We began teaching English and Outreach yesterday and already have seen God at work in so many ways. Elizabeth and Bethany, two women from California are here helping us teach English so we each have one student we are focusing on at the moment. This individualized attention has been great for the girls as they each have different needs and are on various levels of understanding. We are all discovering the challenges that arise when you are dealing with a tonal language that doesn't use punctuation or articles. We have eagerly been trying to learn Thai while helping the girls with their English which has given us a way to connect with them.
Our first outreach led us to a bar where Amy was able to reconnect with a girl she had built a relationship with on the December trip. This initial contact made for a smoother connection to meeting other girls in the bar. I don't foresee any of us having a career as professional pool players but there is still hope for us before the end of July : ) It was challenging at first coming up with small talk that could be understood but thankfully Amy's friend knew English fairly well and could translate for us.
Today Jess and I explored another bar in which no connections had been made yet. We were nervous at first but we knew God had us in His hands and would show us the way. As soon as we entered we were approached by a girl who knew English very well. This is a fairly new bar and many of the girls had just begun working there. We were relieved to not have to experience much awkwardness as two girls quickly connected with us and started in on what led to a very pleasant 2 hour conversation. God was able to break down many barriers as we felt like we had already known these girls. We all joked about being terrible at pool and laughed at our mistakes. Conversation and interacting came very naturally with these girls and we left feeling so encouraged. We learned so much about them in just a short time and have already planned to take them out for one of the girls' birthday in 2 weeks.
We are finally experiencing true Bangkok weather as it has felt over 100 degrees the past couple of days. We are praying for rain as that tends to cool things down here. But until then we try to stay near our fans as we try to acclimate to the heat.
Thank you for all your prayers! We feel so blessed to be here.
Please continue to pray with us as we further the relationships we have begun forming with these girls.
Kelly (with a little help from Amy and Jess)
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