The Final Days

Hey Everyone! 

I am in my final days before heading back to America. This week has been full and has flown by so fast. Tuesday will be here before I know it. I'm excited to come home! I'm sure it will feel weird to be back in the States and I will go through culture shock. I am really looking forward to seeing all of you. Thank you to those of you who faithfully read my blog and send emails and comments. They always give me a smile and make my day. Those of you that know me pretty well know that I am not looking forward to packing! Meh! My plan is to start tomorrow. Tomorrow is already shaping up to be a full day. 

Students are leaving tomorrow, thankfully that last group I have to say goodbye to until I leave. The group is getting smaller and smaller. Mr. Drawbaugh left today. Nathan left on Thursday. A couple of students left prior to that. The school is becoming a ghost town! In service today, a few of us sang special music and half of the congregation up singing. It made me laugh!

Let's see this week, I felt somewhat like a tourist so I have photos to share with you. They aren't off of my camera. Sadly, I dropped it while I was getting ready for graduation and now it won't focus. :( I'm going to see if I can get it fixed or maybe I'll have to start looking into getting a new one. I'm thankful it worked well for gradation though. Anyway, I have some photos from Mr Drawbaugh and Erika. 

The first ones are from the Tiger Kingdom

La Nu Nan and Me with our tiger friend. He doesn't seem too interested in us! 

The 3 tigers that we got to pet! They are like giant kitties! Only I think tigers are cooler than cats! :) 

Norah, me and Fon with the tiger. Check out his face! 

This was a lot of fun. They roamed around while we were in there so the trainers gave us extra time, which was nice. We were all a little nervous at first. I can now say, I've pet a tiger! So cool! 

I also went to the zoo with one of my students, Norah. We had a lot of fun. It was good to get to hang out with her before I leave. She is the one with the cute little girls that I post photos of. They will not be here when I return to Thailand. 

Mom and Dad, you can quickly skip over the next photo, ok? :)

Me on a motorbike! 

Okay, so I'm sure those of you are geniuses out there are saying this is staged. Well, yes it is. But I drove to farm yesterday on a motorbike. No worries, there isn't a lot of traffic in our tiny village, but it was a HUGE accomplishment for me. Starting the bike was a bit challenging since it is done with your right leg, but other than that all was well! 

I'm still finishing things up around here. I'm not quite finished with my curriculum. I've been slacking this week, but it's now crunch time. I'm putting on the finishing touches. I just found out what classes I'll be teaching this next year and have already had a couple meetings about them. I wish I had a little more time here to work a little more on things for next year prior to coming home, but I'm ready to be home. I'm thankful for the internet. :) 

This week a most exciting thing happened! Two of our graduate students were baptized! It's so exciting to see people take that step of faith and say they want to walk God's way of life. They will both be here next year so I'm really excited to see how they grow in their spiritual walk. 

Ah Moon is doing a ton better. She's still taking antibiotics for the MRSA on the bone, but we are praying that all goes away. She has an xray in one month. :) We are so glad she's back. She's at the farm most of the time, but it's fun to go over and see her running around and playing. We missed her while she was in the hospital. That's another miracle that God has preformed since being Thailand. God is so good. It's awesome to see how God can work and heal. We are thankful she is getting better and better! 

I think that's all for now. Hope you're having a wonderful day! 

See all of you very soon! 

Hugs and Love,

Lainy J.