HERE!!

Ah! I’m here! After a really long flight with a good entertainment selection but crappy seats and little sleep, I finally arrived!! Four friends came to pick me up at the airport and brought me back to my new room! This time I’m on the 5^th floor, so it will take much less time and effort to climb the stairs than it did when I lived on the 8^th floor for a month! I’m pleased about that! I spent great quality time with Lisa, the director at Santisuk, who is also from the US. We chatted for a couple hours about life and ministry and jobs before it was time for the church service. I got to see almost everyone I met last time! Reactions ranged from squealing, clingy embraces to “You’re not real!” to my student seeing me from his motorcycle on the street and waving maniacally, hoping that I would see him, too. I felt so welcomed back! And I’ve even made friends with people who were just acquaintances before. Yesterday I took it easy and just bought some minutes for my Thai sim card and got my iphone unlocked to use here. Then I went to a nice dinner with two friends at a place right on the river! They then proceeded to buy me food to eat for breakfasts and tell me that if I ever needed anything, they would be right at my service. People here are so kind and are sure to tell you upfront that they want to do things with you. We need a little more of that in the States. I’ve had issues trying to get my internet working here, which is why it’s taken me so long to post! My friend Natalie from home is here is this week and I’m so excited to see her and introduce her to everyone here and share with her a little bit of my life here. Today, I woke up much earlier than I had hoped, but that’s okay I supposed. I hope I can get over the jet lag quickly. Cell group was at the house of a couple I had never met before, but whom I already love. I can feel a definitely difference already in the way I am open to people. I am so excited to develop these relationships more. SO excited! Tomorrow starts my first session at Santisuk. Normally volunteer teachers are not assigned more than 2 classes to teach, but they had 3 teachers drop out at the last minute, so I stepped up and am teaching 3 classes, which still isn’t too bad. They are all level one classes, so I don’t have to do interviews with students outside of class and it’s the same as I taught already, so I am familiar with the material. I teach from 7-9am, 10am-12pm and 1-3pm, so it’s not too bad because my day is completely free after that! A really cool and important and possibly God thing that I found out when I got here is that Santisuk is possibly going to hire foreign teachers so that there will never be a shortage of native English speakers. Immediately it sounded like such a blessing, because I had already wished that it were a possibility. It really is perfect for me because the curriculum is set (I wouldn’t have to make my own lesson plans, which is something I would not feel comfortable/confident with) and I would get to be doing ministry full time. I need to pray about whether this is what God wants for me or not, but it certainly seems perfect. Pray with me? Thanks. So far, I am so excited to be here and live again amongst these people. I already have plans to go to the Thai side of the Cambodian border to hang out with people and (not) shop at the huge market there. God is so good. I think that’s all for now! More to come soon!!

Ps. I totally wrote this before my internet was working, so I have an update: Apparently there might be flooding here in the next few days. Don’t know why or really any of the details. I’ll be reading those later tonight! Thanks for all the prayers, friends!!