We’re all pretty excited to update our blog with the following information!

We have made a decision about our family’s future.  When we left for Thailand 6 months ago, we made a one-year commitment to Imagine Thailand.  We were unsure whether we would come back to Canada or stay in Thailand once the year ended.   That decision has now been made.

drum roll, please………..

At the end of July 2010, we will move back to West Kelowna and take up the position of Campus Pastors at Emmanuel’s Peachland Campus.  At the same time, we will continue to work with Imagine Thailand as Canada-based volunteers.  To be more specific, we will work with Emmanuel Church 50% of the time and for Imagine Thailand 50% of the time.  We are working through the details of this arrangement with Pastor Derrick Hamre of Emmanuel Church and with Peter and Cavelle Dove – executive directors of Imagine Thailand.

To make a short story long, we waited until January to begin to seriously think about what we would do once our one-year adventure ended.   We purposely ignored the question in our first four months in Thailand in order to settle in and work without distraction.  But we knew we had to decide eventually.  And so, at the beginning of the new year, all 6 of us took significant time to think about the future.  For one week, we spent a portion of each day thinking and praying about what to do.  When the week ended, Irislee and I interviewed each of our children, Irislee and I shared our own feelings with each other, and then we put the puzzle pieces together.  To our dismay, the puzzle pieces didn’t fit.  The decision wasn’t unanimous.  We spent additional time weighing out different options and talking with Pastor Derrick and the Dove’s.  Without speaking with each other, both Derrick and Peter suggested the same option to us–a 50/50 split.  The moment we learned that this was a possibility for us, we knew it was the right decision.  In fact, as Irislee and I went back over our notes, we realized that all of the comments and ideas fit neatly into this specific solution!

The dual role offers many exciting opportunities.  Pastor Derrick’s keynote address at the beginning of January was inspirational and we want to be a part of Emmanuel’s plans for the future.   There is so much potential!  At the same time, creating awareness of Imagine Thailand’s work, raising money for projects, and taking teams from Canada to volunteer in Thailand gives us the opportunity to carry on what we began in Mae Sot this year.  Now we are praying for someone to come live in Mae Sot to take on the day-to-day responsibilities here.

Please continue to stay in tune to what is happening at Imagine Thailand.  Even though we are coming back home in four and a half months, we are not winding down.  In fact, our project load is increasing.  We will continue to keep you informed about significant events.  Next week we begin the third of our three main projects:  The Life Book Project.  We’ll give you the thrilling details in our next blog…

See You Soon!

PS.  Oh yes…on a side note.  After a desperate search, we finally found a website that showed the Canada-USA Gold Medal Game.  Isaac and I woke up at 3:00am to watch Canada win in overtime.  Even though we dragged ourselves through the next day, it was so worth it!

No one would fix a car without the proper tools.  What good is soccer without a soccer ball?  And how effective is teaching without proper teaching resources?

In Mae Sot, migrant school teachers struggle with resource shortages all the time.

a migrant nursery classroom

At the elementary school level, one teacher in whose class I teach English, bemoaned the fact that she had no budget for printing coloring sheets and so when we brought in 30 photocopied coloring sheets of Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus, along with pencil crayons for the whole class, she was ecstatic.  In high school Science classes, one teacher told us that students simply memorize chemical formulas from photocopied books, instead of being able to actually run experiments.  Needless to say, every grade has a shortage of resources.

nursery teachers in a "learning cluster"

In response to this crisis, we’ve been asked to find a way to bring resources to classrooms.  And so, we’ve developed a 4-School Cluster System focusing on Nursery (preschool) children.  Migrant school Nursery teachers are already in “learning clusters” for idea sharing and encouragement. In this system, a Nursery teacher will use a bin of resources for one week and then pass it on to the next teacher on the list.  After 4 weeks, each school will have had the bin for one week.  Because the nursery classes use 8 monthly themes during the school year, we will develop 8 bins. Each bin costs approximately $100.  48 migrant schools have nursery/kindergarten classes and so we need to develop 12 cluster groups (4 schools/group).  And so to summarize the financial need, we need $800 for each cluster and $9600 to be able to provide for all 12 clusters.

a sample nursery resource bin

inside a resource bin

We are so excited to announce that with your generosity, we’ve already raised  $3000 for Teacher Resource Kits!  In other words, we are able to provide resources to 3 (and almost 4)  clusters of preschool teachers.

We would like to start the same system for elementary math teachers, providing hands on learning opportunities in developing numeracy.  At the high school Science level, we are still at the very beginning of the process, putting together a list of what teachers need to teach biology, chemistry and physics.

Would you spread the word and help us reach the rest of our goal?  As Bob and Larry say in …”It’s for the children.”

We’ve prepared a short video to show you the problem and the solution!  Enjoy!

A Fresh Start 2010

January 13-15

Recently, we were asked if we would be interested in putting together a day of celebration for 650 migrant school teachers and headmasters.  We eagerly agreed and “A Fresh Start 2010″ was born.  Along with a number of other organizations, we planned a great day of encouragement for these dedicated mentors of children.  Specifically, we planned games, gave gifts, and made speeches.   We ran the event over three days, dividing the 650 teachers based on the areas of town in which they taught.

This event was quite significant.  All 61 migrant schools are under the direction of a Burmese school district office (BMWEC).  However, the BMWEC is accountable to the Thai Ministry of Education (MOE).  A Fresh Start was hosted by the MOE, planned by Imagine Thailand and other organizations for the benefit of the Burmese teachers and headmasters.  

At times, there has been tension between the two organizations.  The Thai Ministry of Education has graciously allowed Burmese people to set up schools in Mae Sot, but because the quality of education is lower than in the Thai school system, they have not granted equal graduation certificates to students who complete studies in the Migrant schools.  Furthermore, the BMWEC  has insufficient money to pour a lot of resources into the Migrant schools to make them stronger.   On the other side, the Burmese schools are begging for help and not receiving as much as they truly need.   They often lack teaching supplies, salaries for teachers, and food for the students.  In fact many who teach in Mae Sot were not even teachers in Burma.  (One man I spoke with was a taxi driver in Burma before fleeing to Thailand!).  There was simply a need to educate children and so people have stepped in where they can.  The situation is desperate for these schools.

A Fresh Start brought the two groups together.   We had the privilege of helping to build a bridge!  In many ways, I felt like we were planning a Deep End for adults (for those who are unfamiliar with Deep End, it was a high school outreach that our youth group led at our local high school – it consisted of games, food, dramas, and a message about Jesus).

We presented gifts to the Thai Ministry of Education, gave out coffee mugs and pens to all migrant teachers and headmasters, hired a magician and planned fun crowd-breaker type games that everyone loved. At the end of the gathering, we were able to pray a blessing over everyone.  It was really special.

This event has paved the way for us to get to know more of the migrant school leaders in the BMWEC, which in turn, paves the way for us to be of more assistance to them.  Additionally, it has deepened our relationship with the MOE.  Ultimately, we hope that “A Fresh Start 2010″ gave the migrant community an encouraging kick start for the new year! 

On the personal side, it was a good learning experience for us as we engaged two cultures (Thai and Burmese) in an official capacity.  Translating between three different languages and navigating amongst three different cultures made the planning a lot more work…enjoyable, but definitely a lot more work!

Thank-you for continually supporting us financially.  We were able buy mugs, gifts, prizes and pay for the magician because of your donations!

Hi All!

Here’s a video update that was sent to our church in Westbank.  Many of you have already seen it, but if you wanted a re-run, here it is!

It may take a few minutes to download, so be patient.