Saturday, November 25, 2006
"And that is why I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormenter, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place MUST- at that moment- become the CENTER of the universe."
I pray that we will never forget that. This is the gospel of Jesus lived out in the world today. Let's be HIS hands and HIS feet!!!
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
We went to a temple in downtown Roi Et that was famous for having a 50.2 meter golden statue of Buddha (does anyone know how many feet that is ?). Beside the wat (a Buddhist temple) there was a dormitory for all of the monks that live and work at the temple. We see monks a lot here, and I have been wanting to get a good picture of one of them, but I have not known if that is appropriate or not, so I had not gotten a good one yet. So when I saw all of the monks standing out on there balconies of the dormitory I knew that I had to get a good picture of one. There were a lot of saffron robes hanging up to dry on their balconies, which made a pretty cool picture, but what was even sweeter was that I saw a monk leaning over the ledge and looking straight at me. I decided to go in for the shot, and he smiled. Yes! The he shot up his hand and made a peace sign...Even better! He started waving his hands and Brandon and I figured out that he wanted us to climb some of the statue. When we got to where the Buddah's feet were, I told Brandon to go back down and take a picture of me from the ground next to the statue. When I turned around, there was the monk standing right behind me! It was like a movie, I was so shocked. I did not know what to do, so I simply said "Sawatee-kah!" and walked back down the stairs. But, when I got down to the ground, I saw that the monk was still at the feet of the statue, and posing so that Brandon could take pictures of him! He walked down the stairs and met us around the side of the temple and we started talking, and somehow, between our very limited Thai, and his broken English, we were able to have about a 30 minute conversation! And to think that earlier that day I had said to Brandon jokingly "I want a monk friend!" and now we have one!

Temple with the 50.2 meter statue of Buddha

Rachael and I running through the pigeons at the park in Roi Et.

This is from a while back, but I had to include it anyways. Bugs are a common snack for the Isaan people. Here I am eating a queen red ant cooked with lemon grass and sold by some woman off the side of the road. It had a slightly nutty taste, with a little bit of a lemony aftertaste....a refreshing snack :P

We went to a park on the way to Khon Kaen and found out that it was a monkey park....They were everywhere! Can you pick out which ones are the monkeys?

This is me and the monk that Brandon and I met in Roi Et. His Thai nickname is Gaset.
We were finally able to start English classes at the univeristy this past Tuesday. So far classes have been great. I will have to update you with more on that later. :)
Friday, June 16, 2006
1) the people, Thailand has definetely lived up to it's nickname as "The land of Smiles," they are contagious!! :)
2) we ride around the city in song-taos, which are pick-up trucks that have benches in the back and we can usually squeeze in 30 or so people (with a few hanging off the back)
3) the food............enough said (except for the bugs)
4) Thai people greet each other by placing their hands together under their nose and then they bow and say "Sawatee-kah," which means "Hello"
5) they take off their shoes whenever they enter a building or house....it really makes sense
6) the Thai language has five different tones, so it is kind of sing-songy, but one spelling can also mean five different words depending on what tone you use.
7) Thai teenagers and college students love to Karaoke, and I must say, I am quite the diva :)
MORE TO COME!!!!!
We had a little bit of a rocky start getting everything going here. Our Englsih groups were delayed because school was 10 days late in starting. But finally we will start our English groups on campus this Monday. Yesterday and today, we have been on campus signing up students, and we already have around 70 students sign up in just the two days, which is really exciting! Monday thru Thursday we will be on campus teaching classes, and then on Friday we will just be around campus hanging out and getting to know the students. Every Friday night we will be hosting some kind of themed party, like a movie night, where the students can come over to our apartment and hang out. Please pray that we will be able to build some good relationships, and that Gods light will shine through us. We have already built some strong friendships with students that Scott and Valerie already know, but please pray that we will be able to meet more students as well.
Brandon (my teammate from Tennessee) and I are posting more pictures on the TBC website. Go to http://www.lightmessengers.org/gallery and click on Brandon and Sarah in Thailand to see more.




These are some of the boys that go to the village elementary school, where we teach a 4th, 5th, and 6th grade english class on Monday afternoons. They also came to our English camp last week.

Wednesday, June 07, 2006









Yes, I am starting to kearn how to use chopsticks!
Saturday, June 03, 2006

This is cute little Elliot Payne(one of the missionaries' kids) and Shannon (one of my teammates). They were pretending that Elliot was a rocket ship. He is so adorable :)



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