An Update

Sawatdee krup! It has been a week since I last posted, and I've been busy! We had our first three days of the term this last week, and even though I'm only actually teaching for about four hours every day, it has kept me plenty busy. On the days that I don't have class, my traveling buddy/tour guide/cultural interpreter Scott and an assortment of Thai nationals have made sure I don't sleep in too late, showing me all around the city. I've learned a smattering of Thai phrases (I'm most proud of the fact that I can now count from 1 to 999 if I think hard enough!), when and how to properly greet someone, how to get around on the busses, where to get what Thai food (although, all of it being so good, I hardly ever have a preference), and a bunch of other stuff. Even if I became fluent in Thai, though, I'd probably still get funny looks on the street with my funny hats and my reddish beard. Not even in middle school did I feel as acutely different as I do here in the outer parts of Bangkok.

Not that it bothers me much at all. I've learned to laugh along with the clerk when I have a Thai person order me food and I clumsily thank them in broken Thai. More than once, I've come up to the counter in a store and witnessed the clerk, grinning and looking back and forth from me to her coworker next to her, say something in fast Thai and start laughing. I'm not sure what it is, but I seem to have that effect on people, and I usually just laugh along. I'm different, and I know I am, so I guess it's silly to be offended when someone notices.

At times, though, it helps to be different. My classes have been going wonderfully, and being an American come 23 hours from home just to teach a few Thai students English has been a pretty big part of that. Along with my English comes my culture, and there's a funny kind of respect afforded to a foreign language teacher when he speaks about something as simple as snow. (In addition to teaching two classes I'm assisting with a third, and I was caught off guard when the teacher asked me to explain the idea of "cold". I would have never thought of it, but how do you explain cold to someone who has lived where the daily high has been over 90 degrees F every day of his life?) And so my differences are an asset, as well... at least as long as I stay within the four walls of Santisuk.

My greatest worry has not had to do with differences, though. I teach two classes back-to-back, one from 4:45 p.m. to 6:45, and the other from 7-9. My first class is made up almost entirely of high school students, a group that arrives right after school ends and goes straight home after class. The second class is made mostly of working adults, almost all female, and they are working until I begin teaching and then go straight home. This is not a helpful arrangement when your goal is not only to teach English, but also to form relationships that point to Christ. I would love to go out to lunch or dinner as other teachers are able to do, or to go down the street to the mall with my high-schoolers after class, but such things are impossible, and I am limited to weekends.

Still, that holds lots of promise, and God has been teaching me, over and over again it seems, that He is in control, not me. I spent a couple days a little down, thinking that I wouldn't get a chance to do the things I came for, wondering why I was in a strange place where I didn't know the language and yet was trying to develop relationships and communicate the gospel to a practically unreached people. But then over the last week I have a happened to be spending time in Mark 4, and God has made it clear throughout the chapter that it is His work to change hearts, not mine, and that I only have to be faithful to his call. I resonated with the disciples in the verses where Jesus calms the storm on the lake. The storm comes and they are frightened, knowing that the storm is too great for them to handle, so they go to Jesus, who is sleeping, and yell, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" And Jesus, after he calms the storm with nothing more than his voice, says, "Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?" Jesus was the one that sent them out in the first place, and it would be by his power, not by the strength or cunning of the disciples, that they reached the other side. That has been a huge encouragement to me. It is not by my cleverness or discernment that the Thai people--or even just my own students--will be saved. God called me here, and it is God that will accomplish his purposes.

And, truth be told, he already is. Just yesterday, three of my students came to the English church service the school puts on Sunday night. A speaker that night talked on God's faithfulness even when we are not faithful (was God trying to say something to me, maybe!?) and quoted from all kinds of scripture; and though my students were listening in a non-fluent language to an African speaker, I know they heard at least some bit of truth. Today I mentioned a trip the School is taking this Saturday, and many of the students in both classes wanted to go. God is opening doors, and I seem to be barely involved in it. Good thing, too, because He can do it a lot better than I can.

I had better get to bed; I have a lot of work to do before I teach tomorrow afternoon, and I want to get up early tomorrow. If you're praying, pray for God to keep opening doors, for my students and the other 150 or so that are registered for this session. Ask Him to start spiritual conversations and to use the teachers' lives as a witness to his goodness and grace, and to keep the teachers healthy and rested. I continually thank God for Santisuk; this is a marvelous place with beautiful people that have bigger hearts for God and His people than I could have imagined, and I'm going to miss it when I leave. God is doing amazing work here! I will try to update more often this coming week. For now, goodnight from Bangkok!