Plan A... Plan B... Plan C... God's plan

Upon my arrival in Thailand, I expected to teach English. I didn't know exactly what context that'd be in, whether we'd be teaching in schools or doing private lessons, but I didn't realize that my team would end up doing so much more. We got off to a slow start. None of the schools my supervisors had intended us to teach in really seemed to need our assistance. So Plan B was to open up the English Center during the week, with the idea that we would teach kids English, art, and music in the evenings. We opened it up, made signs and everything, but surprisingly we never really saw many children come during that time. Fortunately, God opened up another door for ministry. 

One night, my two teammates and I went and participated in an outdoor aerobics class that we'd walked by several times before. The women there seemed very interested to practice the little bit of English they knew with us and wanted to know more about us. And even though we were hopelessly horrible at aerobics, we got to know some of them by spending time out with them afterwards. One in particular is F. Her English is very good, and immediately she indicated that she'd be interested in us coming to teach English to the youth & the staff at the Juvenile Detention Center where she works. 

Our supervisors were thrilled to hear about this open door, since they've wanted to go there but never known anyone connected with it. We don't teach English to the boys (ages 13-19) as much as we try to entertain them. We had no idea we'd end up performing so many songs and directing so many games and activities for a bunch of troubled youth, but we enjoy it and can already see what fertile ground this ministry is. This past Friday, one of our supervisors was surprised when several of the boys started asking him questions about Christianity. Most people here think Christians and Catholics are exactly the same, so they asked him about the sign of the cross. He explained he doesn't do that as Catholics do, but he was able to share the meaning of the symbol of the cross. Pray that these boys will continue to have a desire to learn more about the reason behind the cross.

I also didn't realize how much we'd be teaching adults. From the beginning, we've found a number of adults (our age and up) with broken English interested in learning to speak better. So in the mornings, we opened the English Center to teach English to some university students who are home for the summer. This has been such a wonderful ministry. God has literally broken down the language barrier and has brought us people who can speak some English and who want to learn from us. We can communicate so much to them and share with them about our faith. Pray for opportunities for us to share the Good News with the students in our English classes.