Nothing earth shattering to report here. Life continues to bustle along at its usual alarming pace. How in the world is it August??? Our negligible language skills are improving marginally. We have studies now in both Thai and Hindi so hopefully we aren't teaching them reincarnation : ) We are really excited about the new Thai WT Library on the website. Hopefully this will help us with our comments more than Google translate... my latest odyssey continues to inspire confidence in their incredible translating skills... For meeting last week I translated these two comments:
Paul said in testimony before the governor, Prof. French and King's
Park with my Sangha.
(Acts 25:22-26:32) with the
backing of Jehovah.
Which was meant to say- Paul also gave a witness before Governor Festus and King Agrippa with the backing of Jehovah. Are we playing Clue? Prof. French in the king's park with my Sangha! Seriously Agrippa give them back their Sangha!
Never being one to be deterred, I tried again:
As Jehovah hath added Mosaic and mosque between me and her.
Which was: As Jehovah strengthened Moses and Jeremiah. I like mosaics and all but who are they coming between? And a mosque? We really don't have room in our tiny studio for that, seems like a lot.
We finally got our letter saying we can have a class it only took 4 1/2 months! And I was officially announced as a pioneer here! So things are slowly falling into place. Since our arrival we have been a little unsettled, as far as, where we should serve- having been reassigned three times before we decided to make the move to Hindi. In the process we selected "temporary" accommodations, but with both of us working, eating, studying and sleeping etc. in one room, we can feel a little privacy deprived at times. So we were still sort of home hunting here and there. However, since the price of one or two bedrooms triples our housing budget, we have ended up staying here for four months and will now remain for the duration. We are both amazed at how well we can function and amuse ourselves in such a tiny space- it's definitely Holy Spirit.
As the months fly by and leave us spinning we are slowly getting our home together. We had our three month anniversary and to celebrate we finally managed to save up to get peanut butter and a bottle of wine! Yes, we make grown up PB and J's... only our grape jelly is fermented : ) Lisa's parents brought us a potato masher, we found "steak" on clearance which equaled a fancy little dinner, minus the peanut butter, of course. Then we managed to get a toaster oven! So we can bake, toast, grill and roast things. We are uptown now! Not that our other methods of cooking weren't inventive and entertaining... For Lisa's going away dinner we had Cream cheese stuffed, bacon wrapped chicken with rosemary potatoes and banana splits for dessert. And then we had Ramen the rest of the month. Hehe
Getting up at the break of dawn everyday to work, study and learn two languages can be challenging at times. To say we are tired is an understatement. Sunday I sat up looked at Christina and said what day are we? She looked at me confused for a sec and said it's Sunday. At which point I slumped back into my pillow and back to sleep (no work at 5am!). And she sat there staring at me bewildered. Another time I woke up to Christina cracking herself up in her sleep. She was laughing so hard she woke herself up. When I asked what was up, she played it off like it wasn't weird lol. Then one week we had Family worship at 6am because it was our only available time slot. My alarm on my phone went off and I shut it off in a sleepy fog. But then my half awake brain convinced me my phone was ringing so I tried to answer it but I couldn't form the words to speak and drifted off to sleep again. Five minutes later I woke up with the phone laying on my ear/face and I asked CC if someone called me. She doubled over with laughter and gave me her phone... lovely! Don't worry we know our limitations really well. We like to wave at them as we pass them by. : ) But Jehovah has been really good to us, as always, giving us what we need.
Yesterday three of us went out in the ministry but we were all running on empty and just trying to be supportive. So we got to the territory and at the second door we were invited in. After chatting with the Nepali man for about a half an hour, he took us to a vegetarian restaurant, where he treated us to Roti, Rice, Raita, Dal, Pura, Vegetable Curry, Cabbage and Peas and to top it off a Mango Lhasi. And Brian preached the whole time! We were all running on fumes, so it was such a wonderful blessing to have an easy morning- preaching while sitting and getting fed too! Rather than wandering the alleys in sweltering heat. On Saturday too a family fed us Curry and Chapati while we preached to them. So every so often we get a bit of a break from the sun's surface heat, while still being productive.
CC has a wonderful study Rahki left her. Angeni is very appreciative and meek. She responds really well to CC's mild and easy going teaching and thanks us every time for our visit. Her questions and reasoning show how deeply she reflects on things she reads and she is very honest hearted. She has had a hard life losing her parents when she was young, much like her husband who lost his mother at a young age and was shunted about India until his father's remarriage. Thereafter his father died and he had to care for his step mother and two small step sisters. It is interesting Angeni was originally Hindu but converted to Sikhism when she married. Sikh means student so they are often quite interesting in learning and discussing holy books. We look forward to her study every week.
Because our territory is all of Thailand but specifically Bangkok, we are often wandering about on buses and on foot doing census work in search of Hindi/Punjabi/Urdu speakers. This means we are quite often on buses that are quite an adventure to ride. Remember pogo balls from the 90's. Trying to remain standing on the bus is the equivalent of trying to stay upright on a pogo ball. They are also extremely crowded which is really cozy and personal. But we are used to DR where our personal space ends at our skin so nothing too startling. The guys are a bit fresh, but again nothing we haven't dealt with in the past.
CC says trying to fit during rush hour is much like Tetris. Scoot a little here, a little there a then this
random piece comes along and clogs up the whole thing. But we spend all our hours on the bus well entertained.
Brian says we are like the Animaniacs, bouncing about the city, carrying on, laughing and finding humor in everything we see. I'm not sure who is Wacko, maybe we take turns... So this is our new Hindi Five group pic : )
Spending so much time together we end up having rather odd conversations. Brian said CC was a Bonsai because she is so much shorter than him. So we now call her Bonbon, it's an improvement on her Japanese nickname, lost child. Then a couple weeks ago we had the WT about Marriage and we were talking about how the words of the song "Now we are one" make us feel a bit funny, as it says now we can be all that Jehovah made us to be... well that's awkward I guess we aren't all we were made to be. Bonbon said she remembered there was a singles song, but she couldn't find it. As it turns out they all are when you read the titles. We continue "holding fast to our hope" and keep on "Enduring to the end". "Keep your eyes on the prize!" for there are "Myriads of brothers." So "Seek out deserving ones" and "He will call" and I shall say "I want to", "Here I am! Send me." But we aren't worried because my Pakistani call is trying to arrange marriages for us. Win, win! Speaking of Kingdom songs this little girl is so cute. During the CO visit in English after we would sing the would start humming the tune really loud in the meeting. She barely talks but she can memorize the tunes already!!
Love you all so much and miss you dearly.
Our Hindi Watchtower study officially started in September. It is held twice a month, in the second school, with a Public Talk once a month. This involves copious amounts of work coordinating comments for four non-native speakers, translating, practicing readings, research and so much more... to all of you serving in foreign fields learning other languages and starting groups this all sounds quite normal. But somehow translating everything between three English native speakers and three Thai native speakers- all into Hindi, is unlike any task I've undertaken before. It starts a week before with the magazines all being downloaded off the site in Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi and Tamil, they are then printed off at Candy's work place, where they are then taken to a copy shop for multiple copies of each. On Sunday an in-depth preparation of the Watchtower in English where necessary comments are allotted to each person depending on length and personal comfort levels. Monday night the short comments for the two Thai sisters are translated and practiced. Hindi songs are transcribed and sung. 
The Sunday before it all officially started, a study from Sri Lanka, who speaks Tamil brought three Urdu speaking men with him. Thankfully Alanna and Terry are back and as with all foreign language groups, they have been kidnapped without their knowledge or consent. Much like BonBon and I. Anyhow we had an impromptu meeting in the second school. Terry and Alanna speak Thai, Brian speaks Hindi and BonBon and I are willing helpers. Terry translated the Thai talk to English. I looked up pictures to use as visual aids and Alanna and Christina helped them find the scriptures. I managed to locate the scriptures in the Tamil bible and the Urdu men followed in the English bible. By the middle song we were exhausted. Then Brian took the WT and Terry read in English. We gave them all our English magazines which left us with our Thai copies which made answering interesting. Brian half translated in Hindi/Urdu, as I helped the Tamil man follow along and it was like the tower of Babel. After the meeting the men were very happy and grateful, which made all our adventures even more worthwhile. We asked where they lived and they said Soi 77. So we decided to explore Soi 77 and see what we could find...
Terry studies with a Chinese man, who is now an unbapitized publisher. He has little hope of getting out, as he was born the second son of a Chinese family and was therefore never registered- so he in effect doesn't exist. He is ever patient and never loses hope totally, always relying on Jehovah. That week they were reviewing the first article about the revised understanding about the prophecies. It is crazy, the prisoners are all called out at the same time and they stand behind their fence yelling and you are straining to hear you prisoner over the 30 others who are all yelling through the fence. It is mayhem! 
Now imagine trying to discuss the prophecy WT study over that din. While Terry was studying with him BonBon and I wandered about here and there, preaching to some Hindi and Tamil speakers. I found a French speaking man from Cameroon and managed to preach to him for a bit too. After an hour everyone is sent back to their bunks and the visitors are sent away. But really 20 minutes of yelling suffices.
With all these projects going we still managed to sneak away for a beach day in Hua Hin and see some elephants... finally! Five months to see elephants. A man also has a pet gibbon, it's adorable! I want one. 
