Adventures in the Sonshine: Bangkok! [10 weeks later...]

It's hard to believe, but I've been in Bangkok now for almost 10 weeks.

I am so sorry I'm awful at updating.

I don't know how to describe this to you all in words, I just wish you all could just come and experience it with me so you would understand.
Thailand has been really good so far. The transition so far has been pretty simple and not too terribly chaotic (which if any of you know my life well, this is not normal).

The Thai language is hard sometimes because they have 5 different tones, so if you use the wrong tone, you could be saying something completely different than what you meant. Thankfully, I have met some really sweet friends here that are very patient with helping me learn how to write my name and learn some Thai phrases... Although some of the phrases they've taught me aren't very useful. For example, I know how to say "Do you wanna die??" but I still don't know the names of the days of the week.

Thai food. Thai food is amazing. I could go on forever about how much I love it. It's so spicy, but I'm building up my tolerance to spicy food so I can be as cool as all the Thai people. I'm getting there! I've never eaten a meal here that I haven't liked yet. Also, coconut water is the greatest. And the fresh fruit.. I never knew what I was missing in my life until now, but I will never be the same. I can't describe to you how delicious everything is.

I'm usually pretty busy here, but it really depends on the week or day. Some days I go and go from sun up until sun down, but other days we hardly have anything going on so we can fill in wherever we're needed.

In a "normal" week, I teach 5-6 English classes, help out at Napada [it's a handbag business that employs women from the community], work at the local food bank, help out at the kids clubs on the weekends, help teach Sunday school, and I spend a lot of time hanging out with some students from the university and helping out where I can. We also have one day off a week, which I sometimes use to explore a little bit. I wish I could say I've been taking millions of pictures, but I've been pretty bad at documenting things so far; I've just been excited I actually get to experience it. At the bottom, you can see some of the pictures I've gotten from my adventures :)

Sometimes I step back and look around me and it hits me that I'm all the way in THAILAND. I'm so thankful for a God who is with me though. Thailand is so far away from everything that's familiar, but it's nowhere near out of His reach. It's a huge comfort to know that He has been and will be with me every single step of the way. It's a huge honor to be able to see God's kingdom moving on this side of the world and I'm excited for the next months to come!

Thank you so much for praying for me. It really is amazing to see how God has already worked through this internship. I'm so thankful we serve a God who cares and who works in such amazing ways.

Please continue to be praying for me as I buckle down and continue to dive into Thai culture and relationships. I'm so glad I get to be here, but I know it'll start to get rocky after the initial excitement wears off. I'm learning to depend on God for everything and just kinda go with it. He has it all figured out, I just need to put one foot in front of the other and go :)

Here's a list of things you can be praying for:

Pray for my English classes that I teach. I love my students so much, but English is sometimes a very hard language to teach, especially when I don't know Thai.
Pray for a new Bible study we've started with some of the university students.
Pray for me as I find new ways I can serve. I just changed my schedule around and I have a little bit more time to find other ministries to work with.
Pray for God's Kingdom in Thailand. It's easy to be discouraged that the Church is so small compared to such a big city, but God is still moving and still working in lives in amazing ways.
Pray for New City Fellowship Church specifically. Pray for them as they continue working in their country long after I'm gone. I only get to see a small glimpse of how much God is using this church, but it is a beautiful thing to see how God can use such a small church for great things.