Settling In

So I've safely landed in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and I arrived at Missionary JJ's house around 1 AM, Sunday.  The first half of the flight wasn't too bad since I had a whole aisle to myself! When I wanted to sleep, I just sprawled out on three seats.  From Incheon to Chiang Mai, it was pretty rough, the plane was much smaller so the flight was a bit more cramped, plus my body clock was out of whack, making me more tired than usual.  After getting some rest, Pastor JJ and his family and I went to church in the city.  We met up with the other missionary family, the So's  and worshiped the Lord with the local Thai people.  I must say, I was blessed and encouraged to see this church thriving and worshipping God.  More than half the congregation was made up of youth or college students, and to see them whole heartedly praising and worshipping was an awesome sight to behold.  I wish I could've taken some pictures to show everyone, but I forgot to take my camera, I'll try to take some next week.

After church, Pastor JJ and I went to the bank and I opened a Thai bank account, yup so now I'm really in it for a whole year!  As I was applying for this bank account at Bangkok Bank, the teller gave me a a form with a bunch of numbers on it which looked to be some sort of account, and when I asked Pastor JJ about it, he told me as a first time account holder at Bangkok Bank, I was qualified to get free medical insurance for accidental coverage.  So now if I get into some sort of accident (i.e. ran over by a car) I'm insured up to 100,000 baht or roughly $3000!  I couldn't even get any type of medical insurance back in the States even as a part-time employee.  I just thought that was kind of amusing.

After opening a bank account and exchanging my money, I delivered gifts to Pastor JJ's kids (Ethan and Abby) and Missionary So's kids (Brandon, Brianna, and Bridgette) and relaxed the rest of the day until I knocked out at 8PM (I'm not an old man, just real tired yesterday).

So far today, I've dropped off Abby at her Kindergarten and applied to get into the Thai Language School that is nearby.  Hopefully I can start soon, but it hinges on whether there will be another student, because in order to have group classes, two people or more have to sign up at the same time.  At this point I'm waiting for someone else to enroll.  I'm looking forward to learning Thai and all its nuances.   From the looks of things I might run a few more errands today, but mostly relax and catch up.

In terms of ministry, after having talked to Pastor JJ, I'll be spending the next three months here in Chiang Mai learning Thai full time, 5 days a week.  I won't be going back and forth to Wiang Pao Pao to the Jasper Kids because in Thailand all students are on their summer break, so all the kids have gone home to their families.  I'm a little bummed I won't get to see the Jasper Kids until later, but it gives me more time to focus on learning the language, and I'll need every opportunity and advantage I can get since it is a hard language to learn.  In the mean time, I'll still be able to help out with Pastor JJ and his ministry by tagging along with him to attend what seems to be like a nationwide youth and college student Christian conference in southern Thailand later this month or in April, I am excited and looking forward to that. 

All in all, I've just been real blessed to be here, the missionaries have been wonderful, and I'm excited for what's ahead.  Sorry for the long post, I'll try to streamline it a bit more.  I'll post up pictures later today!