Here we go, year two in Thailand! August 8th marked one-year in this beautiful country. The new teachers have arrived. It has been fun to meet and encourage them in their transition. It’s a little weird not being the newbies, but neat to realize how comfortable we have become with living in Asia. 

Unfortunately the spread of the COVID Delta variant means school has started online this year. The challenges of teaching and working online seem bigger and more daunting at the start of the school year than as a transition from having been in-person. Both Jonathan and Lyndsey are enjoying the challenge of finding effective ways to share our expertise online, but please pray with us that things will open up soon. We miss the energy and fun of interacting with students and colleagues in-person. 

We finally got our first COVID-19 vaccine dose, yay! Unfortunately our second shot is not until October, but we are glad to have one in our system. Rising cases and slow vaccination rates have again resulted in more strict lockdown measures. Bangkok has instilled a curfew, which does not affect us too much, although we have been really enjoying evenings with friends (up to 5 people at a time) and have to make sure everyone is home before 9 PM. Pretty much everything is closed, but we can go to the grocery store and order delivery from most restaurants. As you can see, taxi rides have very interesting disinfecting methods.

Online all-staff orientation started August 2nd and was informative and inspiring. Jonathan has been “nesting” (or procrastinating) by painting his office and creating nice online teaching set-ups for class calls. The “Full Staff” calls were all on Zoom, but we were thankful that we could still use Jonathan’s classroom and feel a little closer to in-person.

It has been fun to collaborate with the art team. We bought art supplies together and have shared a few dinners. Lyndsey helped prepare packets of materials for each class that students will pick up next week. Planning projects to be done at home in advance for this pick-up was a little overwhelming at first, but he has been hard at work and feels better about the semester now that classes are underway. 

Please pray for everyone here to make the most of the situation and remain optimistic. Speaking with other teachers, many are discouraged but trying to be intentional about focusing on the positive. Our hearts go out to the students who are generally very isolated and have not been out of their homes much in the last five months. 

One of the positives is that numerous improvements are being made around the school. There have been bathroom and office renovations and a new air conditioned gym space was built for elementary PE. Without students on campus, the painters have efficiently updated the color scheme throughout campus. It is amazing to see them construct elaborate bamboo scaffolding with just sticks, rope, and string! They build it, work on it, tear it down, and move it every couple of days. Quite beautiful and elegant, albeit scary!

Two new volunteer opportunities have recently arisen for Lyndsey that she is very excited about: 

1. A social media account to communicate the importance of nutrition to women of reproductive age and fun ways to meet their nutrient needs. Follow @preg.nutrition on Instagram! 

2. A content creator for a nutrition and fitness platform for missionaries in 120+ countries

These have inspired me to create nutrition workshops for those serving abroad who are seeking sound health information. My focus is on affordability and feasibility, empowering women to nourish their bodies and families adequately and conveniently while serving God in the field.

I have also been praying alongside my team at Imagine Thailand, as Mae Sot is very locked down due to COVID-19 and also getting hit hard early this rainy season with flooding. Please pray with us for both the rain and pandemic to let up, and for wisdom among those in leadership and service roles.

See below for snippets of life & fun with friends, our edible creations & take-out (so ready for restaurants to reopen for dine-in), smoothie dates & funny translations:

Please pray for us as we try to connect with friends, coworkers, family, and students virtually. It is hard to live most of our lives online and in a 40 m2 (about 430 ft2) apartment. All we can do is make the best of the situation, but our hope is that things will open up soon and we can experience what “normal Thailand” was like.

Thanks for reading and praying! Send us a message too…we truly want to hear from you!

Lots of love,

J+L