Saturday, November 25, 2006
We went to my Grandmother's house for Thanksgiving. If it could be summed up in one word, that would be scrumptious!! But, as usual, my professors have no concept of the word "break" and I had a whole truck load of work due this week, was supposed to have been done last week, and other due dates farther back than I wish to mention. :) I was not so successful in catching up ( who ever is? ) But, I did read a truly inspiring book (yes an ENTIRE book). I read Elie Wiesel's Night, a reflection and retelling of his horrific childhood experience in the Auschwitz concentration camp during WWII. In 1986, he received the Nobel Peace Prize, and I was so moved by a portion of his speech that I thought I would share it with you (whoever might possibly still be checking this page :P)
"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!!!
"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
I am going to update SOON.......I promise!!! Just wait, there is some good stuff to come, but it is not here yet, but it is coming!
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Here is a story from this past Saturday when we went out to Roi Et (another province 1 hour away by bus from here) with some of our Thai friends:
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!
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!
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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
I find myself adapting to life here inThailand more and more each day. I am starting to fall in love with all that is Thai, the people, the culture, the food..........mmmm the food! Here are some of the things that i love about Thailand so far.
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.
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.
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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.
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Wednesday, June 07, 2006
So we have been here in Mahasarakam for almost a week now. Most of the time we have been just exploring the city (eating lots of ice cream:) ) and getting to know some of the students that go to MSU. When school starts on the 15th, we will spend most of our days on campus leading English classes and just hanging out with the students and developing relationships with them. On Monday of this week, we did have the chance to teach an English class at a small village elementary school, which was a really neat experience, and we are going back out to that village today and tommorrow to lead a mini English camp, which I am really excited about doing! I could try and tell you all about what has been going on here, or I could show you pictures, which I think are more clearer, so I think I will do that instead :)
Ajon (means teacher) Peay and her grandson. I met them one night while swimming. She invited us out to eat Vietnamese food with her and her grandson one night. Warning! Just because the chili pepppers are green, does NOT mean that they are not spicy ( cough cough Brandon)
Most of the Isaan people are rice farmers. This is one near the village school that we went to on monday.
Me, Rachael, and Shannon while we were touring MSU
Scott(the missionary), Whit (a student at MSU), and Brandon (one of my temmates) getting a refreashing drink in a bag.
Shannon and I while teaching an English lesson on animals to Thai students in a village outside of Mahasarakam.
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Yes, I am starting to kearn how to use chopsticks!
Saturday, June 03, 2006
Sawatdee kah! (hello in Thai). These are some pictures from our trip thus far.
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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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