How Can I Keep From Singing By: Chris Tomlin

"How Can I Keep From Singing"
There is an endless songEchoes in my soul
I hear the music ring
And though the storms may come
I am holding on
To the rock I cling

How can I keep from singing Your praise
How can I ever say enough
How amazing is Your love
How can I keep from shouting Your name
I know I am loved by the King
And it makes my heart want to sing

I will lift my eyes
In the darkest night
For I know my Savior lives

And I will walk with You
Knowing You'll see me through
And sing the songs You give

I can sing in the troubled times
Sing when I win
I can sing when I lose my step
And fall down again
I can sing 'cause You pick me up
Sing 'cause You're there
I can sing 'cause You hear me, Lord
When I call to You in prayer
I can sing with my last breath
Sing for I know
That I'll sing with the angels
And the saints around the throne

Sport's month

Hi! This week is fairly uneventful, except we have been having sports' month at church. My team is the red team. I competed (sadly) in ping pong, but didn't win. I used to be good, but not playing for about 10 years will ALWAYS kill that haha. This past week was volleyball. I decided my job would be to take pictures since I'm even worse at volleyball than I am ping pong. My team made it to the semi-finals! YEAH! GO RED! Here's some pictures for you to check out.

He's actually wearing an American-flag handkerchief. :) He's on my team and he's awesome! :D

Go RED!!!!!!!

Tomorrow I'll be playing basketball with everyone. I'm excited because I'm actually decent at basketball. Pictures to come . . . maybe. I might be too busy playing :D. haha.

Today some foreigners and I and Ting got together for Thanksgiving. We only had chicken because a turkey was 3000 baht (about $85), but we had sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, corn, mac and cheese, cornbread, Stove Top stuffing, pumpkin pie (thanks mom :D) and cranberry mousse. It was really really good!

I have never had green beans wrapped in bacon before, but it is amazing! I highly advise everyone runs to their kitchen right now and prepares some!

In other news, I've been able to hang out with Ting and her friends a lot lately. I started joining Ting while she goes running for a few weeks and her friends have started to join me. Pray that I'll be able to talk about God with them and that my Thai will get better so we can have more conversations.

Also, please pray for my voice. Teaching 21 hours is A LOT and there are days my voice is not strong at all. I try to rest it as much as I can when I'm not teaching, but it's still hard sometimes. Please pray for my voice to be strong and me to speak properly so I don't strain it.

Today was Loy Kratong. They're sins are erased for another year. So strange to live in a culture like this sometimes.

I pray you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!! May God continue to bless you.

Our new pet . . .Yummy!

My roommate and I really wanted a pet, but we're not home enough for a dog, we're not cat people, and fish can't be played with. SO. . . to fix that, we found a bunny at JJ market. :D. He's adorable and fits in the palm of my hand. Through a funny situation, we named him Yummy. hahaha. Isn't he adorable?

I love him already! We got him a nice cage, but we might get him a bigger one soon. This is my first pet that isn't fish. My parents weren't pet people hahaha.

Also, here's another room of my house. My landlord decided to redo the entire bathroom and it turned out really nice. It's been done for a while, but I FINALLY got it clean. Everytime we would go to clean it, somehow we wouldn't get rid of all the dust or something would have to be done that made it dusty again. AHH. However, it's sparkling clean now :D. I really like it.

That is all the excitement right now. I pray you all are doing well and continually drawing closer to God.

weekend away

Well, I think I'm going to start posting on the weekends as my life seems to be getting busy during the week. This past weekend I went out of town (kind of a last minute decision) about 2 hours outside of Bangkok. I went with some girls from my care group at the church I've been going too. It was wonderful. I got to know some of the girls and realized my Thai is getting a lot better. When they explained about a game we were going to play, I didn't understand in Thai or when they translated into English just because it wasn't really clear. However between Thai and English, I got the game figured out :D.



Oddly enough, I think the highlight for me was seeing this waterfall. I have seen Niagra Falls, and small trickling waterfalls, but I've wanted to see one like this for a long time. It was even better because it was a complete surprise. I had no idea it would be that big!






We also got to see wild monkeys. They were so cute!!!!! I want a pet monkey! One sat close to us on the fence and he just sat so perfectly!!! I wanted to take him home and name him Bob and keep him forever and ever. hahaha. Here's pictures of the monkeys walking around.

These last two weeks have been extremely tiring. I've been trying to . . .

- learn how a big university works (since CRU is definately a small university in comparison and the school I went to is like 1/100th of the size of KU)

- learn all my student's faces (since I see them all over campus)

- keep up with the students I've let into my classes as opposed to those I've turned away (definately turned away more)

- figure out when I'm supposed to give quizzes in each of my four subjects since none of them coincide

- plan lessons (which is much easier than in Chiangrai)

- grade/correct papers

- and of course . .. TEACH (21 hours of my week)

It's been an adventure and I'm getting tired. I wake up every morning by 5:45 and leave my house by 6:30 because of traffic and bus schedules, if I leave later than that I could be late to school. However, I like it in the mornings at the university because it's peaceful and I have time to read my Bible and look over my lessons before my day starts. However, I've been bringing work home too since I'm not in a schedule yet. Many nights I've been working until 11:00 on various things. Hopefully this week things will be better as the add/drop period has ended and things seem to be settling down. However, I would covet your prayers for energy and wisdom.

My students have started waving at me when I'm around campus (or acknowledging nods from some of my guy students, which I take as a compliment) and I've been having a blast hanging out with Ting and her friends. It's nice having friends who are students because then I can see both sides of the university world and I know the students' tricks. haha. Because of my sister, I've already banned computers in my classes because she would talk to me online instead of listening to her teacher hahahaa. It also shows the other students that I want to hang out with them because I can't hide anywhere in Thailand. So, they see me hanging out with other students and they feel more comfortable talking to me. The students definately aren't used to a teacher hanging out with them, etc, however I think they like it. Please pray for wisdom in how to get to know them outside of class and show them I care while still maintaining somewhat of a teacher student relationship. Thanks to everyone! I love and miss you all. May God bless you.

First week

Well, I survived my first week teaching at KU. I am teaching 7 classes, but only 4 subjects, so it's not as much work. Mondays and Fridays are going to be intense, but the other 3 days will be okay. The best part is I have Saturday and Sunday off!!! That's not always given in Thailand. My students are good. I have one class of students where the material is too easy for them and they don't really want to be there, but they failed the class the first time, so they have to pass this time, but they're actually not that bad. Having older brothers helped me deal with them. I just joke back and don't take them too seriously. As long as they do what I ask them to do, I'm fine. So far, no major problems. It also helps that I was a student not long ago and so I remember what it's like. I'm teaching Ting, her boyfriend, and 11 other friends. All of my co-workers are really nice. I do have some funny stories, but if you want those, you need to e-mail me personally. haha.

One story I can share is how I became famous on campus. I played a game with my students to get them to make questions. Basically, I was in the hot seat. If they asked me a question that was perfect grammar, I would answer it. If it wasn't perfect, we'd fix it and then I'd answer it. Well, one of the girls wanted to know if I could sing Thai songs and if I could, she wanted me to prove it. So, I said the title of one song and sang a little bit of another song. Well, later, Ting told me that I was as famous as my celebrity friend and that I had to be careful who I gave my e-mail address to. I was shocked. However, it was funny. Now I'm the only woman American teacher and I have red hair, blue eyes, and can sing Thai songs.

For some added fun, here's a picture that I saw in a public bathroom the other week. Only in Asia would these instructions be neccessary.

Also, this picture is of a mail box in Bangkok. It describes Thailand perfectly. Thailand is truly Bangkok and everywhere else. hahaha

Until next week, I hope you all have a fabulous time and continue with God. May God bless and be with you all.