Intern Raef, Bank, random lady at the tree planting, and Me


Meet Bank, our new brother in Christ. His faith maybe new, but it's growing by leaps and bounds. Even before making his commitment to Christ back in October, Bank has been digging into the Word, and helping out at Grapevine. He has a strong passion for serving the Lord through loving his neighbors. We're so excited to see his faith increase, and are grateful for his participation in our student leadership group. Please keep prayin' for Bank to grow in the knowledge and love of our Lord.

The Big Cow is back, and it was a HUGE blessing. Our annual retreat to the mountains gave us a chance to slow down the pace of every day life, experience God's awesome creation, and draw nearer to Him and our community. We enjoyed getting to see some alumni, and as always, meet some new students. The camps highlights were a visit to a sunflower field, hanging out at a waterfall, and songs and testimonies around the campfire. We focused our talks and skits this year on the idea of TREASURE, so through a crazy pirate treasure hunt, small groups and discussions, we discovered that we can treasure God because he has treasured us.

Thanksgiving Day is a time to really give thanks, and a time for us to see the cornucopia of friends we've made this year. Rarely do we get the privilege of seeing so many of our friends at grapevine in one night, but for Thanksgiving they gathered together. Several students we've only met on campus came to join us in celebration of the American holiday, and several others who are often too busy to come to events took time out of their schedules to share with us. We did anticipate a big crowd, and were preparing for it. In fact, Greg jokingly said, "If I don't get full on Thanksgiving Day because we've got too many students here, I'm not going to be too thankful." But after 43 students showed up, he changed his tune. We had enough to eat, and more importantly we experienced the blessing of being together with friends, and with family.

Our Annual Halloween Party was lots of fun. With bobbing for apples and farang (which is both the word for guava and for european foriegners!) a corn on the cob eating competition and games and candy, and so much more. It was a fun way to welcome students back from their mid year break.


And yes, everyone thought I was adorable and culturally relevent as "'hello kitty"

Here's more pictures (taken by Andy May) of the English camp. Enjoy!

English Camp in Bang Sue (October 15th-17th)

This month we had the opportunity of leading a three day English camp in a neighborhood near our church. We've recently started a Sunday afternoon project with the children and as we all had a break from school and regular activities this month, we used our extra time to get to know the kids a little better. We had about 30 kids, ages 5-16 participate.

The students enjoyed hanging out with us all throughout the day, they played games, watched skits, sang songs, and did crafts. They loved playing with P'Andy's camera.

The younger kids really enjoyed coloring!

The week was a blur for us and for them! The teachers (3 staff, 3 exchange students, and 3 Thai students) and the children were all tired by the time Friday's carnival and closing ceremony came around, but we all had fun.

Here's a recent event as described by my team member Andy May:


“Going Green”.


One of our closest students, Bank, is very serious about the environment. So serious that he single handedly organized a tree planting event on the campus of Thammasat University. Bank eagerly invited The Grapevine to get involved, so we eagerly did. Bank informed us that he had successfully acquired 888 trees to be planted. We were a bit alarmed at that number, but being the go getting, “do it yourself” Americans that we are, we prepared to spend the whole day digging in the dirt. Of course, most Thai people are not as silly as us Americans and would never burden their good friends with the task of planting 888 trees in one day. When we showed up, the grounds crew had already planted all of the trees, our role was to just scrape mulch over the newly planted roots and pose for pictures. Bank had gotten some help in organizing the event and, in spite of the rain that day, it turned into quite a party complete with refreshments, prizes, and about 100 working class Thais. We were the only ones who came prepared to dig holes and plant trees and, as a result, got some interesting “smiles” from everyone else who were dressed for work that day.

This was one of the most exciting things to happen this semester, thanks to our friend Bank. It was also a great culture learning experience for us Americans who usually go into situations thinking, well, just like Americans. We are often taken back, even those of us who have been here for a while, at just how different things really are here. Hanging out with modern, westernized young people sometimes tempts us to forget that we are in a different world. Thank God for Bank, who gave us an opportunity to be reminded that we are guests here and that most people think, and act, very differently than us.

When it comes to our purpose here, it is a challenge to continually work to get our own culture out of the way of the Gospel so that Thais can see more of Jesus and less of our culture. We pray that the Holy Sprit is constantly “translating” our lives into ones that clearly reflect God’s character, even if we look as silly as we did that day. God bless Bank.

-Andy

Here are some pics of our 4th of July Party at Grapevine. We had lots of fun singing patriotic songs, eating funnel cake, spitting watermelon seeds and, of course, shooting off fireworks. Milk bought these fireworks in Chinatown. And it's totally legal to set these off in residential areas.

Do you have Facebook?

All of my Thai students have Facebook. They add applications nearly every second, and I can't remember who's a pirate and who's a ninja, who's started a cause to provide food for the hungry or to stop global warming. I've poked them, punched them, thrown sheep at them all summer long. By checking a status I can find out if they've passed their finals, or if they like their summer internship. I know who's dating, single, looking for friendship or "whatever they can get." Each night I can check my Facebook wall to find pictures of events that happened only two hours earlier.

Facebook claims to create community in an online environment, and it does. It helps people to know facts - the facts that people want to make known. Throughout my furlough I "stayed in community" with my friends in Thailand, by knowing lots of stuff about them. And when I got back to Bangkok, and school started, I sent them a message through Facebook, inviting them to join in "Living Facebook" at grapevine.

The theme was trendy, for sure, but still valid. In the midst of "poking" each other, and writing notes on "The Wall," we explored why we need community, online or otherwise. We discovered what the Bible has to say about true community, and how we, as a group of friends, want to model that in our lives. We also looked at God's profile, and learned that He longs for more than a casual relationship with us, He wants to love us, and save us, and drive out our fears.

Yes, as cheesy as it sounds, God wants us to click "Add as Friend."