Santisuk

With all the flashy photos of tigers, palaces, temples, and elephants it’s pretty easy to forget why I’m here. Some of you may not even know my reasoning for going to Thailand in the first place. I figured I’d actually update you on my ministry and reasoning behind what I’m doing in my daily life here.

As you’ve probably learned, I’m here working with Santisuk English School (SES). The main school is in Lat Prao, but I’m stationed at a branch in Lat Krabang. Before traveling to Thailand I did some all-purpose Googling about Lat Krabang. The list of attractions: nothing. Well, let me explain Lat Krabang from personal experience: it is a district on the east edge of Bangkok. The reason it exists is almost entirely because of KMITL, the engineering university. KMITL is the MIT of Thailand though, so Lat Krabang has one definite feature: lots of really bright young adults.

That is why Santisuk is genius to start a branch there. Now technically schools have to be registered with the government here, so the branch I’m at is called “Santisuk English Center” because we are not established enough yet to apply for the title of school.

The guidebook for teachers states, “SES will be an effective evangelistic tool and a high-quality conversational English school”. SES offers low-cost (half the price of other English schools here, and those rarely have someone who speaks English as their native tongue) and high quality classes. I’m not here to hand out pamphlets on the street. I’m here to teach English and build friendships with my students. (Santisuk believes that the most effective way to expose people to Christ is through living our lives.) So I’m a walking-talking testimony; a missionary.

My students enjoy hearing about my faith, just like I love when they take me to visit their (gorgeous) temples. I’m not trying to convert them; I’m trying to meet up with them for lunch or a movie. That’s why there are always pictures of us with students. We provide them with incomparable English practice, and we’re blessed with native tour guides who are willing and enthusiastic to do anything and everything with us as we explore Thailand.

The Santisuk English Center in Lat Krabang consists of 6 people at the current moment. Carol and Dundun are head of the branch. They are amazing people. They’re like my Thai parents, except they’re Filipino.

Not gonna lie, I stole this photo from Facebook...

The rest of us include P'Yo, Kate, CJ, and I. P'Yo works in Lat Krabang and stays in Santisuk as sort of a caretaker for the building. Kate is another missionary from Wisconsin. Oh, and there’s CJ. CJ is Carol and Dundun’s four year old son. Adorable, spoiled, and very sassy; he loves having young adults to use as his play toys and mobile jungle gym on a daily basis.

A photo of CJ by the ostriches that I took at the Crocodile Farm.

My favorite CJ moment from this week was the quote, “Jesus will give me an iPad”, which he said on a taxi ride home from the movie theater on Sunday. He’s very spiritual in taxis and enjoys singing Christian songs with incorrect lyrics as we traverse around Bangkok.

But that’s pretty much it. My day-to-day life in Thailand consists of hanging out with this crew and slowly getting better at butchering the Thai language. And I love it.