Alex and Rachael Visit!

This summer we had a couple of our best friends come and visit us here in Thailand. We have lived here for almost a year now and this is the first time we got to see our friends or family from back home. Alex and Rachael have been personal supporters of our ministry so it was so exciting to not only spend time with them, but to also introduce them to our neighbors, Blessing Home kids and community.

Alex and James, our pastor's son, playing guitar

 

Rachael is a speech therapist and has experience working with children. She was able to provide lessons to our church children as well as to our blessing home scholarship children on how to correctly make sounds for the English language. Telling the students where to put their tongue, their teeth, and when to use their voice or not, was extremely helpful and something I was previously not able to teach effectively.

Rachael, Ploy and I teaching English to the kids and teens at church

When we told the kids that Alex makes video games for a living they were so impressed and wanted to show him all the games and apps on their phones that they love to play. We told the kids that in order to make these games you have to work hard and study a lot of math. The children do not like hearing this because the majority of them hate math! When you ask almost any of the children what their favorite subject is, they will say art, and their least favorite is math.

Using a mirror to show the Blessing Home kids how to use their mouth to make English sounds

The kids responded so well to the lessons and I am excited to have some new skills in teaching pronunciation to the kids since English pronunciation is difficult for them. There are many sounds in English that do not exist in Thai language, such as the 'th' or 'v' sound. While Alex and Rachael were here we were able to take some time to get outside of the city of Pattaya and go hiking, swimming, and enjoying time relaxing with them.