testimonies (yes we’ve been THAT busy) and played some cards to end off the night. Good day! Monday and Tuesday have been so productive this week! I just love that we’ve had a chance to accomplish so many things already in the first week!

Today is a day off and it’s been good to have our day off be today because my ear started hurting a lot last night while Janna and I were sharing with each other. I couldn’t sleep until around 3am or so… And we had a skype date with Tanya pretty early… But I think that was good cuz after Janna and I could walk to 7/11 to get some sort of medicine for my ear… We had to call P’Natti tho because nothing looked familiar… We picked something up that she suggested after P’Natti had explained to her what we needed. It only cost 6 baht!!! I don’t want to do the math but 30 baht is a dollar… and 15 baht is about 50 cents… so it’s less than that! Anyways we came home and had some breakfast. I took the medicine and we both tried to get some more sleep because we are exhausted from the packed week! My ear is still hurting but hopefully it will unplug soon. Keep praying for me tho! Today has been laundry day as well… that has been much needed… And this morning we found a couple of movies at 7/11 so we’ll prob have a movie night later… Hopefully the movies we bought are not in Thai ;) so we can understand!

Until next time,

Menta <3

Prayer Requests:

Same as above (blog song) but also please pray for my (right) ear… that God would heal it and just make it feel better.

Please pray for Janna and I on Friday, as we are going to Rangist University to experience Campus Ministry. I am nervous about this.

Please pray for God’s wisdom and insight into any other meetings, impromptu or planned, that we would be given the right words to say and we would be able to fully understand one another (clarity between Janna&I and whoever we are meeting with).

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR PRAYERS!!! I appreciate YOU!!!

Blog Number Song (2)

Hello again!!! Janna and I have been busy as bumblebees with all the meetings (some impromptu and some not) and such we have been up to! I feel like we won’t be looking for things to do anytime soon… haha. Today (Monday) was so good because we had a chance to work at the TCCC office all day. Oh even was gracious enough to share her office space with us while she is in New York for 3 months so we will have a desk! So cool! We made up leaders applications and reference forms and flyers for info meetings etc. I feel so productive with our time today! We start our Thai lessons with Ning tomorrow! J So excited! She gave us each a book called “Beginning Thai Part 1”. My cover is PINK!!! (Ning knows me already ;)!) Janna’s is purple! Excited to learn from teacher Ning!

But let me back up and fill you in on what has happened the last little while. It has only been one week but it definitely feels like it has been longer! Our week has been so full but we have definitely been making connections and we feel that God is at work. We already have 4 different churches we are going to be talking with the next 2 Sundays! (Do the math – 2 per Sunday haha) We had so many impromptu chats with different people such as P’Suwit (not sure his title but I think it’s something like director of campus ministries?) and P’Knock (national director of TCCC).  As well as we’ve chatted with various people about coming to their churches, like P’Ohm and P’Raymond.

Thursday, Kung took us for lunch because P’Natti was sick so we couldn’t meet with her like we’d originally planned. Ma Ben Rai tho! On our way back to the office, we saw Matt walking there too! He had come to the office for lunch and it was good to see him! Kung made us practice our phrase we learnt on him, “Khun puud pasa angrit dai mai ka!” (Do you speak English?) He pretended he didn’t. EVEN THO I KNOW HE DOES! :P What a little trickster haha. I introduced him to Janna and later he joined us in a discussion we were having with Ning and Kung. Later that day, Oh came downstairs! I had seen her quickly in the morning but she was super busy! She is leaving on Tuesday for 3 months! She and 2 other girls are going to work at a camp in the US (in New York City). It was nice that we got a chance to chat! I missed her! Surprisingly enough Kung suggested we play a game…called… DUTCH BLITZ!!! J Janna and I were SO DOWN!!! Haha. The DRIME Culture is already engrained ;) Perfect! Heehee!

Friday was a very packed and exhausting day. We had a meeting with P’Natti at 10am and our day was pretty full until our skype date with Tanya at 10pm (including an impromptu meeting with P’Suwit)! It was hard for us to stay up! And it’s weird because every other day I’ve been staying up until then but just with the events of the day I was kinda drained and ready for bed at 7/8pm… Janna and I were like… Must – Make – It – To – 10pm!!! We did tho, so that’s good! And good for us to get the ball rolling so quickly with DRIME stuff! J Before we left the office we went up to say goodbye to Kung… In her/their office… Ning, Kung and Oh all have desks and there’s a few other people around the corner… As we were chatting with Kung/Ning/Oh before we left, who should come through the door, but Por! (pronounced Ba…or well we don’t really know how to pronounce it yet haha… we need to be reminded… :P ) Anyways, he remembered me! Good to see all of them! I love that there are so many people I recognize and they are periodically at the TCCC (either working or doing dmpd or other tasks) so I’ve gotten to see quite a few of them a lot!!! It’s great!

On Saturday we got to spend it with Kung! She took us, by bus, to this mall called Central World. Part of it that we went to was more of a market type feel, inside the mall… Whereas another part felt totally like a Vancouver-esque mall. We even went to STARBUCKS!!! Check out the Onward book IN THAI!!! Haha. When we were leaving there was some sort of Japanese Animee Convention going on outside… It was so cool! There was even someone dressed up as an asian jack sparrow! All these girls with different colour wigs, like blue and purple and pink and green… You name it… It was crazy cool!

I was SO EXCITED for church on Sunday… P’Kung’s church is where a lot of the TCCC staff go to church. We walked over to P’Natti’s house and caught a ride with P’Suwit as all the staff live super close together. We made a friend with his son, Timotee (or TeeTee) He always greets us with Sawatdeekrap! So cute! He has only spoke in Thai to us but apparently he knows a little English… We’ll see! The church building is SO BEAUTIFUL and very big! Also, SO MANY PEOPLE were at church! I saw Y! And Pond, Por (Ba), Matt, Hack and Oh goes there too! Seriously everyone goes there! I don’t know what our home church will end up being… But I would not mind at all if it was this one we went to on Sunday! We thought we’d try and steal Matt to translate for us but there was a Korean team at church so we had these little earphone sets and he translated from the back… Perfect! He tried to trick us that P’Knock (the pastor) was telling the congregation that one of us (Janna or I) were going to give the sermon and the other was going to translate… Mai Chai!!! (No) But he was just joking… *shakes head* haha!

We ate lunch after church and then Kung brought over a few people that may be interested in DRIME and we shared (impromptu again) more about the DRIME ministry and what it means to be a leader or a member. P’Knock joined us later and we had a chance to hear his thoughts about DRIME. He promptly gave Janna and I nicknames… Which we didn’t know how to spell so we asked P’Natti the next day who changed them a bit… So we kinda have two nicknames… :P I’m Sumanda (according to P’Knock) or Menta (according to P’Natti)… and Janna is Janya (according to P’Knock) or Jenjira (according to P’Natti)… I have to call her P’Janna or P’Jenjira because she’s older than me… *sigh* haha… oh well… We’ll see what happens ;) hehe. When the team comes in August, I won’t be the youngest and they can call ME P’Menta, P’Sumanda or P’Samantha! J (PS I’m never the youngest! It’s kinda weird… I mean… different lol)

Until next time,

Menta <3

Praise Requests:

So much has already happened in regards to DRIME stuff as well as getting settled and oriented in just a short week!

Praise for the language barrior hasn’t been that evident, aside from once or twice, as most people speak English!

Thank God that we are both feeling at home here in Thailand!

Prayer Requests:

We are in the process of figuring out our partnership with TCCC so please pray for wisdom and insight in this regard.

Keep us humble and flexible

Pray for leaders to appear and for wisdom in choosing them. Everyone here is so busy with ministries and school etc so pray for the schedules and availability of the leaders that God has in mind to fit perfectly with the DRIME Ministry times.

Tour of my place

Just wanted to let you guys take a look into the place I know call my home... Janna's looks similiar... She just lives across the hall... We usually have breakfast/meals at my place and we float from room to room as to whose we hang out in. Anyhoo here's the tour:

So my bed, then we have a little mini fridge, yesterday we also bought a shelf that isn't in the pictures but it's right next to the fridge... then we have my dresser and my little table that I decorated with pictures of friends and then we have my little table which you can see theres a little porch outside... and then my toliet and shower! (yes some of you will know this is important haha)

Hope you enjoyed the tour! haha!

Blog Number Neung (1)

Sawatdeeka Everyone! Shon Shoe Samantha ka! (Hello Everyone… My name is Samantha)

Well the last two days have been so great! All our time as been allotted to just the right amount of something… Whether it be to getting necessary items, unpacking and getting settled, singing some tunes and playing guitar or just having some heart to hearts over cow neau ma moi (aka mango sticky rice) with Janna…

So we arrive LATE Monday night (around midnight) and Natti and Kung (pronounced koon) met us at the airport! We got our luggage in the car and off we went home… Along the way it started raining slightly… But by the time we got to our new home in Bangkok (me and Janna LIVE in Bangkok now… It’s our HOME… Crazy!) it was POURING!!! We didn’t get home until probably close to 2am… So here we are taking our luggage up the stairs to our place in the pouring rain… Way to start out the adventure of Thailand! Haha! Janna and I were sooo exhausted on the last flight (literally we only woke up to eat dinner/fill out an arrival form they handed us… the rest of the flight we were both out cold – most likely a good 3.5 hrs of sleep of our 4 hour flight haha) but after the car ride and chatting with Natti and Kung we were more awake… So we chatted a bit before we went to bed… I got to sleep around 3am Thailand time… I was so exhausted from travelling that I slept very well!

My body woke me up Tuesday morning before I had planned to get up! Which was great… I could shower and such and feel productive before Janna came in to check I was awake. We were meeting Natti for lunch/shopping/errands and I didn’t have an alarm… cuz my phone is back home in Canada! So Janna and I had breakfast together – the fruit basket that Natti had left in each of our rooms! Yummy mangos for breakfast… along with other fruit that is good but I forget what they are called. I could get used to mangos for breakfast ;) haha! We met Natti at lunch time where we went off to the I.T. Mall… apparently “one stop shopping”. First we had lunch… I had chicken and rice and this soup that comes with it…. and Janna had chicken fried rice. After lunch we went to get phones/SIM cards… then we checked out laptops… where I got my new laptop! (Yes Deanne, there are THAI letters on my keyboard!) Actually even some of the writing on the internet is in Thai… for example…  Facebook – when it says “email” and “password” those are written in Thai… I don’t understand…. I’m just glad I know where everything goes! We also went to a store called Lotus… It’s kinda like a Superstore or a Walmart we think… It has everything from blankets to laundry baskets to fans to water, bread and food items, to soap and cleaning supplies etc. We got all that we needed. It was a long tiring day of errands but very productive and very much needed! We came home and had some time to unpack and get settled a bit… I got distracted tuning my guitar (took a while tho - silly tuner) but it was soooo sooo nice to just play for a bit… And my voice is semi-almost-fully back… So I could SING! (with a few coughs every now and again but I’m getting better I swear!) It felt so good to sing and play…

Wednesday morning I got up around 9:30am and skyped with my parents at 10:30am. Janna and I quickly had some pinapple for breakfast cuz I was starving but we were meeting Natti for lunch at the TCCC (Thailand Campus Crusade for Christ) so we didn’t want to have too much. We walked over around noon and found Natti and Kung! They had such a nice meal prepared for us! Rice with a whole bunch of side dishes… Some curry and eggplant, morning glory, chicken and cashews (Janna couldn’t have this L but I thought it was yummy) and then… I think the other one was some sort of a bean noodle dish…  Very good. After lunch ----------------- COW NEAU MA MOI!!!!!!!!!!! (Mango Sticky Rice) SO STOKED!!! They even gave us some to take home for later!!!!!!! Mmmmmm! During lunch Kung started to teach us a little bit more about Thai language… A lot of it is tonal… (oh brother lol) Did you know there is 6 different words for the word COW? It means 6 different things!  It can mean rice or white, or enter or horn or knee or news! ALL depending on HOW you say it!!! My brain hurt after that! Lol! We went back to our rooms because Natti had so graciously given us the whole day to unpack and get settled! Took me a little longer than Janna but it feels so great to be done! Feels more like home already! Janna and I decided to go get dinner from the place we had gotten it yesterday (with Natti’s help) but tonight we were on our own!  I ORDERED IN THAI!!! I even said No Nuts for Janna! J we had cow gai, mai ow tua! (chicken and rice… but we don’t want nuts!) I felt so proud that we could do that! AND we remembered that we had some more cow neau ma moi in the fridge! So we had some mango sticky rice for dessert! J MMMMMMMMMMM!!!! (the mango wasn’t cut as pretty as at lunch – but still tasted delicious… I mean A’Roi Mak!!!) I’m learning! Haha.

It’s been a few full days but it’s been awesome to get here and have time to settle in! Praise God for his provision thusfar… We are here in Bangkok safe and sound! Security/Immigration at the airport went smoothly – we had no problems. AND all our luggage showed up! Praise the Lord! Pray for our transition and our understanding of Thai culture (and language!) as it can definitely be exhausting to learn! Though we are doing quite well and picking up words fast! Also pray that God blesses Natti for all she has done for us! She has been amazing and we love her! Pray for all the DRIME stuff starting to take shape, ask for wisdom and discernment throughout all of our conversations and presentations. As well as pray for our leadership team’s hearts to be prepared and equipped for what they are about to be involved in (and may not even know!)

Thank you so much for all your prayers!!!

Until Blog Number Song (2) – yup I can count to ten in Thai… so I’m going to do so until my tenth blog… LOOK OUT! Haha. J

Sawatdeeka!