Recently...

Recently....Ok...so I meant to post these months ago but time ran away. So here is some pictures from the past month or two to keep you "up to date" on what has been happening here.

 I meant to post this back in October.  Our class prayer requests each morning look something like this.  Apparently the child's request for Christmas to come soon worked because here we are in the week of Christmas and I am just posting this. All the requests, thank yous and reasons why we love Jesus were given my students.  It says "Dear God, please help people in the flood, Jabez's arm to get better, us to have blue, Miss Rebekah, sick people, Christmas to come fast, poor people, frog, and Fort.  Thank you for December, family, food, and air to breath. We love you because you made everything, you made me and you clean my heart. Amen"

 In October we had several visitors come and bring posters and markers for each classroom. 

 The fifth and sixth graders helping to stir mashed potatoes for everyone for our school Thanksgiving lunch.

 Miss Brittany enjoyed sampling them.

 Setting the table for the "feast".

 Giving thanks to God

 Trying mashed potatoes for the first time

 The Staff Thanksgiving party

 A full time volunteer who does work projects and construction at our school built us some awesome playgroup equipment. Pretty impressive, especially considering it was his first time welding!

 Khruu Ju, the 5th and 6th grade teacher got married!

 The teachers with Ju and his wife.

And just another ordinary day at The School of Promise.

New School Video

Take a minute....well, 5 minutes to watch our new school video. You can see what a typical day looks like here at the School of Promise.

 

 Such precious children. 

What They do to Come to School...

Sometimes...the smallness of the school can make the project seem ineffective...and you wonder will this idea ever catch on?

But then I consider the dedication with which students come...

One of my students leaves his home and drives about an hour, depending on traffic, to get to school each day. His parents then repeat that drive to get to work, repeat it again to pick him up from school, and then drive back home, about another hour and a half each night. His family is totaling between 3 to 5 hours of driving every day to send him to our school.

Another student in fourth grade, gets on a Songtaw, a form of public transportation (pick-up truck with benches in the covered truck bed), and rides a half an hour to the road our school is on. There he picks up a bike from a rented storage places and rides it 1 kilometer to the school. At the end of the day he bicycles back to the shop, and catches another Songtaw home.

...They travel long distances to come...because they value the English program...and when they come....they hear the Bible...

Pray that God would draw more children, from near and far, to our school for the coming year that they too may hear the good news.

Meet My Monkeys...I mean Students : )

You've heard some stories about my children but I don't know if I have ever given you any really good pictures of the kids you are praying for. I want to bring them to life a little bit more for you. I wish you could enjoy them as much as I do...but hope these pictures give you a good glimpse at my kiddos and their personalities. As you look, don't be fooled, behind each and every one of their sweet little faces lurks a little bit of mischief and a whole lot of untamed energy.

The CharmerThe ComedianThe Enthusiast

The Scientist

The Tom-Boy That's my class. Charming, goofy, energetic, and flawed, but fun, oh so much fun. : )

Flung Boogers

So I can hear my mom's disgust right now...because she makes the same noise whenever something is said about...well....boogers....but I think this story sheds a little light on what it is truly like to teach a second grade class. Please pardon the less than spiritual story.

So I am trying to teach my children a science lesson and muffled laughter begins to erupt. One student's face holds a hilarious mixture of emotions - laughter, disgust, and nervousness. The other children are giggling. The girl looks sheepish. Then students begin to charade. First, nose picking, I start telling them - gross...go wash your hands. (Culturally, nose picking is socially acceptable...but this is one thing I don't really compromise on.) They protest and then begin violently shaking their hands. The boy holds his leg up to the girl who picks her flung booger off his pant leg and shakes it off her hand again....this time it lands politely on the floor.

You know what? They were not so disgusted that she had picked her nose. Once again, cultural, that is the norm. They just thought it was funny that the booger landed on someone else.

The School of Promise

The video below was made for advertising purposes for our school, but I thought you might enjoy watching it to get a better idea of the school's vision and to "meet" some of the teachers and students. Hope you enjoy it!

Thank you for your prayers!

Home Visits: A Look Behind the Uniforms

If you look at the children in the two pictures above, they don't seem that different. The first picture you see me and my sisters in our Christian school uniforms, and in the second you see my students in their Christian school uniforms. From all appearances, it seems we could have pretty similar backgrounds and home lives, doesn't it? Aside from being a couple decades and continents apart we look about the same.

But there is something we can't see.

While I saw almost nothing tangible inside of our student's homes, no books and no crayons, no chairs and no table, I did see the dual purpose of our school. I saw hope for our students.

Our school's mission is first and foremost is to give student's a Hope and a future by sharing the gospel with them, that they may share the Ultimate Hope we have in Christ Jesus.

But that is not all, our secondary purpose is to break the cycle of poverty and oppression. (At least in the lives of our students.)

When they are all in their uniforms, you don't see the cycle of poverty, they look well off. But when I stepped into their homes, I saw their lack of resources. I met parents who couldn't read their children's birth certificates. I watched as the Thai teacher's checked documents to help parents calculate their own ages.

And it stirred within me Compassion, Passion and Excitement. Compassion for my students when they struggle with reading. After all, this is their third language, and their parent's can't even help them read Thai at home. Passion to free them, with education, to do whatever the Lord calls them to. Excitement that they will have opportunities that their parents could hardly dream of.

Teaching At Last!! : )

Today I started teaching English in a government school. It is great to be back in the classroom. I am teaching third and fourth graders English.

When we first arrived at school students were having their morning assembly. Morning assembly consists of the national anthem, exercises, yoga, and prayers to Buddha.

Pray that Christ's love would show through me to my students and the teachers at the school.

Hope International School Prayer Request

I work for an organization called, Hope International Schools. The mission of this organization is to break the cycle of poverty and oppression in Thailand, by developing an excellent school, rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The school which we are starting as an organization is called The School of Promise.

The beginning of this project has been difficult, as I'm sure the updates have shown. We have faced many obstacles.

We are facing another huge obstacle as an organization. Not impossible, but huge in our human eyes. The obstacle of finances, which is threatening the immediate future of the school project.

"Jesus looked at them and said, 'With man this is impossible, BUT Not with GOD; all things are possible with God." Mark 10:27

We're in a tricky situation. We need to have a building rented, a full staff, and money on reserve to even apply for a school license. However, without a license, we can't have students and don't receive the tuition fees. At the beginning of the school year, (May-August), we were receiving some tuition reimbursement and weren't renting a building. Also, the Thai staff was being paid by a partnering ministry. Now, the partnering ministry is no longer supporting the Thai staff, we are paying for the building rent, and we aren't receiving any tuition reimbursements. Our expenses have greatly increased at a very pivotal time in our ministry.

We have been unable to pay the bills that have come due this week. We are stuck. If we are unable to pay our bills and unable to continue toward obtaining our licence, our project will have to be shut down. This breaks our hearts because there are so many children and their families in this community and from the orphan homes that this school could reach with the gospel.

I never wanted to use this blog as a means of asking for donations, nor do I enjoy asking for them. However, I don't want to sit back and know that I didn't do everything in my power to make people aware of the situation our school is in.

I wish that I could recount to you every way that the Lord has been faithful to me, in bringing me to this project, and all the ways I have seen Him faithfully provide for the school up to this point. I trust that the Lord can provide for us once more. If the Lord chooses not to provide, I believe it is because He has even greater plans.

Please pray for God's guidance and clear direction. Please join us in praying for the future of Hope International Schools. Pray that the Lord might show us His will, that we would be quick to listen and walk in His ways.

Thank you for your prayers and your partnership.

If you are interesting in reading more about Hope International Schools, or interested in partnering with the ministry, please visit http://www.hopeinternationalschools.org/.

Trusting Him.

School Clean-up

Here are some pictures of cleaning up the school....to give you an idea of what we've been doing. the mice from inside my classroom^
lots of cobwebs^
lots of junk^
Be, Gay and Da

lots of dust

The finished product

Flexible...

If you know Ms. Mort....you know that her motto is...Be Flexible. This is a very important motto to be following at this time.

Let me try to recap the school situation and add the newest update....

Phase 1: Our school was teaching in a old school building for a couple months, but were kicked out of the school building because of licensing problems.

Phase 2: We were teaching our students at Mitrojit Christian School with the students of that school. (I arrived at this stage)

Phase 3: We were supposed to teach our own students in make-shift classrooms in the cafeteria, but....the school has told us this will be too distracting and difficult and has asked us not to teach at their school anymore, and to leave our students at their school until we have secured a school licence.

Phase 4: We are now at our school preparing for when our students actually come to the school. We are in a different community than the old school. We are attempting to build relationships with the community and draw them to our school for the coming year. We are planning to use this time to serve the community and visit the orphan homes offering tutoring and continuing to build relationships.

None of us signed up expecting these circumstances. We had no idea what was before us. All of us assumed we would be teaching students this year. But we are adjusting our plans to the Lord's plan.

I think that these changes have given us a really great opportunity to reach out to the neighbors near our school who are lost without Christ. 40% of this community is HIV positive and there are numerous orphans living with family members right in our neighborhood. There is also a church in this neighborhood that is already active in helping the community, and willing to partner with us.

Pray that God will give us opportunities and creative ideas for reaching out to the community. Pray that the community will be open to the gospel and interested in our school. Pray for us to see what the Lord is doing and join Him in it. Pray that the school licence will go through so that next year we can teach our students in our new school building for the whole year, and years to come.

1 Cor. 2:9 "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared in advance for those who love Him"

We are excited to see what the Lord already has prepared for us.

"We dont know what to do...But our eyes are on YOU"

Simply put....our school is going through a whole new set of changes and challenges, and we do not yet know what to do. We are spending time asking the Lord for wisdom, and I ask that you join with us in praying for wisdom.

The school that I am at is a new school. If you have been reading any of the blog or my prayer letters, you know that there are some challenges to this new project. It is very evident that the Devil is working against us in this project. This is spiritually a very dark country and it is no surprise that Satan will try to thwart our efforts.


Most recently, two of our teachers have had to resign from teaching at our school. One for financial reasons and one for personal reasons. On top of that, our Thai principal has also resigned due to repeated personal attacks.

In addition, the school that was allowing us to use their space has changes their minds and made some circumstances difficult. We do not yet know what to do, where to teach, how the Lord is working, or what He sill have us do.

Pray with us that we would see where the Lord is working and join Him in it. Pray for unity and love between the believers. Satan is trying to turn Christians against each other. Pray that there would be oneness of mind between our staff, the school that was previously working with us, and the parents of the orphan homes. Pray that we might know the wil of the Lord and walk in the good works which He has promised to prepare in advance for us who believe.

"He who calls you is FAITHFUL, surely He will do it" 1 Thess 5:24

The School Situation

The situation with the school I am working at is interesting and a bit hard to explain. This is the school’s first year, and in the process of securing its official licensing, its hit quite a few “speed bumps.” Not yet registered as an official school, we are operating as a “special program,” and our students are registered at another school, Mitrojit. The government, does not yet look favorably on us, and consequently we are not allowed operate off Mitrojit’s campus as we were once able to. Instead of teaching only our own students in our own classrooms, then, we are teaching all of Mitrojit’s students during their scheduled English class times. This allows us at least some time with out students, but increasing our class size from around 10 to 40-50. Until the semester ends mid October, our students will be taught primarily in these classrooms by Mitrojit’s teachers. One of our biggest challenges is reconciling the differences between our school’s expectations and typical Thai expectations. In this culture, students are not required to stay in the classroom, and, needless to say, take advantage of this by freely roaming from room to room. Teachers’ expectations are different, too. It’s common for a teacher to teach for about 10 minutes and then leave the children in the classroom to independently finish problems they put up on the board. There is very little structure or instruction in the classroom. It is hard to watch the students in this less than ideal classroom situation. We want our students to be in better classroom situations.

Right now, the plan is that we will be given space in the cafeteria and rice fields at Mitrojit to set up temporary classrooms where we will be able to have class with our students for the full day. We will be able to resume our own curriculum as long as we are on this school’s property. This will be our situation until we are able to register as an official school next year. The good news is that we do have a school building lined up for the coming year, that we are able to work at cleaning it up in preparation for next year on the days that we are not able to teach our students. It is also exciting to know that we will be able to spend full days with the students.
It seems as though the Devil is working to prevent our school from being able to accomplish its purpose, but we are trusting that the Lord has a perfect plan for us that is better than our original ideas. We hope that these circumstances give us more opportunities to spread the light of the gospel to our students, fellow teachers and the surrounding community.