Westside Outside | Blog

all this week we have been teaching in the secondary school in krasang. it is nothing like i expected. it is extremely hard to teach a language to people who speak fluently a language you don’t speak. all of us have had a hard time, some harder than others, matt and margaret had a group of homosexuals  that were extremely rude and they ended up leaving them to do what ever they wanted. we have found that the level 6 (the grades start with 1, being 7th graders, and end with 6, being seniors) are the hardest to teach. the young kids, level 1, are the easiest to teach, especially the smarter ones. they divide up the classes with levels of how well they know english 1-13, 1 being the best. so 1/13 are the youngest group and they are the worst at english, 4/4 are sophomores that are on the high level of english. with all that confusion i decided that teaching is not for me and i can’t wait till i am done.

here we are in Krasang…on father’s day. in krasang everything is so much quieter and relaxed than bangkok. its a really nice change of pace. the kids at grace really warmed up to us with only a little time. i am really excited to teach school tomorrow, but i am nervous because their eyes will always be on us and we need to be a living testimony of christ to them, especially since we can’t talk to them about christ, partly because of the language barrier but also because of the strong buddhism. I didn’t realize how tough the language barrier would be, but there are a few of them that know enough english to translate.

Well, here we are with the first installment of hilarious times in Thailand.  Here are your hosts Jordan Nelson and Spencer Hayashi. 

Jordan:  So Spence, what was something funny on the plane ride here

Spence:  Well, Jordan besides your face… SOME people missed Mr. Burgess geography lessons and thought we were in Korea?!!  Another person thought Bangkok was in China. 

Jordan: Ha!  My hilarious story is when Margaret Hanscomb and I figured out that they put pig blood in her random soup dish that she bought at the food court. 

Spencer:  Yum!

 Okay, that’s all for today folks.  Here we are in Bangkok signing off.

hey.

we got into bangkok pretty late last night, and we’ve just been hanging out. the flight was ridiculously long, but we made it here fine. i think tonight we are going to dinner and a park. the thai food is amazing. i paid like a dollar fifty for an entire meal plus ice cream. it’s super hot, but it looks like it’s actually gonna rain. everything is super different. like, we saw two buddhist munks walking down the side of the road. but the girls aren’t allowed to touch them. there was a shrine to one of the gods sitting outside this mall thing.  everyone is super friendly though. and really understanding of when you can’t speak with them. the only words i know…are “thank you” and “hello” which definately is not much.  we have the most amazing view from our hotel room, but the weird thing is…it overlooks like a mansion, then right next to it is like decent living space, than next to that is like a tenement building (apartments), than right next to that is like a shack.  it’s weird cuz in america we separate everything.  we had a speaker from “Night Light” come and talk to us more about prostitution, and i learned a lot.  not only are the men here corrupt, but the men in north america, come here for something called “sex tours”, and they come here specifically for it.  we heard about the different hotels that cater to prostitution…and we have like right down the street from our hotel. i thought you would at least have to go to a certain part of Bangkok where all of that happens, but the heavy truth is that it happens everywhere.  right outside of the hotel down the street from ours, was a poster in a window. it had pictures of all these girls….prostitutes.  it’s hard, and it makes me feel really uncomfortable, and i have even had thoughts of just wanting to come home because it’s too much.  which is a good feeling that i need to feel. it’s weird to think that i am here for three more weeks. but i am so excited!

there’s some really heavy stuff here, but GOD IS GOOD! 

love,

Morgan

As we were heading into the Bangkok airport, to our south was a wondrous lightning storm.  The sky lit up, showing off beautiful cloud formations.  The flight was a bit turbulent as a result, but not too bad.  We were met at the airport by Charles Harvey, the “Dad” at Grace Ministries and Yao, one of the Thai housemoms.  It was a joyous reunion, and we all can hardly wait to get to Krasang.   

This morning we began our day with a talk by a representative of Night Light, which is a ministry which helps women get out of prostitution by providing them with training and jobs.  They run a jewelry business which is self-supporting.  What a wonderful ministry to women who are in prostitution because they have no training and no prospects.  The culture here insists that when girls grow up they must support their parents, so these poor women are stuck in a situation which degrades them and gives them worth only in how they please others.  How sad that these young women are enslaved by the greed of others. Night Light frees them and gives them hope, as well as The Hope. As we were heading into the Bangkok airport, to our south was a wondrous lightning storm.  The sky lit up, showing off beautiful cloud formations.  The flight was a bit turbulent as a result, but not too bad.  We were met at the airport by Charles Harvey, the “Dad” at Grace Ministries and Yao, one of the Thai housemoms.  It was a joyous reunion, and we all can hardly wait to get to Krasang.   

This morning we began our day with a talk by a representative of Night Light, which is a ministry which helps women get out of prostitution by providing them with training and jobs.  They run a jewelry business which is self-supporting.  What a wonderful ministry to women who are in prostitution because they have no training and no prospects.  The culture here insists that when girls grow up they must support their parents, so these poor women are stuck in a situation which degrades them and gives them worth only in how they please others.  How sad that these young women are enslaved by the greed of others. Night Light frees them and gives them hope, as well as The Hope.

We plan to post to this blog often. If you would like to join our team in this journey then check back in a few days. See you all at the airport tomorrow at noon.

Mr. Sears