Translate

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Kranuan Pictures- Playground

The Completed Playground


 
The workers- what a good lookin bunch!
Top row: Ben, Kara, Lindsey, Darcy & Pani
Bottom row: Tdon, Morrell, Jamie, Khun Prakong
& Jenica





The Rock Wall
Verse- Psalm 94:18

 
The Slide

 


 
The Numbered Stump Steps

The Tire Bridge/Path


Step #1
Verse- Proverbs 16:9

Step #2
Verse- Psalm 119:105


The Spaceship Playhouse
Left Wall: Planets and Stars
Middle Wall: Verse- Plasm 147:4
Right Wall: Verse- Hebrews 11:3


The Fireman Pole


The Tire Ladder


The Swings


The See-Saw
Verse- Romans 12:16

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

The Lord is the Builder of Everything

Opening Day! AFCers, helpers, students and
children stand around the new playground.


Well HOWDY!!

The first and largest leg of our mission trip has now concluded with the completion of the Kranuan Church of Christ playground. Our goal was that the church could use it as a ministry tool after we left, but the construction process became a ministry tool in itself.  One day two little girls from the neighborhood stopped at the church to observe and talk to us; they ended up returning every day after and then also attended their first church service with us! It was an interesting experience with them- on site they were able to lend a hand with some tasks, yet there were some instances of mischief including (but not limited to) a mysterious mishap with some blue paint and my camera’s memory card getting wiped. However, even the mishaps could not touch the indescribable joy of showing love and knowing God could be planting seeds in their lives through the influence of the church and us. We also invited our students from the Kranuan Community School to attend the playground’s grand opening on Sunday. I estimate that close to 70 students showed up with the majority attending church and several wanting to know more about the Gospel! WHOOP

In addition to all that, building the playground was a very meaningful personal experience for me. The first reason for this is that I love to work with my hands; with my agriculture background, tasks such as digging, setting posts, drilling, hammering, painting, etc. are all familiar to me and I find them “pleasant as well as challenging.”1 The second reason for this is the association with my late father, who was a custom home builder and contractor. Everything I know and love about building comes from my time spent with him at the ranch and on the job site; I love the fact that, by extension, God is still using the influence of my dad’s life to do His work. I could feel Dad there through every stage of the process and know that he would be proud.

So, while we were building the playground, God was building both His kingdom and the hearts of His workers. How great it the Lord!


For every playground² is built by someone, but the Lord is the builder of everything.
-Hebrews 3:4


Gig ‘Em & God Bless,

Darcy Rae Jacoby





1From the second paragraph of the FFA Creed

²The bible actually says “house” instead of “playground”

Saturday, July 21, 2012

A week filled with Laughs!

This week in Kranuan,Thailand it was our last week teaching English in the schools here. It definitely was a complete blast filled with tons of laughs involving playing hot potato with the kids, musical chairs, and even trying to teach a class of 14 year olds how to play freeze tag without a translator, and lets just say they most likely still don't exactly know what freeze tag is.When I first heard that we were going to be teaching English on this trip I was a little anxious about the language barrier, but these past two weeks of teaching English has been amazing.This last week of teaching has been so much fun the Thai kids are constantly making us laugh. Some of the funny moments we had in our classes this week were trying to teach the Thai kids how to dance,how to oink like a pig,explaining heads up seven up,and the kids trying to teach me how to speak Thai. I have really enjoyed all three of the classes I taught these past two weeks, and one of the things that surprised me the most about teaching is that we could totally connect with the Thai kids even though on both sides we had no idea what the other was saying. With this past Friday being our last day teaching we were all sad to say goodbye to our kids, but we left with the feeling that God's glory was shown in our classrooms, and that with God's help we were able to teach the students English. For myself it has been such a blessing to be on a wonderful team of Aggies who truly had a passion for teaching the Thai kids English, and I am so thankful for the opportunity God granted us with to be able to hang out with some truly amazing and hilarious kids these past two weeks.

Signing off from Kranuan,Thailand,
Lindsey Hawkins

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Hi!!!

Ok, so we are going on our 3rd week in Thailand and have been in Kranaun, Thailand the past 2 weeks! The playground is almost finished (with the whole team and some of the church members putting 40 hours in the playground last week alone!) Although, it has been extremely exhausting teaching English in the mornings and working on the playground in the afternoon, the reward has been and will continue to be worth every nail and stroke of paint! Already, some of the kids at the school have told us they want to come to church with us on Sunday, which is HUGE because the school is a Buddhist school. God is so at work and it has been awesome to see it first hand. I hope you know whether you have supported us financially get here or through prayer God has used your words to help us physically and emotionally. I feel so blessed to be a part of such an awesome team of hard workers and to be a part of a group of Thai Christians. We came thinking we were going to serve them, when the whole time they have done nothing but take care of us hand and foot. One of the ministers even washed our hands and feet to a few of the Aggies who had oil- based paint stuck on us! In the morning, I will be going to Khon Khen, Thailand about an hour away to watch a 7th grader give a speech in English at a local competition. We worked on it for a long time today and I feel very confident in his English skills that he will do just fine! There are about 30 others in the competition and 5 judges. From my understanding the student or the school does not receive any money for the reward, but pride and school recognition. It is crazy to me how hard the Thai people work when the reward is so different from the American culture. We are trying to keep you all updated as much as possible with pictures and stories, feel free to check out more photos on our Facebook page from group members as well!!!

Until next time,

JenicaJ

Kranuan Pictures- Week 1 & 2


There are many fun things to do in Kranuan!

Playing Skip-Bo with the church youth.


Planting rice at Khun Prakong's farm.


Hitting up an evening market for dinner.


Playing soccer at a community program with
some Kranuan boys.
Eating Thai food, Thai style!


Fishing in a pond on our day off.


Holding adorable children!





 



Time to teach!

Ready for our fist day to teach English!

 
Children at the Kranuan Community School


Jamie and Jenica's 1st grade class


Ben and Morrell's class - "HELLO!!!"


Darcy plays a game with her class to teach
commandsand actions.




The students loved getting pictures taken with us!





Dirt, Sweat and Paint!

Put your back into it!
First stage completed- digging post holes!





All the posts are set!




 




The playground takes
shape with three platforms.








Painted tires have a lot of creative potential!










Soon to be completed!