Isaac's 3rd Birthday

We had so much fun celebrating Isaac's 3rd Birthday in Chiang Mai.  Steph's mom got to be here and celebrate with us!  We were so blessed by all of our friends and family at home who sent fabulous goodies for us and lots of fun birthday presents for Isaac!  We are so grateful and thankful for all of the thoughtfulness that went into gifts for our sweet boy and for us!  and we are SUPER excited to open our Christmas presents too!!  Thank you so much we love you guys!!!!

Thanksgiving in Thailand

 We thought we would share with you all how we celebrated Thanksgiving here in Thailand.  As hard as holidays are not being with your family and friends, we had a great day with new friends and a family we have only begun getting to know.  We are so grateful and thankful for all of the people that we have been getting to know and developing relationship's with.  We are looking forward to sharing many more holidays with them!

Our Thanksgiving started out with Nate playing flag football, only 2 casualties (none of the them Nate!!!).  Nate and another friend organized the game and had a great turn out!  After football we came home and rested (the heat can really get to you here!!), Stephanie finished 2 Apple Pies and about 5lbs of Mashed Potatoes for dinner.  Around 4:00pm we walked down the street to our friends home where our dinner was going to be held.  We had the pleasure of sharing dinner with 50 or so new friends and family members.  Several of these people were Thai and this was their first time to join in on the festivities.  

We really got to enjoy a 4 day weekend due to a team retreat that was held for the team we are a part of.  We had a fabulous weekend, and are looking forward to next weekend when Steph's mom will come to visit!

We started our Thanksgiving off in true American fashion, Nate played some friendly (but of course competitive) flag football!

Isaac wanted to play but is still a bit too little to play with the big boys!

One of the families we work with hosted this fabulous turkey dinner for our office!  They did a wonderful job of making it look like fall, beautiful decorations and we are extremely grateful for all of the effort they put into making Thanksgiving fun for us!

Our Thanksgiving plates!

Isaac and Steph right before the eating began!

Our friend explaining the meaning of Thanksgiving.  We had several Thai friends attend our dinner, many of them are new believers and for all of them it was their first Thanksgiving experience.

Isaac and Daddy being silly after dinner!

How do you celebrate Thanksgiving on the other side of the world you may ask....well, we watched a two year old version of the Macy's parade off of youtube, on the side of the house, because it is just too hot to be inside! 

Recent Pictures

Isaac has a serious love for trains right now!  We took him to the Chiang Mai Train Station so that he could see a real train and play in the Engine.  He LOVED it, now every time we go somewhere he ask's if we are gonna go to the train station.

We took a Saturday trip to the Umbrella Factory.  We had such a blast seeing how they are made.  You can walk around the factory where they whittle the top part, and assemble the body.  They also dye the paper there, as well as hand paint each one.  At the end of the factory is the shop where you can buy your own umbrella!

Isaac has made some new friends.  The top left a new friend and Isaac watching a movie while we watched a Broncos game, Isaac playing golf, Isaac and another new friend on our way to the pool. Bottom left Isaac and Khun Ben, she is the one that keeps Isaac entertained while we study language, Isaac enjoying a
D-Milk (a cookie shake) and watching a movie, Nate and Isaac...Isaac swiped the Ipad...or as he calls it switching sides, Isaac sharing his phone with some friends we met in a restaurant.

Teaching English

I (Nathan) never liked school growing up.  While in elementary school I would sometimes run and hide in a near by field so I did not have to go.  In junior high I was bullied and in high school I would show up, go to class, and then go to work. My grades were average and could have been better if I would have put forth a little more effort.

My feelings about school changed during my junior year of high school when I enrolled at Warren Tech, a vocational school.  I studied travel, tourism, and hospitality.  That year changed my view about school and changed my life.  My teacher, Sharon, invested everything she had into her students and her class.  Without that class and Sharon, I don’t think I would have ever continued on to college.  Without graduating from college my family would not be in Thailand doing what we are doing.

One of the ways I have been serving the Thai community has been through teaching English.  I have had the opportunity to teach hotel staff, vocational students, and vocational teachers from all over Thailand.  While I have enjoyed doing this, I never had a chance to build relationships with the students because I would be with a different group of students each week.

Recently I have been given an opportunity to teach english at a vocational college to travel, tourism, and hospitality students.  This will be with the same students each week starting in October through February.  It is amazing to be able to look back over 15 years and see how God was preparing me for my time in Thailand, even when I was a junior in high school.  I am so excited to build relationships with these students and share my love of travel and my love of God with them.

Please pray that I will be bold in sharing the Gospel and that God will begin to work on the heart of the students.   

Teaching English

Vocational Teachers from all over Thailand

Picture Update!

Some of the Adventures we have been on, hiking, Night Safari, trying to go to the Sunday Night market and getting SOAKED, seeing the rice fields...these are just a few of the things we have done so far!

The Night Safari is an animal park that is about a 5 minute drive from our house.  They have a safari bus that takes you around to all the different animals.  On the bus you can feed the giraffes, pet zebra, and pet all different kinds of deer.  They also have a walking trail with more animals to look at as well as fun things like Elephant rides, and feeding and playing with baby tigers!

We have been to a variety of different markets out here and we enjoy them all!!  Isaac loves going to them because we get all kinds of fun foods!  He enjoys just about any type of meat on a stick and LOVES the grilled corn here!  Last week we went to the Sunday night market, it was the Queens Birthday and they had a big celebration for her.  We have no idea what was going on because is was all in Thai, but on our way to the main stage everything in the market stopped and everyone was still as the Thai National Anthem came over the loud speakers, as soon as it was finished everyone went back about their business.  We finally made it to the stage, confused, some of the only white people there and it started to rain....we found this a great time to start heading back to our car!!  As we got back into the market area the rain came harder and then everyone stopped what they were doing and lit a candle and began singing, we can only imagine that they were singing (in some way) Happy Birthday.  As soon as the song ended everyone blew out their candles and fireworks started, and then the rain came...and when I say the rain came I mean it POURED on us!!  We were all soaked when we got to the car!!

Visit to a Wat

This past Saturday, as a cultural experience, we visited a Buddhist temple.  We went with one of our language coaches, a Thai believer and some of our friends that arrived around the same time we did.  
Thai people are predominantly Buddhist and Animists with small pockets of Muslims scattered throughout the country.  Most of the people hold to the cultural belief that, "to be Thai is to be Buddhist," keeping their religion as a main aspect of their identity.
Most villages have their own Wat, or Buddhist temple, which serves as a central location for village events.  One of the most concentrated number or temples can be found in the city of Chiang Mai with over 300 Buddhist temples.  
When Thai people become Christians, many face persecution because their families feel that they have angered the spirits by converting to Christianity.  Believers are often under pressure from their families to revert back to Buddhism.
As we were walking around the Wat there was such a sense of hopelessness.  People were sitting by monks trying to earn merit for their sins and do "the right thing" to earn favor with Buddha and/or the spirits.  To see people that are so lost, and caught in the trap of culture and tradition is enough to break your heart.  
We want to share with them the message of hope but the language barrier adds to the difficulty of sharing.  In the US we spoke the language and had the ability to share with our words.  Even when we lived in Kenya, most people spoke English. Here we don't speak the language, we don't have religion in common and we are mere visitors in their homeland.  For now we look for opportunities to share with locals that speak english.  Recently Nate was at 7-11 paying a bill and ran into a guy that spoke english and even spent a few years in Texas. When Nate/Nathan/Nathanael introduced himself the man said that was a biblical name. That was the last thing we expected him to say. Nate spent the next couple of hours sharing with him and hopes to continue to build that relationship.  
Please join us in prayer for the people of Chiang Mai, that the Light of Jesus would be able to penetrate the darkness of Buddhism.

Below are some of the pictures that we took on our trip to the Wat.

Life During Week 4

We passed the 4 week mark last Friday and we celebrated by trying to watch a movie very unsuccessfully! We clearly didn't have a great internet signal, but we DID have yummy popcorn! :)  Here are some of our recent pictures and adventures!!  Keep an eye out later this week for a post about our visit to a Buddhist Temple.

We are official!  We now have Thai Drivers license's!  I (Steph) have yet to experience driving here, but soon I will have my chance!  The scooters....ALL parked outside of a grocery mall...yah there really are that many crazy scooter drivers out here!!!  It's NUTS!!  Also a couple of pictures of a meal we enjoyed with friends!

Isaac LOVES to play...he's latest, "Daddy will you play with me?" He loves to have us make a "car slide" aka ramp for his cars, as well as tunnels out of Legos for his train to go through.  We haven't been able to make it to the pool much we have been SUPER busy since we got here!

Friday night was our epic fail of a movie night...but we sure enjoyed the popcorn!!  Saturday night we took Isaac to golf again!  HE LOVES IT!!  He is somewhat of a novelty...the blonde haired, blue eyed, farang (white kid), hitting balls at the driving range!  One of our most enjoyed (and cheapest) family activities (it only coast a $1 per bucket of balls)!   

The boys outside playing soccer...or soccer ball as Isaac calls it!