Wow! This has been a full week!

Hey, hey!! 

I am so thankful for a day to stop and pause and reflect. I can hardly believe that it's already Friday night! But in the same respect, this has been quite a long week!

Seng Moon needs your prayers. She is in the hospital somehow she has contracted MRSA. Usually you only get this when you are in the hospital, however she got it when she wasn't. She is 2 years old and the daughter of one of our grad students from Burma. All of us teachers went to visit her last night and we got a couple of smiles, but not the same Ah Moon that we love and miss. She looked so sad just lying on the bed. They have started giving her antibiotics that seem to be working quite well. So we are hoping she gets to come back soon. In the mean time due to her getting MRSA and not knowing where or how. We have been disinfecting EVERYTHING! Everything smells like bleach. It's like spring cleaning in January. The school is quite clean now. The walls have been washed down, the floors, the tables, the chairs, anything and everything you can think of! The afternoon classes were canceled so we could get everything disinfected and boy are we all tired. 

Our Bible Study tonight was on memorization of Scriptures. Just some general ones that we should know what they are and their references. It was fun. I think Nathan did a good job, even considering he had a tough crowd! 

In the realm of classes, they are still going quite well. Reading is trucking right along. We are reading from the Bible, which has been fun. So far we've read Esther and Jonah. It has led to some really, really good discussions. The fun thing is that we were talking about Jonah not only in my Reading 3 class, but also in my Bible 1 class. It was really neat to see their different perspectives. In writing we are cover a lot of grammar as the semester comes to a close. Oh man! I'm not a huge fan. It's so hard to explain when they want concrete rules. English always breaks its own rules. It's gotten to the point where the 3 of us English teachers start to analyze what we say how we say it and whether it's proper or not. As far as proniciation goes, Ben and Erika are from MN, Nathan is from MS and I'm from CA so as you can tell from the states, we say things differently. We all think we're right. The poor students! It's pretty funny though! I think Nathan and I are the closest in pronouncing things the same way minus the "fixin' to" and "ya'll s" although I must admit I said ya'll for the first time in class today. I caught myself after I said it. The students didn't catch me, but I did. Writing was a bit disappointing this week after grading the students' persuasive papers. We have to do it again. The fourth day explaining it might be the charm. :) I really want to see the lights bulbs go on! In Health, everyone passed their tests! YAY!! They are pretty difficult tests. I have two makeups, but I'm confident that they will pass as well!  In the teaching class, we have covered philosophy in education and now we are talking about lesson plans. The joy of teachers. ha...ha... We are going to cover some methods for teaching. The following week we will hopefully have placements for them to teach. It is quite interesting being on the administrative/ teacher side as opposed to the student side of this whole process. Overall the week of classes went extremely well. Please pray that the last 2 and 1/2 weeks of classes and half a week of finals go well! Everyone is getting excited for graduation and the end of school. 

Time for an update on the leg. I've been walking for one week now. It's still quite exciting. At first I didn't know what to do with my hands when I was walking. I couldn't help but laugh at myself. On Monday, it was really nice to be able to carry my things out to class all by myself. I even carried a cup of coffee and didn't spill it! Quite exciting! It's the little things that make me happy! I still walk pretty slowly. Going up and down stairs I still rely more on my left leg than my right. The pain comes and goes. I think this is a good sign. My ankle still swells up quite a bit. I may be doing too much on it, but I generally listen to my body. If it hurts too badly I won't push it. I've been walking on daily basis to build up my muscles in my leg again. Wow! My right calf has never been so sore. I was kind of shocked at this. 

Mom and Dad, you can skip over this next part! :)  I rode on a motorbike into Chiang Mai for the first time Thursday night. It was kind of scary, but not too bad. Nathan is a good, safe driver. It's not him that I worry about, it's the other people on the road. We didn't have a truck around when we were going to head in to see Ah Moon. So, we had to take bikes. It's probably a good thing to ride on a motorbike again, like falling off a bicylce? Especially since I'm coming back next year, it's probably a good thing. I think at this point, I still like the truck more. 

For being such a productive, full week, I don't have any photos for you. I think I should get some of my without crutches on here. I'm working on it. 

A verse, I want to leave you with is Jonah 4:11 "But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals. Shouldn’t I feel sorry for such a great city?” If you haven't read the book of Jonah in while, I would suggest reading it. I remember hearing the story of Jonah when I was child and thinking oh that's such a good story. Jonah didn't obey God, the fish swallowed him, he repented and did what God told him to do. Great story, right? But reading on further, there is so much more meaning in the story. The fact that Jonah gets mad at God just causes me to shake my head sometimes. The analogy that Jonah is given is really good and applicable to our lives in different ways. This story provoked some really, really good discussion. Is it okay to be angry? Or are we supposed to be happy about everything all the time? Just a couple of thoughts that came up in class.

My countdown is now at 32 days! I'll be in the good ol' USA so soon! Kind of crazy! I feel like I just got here and I feel like I've been here forever. I'll be seeing all of you soon. Hope you're have a fantastic day and this finds you well! 

Sending My Love and Hugs from the Lovely Country of Thailand,

Lainy J.

Dai deern!!

Sa wat dee kha! 

Sa baay dee mai? Wang sa baay dee!

Let's see if you can figure out what I've said! :) I will translate the title of my blog, though. 

This evening I went to the doctor. It's been four months since my accident. It's been a good four months. TRYING, but good. I am thankful for the experiences and lessons that I've learned. I pray that I will not forget them. I hope that they have molded me into a better person. I know I have a completely different outlook on life. I am much more okay with asking others for help instead of being a I can do it myself person and if someone offers, it usually means they want to help. :) All part of lessons learned. The other day when I was journaling, I was actually able to be thankful for my crutches. Hmmm... 4 months ago I would NOT have said that! One of my prayers prior to coming to Thailand and I continue to pray is that God would cause me to grow and be stretched. The crazy thing about this prayer is that we like to put limitations on how we would like to be grown and stretched. We would prefer it be on our timetable and in the which we think is best. Well, the LORD usually has a different agenda and it's usually much, much better than we could have expected or even fathomed. So, I think I've been stretched in ways and grown- ways that I didn't expect that's for sure! Soooo all that said to tell you that, I am now able to walk crutch free!!!!! I am so thankful! God is so good. He's the amazing physician. My doctor seemed kind of shocked to see how well the bone has healed. I told Erika, "I know why! I have the BEST doctor!" :) God has blessed me tremendously even through the ordeals and trials that came with the broken leg and crutches, there were many, many blessings. We went out to dinner after we finally got to see the doctor and when we got ready to leave I went to grab my crutches! Oh that's right! I don't need them. This has happened quite a few times in the past few hours. I need to work on my posture!!!!! AHH!! I know my mom would be telling me,  "Stand up straight, young lady!" After having hunched over crutches for four months, this is going to be tough. I ask the doctor about sports and he said that I should be able to not too intensely, but in 2 more months, I should be as good as new! I think I might still be staying away from football for a while. I can take the metal out in 11/2 -2 years and it has about a month recovery time. 

Now a couple of stories!!

When I got home, one of my students came to the door and she had something in her hand. I started to walk toward the door and I nearly thought she was going to fall backward seeing me walk without my crutches! She said, "Oh Ajan! You can walk!?!?" It was quite funny! She had the two little ones, Myulee and Myula with her. Fon had to sit down. The youngest Myula ran to find her mom and as she ran out the door, she yelled, "Aj. Elainea dai deern!!!!" She did this a couple of times. She was saying as I'm sure you can guess, "She can walk!!!" I couldn't help, but laugh. It was so sweet though. They were all so happy. They were shocked and sad when I came home on crutches. They were just as EXCITED to see me off of crutches! It was really sweet. 

I am still pondering getting a t-shirt made as a souvenir that says, "Yes, I broke my leg in Thailand on a motorbike. Yes, I have crutches. Yes, I am a Farang!" 

Other than my BIG news, this week has gone smoothly and everyone is looking forward to graduation. It's about a month away and you know what that means! Yes, I'll be home in a little over a month! Time sure does fly! I know, I know, I've said that a million times, but it's true! 

A verse that has been on my mind lately, that I want to leaver you with is Proverbs 3:5&6 "Trust in the LORD with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths." In this time of uncertainty, economic struggles, and just everyday life stuff, it's nice to know that we don't have to try and understand everything. We just need to be our trust in God, have faith, and continue to walk in the ways He leads wherever that may be. It's doesn't matter how big the step. He'll be there right by our side. It's really reassuring. 

Happy Sabbath! A most assuredly happy one it is. So nice to rest after a week full of classes.  

Sending Love and Hugs from Beautiful Mae Sa Luang,

Lainy J.

First Week Back!

Hey Everyone! 

I hope this finds you well! 

Our first of classes went well. It was full of teaching and many projects, but overall everything went fairly smoothly. I was even observed by a student from the university that Erika attends for an assignment she has to do. It went better than I expected, which was nice. Friday I played a movie in my class so the students can compare the movie and the book. Well, I thought all would go well, but technology and Thailand never work quite right! It took about 30 minutes finally figuring out a way to get it to work for various reasons. In then end the students crowded around my laptop and watched the movie. It was pretty comical to see. My first year Bible class gave presentations yesterday on their favorite Bible character that we've talked about so far in class. Hannah, Noah, Solomon, Samson and David were the people they chose. I was really impressed. :) It's sooo EXCITING being able to see how much they have grown in their English abilities. On Friday nights, we used to have what we called thanksgiving. I think I've written about this before, but in case I haven't... we sit in a circle and we around and tell what we are thankful for that week. It could be one thing or it could be ten things. At the end, the person leading it takes prayer requests. I'm explaining all of this to tell you that I think part of the reason the first year students are doing so well is that they would faithfully ask every Friday night to be prayed for and the God would help them learn English.  

Last night we had a really good Bible study. It was on unclean and clean meats. The person giving the Bible study always has a tough job. By the time Friday evening rolls around, everyone is pretty tired after a full week. 

I still think the weather here is quite chilly in the early morning and at night. I have added a third quilt to my bedding. It's kind of strange especially when I think about the weather when I first got here. I only used a sheet and no blanket. It was that warm and now I'm using 3 blankets and sleeping in sweats! Kind of Crazy! 

This week I went and met with the director of a Field Based TESOL (Teaching English to Speaker of Other Languages) at APU. I am planning on applying and hoping to get accepted for this next year. We shall see. I think it will help as a teacher in general, but will really help me here at Legacy. They meet for classes twice a year in LA and in Chiang Mai. So that aspect seems perfect. They assign you work and you email it to your professors. I will still be able to teach here at Legacy and do the work for the program, when I'm not working on Legacy things. I think it will be really good. I am still in the process of applying so I don't know anything yet. If you could keep me in your prayers regarding this, that would be great. 

Okay, I promised I would put up some photos from my bday and here they are...  

Aren't my shoes absolutely LOVELY! I think they match quite well! Ben decided to jump in the photo!

This one makes me laugh really, really hard! Nathan bowling with his helmet on. It was sitting on the table and I said, "Oh! You should bowl with it on." I think the Thais thought we were nuts. 

Me bowling and Miss Erika helping. :)

I was winning! So I had to take a photo because that changed quickly. I think I had a pretty good excuse though! :) I'm EH... the computer messed up when they were typing in the names. 

My beautiful shoes and oh so swollen leg. :(

Okay, that's all for now. Keep all of us in your prayers! 

Lots of Love,

Lainy

First Day Back!

Hey Everyone! :) 

We had our first day of classes back from winter break today. It went quite well. It started entirely too early and I should be sleeping right now except that the caffeine hasn't warn off yet. This should happen soon, hopefully! 

Today I started the new teaching class that I was asking for prayer about and everyone must have been praying because it went really, really well! :) I was very happy with the first day of class and I'm excited for the rest of the semester and seeing my students grow. Not only will they grow, but I know for sure that I will too. It was fun listening to their ideas. The class is setup where it could be up to 2 hours in length, but today was only about an hour. I don't want them to get overwhelmed yet. After class I was talking with one of the students and it blows my mind that I'm attempting to teach them how to teach in a language that isn't their native language. That just seems daunting. I had to slow down a couple times in class because their English is so good that I forget I'm teaching English Language Learners. So another adventure begins in the world of Legacy. I definitely still would like your prayers. It is my prayer that they will gain knowledge from this class that they can use, even if it's in their own personal lives. I think about what I'm trying to teach and it can be kind of daunting especially when I feel as though I'm still trying to figure out how to teach myself. But I'm up for the challenge and I hope what I share with them will be useful in one way or another. I'm sure I'll be telling you more about this class in the future. I'll stop for now.

My other classes went really well too! Reading, Writing, Bible and Journalism! It was a full, busy day. It was good, though. In the Bible class (I'm teaching 1st year), I had the students pick their favorite Bible character from the Old Testament that we have talked about in class. They chose Solomon, Samson, David, Noah, and Deborah. On Friday they have to present this person to the class. I'm excited to see how they do. They have been doing presentations in their English class so I'm sure they'll do fine on this. It's exciting to see how much English the first year students know. Seeing the progress is always uplifting. 

Yesterday we went out for dinner for my Birthday. Thanks Guys!! It was quite delicious! We found a nice little steak house that played blue grass type music. The music didn't really fit in Thailand. You almost forgot you were in Thailand. After dinner, we went bowling. Yes, I know what you're thinking... "You're still on crutches!" This is true. However, I walked up to the lane on crutches and then Erika would bring me my bowling ball. :) I'm sure it was amusing for all the people around. It was a lot of fun. On top of the fact of me being on crutches, we were all dressed up so they probably thought we were absolutely nuts! We're farang... so I guess that's enough said. We took some photos. I'll try to get them up, but my camera was being funny; it didn't like the lighting in the bowling alley. 

Leg Update: Tonight it is quite sore. I probably did too much on it and it's cold (62 F), which doesn't help on the pain factor. But other than that, it's getting stronger and stronger. I've been able to put more weight on it. I got to the doctor in about 2 weeks. I'm praying for the amazing news of getting off my crutches. :) 

I think that's all I for this update... I'm sure I'll have more stories by the end of the week to update you with this weekend. I am really glad to be back teaching. The students all seem refreshed and ready to go too. I hope that everyone's optimism continues strong through the end of the semester. 

I just want to say thank you for all your prayers and your notes. It means so much to me. I know that people are praying because things work out that seemingly shouldn't work out. So, thank you.

Lots of Love and Hugs,

Lainy 

 

Visa Run #3: Check Plus!

Hey Everyone! 

I am  back from my visa run. My passport is stamped and I'm good to go until I return home. That means I'm going to be home for a visit in less than 90 days! :) It was a relaxing trip. It was just Erika and me on the trip. We took  bus from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai. It was a short ride... only 3 1/2 hours and the bus was really comfortable. We arrived at the bus station an hour too early for our bus, but it's better to be early than late, right? The hour went by pretty quickly and then we were on our way. I did take photos this time. 

Waiting... Waiting... in the bus station.

Our hotel room. It was quite nice. The beds were ok. But the showers were HOT! You had to turn the dial toward the cold side in order to take a shower. It was amazing! I haven't had a really hot shower in quite a while.

While we were there, I wanted to get paper. I haven't journaled in a few days and so I needed to find some paper to write on. We went to a bookstore, but they didn't have anything. We ran into an interesting guy (as in the weird sort of interesting). He thought I was from Germany. It made me laugh. Not so much! He told us plenty of stories about his life while we were there. When you travel, you meet some interesting folks. They automatically feel like talking to you when they see that you're on crutches. I guess it's kind of like a woman being pregnant, people simply come and touch her belly for whatever reason. Just makes me laugh. Anyway, I asked where I could buy paper, and where else, but 7/11. Of course, 7/11s are all over Asia. I mean all over and if you need something, they probably have it. So this is a photo of me with my new found notebook. Not ideal, but it'll have to do.

Me in Myanmar (Burma). This is probably one of the easiest borders to cross in Thailand. It was fairly simple. Hand them your passport go to another building pay $10, they take your photo and give you another card, which you turn in to get your passport back when you come back. You can come right back across and you're good to go. We went to look around the market. I didn't take any photos of the market. If you've seen one in Asia, you have seen them all. The only difference here is that they try and sell you cigarets as soon as you get down there. Apparently they are a ton cheaper in Burma than Thailand. I'm glad I wasn't looking for any.  

Looking towards Myanmar.

Welcome to Thailand sign! :) YAY! 

 

Here are my stamps, quite blurry, I know. Sorry! But you get the idea. I am hoping to go to Burma next year and go to Rangoon. 

After returning, Erika and I were starving so we found a place that had hamburgers. They were actually pretty good surprisingly enough. Much improvement from our attempt at Farang food at the hotel. I ordered what I thought would be a grilled cheese, oh man! It was was 3 pieces of white bread slightly toasted, with some sort of sauce, tomato, cucumber and onion, and 2 pieces of processed cheese and a fried egg on top. Not really what I was going for. lol! 

Erika at the restaurant where we had hamburgers. 

The flower there. A pretty red carnation... it's the flower for the month of January just FYI.

Here is our hotel... Laluna. It was quite nice!! 

This is what you saw as you walked in. The lobby was open air. It was nice.

This was the walk way to our room with lovely plants and flowers. 

Our shoes outside our room, of course.

The view from the door of our room. 

Basking in the BEAUTIFUL SUN!! Soaking up my vitamin D for the next couple of months. They had a hot tub, but it was broken! SAD DAY! The water in the pool was pretty chilly so I opted to just stick my legs in and not swim. It was nice and relaxing! 

My new turtle friend, Henry. 

The hotel has beautiful landscaping and lots of pretty flowers. So I pulled a Nathan and went and took pictures of all of the flowers. So here they are... 

This is one of my favorite photos.

Of course I had to take time to smell the flowers, as well as take photos of them! :) 

Before we headed back to Chiang Mai, we stopped to get lunch. They had a gerber daisy on the table, which is my all-time favorite flower and it's red so I had to take a picture! 

Pretty! 

Black and white to see the texture. 

We saw some sunflowers too. But I didn't get a chance to take a picture of them. They were really pretty though.

Waiting for the Sawng Tao.

On our way to the bus station to go home after some really nice R&R!

This visa run was much needed. My view on everything wasn't the way I wanted it to be. But after having a couple of days away, I feel as though I am ready to conquer the world. Well, at least the last 6 weeks of school! Same, Same! :) 

Now that I've updated my blog, I have to get ready for school to start. I have to get my lesson plans ready for this week. I start my new teaching class on Monday as well. I hope it all goes well. I am really excited about that class. I just hope that I can do a good job teaching it. 

All of the teachers are really looking forward to going home for our summer break and seeing friends and family. Please keep all of us in your prayers as we finish out the school year that we can do the best that we can with our abilities and talents. It will be quite different next year not have all of our 3rd year students here, which has been the majority of my classes this year. Please keep the students in your prayers as well as they figure out what they are going to do after Legacy. 

Times are tough financially. Please pray that Legacy will continue to receive the funding that they need in order to continue the ministry that is being done here in Thailand.  

I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying their new year! I'll see all of you soon!

Lots of Love and Hugs,

Lainy 

Happy New Year!!

Happy 2009!!! 

It's 2009! It's hard to believe! Time surely does fly by quickly! I hope that everyone's year has started off well. We went to the Sexton's son and daughter in law's to ring in the New Year. We had yummy Thai food, Thai hospitality, karaoke and there was a gift exchange. It was a lot of fun. It was nice to get out of Mae Sa Luang too. In the gift exchange, which was like a white elephant gift exchange with a little spin on it, I received a wall decoration with elephants on it. I think I faired pretty well. 

I didn't make too many New Year Resolutions. I have a couple... 1. Walk without crutches at some point this year. (Maybe, I'll burn them! Or should I keep them for a souvenir?) 2. Read through the Bible in a year. Mr. Drawbaugh gave the people in the Doctrines Class a Bible Reading plan for one year. I think it's a great idea!  

This week has been fairly productive. I'm getting things on my to do list checked off, which is nice. Erika, Ben and I are heading to Chiang Rai, which is north of Chiang Mai to cross over the Myanmar border on Sunday. I can stay in the country another month before HAVING to leave, but we're on break and it would be good to get my passport stamped and then I'll be good until I fly home in 2 months from today!!! I'll take photos and post them when I return. Prayers for traveling safety would be appreciated. 

Here is a map of Thailand. You can see where I'll be going. We'll take a bus from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai. Then we'll take a bus from Chiang Rai to Myanmar (Burma).

We have one week of break left and then life will pretty intense until graduation. There is still a lot to do before school starts. Prayers for the teachers, students and staff would be appreciated as always. 

I think that's all for now. 

All of you in Westmorland, I hope you have a great time this weekend! I'll miss being there. 

I hope everyone is doing well. Thank you for your notes and prayers. 

Love and Hugs,

Lainy