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.