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!

New York - last Saturday

Madison under President Madison in the "Americas" collection in the Metropolitan Museum. We spent about 3 hours there today, saw most of what we hadn't seen when we came last December.
This is an area at the Cloisters where we went on Friday. This is the medieval portion of the Metropolitan Museum - it's in an old fort turned church. The Met owns it, and shows all of their medieval things that aren't at the Met.

HOT day today! Had to take a quick ice-cream break!

It's coming to a FAST close! The beginning of the month seemed like we had so much time left to go. Now, we are down to 3 days left! Incredible! We had a day of some relaxation - took some time at the Met, played Frisbee in Central Park and had a dog, walked around Time Square again, went into the HUGE Toys-R-Us there, then home for more homework! Tomorrow is another day of church - it will be our last time at Nueva Vida - last 3 1/2 hour Spanish speaking sermon (at least in New York).

Just to Hang Out...

Yes, that is Noa. And yes, she is sleeping in a suitcase. Let me explain: We have really loved our trips to Union to hang out with friends up in that part of town. The only trouble has been finding a place to let Noa fall asleep where she won't bother anyone or roll off a bed. Enter: McCanns' Suitecase. Lindsey and I were able to make it nice and cozy and Noa probably thought she was in her own pack and play. What can I say, the Lord provides - even in strange ways - places for us to lay our heads.

Two Churches….

Each Sunday we worship at two different church services…two VERY different church services. In the morning we go to Nueva Vida in Queens and in the evening we go to Redeemer in Manhattan.

Nueva Vida is a Spanish only service. Most of the participants are Columbian emigrants. It is a protestant service that is very charismatic. The preachers are a husband and wife preaching team. The 3 hour 30 minute service consists of one hour of amplified rock music, one hour of prayer, 30 minutes of music and one hour of preaching. Church starts at about 11:00am and ends on or after 2:30pm.

Redeemer (PCA) is an English only service. Most of the participants are young, white professionals. It is a protestant service that is Presbyterian. The preacher is a young, white, male. The 1 hour 15 minute service consists of 30 minutes of jazz music, 15 minutes of prayer, and 30 minutes of preaching. Church starts at exactly 5:00pm and ends at exactly 6:15pm.

Here is a one minute video from each of the two churches. Each video is shot during worship time. You compare the two and see what you think -

Nueva Vida:


Redeemer Presbyterian:

Lessons Learned In NYC

1. When your phone breaks, check the language of the Verizon Store before you go there to get it fixed and find yourself in the middle of Chinatown.
2. Things aren't as they may seem. Don't be dismayed when you reach the Verizon store address and realize its not that at all. It's a Chinese Lunch Box Buffet.
3. Never eat pizza while walking. The Five Second Rule does not apply to NY City streets.
4. There is still sympathy in NY. The two guys beside me did go "Aww" as my pizza fell from my plate on to the pavement.
5. No one in NYC really knows where they're going. After all this, someone actually asked me for directions!

With these lessons, you will be a smarter New Yorker.

Living Faith Community Church

Melanie, Isaac, Eric, and I (Sara-Beth) have had a great time working with LFCC this month. Here are some photos from last Sunday:




Here is Melanie giving her testimony during worship last Sunday. It was awesome to see how many people were blessed by her sharing. After the service, several people came up to her and told her how encouraging it had been. Way to be willing to be used of the Lord, Melanie! Praise Jesus!


Here are the kiddos at VBS during the service. Sharon Sechler does a great job with children's ministries.

gotta love drills...

Language Acquisition

The "best" language acquisition group out there :-) How do YOU say Post Office? In Ashanti - it's Post Office :-)

I made an orthodox rabbi chuckle on the subway.

Maybe that's all you need to know.

Getting Mental with the Mentors

Dinner with our mentor, the Susan Young. Some of our group got together to eat and process the week together.

nada ngada

Oh...you gotta see this...nada ngada

Gettin' our pama bama groove on

Personal Bubble

Ok, so this guy totally drew his own personal bubble for me on the subway the other day! It was rush hour and I was so squished that my feet couldn't even find places to be. I was doing a very strange ballet positioning with my feet where one's facing forward and the other is sideways. Anyway, so then my one sideways foot is itching, so while holding on the rail, my own ballet pole, I lift up the other foot to itch. This really buff guy with shades on (those subway shades where no one can really see you) to my right taps my shoulder. I look over and he says "Excuse me" and then with his hands, draws his own little personal bubble space that I'm assuming I invaded! How crazy!

All of our personal bubbles have been invaded in some way through this last week and a half. We have had to give up our family routines, naptimes, individual cars, alone time, and our pride. Yet, while giving it all up, we have been all the more reminded of what to go back to, the Gospel! Hallelujah that Christ gave up so much to die for us. May we glorify God in our small sacrifices.

Broadway

The Pettengill's managed to steal off last night to go see Les Miserables. It was an incredible experience - the performance was fabulous! Standing ovation all around for the cast! At one point I looked over to Madison, and there were tears streaming down her face. When asked if she liked the Phantom of the Opera or Les Mis better, she wouldn't answer (Madison and my personal favorite - Phantom). If you haven't had a chance to see Spamalot (spelling?!) - it is WELL worth seeing. Crazy, fun, and enjoyable. I am NOT a Monty Python fan, but I couldn't help really enjoying the show!

I got that New York state of mind...ladies and gentlemen...Mr. Billy Joel...er...Jim Ward.

Kelly sharing with the group

A touch of home…the Pettengills at the American Museum of Natural History standing in front of a Mayan artifact from the Copan ruins in Honduras.

Up Close and Personal in Chinatown

July 4th Hotdog Eating Competition on Coney Island

This is a bit late...

Bonnie, Jared, Ben and I went to Coney Island on the 4th for the anual Nathan's hot-dog eating competition. Kobayashi, the 6-time world champion was there but didn't win! He came in 2nd with 63 hotdogs in 10 minutes. The winner was Joey Chestnut who ate a sickening 66 hot dogs.

What about breakfast at Tiffany's?

Fun in NY

Today after we spent some time in Central Park with three churches from around the area. They were specifically praying for New York, for a revival, and for people coming to Christ. Afterwards, the Wards and the Pettengills took the subway up a few blocks to the Museum of Natural History. Very cool place!

The Passion For Jesus evanglism concert at Iglesia Nueva Vida. It is not everyday in the PCA that we get to see a female preacher wearing a wedding dress and tiara make an alter call. Great event.

Intervarsity on subway

This is a post from Ray (a.k.a. Rakmed99). God sent me an encouragement on they subway yesterday. We were hot and tired, etc. riding with our five children on a crowded subway, when this man turns around and asks me if I work with Campus Crusade (I was wearing one of my old CCC t-shirts). It old him that I used to and that now we are with MTW and going to Tijuana, Mexico. It turns out that this man works with Intervarsity, lives in our area, and even goes to our the church we'll be working with. This was an encouragement from the Lord!

Bill Yarbrough during his lecture explaining his theological concerns with the "Bride of Christ" table.














Steve about to launch us all into prayer during our worship time.



















Ben and Chris getting their groove on during worship on July 5th. We are blessed to have an experienced and talented group of people for our daily worship.

City Senses -- by Melanie

Dark subway tunnels into bright crowded skies.
Wide boardwalks with narrow gaps between people.
All colors represented in people.

Mariachi bands playing over the subway drone.
Homeless and forlorn mumbling on the road.
Languages within earshot from all over the world.

Korean Jab Chae
New York Bakeries
Fruit Market Blueberries.

Hot muggy underground.
Bumps, squashes, knocks around others.
Each step walking, walking, walking.

Exhaust behind, in front, go, go, go.
International fumes competing for audacity.
Awaken the city senses.

Hitching a ride

First impressions

Our first few days have presented a pretty steep learning curve. We're all getting used to our lodgings, trying to find the necessities in our neighborhoods, learning the subtleties of subway travel (did you know that 30-day unlimited-use Metrocards take 18 minutes to recharge once you've swiped them?), getting a working knowledge of New York geography, and getting acquainted with one another.

After getting the basics of all of this down on Monday, we convened at Evangel Church in Queens for our orientation to the training itself. We'll all be kept busy; each trainee is responsible to work with a service team to take care of communications [Editor's note: My assignment to the communications team brought about this blog!], logistics, hospitality, worship, and medical needs, a field ministry team assigned to one of six churches in Manhattan and Queens, and a small group for personal discussion of the issues we deal with and the challenges we face as itinerating missionaries.

On Tuesday, we began the routine that will characterize much of this month. In the morning, we traveled to our respective field ministry sites: Living Faith Community Church in Flushing, Queens, Bethel Gospel Assembly in Harlem, L'Église Évangélique Amour du Christ on the Manhattan's Upper East Side, Iglesia Nueva Vida in Woodside, Queens, New Life Fellowship in Elmhurst, Queens, and Astoria Community Church, also in Queens.

We spent that morning getting to know the churches we'll be serving this month and the ministries they will want us to participate in or initiate. Some of us will be participating in Vacation Bible Camp and Sunday School, while others will help their churches offer classes in English as a second language, assist with medical mercy ministry, or participate in other outreach efforts.

In the afternoon, we returned to Evangel for a time of worship and teaching from Bill Yarbrough, an MTW staffer with years of experience planting churches in Latin America. Bill provided a number of insights into what it means to engage in Christian ministry and spiritual disciplines while nurturing emotional health in the process. He'll be leading our class sessions for the rest of the week.

After a day off for Independence Day today, we'll be picking up where we left off tomorrow, getting deeper into our field ministry work and discussing the issues that will face us in each of our mission field sites.

Welcome to our blog!

This will be a forum for participants in MTW's July 2007 Prefield Training in New York City to share stories, reflections, snapshots, and other tidbits from our experiences living and working in the largest and most culturally diverse city in the United States.

We hope these shared experiences will pass along to each other and to our friends, family and support teams some of the blessing we receive by being a part of such an extensive and challenging training process.