My friend Ramon

During our walking tour of Armenia Bonito I found this little guy. His name is Ramon and he is 4 years old. This little guy was someone you just couldn't ignore. He immediately started quoting scripture, and just loving on everyone. I spoke with his father and asked him to bring his little guy to our clinic. Why? His teeth. I spoke to Ramon and asked him if his teeth hurt. His response was, "yes, all day, everyday". I looked in his mouth and knew why. We put him on antibiotics immediately, but know that a trip to the dentist is imperative. However, because of their circumstances, they are unable to afford it. So - I'm starting the investigation process to see how much a local dentist would charge to see him. Please pray for Ramon and my investigational process.

Thai Currie is in Thailand

Thought that if you were still checking this, you'd appreciate knowing this. Hope all is well for all of you. I would like to make one edition to the culture shock phase diagram. I think there's a phase that comes before "honeymoon stage". Yep. I went through it. It's called "Is this for real?" Yep, its the phase that begins when you get on the plane and feel like God will need to push you all the way there because its just too crazy too imagine. Its the phase that you wonder what two years will be like even though you want to do this forever you think. Its the phase when the guy who picks you up at the airport says, "well, Melanie, once you rest a couple days, we'll go buy you furniture." What? Furniture? Wow, I'm really here.

Just thought I'd add that. Here's a cute pictures now that I'm on to "Honeymoon Phase". :)


Arrival in Bangkok with a church family that flew over with me!

The street just by our church office during a big downpour in rainy season now. Do you see the huge lakes of water on the roads?

Thai dance class in the slum community where we are ministering. Aren't they cute? Beautiful girls concentrating so hard!

Birthday party in our living room

My Thai roommates, one American roommate (leaving soon) and me! What a blessing! They are all staff with the team.

Registering for Thai classes starting Sept.20 through Christmas with a teammate.

The Kids of Pre-Field (Video by Elizabeth)

View from the front of our apartment

Our apartment. We are in the grey - top right.

Today we went to orientation for Madison's school which starts tomorrow. We drop her off, then our orientation starts. Madison is THRILLED to be starting school tomorrow - she wore her backpack to orientation just to "get used to it" :-) After that, we did some MORE shopping for things to help our place feel a little more like home. Believe it or not, we still haven't gotten everything - but we are much closer. Not bad for day 2. Riding the taxi today was quite fun - speaking only in Spanish we somehow managed to get where we needed to go.

New firsts today:


1. Made red beans on stove top
2. Taxi ride speaking only Spanish, in Costa Rica
3. Walked to our school, and managed not to get lost (Mike led the way - but whatever)
4. Being shocked by our refrigerator...everytime I open it (remember - it's a 3rd world culture)
5. Stapled my foot (don't ask)

Beyond PFT

I've mentioned this to all my fellow trainees, but I would be happy to maintain this as a collaborative blog where we can keep up with each other as we work to finish up our support-raising and get into the field.

Additionally, I've created a Google Group for us here. I hope it'll be a convenient way to share non-image files (.doc, .pdf, .xls and so forth). It's public, so you should be able to join on your own, but let me know if you need an invite for any reason. I hope everyone is safely home or on their way. The Lord be with you all.

You can't make this stuff up.

[My kindergarten Sunday School class, about 10:45 a.m. Two five-year-olds, finished with their coloring activity and awaiting parental pickup, approach me.]

Child A: Can we play with blocks?

Me: OK. Make sure you put them away when your parents come pick you up.

Child A: OK.

[They begin walking over to the corner where the blocks are.]

Child B: Let's get the party started.

Living Faith English Class has Just Begun

We taught for two weeks. We repeated "How are you" until whenever someone says it now, I can only think of English class. We taught body parts, foods, family, weather, rooms in a house, etc.... LAPs were amazing the second week.

Isaac and I are pictured here with Marisol, the student who appeared this past week and doubled our English class attendance to two! But praise God for the two. As a team, we learned so much from those two. Marisol was a Christian coming from Colombia with a desire to learn. Yet during our discussion time, she shared so much with us about God and her country. Kwai Fong Ho (not pictured) came for three weeks, being taught by the Sechlers in the middle, so eager and vulnerable to her inabilities to learn English for the last ten years because of work. For more, feel free to look at my blog.

They will continue taking English Class at Living Faith Church which is being trained to continue and expand their class today. Woohoo! I pray all our efforts this month will produce long term effects for God's kingdom!