Jennifer

Sa bai! Today it is a rainy day and Naomi and I are loving it! The temperature drops incredibly and life is sa bai (relaxing).

Our home stay is going wonderfully. We are very comfortable with our family and it seems that they are very comfortable with us. We call our home stay mom "Ma" (but don't say ˜mah say ˜Maaaa almost in a nasal tone) and our home stay dad "Pa." We are almost always laughing with them. Maa seems to know me pretty well because she had a dream that I was driving her car on the wrong side of the road. Those that are still skeptical of my driving techniques please stop laughing now.

We have really experienced Thai culture living with the Lukboons. Naomi and I purchased Thai bathing gowns called pa tung (we call them strapless Moo Moos). Thai women wear these when they bathe and wear them around the home. We wear them only on the way in and out of the shower. We are finding that things that we consider personal are acceptable for the whole community to know. Things like menstruation, diarrhea, how much you make for a living, how much you spent on anything, how much you weigh, really anything is up for conversation. Pa told the whole clinic staff I had a stomach ache and they were discussing how much potential diarrhea I was going to have amongst themselves and in front of all the patients in the clinic. Needless to say, we have had a lot of laughs! If you are overweight, it is not considered a bad thing here and they will almost definitely tell you that you're oooAhn (fat). Most Thai people are really skinny and being conservative, wear adult mediums comfortably. Our whole home stay family is overweight but that's because they like furong (foreigner) food! Maa will consistently grab her stomach fat, Pa's or Few's and say ooAhn and it is no big deal to them! They are great fun.

Some new items on Jenn's dietary menu are: fried caterpillar, a grassy weed thing, a snail (that I chopped up) and fried squid. This is actually a step up from what we were eating before. Thai people cherish their food! Last Friday, we went to the "Gnokand Durian" festival in Sisaket. You may have heard of Durian, it's called "stinky fruit" and it truly is smelly and disgusting. It's not allowed in hotels or airports. Gnok is supposedly called "rambutan" in the U.S. and it tastes like a really sweet grape. The Thai people seem to celebrate almost anything. That's fine with me though because their festivals are a lot of fun!

Learning Thai is very gradual. Our Maa is our Thai teacher, and the way Thai people learn is so different than America. They don't really write things down, they just listen and memorize things. We are both doing okay though. We can say simple things and go to the market and buy things ourselves. We are learning how to cook some Thai food! That is exciting. Naomi cooks a ton in the U.S. (haha you who know me know that this is not true of me at all) but I am wanting to learn because we will be living on our own soon!

So Naomi and I are starting and leading an aerobics class at the Annumai (medical clinic). Yes, you can start laughing now. We will start off teaching two classes a week, a basic class and an advanced one. Apparently, Thai people love to exercise and so we are taking this as a ministry opportunity! We are checking out some Christian Thai music that we can use and are pretty excited about starting it!

Speaking of the Father's business, Na and I have started speaking a little bit to our friends about the Father Pra-jao. Buddhists are encouraged to seek truth, wherever they can find it. The people are interested in why we are here and are not closed to talking about it. We have so much that we want to communicate but we lack speaking skills. We look forward to being able to share more as the months go by!

Your emails have been so encouraging! I really am liking it here and have seen evidence as to why the Father has placed me here for this time in my life. I am finding that the blood that C bought me with is way more precious than I can understand. I am a lot more thankful for the salvation that C has given me and have been challenged to think twice about my often petty frustrations that I experience.

Grace and Peace to all of you today! I miss you lots!

Jenn

And though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory" I Peter 1:8

P.S. Here is the link to my pictures!!! NEW pictures are added every update. Either click on the link or copy and paste it.

YARP Requests:

Hello hello!

Thank you all so much for yarping. It truly has been a great experience here. I have been temped to feel very inadequate since I've been here. However, I know that this is not true and that I am only to do what is given me each day. I always feel that I should be doing more "ministry" but then I am forced to rethink what my idea of ministry is. Ministering to my home stay Maa or the girls at the Annumai is ministry. I somehow always think that the big and better is coming, when I am already in a great place.

If you could please yarp for our friend Kong, I would truly appreciate it. She speaks English fairly well, and the other day in the car she was putting together an English sentence out of her dictionary and she said, "Naomi does not believe in Buddha because she is a C." Naomi and I both answered her with "We believe that Buddha was a man but we did not yarp to him, we yarp to Pra-jao." She had to get out at that second and drive cause a police man came, but a little bit of truth was shared! Kong is the most loving person I have ever met, and we spend a lot of time with her! Please yarp that her heart would be softened to hear the good news and seek out truth.

School/partner:

If you could also yarp for me to get all my school work done, that would be amazing. We have so much going on, it is hard to keep up on book reading! Also please yarp continually for Naomi's and my relationship. We spend all of our time together- I know, "poor Naomi! Please yarp for her sanity!" No I'm just kidding. We both have always confided in loved ones back home, but we have done a pretty good job in being very open with one another. We are very much partners in this mission and need each other!

Thank you all for yarping, hope you all are doing well and please email me if you want a yarp for anything.

jenn