I thought I had everything down.  I was growing as an English teacher here in Thailand.  I was learning different teaching techniques to make English fun, an absolute MUST here in Thailand.  I was teaching everyone from primary school on up through adults.  I was teaching in all sorts of places from church to schools to government offices.  I was meeting and getting to know many different people.  I shared the gospel or at least some encouragement from the Word for 5 minutes for every class hour that I taught.  (At least that was my goal.  I met that goal about 75% of the time.)  Children from Tung Ngiew School were coming to Sunday School at church on Sundays. Many days I ast after class at Tung Ngiew School sharing Christ with students and teachers.  A missionary's dream!!!  And, it was my life. 

Then, wouldn't you know it, God threw me a wrench.  The Bible student intern that was here working with the girls at the girls house left after only 1 term.  The new staff member that we contacted to come help us called me the day before she was supposed to come to say she wasn't coming after all.  What was I to do?  What did God want me to do?  What on earth was God doing?  Didn't God know I had my nice little ministry that I really enjoyed all set up?? But God, what about the girls?  God what about the relationships and the teaching that I've been doing?  I'm only one person and I can't do it all! I knew there was only one thing to do - move back in with the girls and give up most of my teaching.  I confess that it was a struggle.  I love the girls, I really do.  But God was asking me to give up what to me was a very fruitful ministry of teaching English and sharing the gospel to going back and dealing with the hormones of 12 teenage girls.  It meant getting up at 5 AM. (Can I be totally honest here and tell you how much I DETEST mornings??)  Dieing to self - there's simply no time to do what I want to do (emphasis on the "I".)  Within 2 weeks, there were major problems with 2 of the girls that I had to deal with.  Praise God it was me instead of the Bible student intern who was here last term because she couldn't have dealt with these issues.  I'm still teaching 2 hours a day 5 days a week at Tung Ngiew School and also teaching the boys and girls at the boys who live with us here.  It's a full time job with many hats and doing the best I can to meet the needs of all 12 girls that God has given to me at this time. 
All I can say is this:  God's grace is indeed sufficient.  Paul prayed 3 times that God would remove his thorn in the flesh.  I've prayed more than 3 times for a staff member to work with the girls.  And for this term (which ends the beginning of March), it's me.  Jaelyn, one the girls we're sending to Bible college, called me and said "Susan, for right now, you're the best staff member to work with the girls.  If you weren't, God would have brought someone else by now."  God's grace is sufficient.  Even when we think it's not.  Even when I'm driving to school and all I'm thinking is how tired I am and how I just want to sleep, but I get to school and miracle of miracles, I have the energy to teach and can easily smile because of the joy that God has given me in what I do.  And, at night when I'm tired and ready to drop, and one of the girls has some pressing issue that to me is really nothing at all, God gives me the grace to deal with her like He deals with me in all my "pressing" issues.

My precious friends and family, as we go into this busy holiday season, I just want to leave you with one thought:  GOD'S GRACE IS SUFFICIENT FOR YOUR EVERY NEED.

We have 12 girls this year. Duangjai and Nuay are new this year. The other 10 girls are returning from last year. Please choose one girl to pray for each day throughout the year. Ask God to bless her, pour out His Spirit upon her, give her strength and courage and wisdom beyond what she has. Thank you for your prayers and support. God bless you.

Creme

Nuay

Newt

Mone

Duangjai

See

Preaw

Keam

Peace

Naam

Nai

Sai

Name: Keam Seayang
From: Payapipak Village
Age: 17 years old
11^th grade Birthday: 25 September
I have 4 brothers and 3 sisters. In the future I want to be an evangelist My parents are Christians. Her family is extremely poor. She is a hard worker.
Name: Nam Saeli
From: Phanaswaan Village
Age: 14 years old; 9th grade Birthday: 30 May

I have 2 brothers and 1 sister. In the future I want to be a high school English teacher. Father was selling drugs and was arrested over 2 years ago. He committed suicide in prison. Mother is a new Christian, but not walking with the Lord. Naam has NOT accepted the Lord.

Name: Sai Saeyang

From: Thanthong Village
Age: 13 years old; 8th grade
Birthday: 1 December

I have 2 brothers and 4 sisters. In the future I want to be an elementary school teacher. Parents are Christians.

Name: Peace Sae Syong From: Mairunthawi Village

Age: 15 years old; 10th grade Birthday: 25 August

I have 1 brother and 2 sisters. In the future I want to be a tour guide or a flight attendant or a missionary or a boxer. Mother is a Christian but not walking with the Lord, and no else in the family is a believer. Her father wanted to send her to a Buddhist temple to study before she came here. Peace’s parents are now working in south Thailand.

Name: Newt Seafa
From: Saithong Village Age: 15 years old; 10th grade Birthday: 30 July

I have 1 brother and 3 sisters. In the future I want to be an artist or a marine biologist. Parents are divorced. Mother remarried, lives in the same village and refuses to speak to her daughters. Her older sister, Mone lives here as well. She lives with her father in the village. There are a myriad of family problems. Newt just committed her life to Christ during our summer camp.

Name: Mone Saefa From: Saithong village
Age: 17 years old; 11th grade Birthday: 27 December
I have 1 brother and 3 sisters. In the future I want to be a nurse or a policeman. Parents are divorced. Mother remarried, lives in the same village and refuses to speak to her daughters.

Name: Crème SeaSyong From: Mairungtawi Village
Age: 15 years old; 10th grade Birthday: 31 July

I have 3 brothers and 3 sisters. In the future I want to be a nurse. Parents aren’t Christians. She lived in a Buddhist temple one year before coming to live here.

Name: See Saeli From: Khunkan Village in Chiang Mai

Age: 17 years old; 11th grade Birthday: 26 March

I have 1 brother and 2 sisters. In the future I want to be a nurse. Parents are Christians. Father is an elder in the church.

Name: Nai Seayang From: Pong Nok village
Age: 14 years old; 9th grade Birthday: 1 November
I have 1 brother and 2 sisters. In the future I want to be an astronaut. (In reality she’s not sure what she wants to do.) Parents are divorced and she has no contact with her father whatsoever. She has NOT accepted the Lord.
Name: Praew Saehur From: Thaisamakhi village
Age: 19 years old; 12th grade Birthday: 8 September


I have 1 brother and 2 sisters. I want to go to Bible College and serve God full time, but I’m praying about what God wants me to do. Parents are divorced. Both parents have remarried and neither parent wants the children. They have been living on their own in the village before Praew came here last year. She has many struggles.

Name: Duang Jai (Heart) Seayang From: Payapipak Village

Age: 15 years old; 10th grade Birthday: November 29

I have 7 brothers and sisters. In the future I want to be a Chinese teacher. Her sister Keam lives here with us also. She is new this year. Her parents are believers, but are extremely poor.

Name: Nuay Sealau From: Kiewkan Village

Age: 12 years old; 7th grade Birthday: November 8

I have 4 brothers and sisters. In the future I want to be a doctor.
She has family members selling drugs and we’re concerned about her future.

Songkran water festival

We finished the summer camp just in time to play in the water during Sonkran, Thailand's yearly water festival. Sonkran is actually the traditional Thai new year. Water is "sprinkled" on people as a blessing. However, that "blessing" has turned into an all out water fight of major proportions. This year, Sonkran was from April 11 - 16. Poople stand at the side of the road with hoses and buckets spraying and dousing everyone who passes by. Others ride in the back of trucks with water buckets and throw water at everyone they see. A few people throw ice water. A few people color the water various colors. A few people add powder to the rinse. This year, for the first time in Chiang Khong, there was a cordoned off place where people played in soap suds. Yes, I did say soap suds. On the lighter side, there are also boat races and beauty contests and concerts.

I personally stayed dry and cool by driving the truck up and down the streets of Chiang Khong with the girls in the back of the truck playing in the water. And a good time was had by all. :-)

Summer camp 2012

March 19 - April 11 2012

We held a summer camp for the boys and girls who live with us. 10 girls and 6 boys attended. The staff consisted of Bible students doing summer internships with us as well as other Bible college/college students that have lived with us in the past.

Weekdays started at 8 AM with Old Testament history taught by Jaelyn followed by 2 hours of English. English was taught by Pha, a Hmong American who is here visiting. It's such a blessing to see Hmong Americans have a heart for the Hmong here in Asia. Afternoons we broke up into smaller groups for a more enriching learning experience. The theme for the afternoons was Christian service. La taught a group on teaching the Bible to children. Pha taught a group on sharing personal testimony/evangelism. Jaelyn and Yua taught on leading worship. Chai taught piano/keyboard. We now have some budding musicians!! Many of the students can already play guitar and one of the boys can play drums. Every evening we had a time of games/worship and teaching from the Word. The worship was student led and the Bible students shared from the Word on a rotating basis. Late afternoons and evenings were filled with games and sports and everyone had a blast! Yee, pastor Somboon's wife even did a short seminar on basic first aid which everyone loved. Nu did a short seminar on waiting for the person that God has for you rather than getting married quickly. That was the highlight of entire time for some of the students. The last night, the 11th, we had a banquet and the students shared what they had learned. Time and space don't permit me to share everything, but I would like to share a few highlights.

God is raising up a few worship leaders among the students, cheifly Daniel.

Esther (a nickname) has decided to give up reading teenage romance novels in favor of reading the Bible and has given her books to me to hold onto.

Nai shared a Bible lesson with the children in the village where we are teaching children for the first time ever. She really has a gift!

None of the boys had ever done anything like this before and the first day there was nothing but complaining from the boys, but the testimonies from all of the boys at the end was that it was really fun and nothing like what they expected.

For the first time in a long time I've seen our students, both boys and girls take an active interest in teaching children in the village and they are really get into teaching and spending time with the children in the village. And, most importantly, they have a heart to do it.

Some of our students actually wrote their own worship songs to teach the children in the village. The songs are totally awesome!!

Travel, travel and more travel!!

Straight travel for 7 days.
We had a great time, but there is no place like home, sweet home! Home here in Chiang Khong, that is.
March 8th, the girls and I left Chiang Khong bright and early at 4:30 AM (some of you didn’t think I could actually get up that early did you??) to travel to Pastor Somboon’s wedding. It was a 12 hour drive, the last hour going up and down 3 mountains before finally reaching a Hmong village nestled in a small valley. According to Hmong custom, the wedding was held at the bride’s village. We spent the night in the village, and attended the ceremony the following morning. The boys at the boys’ house arrived before we did, and they did a great job of decorating the church.
The girls at the girls’ house helped with various aspects of the ceremony.
It was a beautiful ceremony. The bride, Yee, was stunning in her wedding dress, and the groom’s face was full of love and joy. It was a blessing to be a part of the ceremony. After the ceremony we drove back to the groom’s village to be part of the reception there. (Again, according to Hmong custom.) That was a 9 hour drive, and we arrived at midnight. And, yes, I was driving! After the ceremony the following day, we drove back to Chiang Khong. Sunday
evening we had a small graduation ceremony for 2 of the boys, Wee and Tong, who
are graduating high school this year, as well as 3 girls and 2 boys who are
finishing 9th grade this year, a milestone for Thai students. Monday, many of the girls went back home to their villages and I went to Chiang Rai for a much needed 2 day vacation. I got a 3 hour massage for $12. I love this country!! Wednesday, our last day of travel, we went to
the border town of Measai as I needed to renew my visa. I had successfully renewed it in February, but they now stamp your passport for 1 month, and then you come back and they
stamp it for one year. Why? I don’t know.
I took 3 of the girls who are still here along with Mai who used to live
at the girls house and came back to help me this week. Phab, a Hmong American who is visiting and Chai went too. We had a great day of shopping. On the way back, we decided to visit a monkey cave. Well, I call it a monkey cave, but in reality it’s a mountain with a cave. There are many wild monkeys around. It’s a blast! There’s a great view at the top.
By the time we walked back down, we noticed that the sky was really dark. We had been driving back about 45 minutes when the wind and hail started coming down and rocking the truck. There were 5 people sitting in the back of the truck when this happened. They got soaked. I could only see about a foot in front of the car as I was driving and we were out in the middle of nowhere.
After about 10 minutes, we located a small restaurant on the outskirts
of a small town, and we stopped there to wait out the storm. I got out of the car, and all of the girls were grinning from ear to ear! They quite obviously enjoyed it more than I did.
Preaw, one of the girls, said to me “oh, Susan, I’m so glad you’re not crying”. She knows I get freaked out by this stuff. During all of our travels, the girls were great. Whenever I would
get freaked out, or get really tired, or there were more windy roads, or we weren’t sure which route to take, the girls would tell me to go ahead in faith. They would tell me that God is
with us and He will get us safely where we need to go. I am so thankful for each of these girls that
God has brought here this year. Just when I think that what I’m teaching isn’t getting through and that what I’m doing isn’t making a difference, God does little things to show me that He is
indeed working whether I see it or not.