Day 4 & 5 - Tues.& Wed., Thurs. Feb.12 & 13

 [Note: sorry that these photos are not all in order, but it takes me ages to rearrange them, and I just want to get them up so that you can see them.]

Tues. morning we headed over to Bethel in the morning.  The painters were ready to start, but they had to go and purchase the paint first.... which ended up being practice in doing things on Thai time :)  They were gone the whole morning.  Meanwhile, others of us prepped materials for craft projects and other misc. things that needed doing, or explored the neighbourhood.
After lunch we had a bit of down time at the SP's before heading out to kids club.

Playing soccer: Shane & Kevin are a big hit with the boys

Brian's great save (?)

Brian managed to tend goal while keeping this little girl entertained - she was so shy yesterday, but he had her smiling!

I love this smile!

Already the kids were expecting us, and more were joining in.  Brian was a great addition today, as he was so friendly and natural, and joined in with the kids right away.

The Grandparents were there too - very friendly.

Dtoom entertains the girls

Emily leading games

Danae keeps the preschoolers happy colouring

Paul in his glory helping lead "Steal the Bacon"to learn shapes in English

Storytime - David & Goliath - with Naat, Shane, and Janelle

Shane helps the kids make friendship bracelets

... Carol helping too

Add caption

Brian made this little guy's friendship bracelet for him

sights from the song taew

Allen & Jonas planning some wiring project with Pichin

Shane grabs a nap at the SP's (hmm... I guess they are staying up late while we go to bed early ;))

lunch at Bethel church

one of the more modern house seen along our drive

Gorgeous rice fields everywhere - the picture doesn't do justice to  the brightness of the green

Carol in her glory: she finally gets to hold a baby!!

Teaching English: body parts

practice by playing Simon Says, or in this case "Shane Says"

Painting

Once again they were so intent at craft time - just water paints, but we had to show them how to use them.  The heads went down again, and they worked for almost half an hour!

Proud of her work

They were so careful - not even any paint on the mat when they were done.

This teenage guy came over and wanted to colour... "but please don't take my picture :)"

It was a great couple of days - we had so much fun, and more kids came each day as the word got out.  We were pretty hot and tired afterward.  (one of the days was almost 40 degrees), but so worth it.

Carol S. joined us today to help Ingrid do a cupcake decorating event with the ladies in the neighbourhood.

Dinner at Edd & Ingrid's afterwards

Back at our hotel, some of the crew sending/receiving texts/messages from home.

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Day 3 - Monday, Feb.11/13

Up at 8am today and off in the song taow to Bethel church where we got to hear Pastor Naat's testimony.  It is such a blessing and encouragement to get to hear the amazing things that Christ has done, and is doing, in the lives of our brothers and sisters here.

Playground in the Bethel neighborhood

House in the Bethel neighbourhood

The new Bethel church building that we are going to paint (the current building is just behind this one.

Pastor Naat gives her testimony...

....Dave translates

After that we spent time singing and praying for the various ministries here that we would be involved in.  We were divided into groups that would, primarily, paint the Bethel church, paint at Edd & Ingrid's home, build an awning at Pastor Naat's, run a kids club every afternoon in Sandy's neighbourhood, and another team run a kids club every afternoon in Edd & Ingrid's neighbourhood. Somewhere in there Louise went and got us all iced coffees - a real treat!

[**Note: I (Kathryn) was involved with working at the club at Edd & Ingrid's, and as I don't have the others' reports from their various ministries yet, I will post what I have now and will add the rest later when I receive the info and photos from the others.]

Sorting some of the supplies we brought

We didn't know that we would be running 2 kids clubs, so the planning that day was pretty stressful.  However, we managed to pull together plans, supplies, and people for the week.  Also, when we opened up the guitars we had brought with us, we found that mine was fairly badly broken.  Jessica had practiced so hard to help play for our group, and this was the guitar that she was going to use, so it was a real disappointment.

Emily, Janelle, and Kevin wash dishes after lunch

After our planning we wandered around the church neighbourhood while lunch was being prepared.  The poverty was pretty severe.
After a shared lunch at the church, we set out for our various ministries.  The song taew ride to Edd & Ingrid's was about 45min. each way.  We hadn't realized that everything was so spread out.
Once at Edd & Ingrid's we solidified our plans for the afternoon, prayed together, and then set out for the park. Their neighbourhood is much more middle-class than the area around Bethel.

Shane (left) & Hans (right) dribble a ball from Edd & Ingrid's to the park where we do the kids' club

We played with the kids for a while until a group gathered, and then started with some ESL. The kids were very friendly.  Quite a few Grandparents were in the park watching them, and they were very friendly as well.  Kyle & Danae, a young married couple from the TREK team joined us, and they just jumped in to help wherever needed.  Dtoom (from Bethel) was with us as well.

Hans makes a friend

Who knew??!!

Danae shows off her hula skills while Dtoom and Kyle watch with envy :)

Janelle

Shane's serious frisbee skills...

...and some of the preteens who appreciated them :)

Edd gets in on the frisbee action

Emily leading games time

Our program consisted of: an ESL lesson, games,a bit of Canadiana, songs, a Bible story, and a craft.

Carol does some ESL - a bit of Canadiana

Edd translates for Carol (Ingrid far right)

Song time

Teamwork: Edd translates, Shane & Emily lead actions, Kyle plays, and Hans holds the words

Carol gets in on "Father Abraham"

"Our God is an awesome God"

Naat translates into Thai

Shane reads in English

Dtoom helps translate

Craft time

We were told that the kids would be really into the craft, and quite artistic, but we were shocked by how true this was.  The first day we just had them do a mixed media type collage with fairly basic supplies, but they put their heads down and worked intently for a full half hour - even the boys.

Even the boys are intent on their artwork.

It was a great time with them.  Even though we don't speak Thai, we felt that we had made the beginnings of a connection.  There were about 15-20 kids.  Afterwards we headed back to Edd & Ingrid's for dinner, and then back to our hotel, where we had a bit of a debrief, planned the next day, and headed to bed. (although the younger ones in our group went swimming and were up for a while yet.).

Note: on the way home on the song taew, we had lots of time to get to know each other.  I asked Dtom if he wanted my guitar case, since the guitar was of no use to me now.  Translating through Danae, he asked why, and then offered to try to fix my guitar.  I knew it couldn't be done, but said he could go ahead and try if he wanted.