A letter from Annette George in Thailand
May 2011
Dear Friends,
Four new students from early in this decade.
In Thailand the New Year holiday (April 13) was followed quickly by the churches’ Passion and Easter celebrations. The Songkran festivities were wet and wild as usual—best described as a giant cheerful water fight that goes on for at least five days. I had decisions to make about Easter morning. My usual Sunday morning Thai church service is at 10:30 on the main campus of my university—about 20 minutes away on my pedal bike—but on Easter they were going to meet for worship at 6:00 am—that’s before the sun rises in April. Pretty risky on a bike, and hard to find public transportation at that hour. The strange thing, I thought, was that the congregation was not going to have any other service that day, but since it is a very youthful congregation, I figured that a “sunrise only” service fit their teenage lifestyle (staying up all night). I decided to go to the international church service—also scheduled for 6 am, but a bit closer and no need to bike on the superhighway. However, at 4:30 on Easter morning, the rain was coming down, hard. I’m sure that wouldn’t have kept the three women from going to the tomb, but I rolled over and decided to worship with the Thai/Chinese congregation, which is much closer to my home. As they have a large congregation and traditional services, I felt sure they would be having a great celebration at 10 am. The rain had stopped by 10, but as I rolled up to the church driveway, it was obvious that the church was empty. A custodian informed me that the whole congregation was out at the cemetery and had been there since 5 am. So, after 20 years in Thailand (my 20th anniversary here was March 6), I’m still learning, even about the Christian culture.
Cell group
At the very end of the school year (March), the members got excited about going on a retreat together. I thought that this was one of those neat ideas that probably wouldn’t happen, because we had exams starting the following week. Often the students (here, as everywhere) finally get serious about reading their materials or catching up on their overdue papers during the exam-cram time. Normally occurring jobs, church activities and even concerts are cancelled or avoided because it’s “exam time.” But not with this bunch. They organized plans for an overnight trip to a Lahu people schoolhouse on the nearby mountain. They received permission from school authorities, asked for sponsorship money, shopped for food, and got the word out that we were leaving on Friday night as soon as students were finished with their first-week exams. Eleven students and I piled into two pickup trucks and made it up the winding mountain road just as the sun was setting. It was cool, quiet and beautiful up there. We had games, Bible lessons, good food (though the dogs made off with part of our breakfast) and good fellowship. In the morning before returning to town we made ambitious plans for the following school year. We’ll see...
Now the new school year is fast approaching and it looks like we’ll be switching the cell group to Tuesdays this year. That will be more convenient for me, and we’re hoping that it will allow more students to be involved (Monday nights had conflicted with band practices).
New school year
Newly arriving freshmen for the school year 2011–12.
The College of Music has accepted a very large number of incoming freshmen. The school year will start June 6, and there will be many introductory and getting-to-know-you activities, but I’m sure it will still be quite a challenge to keep names and faces in my mind. The picture that you see with this letter shows four new students from early in this decade. You can tell that they are new students by the very large name tags bearing their nicknames. Three of these young ladies have graduated; one died before completing her first year. Of the three, two have married, one has a small child now, one is living in Great Britain, and one is working as an airline stewardess. Could you have predicted which lady would have which future by looking at the picture? They were good students, loyal and loving to each other, and respectful toward me, their English, music therapy and woodwinds teacher. The second picture is of three newly arriving freshmen for the school year 2011–12. Care to make any predictions for their paths in the next 5–10 years?
New email address
All PC(USA) staff now have separate e-mail boxes for their work. My new address for anything related to my mission work in Thailand or representing the PC(USA) at your church is now annette.george@pcusa.org. Please give it a test and put it into your computers address lists for future correspondence.
Thank you for your prayers and your interest in my work as I represent you and the church in Thailand.
Annette George
The 2011 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 133
