Last Sunday our team hosted our very 1st Sunday school class for all of the Burmese children that the Avoda truck brings to their location so they could teach them English and the Bible.

But these children still live with their parents (in those Burmese camps that we posted earlier) and after the lessons and a good meal, they are taken back. It’s a sacrifice from Avoda to do all this, and not only this, but also throughout the week keep bringing them to Avoda in the evening for evening English lessons. They are doing everything that is in their power to teach these children so they could have a better future.

As soon as we arrived in Avoda we were warned to always walk with a flashlight at night and always, ALWAYS watch your step and be on the look out for SNAKES!  And of course the warning was followed by many snake stories about scorpion stings and poisonous centipede bites and biting geckos…  :/

So we were always on the look out for snakes (being paranoid of every sound in the leaves). But 2 weeks passed and we haven’t seen any snakes yet…until NOW!

Yesterday (2/26/13) we were unexpectedly told that it was our last day of teaching because the students will go into exam period and we will no longer be needed. But the funny thing how they decide and inform everyone in the last minute! (literally!) But they also invited 3 of us (Tanya, Staya, and I) to come back to school in the morning so they could say “Thank You” and take some goodbye pictures. So we said sure. But we really had no idea what was waiting for us.

This week we had the chance to have an upscale dinner with many teachers and several directors. It was a sort of goodbye evening for Serge and me. Usually we are dropped off at home after school, but  that day, as we were getting ready to leave school, they mentioned that they were having a party for us and could we come? Good thing we didn’t have any plans for that evening except our Thai lessons. Otherwise we might have had to miss our own party. Thai people sure don’t give much of an advance notice!

“Sanki”

This month few boys at Avoda had birthdays, and our team decided to do something special so they would remember it.

Many of the Avoda children are quite talented. Many of them can draw very well. Often you can walk into the kitchen and see three or four children just sitting together and drawing, coloring, sketching for fun. Some are just drawing abstract, someone is drawing a portrait of Anita Miteiko, someone is just doodling, and others just drawing from a picture. And even those who don’t draw, when they see other children drawing, they try it themselves. And I’m surprised to see how good these children are at drawing!

God’s ways are DEFFINATELY not our ways!

Ap.Paul was on his way to the synagogue in Phillipi (Acts 16). It was probably an early and warm morning. He had his goal – the synagogue. He traveled this road before. He walked with his friends Silas without paying much attention to the surrounding noisy market sellers. But little did he know that God had a different destination planned for him, and it sure wasn’t a “place of prayer” (Acts 16:16). It was a prison where Paul had a divine appointment set by God. An appointment for the prison guard to cross paths with God’s servant (Paul), and God used his vessel that was fully His and He saved the prison guard and his household.

Today on the way to church service as I were walking with Tanya, we spotted something move in the leaves and then saw something jump on the bamboo. At first I was looking at the place where I thought I saw the thing jump, but didn’t see anything untill I got much closer. And I saw a cool new reptile: the chameleon! It has camouflaged itself to the color of yellow bamboo, so it is hard to spot him from far away.