Love and lots of English

Secondary students at morning assembly.

The end of the semester at my university is like going 90 m.p.h to 0 with the click of a stapler. The entire month of February has been a mad dash to finish all the projects, complete all the classes, attend all the the events and grade all the papers. All of it leading down to yesterday at just after six when I printed off my last class grade report to be sent to the outsource committee, stapled and put it in the folder on my boss's desk.

Now to shift gears to get ready for summer, baby and a new term.

But first: Highlights:

- February first, went to a couple from our church's wedding. It was outdoors and beautiful.
- The next week got to speak to a local high school to convince them to come to our English camps. They laughed at my jokes. The jokes were in Thai. I'm happy with that.

Two teachers from the School,
Aj. Ying, and myself

- The 8th, Anne and I got to go to a random concert. We had fun. It was the international battle of the bands, so had music from all over the world, and even though it was sponsored by MTV, they didn't all sound the same.
- The 14th, our first Valentines Day as a married couple and this year a national holiday (thank you lunar calendars of Buddhist holidays) So what did we do? Since it was on a Friday, I baked cookies, and we borrowed a friends x-box and kinetic to set up a dance competition. How did go? Check out the video below:

 

Special thanks to P'Aek for making this video for us

Our campers and staff

- The 15th, holiday weekend, sooo what better day to wake up at 6 am to go put on an all day English camp. It went really well, had our largest group attending and despite a couple of hiccups (probably only glaring to the people who planned the thing), went off really well. I'll have pics up this weekend.

After the camp I had convinced the frisbee players to come out to try and get my students involved in Ultimate. No students showed up but we still had a lot of fun for pick up. Then went home to a house full of students wanting to play more Just dance... gonna have to get my own some day.

Annie, Yo & Dao

-The 18th, graduation celebration for the two graduates receiving degrees this year. (Though one was in absentia). They let me pick the restaurant and the school payed for it. It was a great night. As they rolled me out of the place, one of our other students who had graduated the year before pulled up on his bicycle. Was good to see him.

Waiting on Elephants

-The 19th - My English club field trip was rescheduled. So I picked the best day to take a school trip for which I had to go along... My birthday. We went elephant riding and bamboo rafting, and ate good food by the side of the river. Then Anne and I went out to eat and to watch Robocop. The only downside that day was when I bought the ticket they forgot to mention to me that the version I was going to be watching was Thai dubbed. Fortunately action movies don't rely heavily on verbal plot developments and my Thai has much improved over the past 5 years.

- The 22nd & 23rd were graduation. One full day (9 am - nearly 9 pm) for practice, and then all day for ceremony and stuff on Sunday. But Anne got her degree, and we had enough to hire a photographer for the day since I was busy working the event. It was a great day.

-Finally, got all my school work done, ended the year buying some pizza for our students, and now, today, we go for our next ultrasound.

Prayer Requests: 
- As many of you know, we are going to be evicted from our house. We don't yet know when, but in the next month or two at the earliest. Right now we are looking around for the best option, meaning do we rent again, and potentially face this same thing again in the future, or do we use our rent money and make it mortgage money? That's right. We may be looking at buying a house.

My goal is to try to find a house that we can still do our ministry out of, but be comfortable enough to grow as a family as well. Hopefully near the university. So please pray that God would be guiding our search for that.

- A vehicle. We can't keep going on the bike with the baby on the way. A pregnant lady and fat white boy will probably break that little thing in too. But at the same time, with having to move, I'm not sure where we are at financially. Anne has found a little job to do for the next couple of months, and that will help us save up for down payments, but one the kiddo arrives, she won't be working for at least a few months. So with taking on a new house payment (weather purchasing or renting), and looking to take on a car payment, She and I are going to need some help. So be praying for us as well as we start trying to expand our support base.

- In a couple of months, two friends of mine are coming to help with ministry. They are coming to do some photo profiles of local ministries. Please pray for me as I start solidifying plans, that we will get in touch with the right places. Where my friend's photography skills can be the biggest blessing, and that I will be able to get the planning done while looking for a house/car and getting ready for next semester.

Love you all! We might know the Gender of the baby today, so if we find out, we'll be letting you all know as well. Lot's of love!

Zac & Anne