Well, both Keith and Lauren have been back to school for the past few weeks. It has been great to see God at work in both of those platforms.
As for Margaret, she is only two and a half, so no school for her yet. Which was fine except that she is a really social little girl. And one thing we found last term, is that here in Thailand, parents don't really do play dates. They send their little ones off to school for the day to fill that need for them and to try to get them ahead academically.
So, one day Keith, Margaret and I were riding around our new neighborhood, praying for the community and praying that God would lead us to new and divine connections (and also running some errands) and we came across this little preschool. We stopped to chat with the headmaster about sending Margaret to school there twice a week so she could meet some friends, play and learn.
Nurseries and preschools in Thailand don't have half day programs and they go everyday (which we felt would be too much time in a classroom for Margaret). On top of that, the school fees were also really expensive, definitely out of our range. So we were wrapping up our conversation when we began to ask the headmaster about her life a bit.
As it turns out, her son was born in Seattle, in the exact same hospital Keith was born in. That was an immediate connection with both her and her son, who we were able to meet and chat with. After that, she was open to letting us send Margaret for just two days a week and she offered for Margaret to attend the school for free if I would teach English to the students for just an hour or so on the days Margaret attends. We then replied, "Well, we are Christian missionaries and we would be willing to do this, but we are going to share about Jesus with your kids, is this okay?" She agreed and I began teaching there the next week.
We were overwhelmed by the connection that we made with the headmaster and her son. We could have never put that together on our own and can sense that the Lord is preparing our path. Even the Buddhist headmaster said she felt that our family was sent to her by God. We agree!
The full time English teacher at the school is a Christian woman from the Philippines and has laid a foundation of singing Christian songs with the kids, it has been great to work together with her in shining our light in this Buddhist school.
So now, our whole family is in the swing of the "back-to-school" season and we are praising God for the open doors.
Please pray with us that God would use this divine connection to impact our community here for His Kingdom.
