A Bunch of Burts

Wow, a lot happens in BlogWorld when you are offline for nearly 3 weeks!

We rapidly coming to an end of our time at the Bible School in the Northwest of Thailand, and have been stretched and encouraged and frustrated and blessed, all at the same time.

The kids enjoyed washing clothes by hand, pretending to be pioneers and explorers, for about a day.

My first week here, I attended my first funeral AND wedding. (different people of course. Thank you Captain Obvious.)
Both of the ceremonies were Christian families. The funeral was a the mother of one of the ladies in my small group from our church in Chiang Mai, and so I knew someone there.
The wedding was a relation of our pastor and of one of the teachers here at the Bible school. Apparently, nearly everyone is related out here in Maesariang.

This is a lady dressed in the Lawa style. She was a guest at the wedding.

The wedding was a huge affair and although there were loads of people there, one family in attendance stood out like a sore thumb, can you guess who it was? Actually, the only awkawrd moment, (and it was probably only awkward for us), was when the bride and groom made their way through the guests and got us. Although their suprise registered on their faces, they were very gracious and just smiled and had their picture taken just like we were invited guests.

As for our language ability, I am pleased to say we can both see marked improvement. Greg even took a test last week with the rest of the students, and got an 84%! Most of the points off were fill-in-the-blank memory verses. Memorizing Scripture in Thai is very hard. For us.

There are days when it seems our brains just will not switch on, and the teaching sounds like a jumble, but then other days we can almost hear the click and for two hours, we can listen to the teaching and follow almost all of it!

We have both had the chance to lead a worship session and share a bit from the Word.

One Sunday we attended a Karen church about 30 minutes from the campus. Funny thing is that nearly none of the students understand Karen. The sermon was preached by one of the teachers here and then translated into Karen. That evening at our Sunday night meeting back at school, one of the students shared how difficult that was, to be at the church and not understand the preacher, the people around them, or be able to communicate.
Hmmm, I think we can relate to that.

Here are the kids at the Karen church. The building in the back is the kitchen.

I will try to get some more pictures of the campus up and posted in the next day or so. It is really a beautiful place, and seeing the housing for the students will make you very thankful for the home God has given you!

This week Works For Me Wednesday is the “Mom I’m Bored” Edition.
School is out or will be shortly and the lazy summer days begin. But so do the bickering and fussy attitudes from boredom, right?

A hike to a lovely lake is a great summer activity! Don’t forget your water bottle.

I am eager to read some/many/all of everyone’s ideas. Our summer will be living in two different places for several weeks each while we are studying Thai immersion style or out in a village for our village orientation. The kids will be out of their normal routine and a bit more constricted on what is available for them to do since we will just be bringing essentials with us and living in unfamiliar surroundings.

But no matter where you are, I find one of the best boredom busters is simple.

Turn off the TV.
No TV, no videos, no computer games.
This encourages (forces) your kids to play together, with the neighbors, invent games, or play the ones languishing in your cupboard.

Along with turning the TV off, you need to be willing to let some mess creep into the house. If kids are doing art projects, inventing or making up games, it gets a bit messy. (Don’t get me wrong, expect clean up to happen and preferably before moving on to another project, but let the project have room to grow.)

Paint ball is certainly messy, but tons of fun too. Pull out those old holey clothes for this one and don those saftely goggles!

Some things we do when we have free time:
Bake cookies
Play games, all kinds
Puzzles (I know not everyone like this, but they are a big hit at our house and if you are not careful, a real time sucker!)
Write letters (email or snail Surely there are old friends and grandparents and such that would love a letter and certainly would write back, thus encouraging more letter writing on the part of your kids. )
—-and letters do not have to be just written; try pictures, collages, ‘ransom’ style from cutting magazines, ect…..

If you have enough of your own or other kids around, play outside games:
Kick the Can
Sardines
Soccer
Hide and Seek
Jumprope
Badminton (don’t even need to have a net)
Don’t forget old fashioned wood, nails and a hammer and imagination!

This next one may not sound like much fun for your summer vacationers, but definitely good for the family: Chores

Doesn’t Ema look like she is enjoying helping Mama with the laundry?

If the kids have free time, use it! Summer is a great time for Life Training. During the school year, if your family is like ours, time is gone each night after homework and activities. Learning housework (inside and out) is important, and helps free Mom up so trips to the park, zoo, beach ect.. are more feasible.
(When we still lived in WA, all three of the kids loved to chop firewood. It kept them busy for hours. And summer is when the wood needs to be chopped and stacked so it is ready for next winter. Not to mention good exercise )

Zach is very proud of his first piece of firewood. Chopped it all by himself.

That is way more than my 2 Baht worth.
See you at Shannons!

Happy Summer Break,
Tina

P.S. These were pictures from our time in Jungle Camp as part of our training with NTM. Even though life was ‘primitive’ and the kids had many chores each day and no ‘modern’ entertainment, all three of them will tell you it was one their favorite times!