This week's update...

So I was just reading my friend Tommie Anne's blog and was inspired to write more.  
Man, she writes quite well, and very consistently.  

Makes me look bad!  In the spirit of trying to be a better blogger, here
are a few things that happened to me this week:

I started language class.  Two things about that-  1.  I am not getting anywhere near perfect in language.  My character reading and writing is not good.  My speaking and listening is ok.  2.  I am tired to death of taking language class.  Please pray that I'll have a good attitude about it.

I went to a dinner for students who attended the student conference for our region last week.  Amazing.  That's all I can say about how this impacted those kids.  Thanks for praying for them.  They were saying things like:  

"This was the best experience of my Christian life."

"I wasn't sure how I could be a part of a spiritual movement on my campus but now I feel like I have a better idea."

They also shared some about their New Years' break... two students saw family members come to Christ over the break.  The one I heard more details about said...

ZF (excitedly):  My mama excepted Christ over the break!
Another student:  Did you share with your mama when you went home?
ZF:  Really, it was a lot of people who shared with her.  
I know a local pastor also shared with her last summer.  I had been praying for her for years.  I was talking to her about something and she asked if what I was talking about 
was related to Christianity... because she believed in that too.   
I told her that I have so much joy now that she believes!

Yesterday, I had a great day at campus.  I played Ultimate Frisbee with our national staff guys and some students.   I also randomly met a freshmen guy, "DL"--I'm not kidding, those are his initials, who just walked up to me and started talking on the basketball court.  He saw that I was drinking a Diet Pepsi and told me (in English) that he prefers Coke Light (Diet Coke) and that he doesn't eat sugar because its bad for his health.  I think we will be friends.  (I also strongly prefer Coke Light, but the student store did not have any cold ones and it was pretty warm outside).  He also said, "Let's be friends" and gave me his cell number.  Pray that I get to see him again and have a chance to share with him.

Last night, my friend Danielle cooked dinner (Ranch chicken, etc.  Mmmmm) and we listened to Nickel Creek and played Settlers.  I won for the first time since I learned to play that game about five years ago.  

Right now, I am about to get ready to go to international fellowship and need to stop writing this so I won't be late.  Hope you enjoyed this little
 snapshot of my week.  More to come.

Brian

Brian + Joo + Kids

Me with my friend Joo who came from America to hang out with us in Thailand and some kids from an orphanage that we had the opportunity to visit.  The visit really was probably more of a blessing to us than to the kids.  It was amazing to go somewhere like that and see the kids thriving and learning who they are in Christ.

Second semester is here...

Dear friend,

I can't believe the first semester of this school year went by so fast. It certainly didn't seem like it was going by that fast at times, but it also seems crazy that it's already over. Things are going well on this side of the world. Our internet is finally working normally again... DSL here is slower than America anyway, but a transcontinental line was broken during an earthquake right after Christmas, and that slowed things down nearly to a stop. I couldn't access email or US websites for about two weeks. Then some of the connections were rerouted to satelite, which was still painfully slow. So it's nice that speeds are almost back to normal now.

I'll try for a 2-3 paragraph update on the last couple of months:

Christmas: It was great this year for those of you who haven't heard through other updates. Our team had an evangelistic Christmas party during which 53 students heard the gospel and 17 accepted Christ as their Savior. It was a really cool experience... two students shared their testimony and one also presented an outline of the gospel. He did an incredible job. The party was on Dec. 22, and it was a great early Christmas present. Then I spent Christmas eve and day with my friend Graham and his wife Ashlei in a city about an hour flight north of where I live. They were so gracious and kind to me, and I had a wonderful time spending Christmas with them.

January: This is a time when students start exams and become pretty unavailable. Most students leave to go home for a six week break for the Spring Festival when exams are over. Around October, we always look at January and think 'Man, I will have a lot of time to get things done in January when the students are gone'. But actually, that time fills up pretty fast too. We had several days of intense planning meetings, I caught up on some reading I needed to do, and I also got to do something that I really enjoy: Our company ownns an apartment in our city that needs to be sold... the apartment is not in a great state of repair, but over the years has come to be in an excellent location in town. So I volunteered to help remodel the place to get it ready for sale. While this certainly has been more challenging than a similar project in the US, I just really like to do this kind of stuff. And it has been great for my language skills--well, at least for learning words like crown moulding and about plumbing. It was neat to see the Lord provide that kind of opportunity for me even here.

February:  I was able to get some rest in Thailand, and I also got to attend an awesome conference for people who work with recent college grads and young professionals.  When we 
got back, the country was right in the middle of celebrating the traditional New Year's holiday.  I 
had been looking foward to some good local food, but had to wait nearly a week for the restaurants 
to open back up!  Pretty much only foregin restaurants and businesses were open.  Even the vegetable markets were mostly closed.  

As a result, I have had all the KFC I can handle for a while.  

I confess that I started writing this in February, and now it's already March.  This first week, there are some visitors here from America.  I'm a little sad that I don't have any visitors this year, but it's still been fun to meet other peoples' friends and families.  It really is a HUGE blessing to have people you love visit you here, and I am glad that a lot of folks are getting to experience that now.  It's also fun to watch people during their first time here because things that have gotten very "old hat" for me kinda come alive again through people who are seeing the (cool, fun, weird, gross, random) stuff for the first time.  Some of my favorite pictures I've ever taken here are still the 
ones that I took my first week, because everything was still so new.

Prayer Requests:

1. Pray for students who will be coming back to campus this week from the New Years/Spring Festival holiday.  Pray that they will arrive safely and that they will have good time with the Lord as they readjust to campus life.
   
2. Pray for us as we meet with the returning students that we would be able to encourage them and that we would be encouraged by them through stories of how the Lord has worked in their lives over the break.
3. Pray for the weekly fellowship which will be starting again this Friday.  Pray that students would be more excited than ever about their relationships with the Lord and about sharing the hope that is found in Him with those around them.  
4. Pray that we would have many opportunities to share the good news of Christ around the upcoming Easter holiday.

Thanks so much for praying!

Brian