We moved into our village in Isaan in the beginning of March. Our house is almost at the end of the village and is pretty nice in comparison with the houses most Isaan people live in. At the other side of the road, opposite our house, lives a pretty typical Isaan family. Their house is probably 50 meters from the road and is build behind a little workplace. We didn’t see a lot from these neighbors because they’re busy with work. My wife went for a walk a couple of weeks ago. At the time she left the house, the lady that lives in the other house walked by as well. My wife greeted her in Thai and tried to make a little conversation. She was very surprised to hear the lady say: ‘Oh…you speak Thai. I didn’t know that. I’ve been observing you for weeks (more…)

Since a couple of months we’re working in the Baan Faang district . This district has a few Christians, but the majority of the more then 50,000 people are still bound by Buddhism and Animism. God has opened a wonderful door in a small village in the South West of the district. In this village there are 3 women who are Christian. We go and teach them every week! There knowledge of the Bible is very limited, (more…)

During the first year in Lopburi every student has to complete 9 modules. Eight of these modules are studied within the OMF Language School. One module…your 8th or your 9th is studied with an outside language helper. (more…)

Yesterday we wanted to buy a little three-wheel bicycle for our 1 year old son. We went over to one of the shops selling those kind of things and saw some of the little bikes standing outside. While we were looking at them, two girls that worked in the shop were looking from a distance. We heard them talk to each other about ‘the foreigners’. We could (more…)

After you learn reading and writing in Module 4 there’s another module to wrap up all you’ve learned so far. Module 5 is all about having conversations on different subjects. It’s quite a range of subjects: Meeting people at the market, booking a hotel room, applying for a library card, ordering gas, renting a house etc. (more…)

After talking about the ideal language student I read some quotes about doing language study. Just want to share some of them with you:

• To learn a foreign language is to take on a new identity. This involves being willing to become vulnerable to a degree not normally requiered in other areas of life. (more…)

Have you ever wondered what’s required to be the ideal language student? Go through the list below:). Remember… even if you miss out on some one of the points, you can still become a missionary:).

A good language student:

1. Takes and creates (more…)

The bible clearly teaches that we need to become like a child when we want to become a Christian. If you struggle with becoming like a child you should come to Thailand and do Thai language study. It’s a humbling experience, but thankfully it’s a lot of fun as well. I’m studying module (more…)

Last week we received a card from somebody back home. They basically asked how many converts we made already. A good question if you think about the reason for us being in Thailand. It’s not a very good question (more…)

Before a missionary is able to share God’s word with the target people, he or she needs to climb the mountain of language study. For us as missionaries in Thailand that means (more…)

The Thai language is a tonal language. That makes it very interesting to learn. Tone basically means (more…)