Hello Everyone! We pray this update finds you well and enjoying the first days of Spring! Bangkok is quickly approaching “hot hot season” and we are thankful for the reintroduction of rain to clear the pollution. Read on to see what J+L have been up for this month and stay tuned because next month we’ll have been married a year!

Lyndsey’s Student-Life Involvement

I love engaging students in the classroom and encouraging their learning as a substitute teacher. My 11th-grade mentorship position and 9th-grade Life Group are going wonderfully. We are able to be trusting and open and are studying fear and anxiety and how we can cast our cares on God, find comfort in His peace, and remember our identity is in Him. Coaching swimming has been a blast and it has been fun to see their strokes improve. I look forward to life-guarding pool activities at Eagles Camp this week and assessing Senior Capstone Service Projects in two weeks!

Jonathan’s Teaching & Art Show Preparations

Jonathan is glad for a couple of long weekends to catch up on rest and grading before the end of the quarter. The first pieces created by his Advanced Ceramic students have come out of the kiln and it is encouraging to see such amazing work. The drawing students have finished up a unit on Non-Objective Art and will be experimenting with Ink-Wash Landscapes in the style of traditional Chinese painting next. 

The spring is also a busy time for the on-campus gallery called the Community Art Forum (or CAF for short.) This week is a silent auction fundraiser, then next two weeks will be a community art show for ICS parents, alumni, and teachers. Then at the end of March there will be a Faculty Art Show for the art teachers to share their personal work. There will be more pictures from that next month (because J needs to finish his submissions)!

The Adventures of Baking

Baking has been a joy, as always. We just have to make sure the eggs don’t fly away, as they sometimes have wings here 😉 Lyndsey baked treats for road-tripping with friends, and J+L have had a blast collaborating in the kitchen. We’ve even made the “same” baked-good on video call with the Dicksons!

Daily Life

J+L have enjoyed pastimes at home, such as artwork (J is teaching L to watercolor), take-out from new and favorite restaurants, and documentaries.

We’ve been getting together with friends in fun ways too! Some recent activities we’ve done with friends include walks in the park, meals, movie nights, spa days, gaming, green markets, and hiking. We already look forward to more!

Thai Tastes

Maternal Nutrition Project Progress

My work with Imagine Thailand and our Partners in Mae Sot is chugging along. The materials I have been preparing are in the final tweaking stages. The next step is preparing them for implementation, the first challenge being translation. We need interview guides, nutritional information posters, and activity charts translated to Thai and Burmese. A barrier is that many of our contacts that speak Burmese are in Myanmar and are hard to get a hold of due to the political situation. The Mae Tao Clinic is working on outsourcing this project for me. Upon receiving the translated documents, I will get the materials printed and laminated, and be ready to utilize them in Mae Sot! 
A big THANK YOU to those who support my work. I couldn’t do it without you and have high hopes for the impact we can have together in the goal of healthier, stronger, more-supported women and children in Burmese and Thai communities of Northwestern Thailand. A need right now is funding for 1) translation, 2) prints and lamination. In my next update I will likely be fund-raising for travel expenses to begin implementation. Please pray for smoothness in getting materials ready and logistics/timing of a trip to Mae Sot. If you feel led or are interested in joining in on this work, please give through the Donate Tab, linked here. Your support, love and prayers are deeply appreciated!

J+L