I am back stateside as of Saturday April 4th

I made it safely back to The States but now, as I am writing this, I am wishing I was back in Bangkok. In looking back on the trip, I realize that this is just a part of a big step in my life. My time in Bangkok was so great that I intend that, in the near future, I plan to move back there and get a job as an English teacher in one of the schools. The internet was bad where I was most of the time. This made posting difficult. Now that I am stateside, I can post more of the reflections of the trip.

Thank you again to all those who donated to my trip.

Water consumption

This here is a picture of the water machcines they have all aroud Bangok. You line up your bottle and it will give you about 1 liter for 1 Baht. Remember that 1 Baht = 1/33rd of a dollar. The usual size of a water bottle is 1.5 liters and filling one 1.5 costs less that 10 cents. This is great beause with how hot it is, I am going through more than 2 liters a day of water. I figured out why Asian food tendss to be very salty. It must be salty not because they like salt, but because they need to return the sodium electrolyte balance back to normal. I sweat so much here that the salty soup tastes so good. I think the saltiness is just a meaans to survival

The banana crepe guy slicing fruit

I am in awe

Out to eat

 I have 3 classes here; I teach one class at 1 PM, one class at 7 PM, and I work as a Teacher's Assistant at 5:30 PM. This is my 7 PM class when they took me out to eat at a traditional Thai restaurant on Thursday. Eating is a very large part of this culture and taking somebody to eat is a sign of appreciation. At this meal (second dinner as I call it) we had soup where we add whatever we desire to the soup and it sits on heaters at the table and simmers. We had lots of seafood added. Shrimp so big they grew beards.

Eating more of the eats of Bangkok

I just had my first durian: it is the most putrid, rank, most unholy smelling fruit ever. It tastes like custerd though, it is wonderful. Solely in taste

The Weather Forecast

For all y'alls who don't know the international system

Shrimp so big, they grow beards

Sorry for the lack of photo uploads

 Justice never sleeps, no matter what continent you're on.

 This is when we went to the narrowest sidewalk in Thailand. Literally lesss than half a foot wide.

Eating the eats and lliving the life in Bangkok

As it so turns out, I have unknowingly eaten  a big bowl of chicken hearts and had some congealed-blood soup. I guess this is what living in a completely different culture is all about. Now that I know what the stuff is, I probably won't have it again.

Grub with the locals

The school where I teach

This is Santisuk English School where I teach from the outside.  Santisuk is the yellow building.

Prayer requests

One of these should work.

The Teach Thailand is heading into its third teaching day. We’ve been challenged by a heavy teaching schedule, the many expectations on us to teach well, make learning interesting and fun, begin and end on time and to meet with students outside class.  In addition to all this David, our energizer bunny, has volunteered to TA in. Pre-1 class.

We are managing the stairs pretty well. Elaine’s students are “adopting” her well. She was the first with a ride home tonight, but all 7-9 pm teachers had a ride home tonight. So kind and such patient drivers! Rooms have a bit too much reverb, but students are working hard at being brave, i.e., speaking loudly. Pray for good hearing by us and by them.

Because of our schedules we don't see each other a whole lot. We are all scheduled to join with the Peace Church group for  worship Friday night and “family Day” all day Saturday plus cell group Sunday morning.

We have been inviting our students to an English language church service this coming Sunday. This is outreach oriented. A former Santisuk student with an exciting testimony will share his story. The primary speaker is a fellow teacher from the UK. He has such a great sense of humor. Pray that our students accept our invitation to come.

Requests:
-rapport, hearing, communication with Thai
-health and safety  and rest (Praise God we all now have good sense of direction)
-our bonding with Peace Church members
-students to invite us to see Bangkok with them, do things with them
-the Sunday night English language outreach ( 5:30 am Minnesota time); for speakers S… And N….
-Alice, our co-teacher from California, who is losing her voice.

With our love,
Tom & Claire, Rick &  Sherry, David, Elaine

I have found it

I found my quest for spicy relatively fruitless due to my appearance. Because of my skin, all the vendors assumed that I have a weak pallate and serve me 'American-grade spicy' and not "Thai-grade spicy' as I desire. Thankfullly, at the school where I teach, treats and goodies are sold and that is where I found this. I was advised by the Thai locals that this is very spicy. It is kind of like Slim Jims as in it is labled as octopus but in actuality is artificial. I had some and it meets my standards.

We're the same and yet, still different

Energy drinks like Red Bull are sold here and they are all in glass bottles. 

You can leave America but there are some things you can't quite escape

The street marts are great

Fast times at Bangkapi Mall

Fast times at Bangko Thailand

This is going to be a three part adventure series since I am limited to the lengths of my posts. After the fact, I can really see how God proected me in my life. I got separated from the group when we split off in Tesco (a Target-like store). We agreed to reconvene at a specific location at a specific time. I forgot the time but figured I would get done early and wait for them for a little bit.
A little bit turned into a long time becaus I was waiting in the wrong location. I could see the team-leader and his wife checkig out but figured I could wait for them where I was. I figured wrong: they couldn't see me so they figured I had gone back with the other two in the group. I stayed put like they taught me in Boy Scouts if I ever got lost in the woods. In hopes of finding me they went to the Santisuk school where we were directed to return to if we get lost.

Knowing that I was extremely close to the hotel; I went outside and waited at the Mark Plaza. The part that is the worst about it all is that I could not email Tom due to the fact that the international mobile internet was not enabled on my phone. The real reason why it is the worst is beacuse Mark Plaza is about a block across the road from the hotel.
I had contact through text with my family at home but the text was a little garbled so no email was sent to Tom (team leader)  about my wherabouts. I was instruted to fetch a taxi and go to Santisuk so I showed the taxi the card.

Fast times at Bangkapi Mall: part 2

It gets really interesting here. While waiting for the taxi, I prayed that people would find me: the right people. Once in the taxi I showed the card


and the driver dropped me off just around the corner of the school.  This school is loated in what appeared to be a very dicey part of town at night because it was A: not well lit B: there were about a dozen stray dogs barking at me on the street and finally C: there were two shops: a motorcycle shop and a bar. I chose to get help from the motorcycle people instead of those in the bar.
One man at the motorcycle shop conveyed that he knew where I should go and offered to take me. I hopped off his motorcycle halfway because he was taking me through a yet dicier part of town. I safely dismounted and told him "No. This does not look right". I walked the rest of the way down the road I was on and came across a hospital.

Fast times at Bangkapi Mall: part 3

This was not any hospital, this was the Vejthani Hospital. The Vjthani Hospital is widely regarded as the Mayo Clinic of Asia. I went to the medics out front and explained my prediament. This part is where I saw God's saving hands the most. I was just about to leave with a police offficer who appeared to understand my plight when the hospital got a call from a woman affiliated with Wooddale. From this point on I was heading straight home to the hotel. I had everything figured out for me to get me back into my hotel with my team
I am extremely blessed and all's well that ends well.
Praise Him from whome all blessings flow

We are here

A majority of us went from the aforementioned Minneapolis/St. Paul flight to LAX that was delaysd an hour due to ice. We had an hour layover in Los Angeles before heading to Tokyo. We barely made it to the flight to Tokyo only to find out that this flight was also delayed since they had to repair a tire on the plane. There were delays to Bangkok as well but I do not know the particulars.

We were very blessed that each flight was delayed. Pictures to come in about 10 hours since we flew in at 11:50 pm Bangkok time

Despite the delays leaving MSP due to ice; I am on the plane to Tokyo. From there to Bangkok.

Currently leaving

It is finally time to head out for Thailand! Please keep my team and I in your prayers. Unfortunately, I'm not going to Honalulu like most of my flight.

The Thailand Crew

Here we are on February 22nd at our send off meeting.

Thurday Feb. 19: Leaving soon

So the time is coming for my team and I to leave soon. Most of the team is leaving March 3rd: we will not make it to Thailand until late March 5th since we cross the International Date Line. Please pray for safety for me and my team of 6.

I will try to keep everything up to date with picture