Monday, September 25, 2006

Woohoo!

My family arrives in Chiang Mai in less than 66 hours! I am so excited! I am going to spend the next couple days running errands and getting ready and then I get to spend 10 days hanging out with mom, dad, and Tam. Yeah!

I probably won't be online much in the next twelve days, so you probably won't hear from me until after they leave.

Woohoo!!!

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Allen is such a wonderful, fantastic, amazing friend!

Al,
Because you are so wonderful and have been such a great friend for over eleven years, you are now included in my sidebar. Sorry that you were not there before, my brain had obviously stopped working for awhile.

Everyone, check out Allen's blog!

You really are a great friend Al and I can't imagine the last eleven years without you in them!

Love you,
Jen

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Thieves and their gasoline

Two days ago I filled up the gas tank on my motorbike which will usually last me one to two weeks. This morning I got on my bike to go to bible study and it would not start. After several tries I noticed that the gas gauge was on empty. I sat there confused, trying to figure out how I could already be on empty, but could not figure it out. So Rachel got on our old bike, started it up and gas started squirting out on her leg. At this point I figured out what had happened and checked the gas lines. The old bike's gas line had been unscrewed and the gas stolen. My new bike's line had actually been cut and the gas stolen. Very annoying! I had to take it in and have a new gas line installed. The most annoying thing is that somebody actually had the nerve to open the gate and go inside to steal the gas. What is going to stop them from doing it again? Nothing.

What a frustrating start to my day!

God bless Wor though for letting Rachel and I borrow her motorbike to get to bible study!

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Photo Blog

For those that don't already know, I started a photo blog. You can see my pictures at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jleeper/.

Taxes

Taxes are not my favorite thing right now. Apparently because I moved out the country, I have to pay several thousand dollars in taxes for this year. I wish that I had known this sooner. It doesn't seem fair. I guess that I should start fundraising soon...

Dentists don't actually "pull" teeth out

Last year I had a root canal which in itself was a very unfortunate experience. About a month ago that tooth started to hurt a little bit and continued to get worse until this past Tuesday when any pressure on it caused horrible pain throughout my mouth. I gave in and went to the dentist even though everything in me told me not to. But none of the horrible scenarios I pictured could have prepared me for walking out of the dentist's office two hours later with a gaping hole in my mouth.

Did you know that when a dentist says he is going to pull your tooth out, he actually means that he is going to hammer away at it, breaking off piece by piece until the tooth is gone? Well, I discovered that the word "pull" is just a nice way of describing a horrendous thing.

The good news is that I have the strongest bones in my mouth that the dentist has ever seen and this is apparently good for the rest of my teeth. The bad news is that because my bones are so strong, he had to do quite a bit of damage to get the tooth out.

I walked out of the dentist's office after two hours, sat on my motorbike, called Rachel and just started to cry. It was very sad. The dentist that I would feel better in no time. Unfortunately when a tooth is pulled, the blood in the hole is supposed to clot and cover the hole which eventually allows it to heal. Well, my blood did not clot and I have been back to the dentist two more times this week. My mouth is infected and it hurts. It is amazing how pain in my mouth can affect my whole life.

It only cost me 1000baht (about $26) to have to tooth pulled and it is going to cost me another 50,000baht (about $1335) to finish the work and get an implant. I have no idea where I am going to get that kind of money. I guess that this is where trusting God comes in.

Monday, September 04, 2006

Sometimes I ask God for things like patience and boldness and peace just because it sounds good and not because I really feel in my heart that He will give those things to me. I know, I am a horrible person! :)

On Friday morning I asked God for boldness and the request came directly from my heart. I really wanted to share about God with my 5pm class and I was nervous about it. So I asked Him for boldness and I had an amazing day!

Before my classes started, Noon came in. She is a new Christian and has been doubting God love lately. I did not know that but I did know that God has been putting her on my heart a lot lately so I told her that I have been praying for her. She was so happy that she was in tears and I was able to spend some more time in prayer for her.


I have been teaching my 5pm class about people who have changed the world in big and small ways, some Christians and some not. On Friday we talked about C. S. Lewis. The story brought up the subject of communion which they did not know about. I was able to talk with them about Jesus and what He has done for us and why we take communion.

My 6pm class is just three girls. Two of them attend bible study and church occasionally and the third has had no interest in Christianity. The third, Boom was the only one to show up for class Friday. Somehow I ended sharing my whole testimony with her and spent over an hour talking about God's love for us. She was very interested and asked lots of questions, it was amazing.

After class I went downstairs and saw Peaw who has been a Christian for about six months. She told me that she had just found out her job was sending her to Bangkok for three months and she was leaving the next day. I asked her if I could spend some time praying with her and by the end we were both in tears.

Friday night Tay and Aom (my two students who did not show up for my 6pm class) came over and spent the night with Rachel and I. We were able to spend some time in prayer with them, praying specifically for their needs that they shared.

Overall, I had an amazing day and when I got to the end of it, I could not help but thank God for filling me with boldness. I should definitely be asking God for help more often because I know that He will provide it!