As I wrote before we left for Indonesia, we have officially joined Hindi. The Sunday before we left a brother from the Branch met with us after the English meeting and informed us that the letter had been sent out to Thonburi Thai Congregation that they were now the proud parent of a Hindi pre-group!!! WOOT WOOT! All five members did a happy dance, well the girls did. I think Brian, AKA-our fearless leader, was probably praying for Holy Spirit to deal with all these women : ) Training, it's called training, HeHe! Poor guy. 
This announcement came just in time for Rakhi's departure, our only native speaker. So Brian has also been commandeered as a teacher for our informal Hindi lessons. We, of course are model students- who carry on, break into song, come up with crazy memory aids and try his patience : ) You're welcome!
The week we got back we hit the ground running; with the English Special Assembly Day the day after our return. Here we are with Lita a missionary from the Philippines, she is a real fire cracker. And she has been zealously recruiting people for Hindi and supporting us. and back to back ten hour days in the ministry Monday thru Wednesday- we were toast. We had a goodbye dinner for Raki : ( who we miss so so much! Then last week was our CO visit. We met with him as a pre-group and he was very supportive, of the now four of us, and said in August maybe we can start having a public talk or something!
As I mentioned before on my second day in Hindi service we met a Muslim Pakistani family. We were standing in front of a market and they walked by with their two girls "eating" ice cream, mostly it was in their hair and on their faces and clothes. They were very friendly and Rakhi got their number then a Christian Pakistani family, we are studying with arrived to take us to their new apartment. He said it was close, but as always Bangkok traffic is brutal! So he asked us if we wanted to walk- only about thirty minutes. I'm always game to walk somewhere, but finally he said there was a free shuttle boat we could take. BOY! Were we happy we did. After the 15 minute boatride it was a 45 minute hike to their house. Rakhi said that they are big walkers so "close by" can mean anything from a 30 minute to 2 hour walk. Why does this sound so familiar- oh, right because I am similarly distance challenged. "My RV is close by"- 30 minutes later my service partner is perspiring and cursing me under her breath : ) Maybe I am Pakistani! Anyways this family was super cute, they live in one room with their 5 children under 10 years of age. An English sister studies with them and Rakhi joined her because she can speak some Urdu. And when Rakhi says some she means she's basically fluent!
Anyhow all that to remind you of Muslim family we met. They invited us to lunch and we literally rolled out to the bus. She even made roti for Rakhi to chase away the homesickness... They explained how dire the situation is in Pakistan, with many shootings and bombings. Extremists entered their mosque and started shooting during prayers. Their sect is being persecuted like the Christians it seems. She said that when people find out who what sect they belong to, they fire them, won't buy from their shops and refuse to greet them. In March they left everything behind and fled to Thailand. We prayed a lot about how to approach them truth wise, being Muslim we were very concerned in how to introduce the topic without shutting the conversation down. Jehovah of course took care of it. When we got there they asked many questions about why we are here and what are we doing. Rakhi went to see if she could help in the kitchen and left me with Grandpa and the husband. THX Rakhi- just abandon me in URDU! LOL While she was gone they peppered me with questions about why we are here, what we are doing etc. They were impressed that we were on the other side of the world learning other languages to help people and kept saying the government should give you special visas in gratitude for all your work. Finally it was decided that the whole family would visit Bethel to see what we are doing here in Thailand. So Tuesday before Rakhi left we got a phone call- "we're going to Bethel with you!" After much pacing and pouring over maps and bus routes we decided it would be best to wait a bit, since the wife was ill and it would be quite a trek. So it has been postponed- but I really hope they can come for the English CO's video on Sunday!Bringing us to today! We had the most amazing day in the ministry! We were trying to meet the Thai group this morning but it just didn't work out... mostly because we didn't know where the territory was and were too late to meet people from our neighborhood at the bus stop. Our whole network is gone! First Kendall, then Rebekka and Liisa, then Rakhi and now Saki, Sayaka and Misato are gone as of Monday :( so we can no longer call them asking if we turn left or right at Cambodia to get to the territory. Seriously- a Japanese brother gave Christina the nickname "lost child". I can't imagine why everyone went home : D
So we headed out on RV's all by ourselves. Yes, Thai RV's. But as Winston Churchill said: " Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." We won't mention Einstein's definition of insanity being the repetition of the same thing over and over and expecting a different result : ) Either we are going to strike gold or we're crazy. No comments from the peanut gallery! : )
We jumped on a bus that literally flew to our first destination, I'm pretty sure we caught air on every bridge- I suppressed the urge to yell: "Izma, Izma, put your hands in the air!" On the ride I texted the Muslim Pakistani family to see if she was feeling better and say hello to the family. After our flight, we caught a Sontao (little truck- where you ride in the back) and eventually arrived at a Malay woman's home but she wasn't there... sigh! She had mentioned she reads the bible everyday so I left her a BH book, with a note explaining how it had impacted my bible understanding and my number. All this effort seemed for nothing but...
As we waited for another Sontao, a young woman asked us if we spoke English. She appeared Thai, but a rich Welsh accent came out when she spoke to us. It turns out she was born in Thailand, but has lived has lived in Wales all her life. She is in Bangkok visiting her mother until September. We chatted on and explained why we are here in DR, Christina whipped out an English Awake and explained our website. We ended up going two bus stops too far, chatting with her. I invited her to the English meeting this week, as it is CO visit and we have the video. She said she would definitely give me a call, even if it was just to meet up at another point. When we parted she said she was so happy to meet us because we are so funny and interesting.
In traffic heading to Hindi ministry, the Pakistani Family called and chided me for not being in touch last week. They are currently observing Ramadan, but invited us for dinner on Saturday and wouldn't take no for an answer! She said the little girls have been asking for us since our last visit and I promised we'd come for a visit.
Then we met Candy for Surjit's Bible Study. She attended the meeting right before we left for Jakarta, with Manjit another study who promised Jehovah she would come if He answered her prayer. Rakhi was the only Punjabi speaker and Candy the only Thai speaker. It was great fun, a whole row of us in the Thai meeting juggling Thai, Pujabi, Hindi and English Bibles and literature, trying to translate for them. And the baby was not well behaved- his first meeting after all. After the meeting they were both favorably impressed by the meeting and brothers.
Surjit is our most progressive Hindi Study. She reads the Punjabi Greek Scriptures daily and often shares points and stories she loves. Last week she told us all about the Samaritan woman and how much she loved the story, because Jesus can refresh us forever. We love her to pieces. She is amazing, her daughter died several years ago and her husband regularly beats her and has thrown her out of the house many times. But she says she prays to Jehovah and he gives her the strength and wisdom to never retaliate. We considered the story of Abigail who was a good wife to Nabal and thanked her for her excellent example. Since Rakhi is stateside working, she asked us to continue to call on her to encourage her, even though Candy is conducting her study. Armed with the dramatic bible readings from the website and so much holy spirit, she first listens to the Hindi or Punjabi reading and then we discuss the lessons we can learn using the Bible brochure, My Book of Bible Stories, the BH book, Good News brochure and anything else that is available in her language or contains useful pictures. We pass on to Candy, who speaks Hindi, what we've tried to discuss so she can review and clarify during the study. Sometimes things can get quite funny. Like Jesus healed others came out as: "Jesus good body". I'm sure he did! And the miracle of the fish and loaves of bread came out as: "Roti for everybody!" She is so humble and grateful. We dearly appreciate her and her incredible patience with our limited language skills.
After Surjit we headed to Premod. He asked more questions than we could answer. Speaking to Candy in Hindi, she would then translate to us- who would search for scriptures to answer his questions. In the end we had a whole group of men asking questions. After the flooding in India last month, where many notable temples are located, many people want to know why God permitted this and why he didn't protect his temples. We discussed the chapter on suffering and promised to return, already very late for our studies. While we were there, I kept getting an unidentified phone call and eventually turned off my phone.
From there we caught the bus to another area we usually have studies in on Wednesdays. As we got on the bus, my phone rang once again and it was the Malay woman I had left a book for this morning. She was so happy and thanked me. She is an English teacher and works everyday, but hopes we can discuss the book during the holidays or the weekend. I invited her for the video on Sunday and she said she'd get back to me. She was so grateful for the book and is eager to meet later this month. Our morning had been a success! Three very positive experiences in just a few hours. We really felt the holy spirit's guidance. It was a truly wonderful day and to top it all off we had ice cream with Candy!
