Rounding Up

Well, I started trying to write an update to send out over two weeks ago, and it seems that time has gotten the better of me, as now I'm finding myself in March with less than 20 school days left before the academic year finishes.

February was an interesting month. Interesting, mostly, because I was quite sick for the majority of its four weeks. After going on that fishing trip with our student & his family (I'll get to that later on), I arrived back in Bangkok and that very next Monday, I awoke unable to speak. Talk about making high school instruction difficult! For the following two weeks, I found myself battling a severe cold &/or flu which had completely overrun my throat, decimating my helpless vocal chords. I've only ever once before lost my voice due to illness, but this was the first time where my occupation required the adequate functioning of such faculties.

Now, normally, you would assume that a teacher wouldn't be teaching in such a sickly / helpless condition, but GES & its severe lack of a substitute pool (especially those who feel confident enough to tackle high school math & chemistry) didn't afford the luxury. It definitely made teaching interesting—but thankfully I've managed to corral my students into a position of respect (man, was that a long process) and they were quite willing to sit there, listening to me scratch out broken sounds & whispers on the finer points of equilibrium reactions or statistical probability (depending on the class).

As for the fishing trip that the two Jonathans & I went on with our student... It was a great time. We slept outside on a houseboat without walls on the edge of a pristine lake in Canchanaburi province—west of Bangkok, close (100 km.) to the border with Burma. The scenery reminded me of home: there were tiny mountains encircling the lake, forests of trees that had almost all sluffed their leaves (winter here still experiences a 'fall' of sorts, though not due to lack of heat, but lack of water), and not a single sound save for the quiet lapping of gentle waves caressing the hull of our wooden island. It was peaceful; it was relaxing; it was a great time of bonding, even though not a single person caught a fish (our student, Pop, and his family were amazed at the lack of fish, making it sound like the typical excursion results in several impressive catches). There was talk about God, but there was no pressure—everybody was pleasant and relaxed. Except for at night. Apparently, Bangkok mosquitoes are a certain breed that pretty much sees me as a walking bag of poison—they rarely even attempt to land on me, but these mosquitoes... These ones were much more reminiscent of the Alberta & BC kind. Swarming and landing and eating and crawling and pestering all night. Think that DEET is an effective repellent? Well, it only keeps off the less determined mosquitoes. Those wonderful mosquito coils that usually send the bloodsuckers humming for the trees? Yeah, even with 5 of those coils fuming away over a night without so much as a sniff of wind, the crawling carnivores still ventured through to feed. The only respite was found under a few layers of blankets—and this while lying outside in a tropical country, whose nightly lows are about 28 degrees (I know, poor me, right?). I think that perhaps my cold/flu/whatever came on as a result of a lack of decent sleep that weekend... Probably a good guess.


Cool things to note:

1.) My students really have turned over a new leaf, both as a class AND individually. Soda, the drama queen thorn-in-my-side and bane-of-my-class has now, for some reason, become one of my most charming students. The only thing that I can really think of is one Friday evening during a session of informal worship & prayer that we (try to) have every week (it always happens, but numbers sometimes aren't bigger than 2), the evening turned towards a theme of spiritual intercession & more aggressive prayer, petitioning God to release students from spiritual bondage and oppression; opening eyes to see truth and spiritual identity. Ever since that night, it seems, Soda for sure, and perhaps a handful of other students in my class, have experienced a night-and-day transition in attitude.

2.) One chapel in mid-February had American Jonathan talk to the upper half of the school, comparing Buddhism & Christianity and trying to address the shortcomings of Buddhism as a 'complete' religion quite tactfully, while still without dancing around the topic. The students, who for the most part are Buddhist, all seemed to listen rather attentively & afterward, apparently half a dozen kids in Grade 7 decided to choose to pursue Christ (aka: Awesomeness!). The difficulty with Thai Christianity is preserving "fertile soil," as there is disgustingly intense social/familial pressure to remain true to Buddhist & Thai Animist traditions.

Apparently, one of my students in Grade 10 decided to become a Christian a few years ago, but when he went home and told his mother, she got so upset with him that she broke down crying and threatened to kill herself if he chose to follow Christ. What do you do in a situation like that? I mean, really—what do you do? I think (and really hope & pray) that he still believes on the inside, but he couldn't bear the sight & thought of his mother's distress and told her that he wouldn't be Christian any longer (though, he tends now to spend a lot of time over at the house of one of the Thai Christians in my class & hang out with their family, all of which believe... I really do hope for him).

3.) This past Friday, two different teachers on two different parts of the school campus were asked by two different Thai staff members about Christianity. This is practically unheard-of. The majority of our Thai staff, I'm led to believe, are Buddhist & just work for the school as a source of income. I've even heard reports from some students about Thai teachers trying to convert kids back to Buddhism in their Thai classes, but whether this is substantiated or not, I can't be sure. Anyways, these two teachers got to share the message of the Gospel to two adult Thais who came up & asked about what the message of the cross was all about. That is awesome.


4.) Another cool story is that in mid-February when there were those tornado storms in the Eastern US (perhaps you guys heard about them?), one of our teachers here was sent a text message from someone back home during his class, telling him that this person & her family were in the middle of a tornado storm, fearing for their lives. She asked this teacher through the text message to pray, and when the teacher read the text message, he talked to all of his students and told them the story. He asked them to all get together & pray, saying that God could do something all the way over there even though we were all over here—just through our prayers. The kids were dead-set & all started to pray fervently that the storm / tornado would go away & while they were praying, the teacher received another text message. The message said, "Did you guys pray or something, because all of the sudden the storm & the wind stopped completely, without so much even as a warning." The teacher, in turn, shared this message with his students. Amazing stories of the awesomeness of tangibly answered prayer. I love it.


Conclusion...

Twenty schooldays left. There's not much time to have with these kids for the rest of the year. Pray that our ministry would be as fervent, or maybe even more, than it was at the beginning of the year. Pray for teachers & staff who are making plans & decisions about what to do in the upcoming academic year—whether to stay or whether to go. Pray for the administration as they try to fill the vacancies that they're aware of. Pray to see if perhaps God may be calling you to come & join us in this not-so-conventional, but hopefully still fruitful ministry/outreach in the heart of what may be one of the most open to yet seemingly most uninterested people group as far as the message of the cross goes.



I'll say more in two weeks. Thanks for reading!