Where has the time gone?!

Wow! I can't believe it has almost been two months since I have updated my blog :-/. Life has been flying by and I have enjoyed every minute of it!!! Let's see, where to begin...

August: A busy month, but still time to bond and have fun with the roommates. We decided that it was time to turn our "prison" into a home. We called our apartment a prison because every wall was white and bare. Trying to get paint supplies in a hardware store that doesn't have English posted anywhere or English-speaking workers was an adventure for sure. Lots of miming involved hahahaha. This was a weekend to remember: painting with country music playing in the background, grill cheese and tomato soup for lunch, a trip to Swenson's for a delicious ice-cream break, and pizza for dinner!! Oh and the amazing painting dance moves Justina and I came up with while listening to the Cupid Shuffle! We still need work on the decorating part but got rid of some white walls. Good times indeed!!!

September: This has been a month full of adventure with the students and staff at GES. We had our staff retreat in Pattaya, which was so much fun!!! It was a weekend focused on getting to know both the Thai and English-speaking staff even better. I even had the opportunity to talk with a Thai co-worker about God!!!! How awesome is that?! I also went on my first field trip with Grade 3 and Grade 6 to Ocean World! That place was so cool and very educational for the students!!

Ms. Nichole and Ms. Sarah

Grade 3 and Ms. Sarah

Grade 6 and Ms. Brittney

GES Staff

God has been doing some other amazing things here in Thailand other than these awesome memories that I have :-). I have been given the opportunity to talk with students on multiple occasions one-on-one about God's amazing love. I have also been given two exciting and amazing mission opportunities as well. I will be joining a team with Habitat for Humanity on October 1st to help work on a house in the area. I will also be going with a team to Japan during October break to help serve the people that were affected by the tsunami and are still in need. This trip is just a few weeks away so prayer that final details and financial needs are met and taken care of would be greatly appreciated :-). 

Last, but not least, I wanted to share a picture of my 2nd grade group of students. This group is by far my challenge group. Two boys like to test my patience and push boundaries. One boy and one girl cannot sit still for more that 1 minute at a time. Two of the girls are chatty and tattle on the boys and each other every 5 seconds. One boy is usually in la-la land for most of the class period and when he isn't in la-la land, he is talking to someone. Then of course there is the one girl who is like an angel and can do no wrong. With all of these challenges that I face in the short amount of time that I have them, they never cease to amaze me! Today was one of those days. I was preparing myself mentally before I had to pick them up. I had them the last period of the day.....oh boy. It started off a little rough, but as we began the lesson, every single student was on task!! The students earn tickets for good behavior. They can cash in those tickets for prizes. My student that I struggle with the most proudly announced "Ms. Nichole! Ms. Nichole!! Two more tickets and I can get a prize!!" He hasn't been able to cash in his tickets yet, so it made my heart melt to see his excitement (hopefully it will happen soon!) Oh how I love my job!!

Grade 2 Students. And yes, she is wearing a scarf in 90 degree weather! hahahahahaha

Still in Awe :-)

I am still in awe of being in this amazing, exciting country! I don't think there is a day that goes by that I say to myself "wow...I can't believe God brought me here!" I feel so blessed to be chosen by God to do His work in Thailand. I don't have much to update. I am doing well here with teaching. I absolutely LOVE my job!! I have taken a couple of trips to an orphanage here as well. Being able to love on babies has been so good for my soul! It felt so good to just pray over the babies and show them love and attention, even if it was only for a few hours. It breaks my heart to see so many of them...I wish I could just love on all of them!! I have also found myself in constant prayer lately. Not necessarily for myself, but just for the people of Thailand, my students, the teachers here at GES, family back home, etc. Will you pray with me? Prayer is so important to God's work and is so powerful!!!!

Thank you for all of your love and prayer as I continue on God's path here in Thailand. Here are a few pictures from this month :-)

At the orphanage holding a sweet baby girl :-)

At Erawan Waterfalls in Kanchunaburi

Bridge on the River Kwai in Kanchunaburi

My life vest didn't quite stay down :-)

A tier of the Erawan Waterfalls

Elephant riding in Kanchunaburi...it was an adventure for sure!

God's Love

God never ceases to amaze me. :-) Over the last couple of weeks I have wondered what my purpose of being here is. Yes, to teach, but what other things does God have planned? How else can I serve and be a witness?? There are organizations and ministries that I could always join. Should I join any? I just started to feel...lost I guess. Then today happened!!! I had the most AMAZING question asked by one of my grade 2 students!! It took several tries by her and 5 other students before I understood the question, but it made it that much more special. She asked me "why did Jesus die for me?" I cannot express the joy and excitement that I felt at that moment!!! Not only was I getting to share with my students about God's love, but God was showing me that my purpose for being here has always been right in front of me. It is so easy to get distracted or start looking for God's purpose. I just have to remember to be patient and wait for His timing.

I have also been reminded of God's love over the last few weeks. His love of other nations, cultures, and people. Most of all I have been reminded of His love for me personally. I am in a culture where I am the exact opposite of what is considered "beautiful". In Thailand, the whiter your skin is, the better. I have learned that buying shower gel here is not wise due to the whitening components to them lol. I am also in a culture that sees anyone over a size 5 as "fat" or "big." These are just things that we wouldn't openly talk about to others as Americans, but there is no problem with it here. These are just things that are culturally different and hard to get used to. On top of all of that, I seriously stick out here!! It hasn't bothered me in the past, but oh man can I really tell here! LOL. Now I am not saying all of this in a tone of sadness or frustration or dislike of the Thai culture. It is just very different from the American culture. Satan has definitely used this opportunity to take my focus away from God's work and purpose for me in the self-esteem department. I have come to realize this and I know that it doesn't matter what others think of me. Even if I am not beautiful in other's eyes, I am beautiful in God's eyes. He created me exactly how He wanted me, and HE thinks that I am beautiful!! :-) There have definitely been some challenges emotionally over the past couple of weeks, but it just means that God is making me stronger as I overcome each one of them!!

On a brighter note....I am taking Thai language lessons!!!! Right now it is only once a week for 2 hrs (wish it was more) due to time constraints :-/. I am enjoying it SO much!!! I think that the hardest part of Thai language is the tones. They have 5 different tones!! So you could have the same word, but it may have different meanings depending on the tones that are used when saying it. During the first lesson, we had gotten over halfway through before I realized that the little marks above all of the words told you what tone to use! It was one of those funny "a ha!" moments :-). I have also taken the opportunity to practice little phrases here and there with my students. I asked my grade 6 group "do you understand?" in Thai,  and I got in trouble for speaking Thai!! They are not allowed to speak in Thai in the classroom unless given permission and apparently that rule goes for me too!

All in all, my walk is strengthening daily as I look to God for daily guidance. I thank you all for your continued prayers and support.  I promise that more pictures will come soon!!

"The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing." Zeph. 3:17

A Slight Deviation

I returned home for a week to be with the family. I am so thankful that God allowed me to make the long trip back to the States to be with family as we mourned the loss of David but also celebrated his life. God never ceases to amaze me. On my journey home I had a lay-over in Tokyo and I met a girl who happened to go to Corban and was on her way home during a break from teaching in Indonesia!!!! That was totally God!!! We both happened to be wearing Corban t-shirts and were waiting for our long flight to Seattle. It was soooo nice to be able to talk to someone (I usually don't talk at all during my trips). I think I needed to have this confirmation that going home was were I needed to be (I had struggled a bit with leaving and having to miss the first day of school). 

I made it back to Thailand just fine :-). It is so nice to be back and to really start my job! I love my job!!!! I have successfully taught grades 1a, 1b, 3, 5, and 6!! I just love it!! There were a few hiccups, but overall it went well. I had to do some impromptu drawing for my 1st graders. We were working on a worksheet that had pictures of different items on it. They had to color the items that had the same sound/letter at the beginning. After receiving blank stares, I realized they didn't get it. I wanted them to see that the letters were the same, thus making the same sound. Writing the names of the items on the board wouldn't have meant anything to them, so I had to draw the pictures and then write the name underneath. I can tell you right now that I have problems drawing stick figures, but somehow managed to draw on the board a towel, zebra, zipper, football, kangaroo, pie, and a turtle among other things. It actually looked really good!!!!! Some of them were guessing what it was before I even finished!!! Even Brittney was impressed and that is saying a lot! One thing I didn't expect to find was how quiet they are! I burned through an hours worth of material in half an hour because they hardly responded to anything, except my 6th grade group which consists of 6 boys.....they had no problems talking :-).  After talking to some other teachers, I felt better. Apparently they are all quiet until they get to know you. We did get to play learning games though....I played Rhyming Bingo with some of my students and they loved it!! Especially when the prize for winning is candy from America. My 1b group was disappointed the second day because they didn't get any candy.

I truly did miss being here and was so happy to be back :-). I just can't imagine being anywhere else.....God has the perfect plan!!!

Me at dinner :-)



Brittney's beautiful artwork :-)



She was very friendly :-)

Hurting Heart

Romans 8:28

New International Version (NIV)

 ²⁸ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who^[a] have been called according to his purpose.

This is a verse I will cling to in the coming months. I may not understand why God called home the man who I loved so much as a father for the last 7 years. The man who took me in and has loved me as one of his daughters. I absolutely hate going through the grief process. I keep wanting to ask why. Why do I have to go through this all over again? I may never know while I am on this Earth. One thing that I do know is that everything that happens is all apart of God's plan for my life. I truly believe that this tragedy is one of the reasons God sent Brittney to Thailand with me. I don't think I could go through this pain and sorrow by myself. He knew I would need someone to comfort me. Someone who knew David...even though she only spent a week with us. She is my best friend, she knows how to comfort me. I will also cling to Jeremiah 29:11. My life verse....God has a plan and a purpose. I don't yet know what that is. I know I will have a difficult road ahead of me..It has certainly been hard and I have only dealt with this pain for 12 hours..but God will be there to guide me. What a comfort that is in a time of hurting!!

Please pray for me and my family.

Sensitive Palate

I have started to realize over the last few days that my taste in food is not as extensive as I thought. I am all for trying new things, but with Thai food I am finding that I don't like 2 out of the 3 things I try. So far my likes are garlic chicken and rice (sooo good!!!); cashew chew chicken (AMAZING!! possibly the best thing I have ever tasted); roti (ooo...so delicious dessert);  fried rice (my fail safe choice).

I do have a list of things that I do not like. Some of the things I don't quite know what they are..I got them from the school cafeteria. One thing that I know I don't like is called som tom. It is like a papaya salad and we ordered chicken with it....won't be ordering that again!! I am so glad that fried rice is usually at any restaurant. Things that I get on the soi (street) will be more limited in choices. There is one choice that is not tough to make: going to the roti guy :-) For 10 baht (approx. 33 cents) you can get a piece of the most incredibly delicious dessert! It is like a piece of flatbread that is fried and sprinkled with sugar and sweetened condensed milk. There is one ingredient that is orange that we have no idea what it is. I am perfectly fine not knowing :-). Ohhhh...so good!!! I am not giving up on food yet!! There are many things to try still!!!

My Classroom!!!!

I am so thrilled to have my very first classroom!!!! Ahhhhh!!! I was a bit overwhelmed at first. It was a mess in the room and all of my books and materials are in boxes. I started to go through a few and found that there isn't a system to the contents of the boxes, sooo...there is a bit of organizing to be done. Also, the air conditioner also isn't working  properly :-/ so it gets hot in there fast! We (Brittney and I) still worked away today and it now looks like a classroom! It even smells good too!! :-) Phase 1 is complete! Monday phase 2 begins....organizing and going through resources. I also learned today that I will be getting a projector put in that I can plug into my laptop! Yay!!!!

Still need to do bulletin boards and these two desks will have computers :-) You can't see it, but there is a white board on the wall by the door and the blinds on the floor will be removed lol.



I have lots of table room and storage space!! I even have a pole to hang charts on!!

 My desk!! :-D I feel so much like a teacher!

I am just praising God for this amazing opportunity He has provided for me! I truly do feel that this position that I have is perfect for me!! I can't wait to get started!!! 

New prayer request: That I find all that I need in the resources available to me for teaching.

Feeling Happy

You know that feeling you have when everything just seems right? Well, that is the feeling I have had today as I survey my surroundings. I can't read any of the signs or understand the language that is spoken to me, but I just know that this is where God wants me. I know that this is just the beginning stage of culture shock...but I am enjoying it anyway. I was up at 6am this morning, so I decided to take a walk to 7-11 to get some breakfast...my very first outing by myself!! It was nice to just take in my surroundings and enjoy the sights of people going off to work or just arrive to open up their shops and stands. I even had the pleasure of "talking" with a very nice Thai man who tried to tell me where other food places are. Amazing how we can communicate with others by using hand motions :-).

There where two big outings today. One was to Big C for my first true grocery shopping trip. It is amazing how long it can take to grocery shop when you can't read the language and have to search every inch of packages for clues as to what it is or any bit of English you can find (which is not always helpful). I ended up buying the Thai version of Ramen noodles, muffins, and watermelon. We learned how to say "no spice" (mai pet) so we asked if the packages we had were "mai pet". The worker said they were the non-spicy kind....oh my goodness!! If that was the non-spicy kind, I can't imagine what spicy tastes like! Let's just say that I will be sure to limit the amount of the seasoning I use next time.

The second outing was our first into Bangkok. We went to a part of the city that is popular for backpackers. To get to this place, we had to do a lot of walking, a river taxi, and then a lot more walking. We ended up eating at a Middle Eastern place, that was quite tasty and well worth the travel:-).

I am thankful for new friends/roommates Laura and Justina!! :-) I am also so very thankful to have my bestie here as well!! Love that girl!! I am sure that it will be an exciting year. Hopefully we will have our apartment feeling a little more "homey" and more inviting within the next month.

Prayer requests:
*School starting - the 13th
*going through culture shock
*not getting too overwhelmed and stressed by the new culture