New Beginnings

Monday will start some new beginnings with our time here in Thailand. Our meeting at the New Life Center Foundation went very well last week. We met with the social worker at the residence facility to fine out what they would like Kalya to do. She will be working with the girls helping them with their conversational English AND Thai. Most of the women here speak their hill tribe languages, so both English and Thai are a challenge for them. Kalya, being bilingual, is a huge help and she will be able to work with the girls and the office staff who are also hill tribe women. Her schedule is Monday and Thursday mornings teaching but mostly being present with the girls and forming relationships. I am excited to see Kalya begin the other part of our dream for being here. Please pray for her as she begins. I know that she is nervous about the "teaching" part, but I also know that Kalya has a strength and determination that will provide a blessing for New Life and that the blessing will be returned many times over. Praise God for this!

My semester is winding down. Finals week is in two weeks and then most of the month of October will be a break from school. After having no break from school the past two years, because of our work here in Chiang Mai over the past two summers, this break comes as a welcome relief. The academic committee reviewed the finals that I will be giving and they said that they look fine. In Thailand, a group of government people come into the school and review all of the finals to make sure that they are defensible and that they pass their standards. This happens at all of the Universities in the country so to have the academic committee tell me that they would be able to easily defend my finals before the government committee was a relief. Now to finish strong with the students. That involves 4 final projects for my 4 lecture classes, 6 performance juries and one final Jazz concert where my jazz ensemble and jazz improv groups will play on September 21. Relationships with the students have been developing really well and I have picked up 3 more drum and percussion majors that will begin second semester. Now I hope that they will watch my hours for the next semester and not give me an overload like they did this semester.

We are so blessed with the people in our neighborhood that we are surrounded by. It must be mentioned that Chuck and Janice Sahagian have been our "Falang" Godsends and it has been great having long time friends living here with us in our muubahn. Four others have been a blessing to begin to get to know. Nokk, our neighborhood in-home Thai massage person. We have been starting to get to know more about her and her husband from the UK (she is Thai). Cat, our landlord, is becoming a good friend of Kalya and it has been a good opportunity to know her and her daughter. She is also Thai and here husband is Australian and is presently serving in the Australian Navy. And, finally, Bow, the neighborhood bakery lady who is a young mother of a beautiful 2 and a half year old who spends time at work with momma every day. She is Thai and married to a Thai man who is a recruiter of Thai students to attend universities in Canada. His college education and masters degree are from the USA. They are a very cool couple and we spend a lot of time talking with Bow whenever we drop in for something sweet. We are surrounded by some very wonderful people. It is our hope and prayer that our relationships with these people will give us an opportunity to not only "be" Christ to them but also to look for opportunities to "share" Christ with them.

We are looking forward to October to take a short trip with our good friends, the Sahagians, up to Chiang Rai to visit Kyndra at Bahn Am Jai and Josh and his wife, Anjelica, with YWaM. We are excited to see how they are all doing and have a chance to see Chiang Rai again.

Thanks so much for your support both financially and through your prayers. I am truly learning the virtue of patience and running the race with endurance. We covet your prayers in this as we move forward through this year.

Bryan and Kalya