We want to progress faster in our Thai language studies, so we have added more instruction time each morning. One element that was missing in our language studies are words and phrases used in the Bible and in the church context. We asked for help at the church to see if anyone could teach us the Thai language in the morning hours and have some emphasis on biblical words. A couple who are leaders at Pradumri UMC have offered their help. Peter and Nuc are our new Thai teachers and they are a wonderful and spiritually mature couple. We are very blessed to have their help and we believe we are making faster progress in learning the Thai language. Now we receive instruction from local teachers on 4 mornings and 3 afternoons
each week as well as all day Thursday at a language school in Bangkok.
Our local language teacher that has been teaching us on afternoons has graduated from
college and soon may not be able to tutor us, so our schedules may change again soon.
This last week, we had another lesson on the great hospitality of Thai people. We wanted to plant just a few flowers and small trees in our front yard, which was really looking rather barren. However, we know nothing of horticulture here, and it is all very different.... different weather, different plants, different soil, and different gardening materials and practices. We asked our neighbor "Buk" for advice. Buk not only helped us with advice, she helped take Sherri to several nurseries and also lined up all the workers to make a garden (which was actually much, much more than we had planned). She personally supervised all the work because she knew we had difficulties with communicating to the workers. After just 4 days, we had a new front yard, which has been a blessing to us, a peaceful place to enjoy in the early morning hours. We asked for a an inch of help and we received a mile. It really ended up being a neighborhood project because we had people from all up and down the lane in our yard helping. We are truly blessed to have great neighbors.
Just a word about our internet phone. If you cannot get in touch with us by the phone, please do not leave a voice message because we are unable to retrieve the messages at this time. Please contact us by e-mail at thailandumc@gmail.com and we will call you.
Tomorrow we will be heading to Bo Win to see the progress on the church building construction. We will take pictures and keep you up-to-date with how everything is going.
Blessings to you in the name of Jesus!
