Birchman Youth Group

This past week we had the priviledge to see a team of youth from Birchman in action. We drove to have a short visit with them in Chiang Dao, Thailand. It was fun to see them in action. We ate some great food together, too.

The school where they were working is a hilltribe school in Chiang Dao. The team started the day with some singing with the whole school, and then they were off to English class. There was a rotation of the teachers between the classes. The team was paired-off to rotate among the classes. Each pair of teachers would target a different aspect of the English language. The children really surprised the team by already knowing the English alphabet in some cases. I was really encouraged to see their eagerness to learn the language. See some pictures below..........



In Thailand, there is a real emphasis on teaching different languages. I don't think I realized the importance of the English language until I traveled abroad. You can almost always find people who can speak English along your journey, but that is not always true with other languages in the world. Also, have you considered that the computer you are using right now is in English. Yes, other countries have the ability to use the computer in their language, but the Internet for the world is in English. Also, here in the Thai language the computer terms are all English. They did not create any new words in Thai to coordinate with computer terms. I have not surveryed other languages yet. I am also learning that Chinese is another language that is widely taught here due to business in the world. So teaching language is a great build into the Kingdom.

We were also blessed by having time to visit with Dr. John Babler from Birchman. He traveled with us to Mae Sai after being in Chiang Dao. We were able to share with him the work that the Lord had us doing up until this year, and we were also able to share with him a bit about what our Father has been teaching us this year. We praise the Lord for opportunities like these.

Please continue to pray for the Chiang Dao area, and the work that the Lord has already started there. There are two families that are getting ready to move into the Chiang Dao area this year. These two families have already started to build relationships in the area, and the team from Birchman is a great help in bridging some relationships. We should praise our Father for opportunities like these to be used to accomplish His Will.