English Class

Today was a great day. I feel like I have had more of those than not, lately. Thank You Lord. To begin, I had a nice chat with a friend on Skype for a while, along with making some much needed headway on homework. Then I had a date with one of the other staff here, Joanna, for my birthday. We went for coffee and lunch before heading into town for a nice Thai massage. Those ladies sure know how to give a good massage, let me tell you. It is painful at times, but mostly relaxing. I was really worried toward the end of the massage that the lady would put me in a position that makes me laugh hysterically. Last time I was in Thailand I had a massage with a bunch of friends and toward the end the lady pulled my arms out to my side and stuck my chest out with her knees in my back. I felt like I was recreating a scene from Titanic, and I could help but laugh at the hilarity of the reference. I felt bad for laughing and ruining the nice stretch, but I really couldn't help it, try as I might. This massage was very similar to that one, and I even glanced at my friend Joanna who was being manhandled into that very same stretch. "Oh no," I thought. "Here it comes." I proceeded to think of sad things like a dream I had last night where my dad made me get rid of my dog, or my grandma dying. I did NOT want to crack up this time! I was really getting quite nervous about the ordeal. This lady is going to think I'm wacko if I just start laughing out of nowhere. It was bad enough that I couldn't keep a straight face when she washed my feet. Thankfully, my fears were not realized. She finished with different stretches, and I was quite relieved.

After the massage we went to grab some more coffee (we each had one tea and one coffee between the two stops at coffee shops) and wait for some friends to meet up with me so we can go teach English together at the local hospital. We have a group of 3+ nurses who faithfully stay after their shifts to spend an hour with us in an English class. My friend Susie began doing this class with these wonderful ladies several months ago and has asked me and another woman to continue the classes with them. Last week was our first week doing the class. This week I decided that I would fulfill a requirement for one of my classes by doing a flannel board lesson with the nurses there. I LOVE killing two birds with one stone. Part of me wondered if the flannel board would go over well. Even with kids they are often considered outdated, it seems. In Thailand, though, people are funny. Adults LOVE silly games and things that we would consider childish. I was relieved to find that they were all very engaged in the lesson and listened intently. Of course their English is not the best, but they demonstrated that they understood the story by taking turns recreating portions of it until the whole story was finished. I was really impressed with how much they were able to recreate and say in English!

The real beauty of this English class is that we get to teach them English through Bible stories. These women are all Buddhist, but they are open to hearing stories about God from the Bible. I told them the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden with the serpent, the forbidden fruit, and God banishing them from the Garden and cursing them for their sin. The questions that these women had after the lesson were incredible! They asked questions about the tree of life, the serpent, death, and even how we all came to know Jesus. I felt so blessed that we were all able to share with these beautiful ladies the hope that we have in Jesus because of this simple flannel-board Bible story about Adam and Eve. I trust that these seeds we plant will bear fruit in time. I look forward to more "English lessons" with these women as we get to share more about the hope that we have!