Bronnileigh Prommathat- A White African living in Asia

2010-06-05T09:40:00.002+07:00

University English Club

2007-07-10T20:40:00.000+07:00

It has been on our hearts for quite some time to start building relationships with the university students from the university in our province. This past week was our first experience running the university English club and it was a great success. As we have a team of voluteers with us at the moment they took charge and ran 2 hours of activities with the students.

It is our hope that in the future we will be able to start a Christian club on the university campus. For now, we are helping in the English department once a week, but we hope that this will lead to many other opportunities in the future. We will be running an English camp for the students this week and will also be leading 2 field trips where the students will be able to practise their English outside of the classroom.

The team of volunteers that is with us at the moment arrived at the begining of the month and will be with us until the end of July. It has been perfect timing for them to be here and has opened many doors for us to minister in different areas of Ratchaburi.

Tomato Sauce... who knew it could be so good

2007-06-17T18:24:00.000+07:00

If only others could discover the secret of how good tomato sauce licked off a plate can be! As a child I was always making the oddest concoctions when I went to restaurants with my family. I have found a friend in Jade- who seems to want to play with everything in site and is quite happy to try some if prompted.

Jade is the son of our friends from New Zealand who have moved to Ratchaburi to help us with YWAM here. Him and his sister Jasmine have become like our niece and nephew and it is lots of fun having them around. They have both started school in a Thai school, and although neither of them could speak a word of the language when they arrived they are picking it up quite quickly.

This picture was taken in a Pizza restaurant where we live- and yes, as strange as it may seem, they eat tomato sauce o their pizza in Thailand, lots and lots of it. (And it's surprisingly good!).

English Club

2007-05-02T12:08:00.000+07:00

YWAM Ratchaburi started an English Club which is hosted every Saturday two weeks ago. We started it as a way to get to know the youth of Ratchaburi more so that we can share God's love with them. We also realised that it was a need that needed to be met i the community that we could try to meet. There are many places where the youth here can go for English lessons, but nowhere that they can practise speaking outside of the classroom environment. We prepare activities for the students and hope to introduce them to people from different nations who they can have the opportunity to speak to.

Yesterday was a public holiday and we had a group of friends from a church in Bangkom come to join us at English club. We taught them how to bake and our friends shared about how knowing Jesus has chnaged their lives. Our students seem excited to keep coming back and learning more.

summer school

2007-04-10T20:07:00.000+07:00

Our classroom yesterday was full of laughter as we had our students making small skits/dramas for us. We had quite a number of students breaking out into song and even had a beauty queen being crowned. Toady we watched the story of Cinderella, with every student in the group dressed ready for the ball- they didn't quite have the glass slippers, but a pair of smelly school shoes and a bit of imagination were all it took to help us to feel like we were actually a part of the fairy tale.

We are currently teaching summer school, which is optional for some of the grades, but is compulsory for the grade 12's. If you had asked me if I wanted to go to summer school when I was a teenager- I would have been adamant that school was the last place that I wanted to be during my holidays. There is a very different attitude at the school that we are teaching at and even though most of the students can choose whether they want to come to summer school or not, about 70% of them attend every day during the summer. The environment is fun and the students would rather be at school with their friends than at home with nothing to do. The temperture in the classroom can at times be unbearable over the months of April and May as it is usually above 40C. We are very thankful to be teaching Grade 12- we have air-conditioning!

A mothers love

2007-03-22T15:06:00.000+07:00

I am constantly reminded of all the needs in the community where Noiy and I are and am constantly questioning what we could do to make things better even in the smallest way. A few days ago we had some visitors and we took them to see the sites in Ratchaburi. One of the main places that we take tourists to visit is a mountain inhabited with hundreds of monkeys. The tourists go to see the beautiful view and to feed the monkeys.

Noiy and I have been there a number of times with different people and there are always a number of very poor people on the mountain selling food for you to give to the monkeys. This time we met two young children- a brother and sister that spend most of their days on the mountain waiting in anticipation that there may be a tourist who will come and buy some bananas from them to feed the monkeys. The young girl was 6 and the boy was 10. They were on the mountain alone and when I asked them where their parents were, the direct translation of what they said in Thai is:" Our parents didn't want us, they threw us away."

This is a common story in Thailand. People have children, but want to move on to have a better life. The children are left behind with an older member of the family, usually a grandmother who can barely support herself, let alone the children. The parents leave and are often never seen again. As the grandmother cannot afford to support the children to go to school, the children spend most of their spare time working to make money for food for the family and stationery for school.

Although children like the ones that I met that day do attend school- they work every evening, weekend and holiday, and often drop out when they get to Grade 9, which is the required level of education by the government, so that they can support their struggling family by working full time.

My heart breaks when I meet children like this- and I know that seeing families like this breaks God's heart too. Children need a mother and father, and children need to have an opportunity to just be children. They need to be loved and live in a place where they can feel safe. These children that I meet in Ratchaburi are just an example of the many orphaned children in the world, that are orphans not because of Aids or other diseases, but because their parents wanted a better life which didn't include the children that they had brought into the world.

I often ask myself: "What will these children grow up to be?"
I think the simple answer is that they will grow up to be a part of the next generation of adults. Hopefully they will make better decisions than their parents did when they get there. Hopefully they will experience love at some point in their lives and will grow to understand the love of a mother and father before they become mothers and fathers themselves.

Our bunnies

2007-03-16T19:18:00.000+07:00

Last year June, we fell in love with a little rabbit at the petstore. He came home with us and was named Grandpa. Grandpa enjoyed ruling the house for a coupe of months only having to compete with a few goldfish for attention. Later on though we started to notice that Grandpa was getting lonely and needed some rabbit company- this is when Grandma joined the family.

Grandpa and Grandma played happily together. They became great friends and Grandpa even became quite jealous of anyone else wanting to play with Grandma.

Three weeks ago however, Grandma was sitting happily in her cage outside and she was attacked and bitten by one of the many dogs that we have on our property. We have no idea how the dog managed to open the cage or why on that particular day he attacked Grandma when none of the dogs have ever payed much notice to Grandma and Grandpa. Grandma survived the bite, but died about an hour later of shock.

Without Grandma, Grandpa was a different rabbit altogether. He was much more mellow, and just sat in his cage not wanting to come out and play. We had looked for a new rabbit to buy as Grandpa's friend, but there were none at any of the pet stores. The owner of one of the pet stores told us that the reason why there aren't any rabbits is because it is the hot season and few of them survive through it if they are still young.

Grandpa was doing so well, but as he was born in May last year, he had never actually experienced summer. Last night we noticed that Grandpa was sick and although he made it through the night, he died this afternoon.

We will miss playing with Grandpa and it will be lonely in our house without any animals that we can play with (fish are just not the same as rabbits). Noiy is convinced that from here we should progress to pet rocks and see if we do any better with those. I think it will be a while before we have another pet, but then again, that's what I always think- my husband doesn't always seem to agree and manages to convince me by driving me to the petstore and letting me play with and fall in love with the cute little bunnies and hamsters.

Chom Beung University

2007-02-28T19:20:00.000+07:00

Noiy and I took a drive out to the local university in Ratchaburi this week. The university is about a 40km drive from where we are.

We went to speak to the Professor who runs the English club to ask if we could come and help run some activities for them sometime. We are hoping that if we have a team of volunteers about university going age we could take them to build relationships and learn about Thai culture from the university students.

The university is beautiful- it's set at the the foot of a mountain and has stunning gardens. It has approximately 3000 students- a drop in the ocean compared with the 650 000 or so students that were at the Ramkhamhaeng University in Bangkok where Noiy and I used to do ministry. The university is also a teachers training college and most of the students that graduate from any of the programs that are offered will go on to become teachers.

The director of the English club seemed thrilled to have some extra hands to help and it looks like we will be seeing more of Chom Beung University in the near future.

Our new office

2007-02-21T14:51:00.000+07:00

Last week Noiy and I went to sign the lease for our office which will be the home of YWAM Ratchaburi for at least the next year. We saw the building in December and were thrilled when we got back from South Africa in February and nobody had rented it yet.

It's in complex about 5 minutes drive outside of the main town. There are tennis courts, a swimming pool, a gym and it is very secure. As both Noiy and I have been on short term mission teams before we know how nice it is to stay at a place where there is some space to exercise and relax.

The building is 4 storeys high, so we plan to use the bottom as the actual office and the rest of the building as accomadation for short term teams that come to serve with YWAM Ratchaburi.
We will officially be moving in on the 9th of March.

(Our building is the one in the middle)

2007-02-03T20:46:00.000+07:00

Today Noiy and I spent time looking for a building to rent as our ministry office. We think that we have found the right one and will post some pictures soon. We will hopefully be able to sign the lease later this week and then will have a group of our friends from YWAM in Bangkok coming to help us to clean, paint and set up office.

We have a meeting with one of the schools in town next week, so hopefully we will be able to talk to them about bringing some teams to them later in the year.

All very exciting- slightly scary as I know that there is a lot of hard work ahead of us- but we are ready to start what we have been wanting to do since we arrived in Ratchaburi.

50th Birthday in South Africa

2007-01-17T15:53:00.001+07:00

Noiy and I arrived in South Africa on the 31st of December to join with the family in celebrating my moms 50th birthday. We always seem to be around when the family is gathering together and it was so wonderful to be able to see so many of us together at the same time.

The birthday weekend was a huge success and we were all exhausted by the time we arrived home. Having had a few days to recover now, I'm sure that it wont take us long to start scheming again about how we can get the family together in one place.

YWAM Thailand Ratchaburi

2006-12-23T16:39:00.000+07:00

YWAM Thailand Ratchaburi

2006-12-23T16:02:00.000+07:00

Since returning to Ratchaburi, Noiy and I have been praying about and making plans for next year. Although we have known since arriving in Ratchaburi last year something of what we wanted to see happen here, our eyes had yet to be opened to the big picture of what God really wants to do here.

During our time in Bangkok, we spent much time praying and started to see that this picture is much bigger than us. God started to show us many different ministries which could be started in Ratchaburi in the future, and as we began to look at what that meant, we realised that we had to open our minds and our vision for this place.

Our vision initially was to see the youth of Ratchaburi hear and understand the Gospel and to know Jesus. This is something that we have already begun and have been working at for the past year. God showed us that He wants to work with every generation in a different way and that there is a way that every area of society in Ratchaburi can be touched by the love of Jesus.

We have now begun to look at ways to see:
-the children recieve quality foundational education
-the youth seek to know Jesus
-the poor be able to support their families with dignity
-the elderly have a place where they can recieve love and care

The vision may seem large, but we know that we just have to take it one step at a time and that God will lead us as we do. We plan to start with the youth and will be continuing with and expanding the schools ministry that we began last year, and will also be looking to open a mission centre where we can recieve short term missions teams to serve the community.

" The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, because the Lord has appointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to announce that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed." Isaiah 61:1

LTS Graduation

2006-12-08T07:21:00.000+07:00

After three months of living in community with about 90 other people it's quite an odd feeling to know that tomorrow when I wake up it will just be Noiy and I again. This is the life that many people in YWAM live however and this has been my experience many times over the past 4 years.

It has been a priviledge to get to know so many people from so many nations, and to see how God's heart is reflected through their lives. It's amazing to think that we can come from so many different places, but yet we can live in harmony and learn together as we live together.

Last night was our graduation from the school and most of the students will be making their way home this weekend. It was a happy end to a happy time and with all of our new friends heading back to where they live and serve, we have hope that we may see them again one day- but we know that if we never see them again, we will have touched each others lives for this time and left footprints on one anothers hearts.

Leaving Bangkok

2006-12-08T07:14:00.000+07:00

Although Bangkok is not the most beautiful city in the world, there is some beauty in every city. When you look past the pollution and when you try to forget about the heat and the odd smells around you, you can find some wonderful sights in Bangkok.

Today is our last day living in Bangkok for a while and although I am glad to be returning to Ratchaburi, I will always be a city girl at heart. These are some of the views from our window of our room in Bangkok.

LTS in Bangkok

2006-11-13T17:55:00.000+07:00

This is Noiy and I in our Leadership Training School classroom in Bangkok. We have been here every day since September 18th when the school started. School starts in the morning at 8am and ends in the afternoon at 3pm. There are always a few hours of homework each day so our brains are never left unused. Overtired at times, but definitely never unused. It has been a very challenging time for us as we have had to look into ourselves and discover whether our actions really reflect who we are and what we believe. With only 4 weeks left of the school we are slowly winding down, but still expecting to be challenged every day until the very last minute.

2006-11-11T18:18:00.000+07:00

In Thailand there are many states of the heart. You can have a black heart(jai dam), a good heart(jai dee), a broken heart (seer jai), a hard heart(jai kang) and you can even have water of the heart(nam jai)- which implies generosity. There are many instances in which I find myself now able to express myself in Thai but not in English as there are certain expressions that are just not as effective when translated. Language gives new perspective on the world. Langauge gives you new ways of expressing yourself and new ways of thinking about things. At times language gives you things to think about that you would never have thought of before. There are concepts that I have learnt in Thailand that can never be fully expressed in English, and certain concepts in English that cannot be fully expressed in Thai. It is only when you embrace the language and are able to communicate in it that you really are able to understand these concepts. Language really does make our lives richer- it helps us to see the treasures in people and cultures that we never would have understood otherwise. What was strange, just becomes normal. Something you could never describe now becomes a part of who you are... even though there may not be a word for it in your mother tongue. Living in Thailand has shown me how to express what was always in my heart- I hope to learn many more languages and express myself in many more ways in my life. For the human heart longs to understand and to be understood.

2006-10-25T18:30:00.000+07:00

This is the new airport in Thailand. It has a whole of lot the the biggest and longest things in it and has broken a whole bunch of records that I didnt even know were something that people kept track of. For example... it apparantly is currently the longest airport building in the world(which could be a bad thing if you have to walk from one end to the other). It also claims to have the longest luggage carrousel in the world.

There are a lot more but most of them seemed quite silly to me and so I can't remember them. It is being called the 'Pride of Thailand', and has just been open for a month. I haven't yet been there and I don't really care how long it is or how big the building is or any of that. I will get my first experience of it at the end of this year and will make sure that I remember how efficient it is and how much time I have to waste at customs and passport control. I also might take note of how comfortable the chairs in the airport are and how expensive the food is. Perhaps I'm a cynic, but travelling for me has always been about how fast and how comfortable it is...

Worldview

2006-10-09T18:12:00.000+07:00

This week we are studying about worldview. It is a very interesting topic to discuss in a room with people from all over the world. We have students from Brazil, America, Africa, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Canada, Indonesia, Cambodia, Somoa, Scotland, England, India all in the same classroom. That is just where they were born and raised, not starting on where they live and work now. There are so many nations all in one place and it is very challenging to realise how different the way we see the world is because of where we come from and under what circumstances we were raised. There are so many things that influence us to see the world the way that we do, many of them are neither good nor right. How do we change the way that we see the world? What is the correct way to perceive the world? We interprete everything through our cultural perspective unless we consciously change our thinking. In discussing why we all think so differntly today, we realised that there are many things that we have learnt that must be unlearnt and relearnt the correct way. I am looking forward to spending time learning and discussing this week.

children should just be children

2006-10-07T15:54:00.000+07:00

This past week at the Leadership Training School that Noiy and I are currently attending we did a lot of discussion about injustice in the world and looked at what injustice really is and why there is so much injustice all around us.

People take advantage of those who have no voice of their own- children, women, the poor,the enslaved...

We looked into different organisations in the world that are trying to make a difference, speaking out for those who can't- setting them free from the bondages that hold them captive.

Children should all have the chance to just be children. All people should have the choice to be free. Those people who are so often overlooked are really the ones that we should be fighting to save.

The links: http://www.viva.org ,http://www.invisiblechildren.org, http://www.ijm.org are all very eye-opening to the many problems that we oftentimes don't even realise are there.

2006-10-07T15:37:00.000+07:00

An empty truck, a crying child

An empty truck stands stationary on a busy highway.
Life moves on. We drive by. Annoyed by the inconvenience.
Driven by our schedules. Our lives. Our goals.

I am only one. They are only one. Annoyed by the inconvenience we drive by.
Moved by our discomfort. Driven by our fear.

A child left alone on a bustling street.
Life moves on. We walk by. Annoyed by the inconvenience.
Driven by our schedules. Our lives. Our goals.

I am only one. They are only one. Annoyed by the inconvenience we walk by.
Moved by our discomfort. Driven by our fear.

A young woman stuck in a life that she didn’t choose.
Life moves on. We drive by. Annoyed by the inconvenience.
Driven by our schedules. Our lives. Our goals.

I am only one. They are only one. Annoyed by the inconvenience we drive by.
Moved by our discomfort. Driven by our fear.

A man and his family sold into slavery to cover his debt.

Life moves on. We drive by. Annoyed by the inconvenience.
Driven by our schedules. Our lives. Our goals.

I am only one. They are only one. Annoyed by the inconvenience we drive by.
Driven by our discomfort. Driven by our fear.

I am only one- they are so many.
Impact on one life makes an impact to the One that really matters.
Cars stopped on highways are inconveniences.
People should never be.

Speak out against injustice- you can be the voice for those that have none.

Narivitaya School

2006-09-25T17:31:00.000+07:00

Noiy taking part in his favourite past time

2006-09-25T17:30:00.000+07:00

Narivitaya School

2006-09-25T17:28:00.000+07:00

Bronwyn the superstar

2006-09-25T17:22:00.000+07:00

This is me feeling like I'm famous:o) For some reason a lot of our students wanted Noiy and I to give them our autographs before we left them on our last day. Those that didn't have any paper let us sign their school shirts. We were very sad when we had to say goodbye to them and were also slightly surprised when some of them wrote us letters, gave us gifts and a few even burst into tears when we said goodbye.

Missing Grandpa

2006-09-25T17:17:00.000+07:00

As you may be able to tell, I miss my rabbit:o(
Noiy and I had to take Grandpa to live with Noiy's mom before we moved to Bangkok as our room has barely enough space for the two of us. These are some pictures that we took the night before we took him to his new home.

Champ and Gan

2006-09-10T15:39:00.000+07:00

These are 2 little boys who live next door to us... (and I mean right next door as we live with their family). Neither of them understand that we don't actually belong to the family and wonder in and out of our house as if they have known us forever. Noiy and I are their 2 playmates as the teenagers and adults in the family aren't always so eager to oblige when they need a friend to join their games. Last week I was sadly beaten many times at paper aeroplane throwing contests, partly because I'm not very good and partly because the two boys cheat very well.

Noiy has been their daily companion this week as they discovered just a few days ago that he has a remote control car. They race cars with him every evening until they run out of batteries for the day. I have found them waiting outside our door early in the morning on my way to go running wanting to know where my husband is and when he will be ready to race again. They have conned batteries out of almost every family member that they have this week. Hopefully the batteries will run out or the cars will break in the next few days... peace and quite is hard to come by when you are considered just another one of the 6 years olds.

(Champ is the toothless one on left, and his cousin on the right is Gan.)

english camp

2006-09-10T15:27:00.000+07:00

Noiy and I spent the day dancing and singing, playing games and entertaining the students. Many prizes were awarded and all the students returned home with full stomachs from all the snacks they were eating all day. We know the students had fun, as we had just as much fun as they did, but we hope that they left the English camp today with a greater desire to improve their English and a new motivation to be good students.

English Camp

2006-09-10T15:18:00.000+07:00

English camp

2006-09-10T15:15:00.000+07:00

English Camp

2006-09-10T15:08:00.000+07:00

Today was the last day of the three days of English camp that we have held over the past 2 weekends. Last weekedn there were 100 students attending. Over the past two days there have been 180 students. Here they are waiting to start with their activities.

children,children everywhere...

2006-09-01T18:42:00.000+07:00

You would think that when you are getting ready to move on from a place that life would slow down a bit... but it never seems to ring true for me. I have a habit of taking on as much as I possibly can in the week or two before I move to a new location.

Noiy and I have two weeks left in Ratchaburi and although many of our private lessons are starting to come to an end, we have taken on organising and running English camps for the next two weekends(starting tomorrow). We will be teaching about 100 kids from grade 1-grade3 tomorrow, and then will be teaching 100 kids from grade 4-6 next weekend.

Before we left South Africa, we were determined that we wanted to work with teenagers in Ratchaburi. However, just before we returned to Thailand we had someone pray for us and tell us that she sensed that God was preparing us to be surrounded by children in the place where we were going. Looking back on the year that we have been here, although we have worked with many teenagers and adults both at home and at school- it is the unexpected work that we have done with the many children that we have taught that has really blessed us.

From the group of orphans that comes to our church every Sunday, to the kids that live in our neighbourhood that wonder in and out of our house as if we are their family, and the many primary school children who have come to study privately with us on the weekends, evenings and holidays. The first English camp that we ran for 3-10 year olds during the summer holidays exhausted us both but touched our hearts greatly. We look forward to our two weekends of playing and singing... and although we may be exhausted, we know it will be worth it.

I think I'm finally a real teacher

2006-08-21T20:02:00.000+07:00

The first time I ever felt like a real teacher was after I had been working at a language school in Braamfontein for about a month and my students had to take exams. I so clearly recall sitting up until all hours of the night marking my students exams which had to be in the following day. The worst moment though was when I was finally finished and tried to get some sleep for the next days classes that I had to teach, and all I could see when I closed my eyes was exam papers.

I have set and marked mid term exams for Grade 10-12 already since I have been working at this school and am busy setting the final exams for the end of this month. It slightly defeats the point of even having a teacher teach listening and speaking English, and then have them test their students with a written test, but sometimes you just have to follow the rules of the organisation to keep everyone happy.

I have had many moments of feeling like a real teacher at this school, but sill often just feel like one of the students (I feel like it was just the other day that I was at high school- then again it was just the other day). The days when I really feel like a teacher are those when I have a headache and I am in my 8th hour of teaching for the day and know that I still have 2 more hours of teaching waiting for me when I arrive home.( Now I know why my teachers, who were mostly pretty decent people, were often increadibly grumpy most of the time).

All those things aside though- it's a blast being the teacher.

Always a collector at heart:o)

2006-08-17T16:20:00.000+07:00

Last week, Noiy and I decided that we would buy something for our students who had done exceptionally well in their exams. Noiy had always told me that teddy bears and dolls are cheap in Ratchaburi, but I had no idea just how cheap as I had never had a reason to look for myself.

Turns out that one of the products that Ratchaburi makes is soft toys for export. All the toys that I bought when I was a kid that had a little 'made in Thailand' sticker on them probably came from right here where I now live. The store that we went into had all shapes, sizes and even many well known brand names that were to be exported. The brand names tended to be slightly more expensive, but still I was shocked when I did the conversion to Rands, and figured out that I could have bought a decent sized, perfect condition Tigger, or Piglet, complete with their Disney label for under R20.

The dolls in this picture that we chose for our students were all in perfect condition and were not the cheapest in the store, but still were only 35 Baht(that's about R5).

Having collected soft toys for many years when I was younger and knowing how much money I spent on them over the years it makes me laugh to realize that now that I don't want them anymore I can get them for under R5 just down the road.

Mother's Day

2006-08-12T15:49:00.000+07:00

Today is the Queen of Thailand's birthday and the Thai people celebrate the day as Mother's day every year. Yesterday they had a celebration at the school for all the moms in honor of today. Many of the parents came to join in the celebration and it was very moving to watch the students paying honor to their mom's for all that they do for them.

Seeing as I have no children, my rabbit had to take the place as my child for now so that I could also be a part of Mother's Day. He somehow even managed to write me a Mother's Day card, delivered curtesy of my husband, and even though we had to leave him at home, aparantly Grandpa insisted that Noiy and I go out to eat together to celebrate.

I may not yet be convinced at the amazing ability that my rabbit apparantly has to communicate with my husband, but nonetheless, I greatly appreciated the gesture. Hopefully by the time Father's day(December 5th in Thailand) rolls around I will be able to communicate with Grandpa on the same level that Noiy supposedly can now:o)

2006-08-08T18:50:00.000+07:00

My high speed internet has been broken since Saturday and it's driving me crazy. I havent been on a normal line on the internet for a long time but it didn't take me long to remember how slow and painful it is. I am so thankful that technology keeps moving forward.

11 year old Beer

2006-08-02T20:59:00.000+07:00

I have a student who comes to study with me on Wednesday and Thursday evenings for an hour and a half per session. His name is Beer, which may seem a bit odd elsewhere, but is quite normal here. An adorable, cheerful child who is always so happy to see me- I love my time with him. He has been studying with me for many months now and I am still trying to figure out the best approach to teaching him.

Initially I realised that he couldn't read English, which is in fact not unusual as many students here get taught so fast when they are young that they never catch on and give up after just a short time. He is 11 years old and so I figured that it would be best if he learnt now so that he doesn't end up like many people who I have met, who finish school and never learn. He is so eager to learn, but I have been having so many problems with him that I have begun to wonder if my methods are not good learning methods for him.

When he first started with us his parents wanted him to learn how to speak, and so anything that I wanted him to remember Noiy would write in the Thai alphabet for him so that he could go back to it if he forgot. After a few lessons I realised that this was not going to work and started reading very simple books with him, and doing many exercises involving sounds and the alphabet.

I have tried teaching him from scratch, but he just seems to forget everything when he comes back and is determined to think in both Thai and English at the same time. (something I have realised, being able to speak and read both, can only make you confused). The last few lessons I have allowed him to read in English and then write down the sounds in Thai and read it from there so that I could observe the way that he thinks.

Today I started to understand that the problem may be more than a bad memory and a stubbornness to change. When he reads English he reads backwards at times and switches all the letters around, but I often just dismissed it as him guessing what he was reading. Today I saw that he does the same when he reads Thai. I had him explain to me why he was writing certain things and he told me what he was doing, and in my limited ability in the Thai language I immediatly understood that there was something wrong.

So, I have a feeling that he is dislexic, or has another kind of learning problem, which could easily be helped if his teachers knew- but with 50 students in a class, what teacher would notice? Thailand doesnt have special schools for students who need to learn through a different method or who generally just don't cope well with ordinary learning methods- especially not in a small town like this.

The question on my heart really is- what could I do to help him? I can help him to read and speak to the best of my ability, but in the end he might go through his entire school years with nobody else even picking up that he may have a problem.

I have many other students who can't read, most of whom are already in the last years of high school. The thing that makes me so sad is that it's not that they never wanted to learn, but just that they kept getting passed with the rest of the class because their teachers won't fail them and don't have time to help them.

I am often overwhelmed with the amount of people that I meet here that I want to help. With only so many hours in the day, for now it is just going to have to be focussing on really making a difference to a few individuals, like Beer. Maybe one day there will be a way that Noiy and I can reach so many more. We trust that God will lead us to that in His time.

2006-07-31T12:26:00.000+07:00

One year ago, Noiy and I were married in South Africa. Neither of us can believe how fast the first year has gone.
Reflecting on the year gone by, brings us both to realise how much we have caused one another to grow. We have shared many joys and helped one another through situations which were perhaps not so joyful. Above all though, we have chosen to allow every challenge to help us mature.
I can confidently say that married life has treated us well so far and that we both look forward to many more years together, with God as our strength.

Grandpa

2006-07-27T15:53:00.000+07:00

Grandpa getting a bit of exercise for a change :o) He's been with us for two months now, and has gotten so big. I think he needs to go on diet sometime soon!

Sports day 3

2006-07-26T16:21:00.000+07:00

Some of our students having fun at sports day.

Sports day 2

2006-07-26T16:15:00.000+07:00

The preschool girls dancing to open the sports day.

sports day

2006-07-26T16:05:00.000+07:00

Today was sports day at the school where we are teaching. We had a wonderful time watching all the students dressed up and parading around the town. They will play sport for a full three days and I'm sure will be exhausted by the time the weekend comes. Noiy and I are very thankful for a few days of rest.

2006-07-23T15:01:00.000+07:00

Noiy and I have become very well known in Ratchaburi since we started teaching at St. Mary's. Although we haven't been teaching for very long, we get stopped everywhere we go by our students. These are some of the friendly faces that we see each day. These students are from one of our grade 7 classes. They are our youngest students, but also happen to be some of our best as they are so excited to learn everytime that they see us.
Many of them will come and practice speaking to us during their break time, often very nervous and tonuge tied, but determined to practice their English nonetheless. Noiy and I have a room where we can sit during break time with a few of the other teachers, but we always choose to sit in the library with the students so that they can come and talk to us if they want to.
Many of the primary school students also take that time to come and speak to us, even though we don't teach them. They are a pleasure to be around- happy and smiling, and always wanting to learn more and more.
We only have two months left at the school, and not much time with the students considering they have a week of exams during that time. We hope that we can continue to make an impact on the students lives in the time that we are there.

As for my Thai language learning- I am currently making regular trips to the primary school library to take out books which I read after I have finished teaching and preparing lessons at about 9pm. I am progressing slowly, but progressing nonetheless, and glad that I am becoming more able to communicate through writing as well as speaking. Learning is a long and frustrating process at times and I guess I have to prepare myselve to keep doing it over and over again. As I see my students struggling with a language concept I can empathise with them while I struggle with mine. For we all must continue to learn...

my short car trip...

2006-07-09T19:42:00.000+07:00

My husband has been sick for the last few days and it has been quite an interesting experience of seeing whether I really can do everything all on my own. I realised how much I rely on my husband here and how many things he does for me that I don't really think about or appreciate.

The thing that I appreciate most is that he drives me everywhere. It's like living with my mom again when I was at school. I just get in the car and the car gets to the destination. Today I had to drive to go and buy medicine for him, and although I have been driving for more than 6 years it was a strange experience. I have driven a few times with Noiy in the car in Ratchaburi, but had never driven anywhere on my own.

As life would have it, the very first time I go out on my own, someone drives into the back of my car. There was no damage to my car but I just felt so bad for the teenage boy on the motorcycle that drove into me. His motorcycle had quite a bit of damage to it and he had almost no money on him.
Something that I have always heard about but never experienced personally is that in Thailand when there is an accident the parties involved don't call the police, but rather just sort out the matter of whose fault it was right there in the street. The parties involved then exchange enough money to cover the damages of the innocent party and they part ways.

I have decided that I am quite capable, although I would much rather have my husband handle complicated situations like that. I managed to have a logical conversation with the driver of the motorcycle, sorted out who was at fault and went with him to find a place to fix his bike.

The thing is that after the accident I felt so bad for him. Although I know that the law says that he was in the wrong, I did stop right in front of him when there was no need to stop. I just felt like perhaps, although the law is law, I was the one that was in the wrong, and that maybe sometimes the law is not fair.

Although it was not needed I went with him to check that he was ok and gave him some money to fix a part of his bike. I made sure that it was safe for him to drive and tried to do what I could to reassure him that I was sorry about what had happened.

Laws and rules sometimes make us shut our minds to the fact that all parties involved in a crime or an accident are human. We all have feelings and we all do things that we don't intend to do at times. When I saw the despondant face of that boy today there was no way that I could just walk away as was my right to do. Perhaps I'm too soft, or perhaps I should make an effort to see every person the way that I saw that boy today- just as vulnerable as me.

Extra classes

2006-07-03T20:33:00.000+07:00

Today Noiy and I were given an extra three classes per week to teach. I taught for 9 hours today- and I'm exhausted. Some of the students at the school who don't study with us had asked the school to make extra classes for them, as although their major subjects are science and maths, they also want to be able to practice their English. Many of them want to study medicine, or other degrees that would require science, and if they had chosen English as one of their major subjects at school, they wouldnt be able to go on to study what they want to choose as their career one day.

Most of them have excellent English and they are in fact the students who want to study outside of Thailand when they go to university. It's quite strange that choosing a language as one of your subjects at school makes you unable to study to be a doctor after school. They are studying English as an extra subject, and they will get no credit for it whatsoever from the school, but they really want to learn. What a pleasure it is to teach students who want to learn. Even though the extra two classes today made me tired- it was worth it to know that the students that are in those classes genuinely want to be there, and will truly take something away from the time that we are giving to spend with them.

Saint Mary's Convent Ratchaburi

2006-06-26T19:58:00.000+07:00

Today was the start of our third week at the school we are teaching at. Some of our classes have so many students that it's almost impossible to be able to teach them more than one thing per lesson. In most of our classes there are 50 students!
Today we were able to take over the school hall for all of our classes. It was a wonderful opportunity for the students to learn as we had enough space to do activities with them and we could make as much noise as we liked without worrying about the other classes around us. These are some of the pictures from our classes today.

We have already seen many of our students from the school grow in their confidence which is very encouraging to see as their teacher. We have an opportunity to be a part of an English camp with about 170 students from the school next month and are looking forward to the time of building better relationships with them.

Chicken office?

2006-06-20T20:34:00.000+07:00

When we were talking about language that you need to use while travelling, in my English class yesterday, one of my students kept asking me why I was saying' chicken office'. I couldn't understand what she was going on about, but eventually understood that when I said: 'chicken or fish?' as an air hostess would, she understood it as 'chicken office'.

I have had many funny encounters with my students in the last two days including a student telling me that her special talent is watching tv. Another student told me today that she went on vacation to the supermarket.

The longer I teach the more funny stories I come across. Teaching English is certainly not boring. I know being the student is not much fun - having to make all of those mistakes just to learn how to speak correctly. I still have Thai people in stitches often when I get my words mixed up or when I say something with the wrong tone. I was playing a game with some Thai students in Thai last week and wanted to tell them that there is a lot of juice in a watermelon, but instead ended up saying that a watermelon is full of thorns inside.

I hope that I never get tired of learning and that I am always thankful to those who correct my mistakes. I also hope that I can gracefully and lovingly correct the mistakes of my students- encouraging them to love learning and to continue to persevere. We all need people who believe in us, no matter how many mistakes we make.

Grandpa the bunny rabbit

2006-06-19T20:45:00.000+07:00

These are pictures of Grandpa, or new rabbit. We decided to get another one when we came back from Greece and he has been happily hopping around our house ever since.

Long live the King!

2006-06-12T20:36:00.000+07:00

Somebody arriving in Thailand for the first time either this week or last week might be confused at the Thai people's obsession with the colour yellow. Everywhere you look in Thailand every day there are people wearing yellow shirts.
This year is the 60th anniversary of the King of Thailand's ascension to the throne. The country is celebrating throughout the year, but last week Friday was 60 years to the day that he made his ascension to the throne. His majesty the King made an appearance in Bangkok and Thai people came from all over the country to be able to catch a glimpse of their beloved King. Hundreds of people slept at the gates of the palace to make sure that they could get a good view the following day. Thousands of others left their homes early on Friday morning and waited for hours in the Bangkok heat before the King arrived. The colour that the country is using to celebrate this occasion this year is yellow- and I didn't see a single Thai person not wearing yellow last Friday. The road outside the palace looked like a huge field of bright yellow flowers.

Never have I seen a people so in love with and in awe of one person. Although he is deserving of respect just because of his title- the respect that he gets from the people is by no means because of his title- but rather because of what he has chosen to do with the position that was bestowed upon him. His Majesty the King of Thailand has for the past 60 years done everything that he can to improve the living conditions of his people. He is a king who works hands on with his people trying to solve the problems which plague them most. He has made ways to improve the conditions in Thailand in times of drought and flood. When he saw that the people were having a problem with deforestation he went to the source of the problem and found a solution himself. He has developed a type of gasoline that can be used by the people in Thailand which is now greatly assisting to keep the price of petrol down for the local people. He has used the natural resources that Thailand has to create sustainable development. Being a foreigner, these are just some of the things which I have heard about the king, but there are so many more things that he has done in his reign.

In almost every workplace that I have been in I have seen the people wearing yellow in respect of the king. This is not something that is forced, but done out of love. A great love that the Thai people have for their king and his family- because he cares about his people and has reigned over them with love, care and wisdom for the past 60 years. Long live His Majesty the King of Thailand- the cry of the heart of every Thai person.

School

2006-06-04T15:45:00.000+07:00

Tomorrow is our first day teaching at the school in Ratchaburi. We were initially scheduled to start on Friday, but received a phone call on Thursday telling us that the students were going on a field trip. I guess schools all over the world must be the same in some ways. I remember loving going on field trips when I was younger- not because they were interesting, but just because it meant that I didn't have to go to class for one day.

When Noiy and I were walking one day in Greece, we discovered these children on a field trip at the archeological museum on their island. They were sitting in the sun drawing pictures of what they had seen at the museum. To me it seemed like they were all enjoying it much more than children enjoy normal school.

In Thailand the next generation is seriously encouraged to get the best education that they can get and I often find it disturbing how much they are in school and how little free time they get. School starts at 8am and ends at 4pm- but most of the students that I have met go to extra lessons after school until at least 6pm. From Grade 1 to Grade 12.

The irony of the matter though is that children can only concentrate for a certain number of minutes at a time and so whenever I ask any of the children that live around us what they learnt either at school or at extra lessons, they can't remember. They learn seven days a week and never have a day off or time to just hang out with their friends. What makes me so sad is that time with my friends was the best time of my school years- whether it was on the sports field during the week or just hanging out together on the weekends.

Noiy ensures me that the education system and Thai society has drastically changed from when he was at school and that he hardly knew anyone that ever went to extra classes let alone every day and for every subject. Perhaps it is a step in the right direction. Perhaps it is just the way that the future of schooling is moving. Or perhaps life was just better when it was simpler.

2006-05-31T14:54:00.000+07:00

I am always reminded when I travel that God has placed something so beautiful and unique in every culture. Having been to Greece previously I already had an admiration for the people and a fascination with their way of life.

While Noiy and I were there for the past two weeks, I spent a lot of time just watching the local people, and thinking about the special aspects that God placed in them as a people. On the occasion in this picture, Noiy and I went up into the moutains near a small village and met this lovely old lady at a small potter's workshop. Her son was working inside and she was sitting alone outside in her chair. Although we couldn't say much more than good morning to her, she happily obliged when we asked her permission to take this picture.

To me, this lady epitomised the beauty that is not only in the Greek people, but much more so, the beauty in the aged. I was reminded that it is not only the young that are beautiful, but that there is an element of beauty in all of us- something special that the Lord has placed inside us that we can never hide. I pray that I will always see the beauty in the people that I meet.

on the beach at Justin and Sarah's wedding

2006-05-31T14:49:00.000+07:00

beautiful sunset on Naxos Island in Greece

2006-05-31T14:46:00.000+07:00

Justin and Sarah's wedding

2006-05-31T14:33:00.000+07:00

Noiy and I have just returned from my brother's wedding in Greece.
What a beautiful occasion to share with family and friends! The wedding took place on a deserted beach behind some rocks and next to the sea. Friends and family gathered from all over the world to celebrate the union of these two special people. Their wedding will be a day that will not soon be forgotten by anyone that was there.

Congratulations to the happy couple!

our bags are packed...

2006-05-13T22:23:00.000+07:00

Actually our bags are not yet packed although we leave Ratchaburi on our journey to Greece on Monday morning. This is unusual for me as I'm normally ready to get on the plane 2 weeks or more before my flight is scheduled. I think I've always been a planner... although I'm not quite sure what has happened to me since I got married. Perhaps married life has made me more relaxed. Then again perhaps the thought of getting two people's laundry clean and making sure that two people have everything that they need while they are away from home has made me into less of a planner and more of a procrastinator. Married life is great, but it sure makes life different.

We have two days in Bangkok and the are headed for the island of Naxos in Greece for 10 days. My only real brother is getting married and so I'm officially gaining a sister- although I think she has been my sister for the last few years(or at least that's the way I thought about it). I gained a sister and brother when I married my husband so my family just seems to be growing by the minute. The amount of siblings that I have tripled in just a few months. I also gained two neices and a nephew, which is kind of strange to think about. Family is an odd concept in Thailand though because everyone is considered a brother, sister, aunt, uncle, parent or grandparent, depending on their age and sex. So I guess when I married into a Thai family I really married into a culture where everyone that I meet is my family. Nevertheless, I will only ever have one real brother, and that makes my new sister-in-law very special.

Hopefully I will get our bags packed in time to leave Thailand. Then again- all we really need is our passports, air tickets, some cash and a credit card. I'm sure I'll get it right.

30 minutes as a tourist

2006-05-01T19:55:00.000+07:00

Last week I rode on an elephant for the first time. I've been in Thailand for almost three years and I've hardly done any of the things that people who come to visit Thailand do. I guess I've had many opportunities to do them, but I hate feeling like a tourist. On this particular occasion though Noiy and I were taking a good friend of mine to do it and while we were there, they both convinced me to be a little bit of a tourist for a change.

I guess the reason that I hate to feel like a tourist in Thailand is because I like to consider it my home. After all, even though I wasn't born here, I've lived here for the last three years and probably will for many years to come. I feel almost obliged to act like one of the locals because most of the time the only people I see are locals.

This is not however a bad thing. I count myself priveledged to be able to live in an environment where I am forced to adapt. I know that if I wasn't forced to, I might choose not to. It is always easier to stay in your comfort zone when it is still an option. Fortunately for me, the only way I would be able to stay in my comfort zone here is to stay in my house all day. It's a wonderful thing to know that there is something pushing you to grow and change every day- even on those days when you don't really feel like growing and changing.

I believe that we should always be challenged. If I stayed in a place where I was never forced to look deep into myself and see where I could grow, I would live a very stagnant life. It would be a much more frustrating existince for me than to live a life of constant change. What a priveledge I count it to be able to live a life like I do! The elephant ride was great, but it was over in 30 minutes. I consider my life an adventure to be lived every day- what could be more exciting than that?

Happy New Year... Again

2006-04-14T10:06:00.000+07:00

Yes, I do realize that it's Easter and not New Year, but in Thailand we are busy celebrating Thai New Year otherwise known as Songkraan. In Thailand we have the privledge of celebrating New Year three times a year- New Year, Chinese New Year and Songkraan. Actually Noiy and I are not really big on celebrating the festivals here, but we love getting the day off when we can.

Songkraan is celebrated from the 13th to 15th of April every year. It is the main holiday in which people go home to see their families. If Thai people were ever going to stop working on one day of the year(they work all the time), Songkraan would be the time to stop. The holiday is still very much focused around Buddhism and the religious aspects of the festival for some, but very much like Christmas, it has started to lose it's religious meaning for many and is just a time of fun and celebration in whichever form you like to celebrate best.

This weekend being both Songkraan and Easter this year makes me really reflect on what Easter is and what it means to me. When I was younger I know that all I really cared about when Easter rolled around was how many Easter eggs I was going to get. For a number of years now I have spent Easter outside of South Africa, in places where there are no Easter eggs to be found and not many people who even know what Easter is. Easter is celebrated in Thailand even less than Christmas, because although neither of them are actually public holidays here, Christmas seems to have caught on with the local people, as with many other places in the world. Even in the church here, there is very little emphasis put on Easter weekend.

I guess what has become the truth for me is that although I still celebrate Easter on Easter weekend, since moving out of South Africa I have to focus much more on celebrating every day for the victory that was won on Easter. The fact that there is no commercial hype around the day that Jesus died and rose again gives me the opportunity to celebrate each day for all that it is and for all that my Savior has done for me. It's a victory for each day, that for me is celebrated each day, not once a year when I'm reminded by the shopping malls full of chocolate Easter eggs and bunnies, because now there are none.

For many that I know Easter is considered a family time, just like Songkraan in Thailand. For those of you who are with your families at this time, enjoy and celebrate every moment. To my family- I wish we could be there with you, but it's not long now until we can all celebrate together again. See you all soon in Greece!

thrill seeking

2006-04-07T13:53:00.000+07:00

Someone once told me that of all the people he knows, I will always be the first one to climb up the wall. I think what he meant was that I often don't appear to think much about things before I dive into them. I find this an advantage in life as I'm the kind of person who if left to think too long, I will probably get bored with the idea and never even start.

There are certain things that are not positive about this aspect of my personality style however- for example, those people who are always first to take on a challenge often don't think about the consequences of the challenge until they are half way through it. It's a mentality of "if i start right now I will get there sooner" hardly ever thinking that some things must take time. Patience for people like me must be developed over time.

I find that I often have days when I wonder how I got myself into what I'm doing. Of course I know the answer and I know that I want to be doing what I'm doing, but sometimes I just wonder how it all happened so fast. Many people in Thailand tell me that many people are called here, but few actually come, and even fewer stay for the long haul. It makes me think that God knew me and knew that I would come, but that if I had too much time I would have perhaps moved on with my life and just looked back at the idea of living in Thailand as a good idea that I had and never did.

I'm glad that I've been designed the way that I am. Even though it means that I'm sometimes left half way up the wall, wondering how I got there- I also know that once I'm half way up I will make it to the top, because there is no way that I would turn around and go back. There is too much joy in finishing a challenge. For me it's not so much thrill seeking as it is seeking to overcome the fear that is when you start to wonder how on earth you ended up so many metres above the ground(or hanging from the end of a bungee rope for that matter). It's all about diving right in before the fears about what may happen can overcome you. Once you're up there, all you can do is overcome them.

Oyster water!

2006-03-30T21:46:00.000+07:00

Today I woke up, went for my usual morning run and came back thirsty as ever. I opened the fridge and took out my bottle of water, hurried to take a sip and then had this horrible taste in my mouth that made me want to throw up on the spot. I couldn't figure out what it was, and there was an awful smell that was filling the entire refridgerator. Taking courage, I slowly began to empty the contents of our dearly beloved refridgerator(you would love yours this much too if it was 38C every day where you lived!).

Turns out, my husband had bought some oysters from the local market a few days ago, and as Thai people like to do, he had put them in a plastic bag in some kind of bad smelling water in our fridge. This is usually not a problem, but this particular bag leaked it's entire contents into our fridge.

So, inbetween classes I have tried everything to solve this dilema. In the end, the only thing that worked was to laugh it off and keep trying something else. Hopefully after all that I've tried, tomorrow the stench will be gone. Besides, who could be upset on a day like today- my fridge might smell terrible , but it's the middle of summer and for some reason it rained! I think it was God's gift to me for having to deal with the oyster water.

The blind leading the blind

2006-03-28T13:07:00.000+07:00

We have an exercise that we like to do wth our students to help them to learn how to give and recieve directions in English. We first blindfold our students and direct them around a small area outside our house. We then let them blindfold us and direct us around for a while. It's always quite scary being blindfolded and having them lead us, but it's very effective in helping them to learn as they feel confident in their English ability when we show them that we are not afraid to be blindfolded by them.

Last week, Noiy and I started teaching a class of what we assumed would be 12 year olds. When we arrived however we realised that the person running the school had failed to mention to us that most of the students were not in fact 12, but around the age of 5. Having planned to teach a group of 12 year olds I had to seriously improvise for the next hour and a half of class.

Cute as my fourteen little 5-8 year olds are, teaching them makes me think more and more about how sometimes I just feel really blinded by certain aspects of the culture in Thailand. The indirectness of the headmistress of the school was not something unusual and in fact is a common feature in my every day life. Improvisation is something that I have definitely become much better at since living in Asia.

I find that living in a culture foreign from my own on a long term basis can be very frustrating at times, but also very exciting. I often feel as if I am walking around culturally blindfolded not really sure where I am going to be led or what to expect when I get there. Sometimes the more I try to understand the more frustrated I get. I find that if I just let myself enjoy the moment understanding comes in time.

"I'm melting!"

2006-03-11T20:01:00.000+07:00

About three weeks ago Noiy convinced me that it would be a good idea for us to buy baby rabbits. It took a lot of convincing but eventually I gave in. We fell in love with our two little bunnies spending all of our free time playing with them and making sure that they were happy and healthy.

Apparently we are not so good at looking after rabbits though, as the first one died after a week and the second one died just before we had had them for two weeks. I know they come from Thailand, but I have a feeling that they died because they like the heat in Thailand about as much as I do.

We are heading into summer at the moment and the heat is starting to become unbearable. I keep thinking about the donkey in Shrek saying "I'm melting, I'm melting!" That's what I feel like at the moment almost every day. I keep reminding myself that I've made it through numerous summers in Thailand before and that I will make it through this one. Some days I'm a little hard to convince though and on those days(like today) Noiy and I take a trip to the supermarket- the biggest airconditioned place in our town. We walk around for a few hours and then come home again when we feel like we can face the heat again. Perhaps if we had taken our bunnies with us once or twice, they would have survived for longer than 2 weeks:o)

"Are you toilet?"

2006-03-09T15:42:00.000+07:00

Sometimes when I teach, my students say exceptionally funny things without intending to. As with any student of any language, it is inevitable that they will make some funny mistakes along the line.

Yesterday for example I was teaching 5 teenagers, and we were playing a game in which they had to ask eack other yes/no questions. The game was going relatively well until one of the boys asked:' are you toilet?' Well that was practically the end of the class as none of the students could concentrate as they were all in stitches for the next half hour.

I myself have made some horrible language glitches over the years and I know that they key to learning a language is just to loosen up, make the mistakes and laugh at yourself when you do. It may be horrible when you make the mistake, but you have to get over it and keep learning. There is always something new to learn and a new mistake to make.

in the beginning...

2006-03-08T21:15:00.000+07:00

A few days ago my husband dicovered a small birds egg with no nest in sight. Inquisitive fellow that he is he decided to bring it home and try to hatch the egg himself and take care of the baby bird. Although I think he realised that the minute little bird would never survive once it had hatched, he was determined to keep it alive. We named it Genesis.

Genesis died today. It was more the sadness of seeing my husband so disappointed that he couldnt keep the little bird alive than my own sadness at seeing the bird die that really got to me.

It's a strange phase that we are going through as a couple. My husband grew up in circumstances where he didnt ever get to have pets, and so since we have been married we have had our fair share of animals in our home. I have never been very good at looking after animals. I always try very hard but they never seem to last very long when I am their owner. Sad, but true, had it not been for my husband I would have given up on having pets at all a long time ago.

Marriage is a constant learning experience. The process of learning to love someone to the point of sacrificing our own ideals so that they can experiece theirs. Sacrifices like these bring more joy than living your own ideal ever would.

The background

2006-03-08T18:18:00.000+07:00

Bronwyn Leigh Smith and Anucha (Noiy) Prommathat were married on the 30 July 2005. They now live in Ratchaburi, Thailand where Noiy was born.

Jesus is their first love, and they would both give up everythig they have for Him many times over. It is because of His love that they love.

Bronwyn is 23 and comes from Johannesburg South Africa where she lived until she was 21. She moved to Thailand in 2003, and has been happily living there since.

Perfect love

2006-03-07T22:30:00.000+07:00

What if there was someone who stood beside you through every circumstance,
overlooked every one of your faults,
took your hand when you needed to be lifted up,
held you when you needed to be comforted?
What if this someone had all the answers?
but let you find them for yourself so that you would learn and remember,and hopefully not fall into the same trap again.
This someone would love all the same things as you,
and not , only would they love seeing you do them, but they would love to share them with you.

They would love to see you smile, and would rejoice when you laugh.
They would wipe away your tears, and they would hold you until you were finished crying.
They would always be there. They would never leave and they would never change.
They would never judge you, would never forsake you and would always challenge you to grow.
If there was someone who fitted this description, they would be called 'Love'.
For it is not in our nature to be able to be all those things to one another.

But when 'Love' comes to live in us, it is our desire to be that person to everyone that we meet.
For that is His great desire. When 'Love' lives in you, His desires become your desires.
You don't become 'Love' but you become enveloped in 'Love' and can't help but want to give it away.
For 'Love' drives out all fear.
'Love' never gives up.
'Love' never loses faith.
'Love' is always hopeful.
'Love' endures through every circumstance.
God is Love.

"God is love and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect." 1John4:16b-17a