Yes, I'm Alive and in Bangkok!

Well here I am in Bangkok.  I arrived on what here was Sunday night, while all you at home were starting your Sunday mornings.  I just wanted to give a quick update to let everyone know that and how my time has been so far.  I jumped right into my Impact School of Missions classes on Monday morning.  So far we’ve talked about culture and contexualizing and sharing the Gospel in Asian cultures.   Yesterday morning we had a basic intro crash course in Thai language which was super helpful.  I can already more clearly recognize some of the sounds that I hear in speech and I have a better idea of how to pronounce the Romanized Thai words that are on street signs or whatever.  And it may be too early to say this, but I think that my limited study of Chinese may be helpful in learning Thai as both languages are tonal and the tones are actually quite similar.  I’m also much more motivated with language this time around since I’m starting out immersed, I know my need to communicate.

In my training group are eight other girls ages 18-25, representing the US, Canada, the UK, Thailand, and Australia.  Out of nine of us we will be heading out to serve in Thailand, Cambodia, India, and the Philippines at the end of the month after training.  I’m enjoying getting to know everyone so far and I know that we will have many more adventures together!  

One question that I got a lot before I left home was what my living situation will be here in Thailand.  We are staying at the YWAM base here in Bangkok for the first month (shout out to all my YWAM friends!) and I share a room with three of the other girls.  After that I will be living with three other ISM students who are doing internships here in Bangkok.  That will change again in April as some of the girls head home at that time, and I’ll decide what to do from there later on.

Thank you all so much for praying!  I'll have more to share soon!