We started DTS!!!!!

Sunday, Sept. 7, Chiang Rai
The Bus
We decided to try out the ordinary night bus for the ride to Bangkok because it’s a little cheaper. It all turned out to be $38 for both of us. We got on at 7pm, and everyone quickly fell asleep to the sound of Thai music videos that were playing at the front. The bus was pretty nice at first. It was pretty similar to a greyhound bus in the USA, except the seats are a little skinnier and shorter. After a while though, we realized that something wasn’t quite right with the seats. No matter how we tried to rest our heads to sleep, it wouldn’t work, and would leave us with a stiff neck. After about 10 hours of trying to figure out how to look as comfortable as everyone else looked, we decided it was because we were Big Fat Americans, and the seats weren’t made for us. The bus stopped 3 times at little plazas to let everyone out to use the bathroom and buy some snacks. The trip went pretty well, so we decided to try another bus to Chiang Rai. This bus was supposed to only be 10 hours. We got tickets for the next bus, waited for around 2 hours, and then left expecting to arrive around 9:30pm. Around 1:00 am, we finally arrived in Chiang Rai and were happily greeted by Art and his friend ZhuFong, whom we are staying with.

Chiang Rai
This week we are visiting our Thai missionary friend, Art. We have just told him of the financial support that many of you have offered to help him start the teenage dormitory for Akha village boys. He is very excited and is now able to take firm steps to make his vision/dream happen! We are spending some time this week to develop those plans and the budget with him. We have added some info to his website, www.akhadorm.blogspot.com.

Sunday night Sept. 2 we went to the International Church and met some wonderful people and heard Nancy, the woman who runs the Akha Outreach Orphanage, speak about sacrifices. She spoke from her heart about her own recent loss. One of the kids named Manoon at the orphanage was hit by a car on his way to school and after about 2 weeks of battling, he passed away. It was hard to fight the tears as she described the boys determined character and that during this hard time God brought peace and compassion to Manoon’s family and guidance to the orphanage staff. Nancy said that because of their attitudes the medical staff continued working to save Manoon past when they would normally give up. She also mentioned how the bible students at the orphanage had been able to reach out to many people while they were visiting Manoon at the hospital and even in his village during his funeral. Nancy said that she never thought she would have to sacrifice one of her own kids but that God used Manoon in life and even through is passing to bring many people to God.

Here are a few good quotes from Art in Thaienglish:
1. “I have to use the bathroom, but, if I scratch my calf muscle, it helps me hold it. I can hold it for up to an hour”. I tried this, and it didn’t work. Let me know if it works for you.
2. “It is sprinkling outside. I don’t want to go outside. Everyone get sick when they go outside when it is sprinkling. I would rather it be raining hard”
3. “The egg can do many thing, you can grill, fry, skewer, boil, bake. Many thing”


Chiang Mai DTS, Sept. 10-15

We made it through our first week at DTS. There are 23 students and 9 staff. The students are from Thailand (9), Australia, US (10), Ireland, Phillipines, and Canada and range in age from 18-39. We include missionary kids, Bible School Graduates, computer programmers, new Christians, and former drug and alcohol addicts. It is a good mix of people, and we are having a good time getting to know everyone.
We’re not having too much fun, though. Here is our schedule for Monday – Friday.
6:30-7:00 Exercise
7:00-8:00 Shower, Breakfast, clean dishes
8:00-8:45 Individual Quiet Time
8:45-9:45 Worship or Group Intercessory Prayer
9:45-12:45 Lecture
1:00-2:00 Lunch
2:00-3:30 Work Duties (Jonathan helped make a few benches, moved piles of wood, sharpen knives and machetes. Ashley helped prepare dinner and clean bamboo curtains)
3:30-5:30 Free Time (we spend most of this showering, reading books, and washing clothes, but we also went for two runs).
5:30-6:30 Bible Study
6:30-7:30 Dinner
7:30-9:30 Lecture or Small Group Time
10:30 Lights Out

In addition to all this, we have several books to read and write book reports on. Also, we must keep a journal and turn it in each week. This week, Tom Hallas from Australia spoke to us on the Character of God. It was good. He went over lots of things, but the main topics were God’s description of himself in Exodus 34:6-7, and His great plan for our adoption as sons through Jesus Christ. He often went over his allotted time, once lecturing for 3:30 straight hours with only 15 minutes of break time. Because of that, we only had a 30 minute lunch!!!

Being the only married couple on base, the staff has gone above and beyond to give us some privacy. Instead of dorm style bunk beds with 6 people per room, we were given a little 10x15 room with cute lime-green homemade curtains, a double bed with a broken mattress, a dresser that we’ve cleaned up and most importantly…a fan! The bathrooms are Thai style, which means you wear the bathroom slippers, have no hot water, you don’t put the toilet paper in the toilet, instead you dump water into the toilet to flush it. It’s not bad once you get used to it.

New Experiences:
-Hand washing all of our clothes, then running to the clothes line when it rains
-No air conditioning, internet, tv
-Hitchhiking to town (in a large group…don’t worry mom)


We are very excited about our time here. Keep us in your prayers.