A New Chapter

It's about time to begin another chapter of this blog.

The previous purpose of this blog had been to post updates for friends and family while I was serving the church mission in Thailand. Then I returned to Wisconsin, and I used the blog to write a little bit about the transition to life back in the U.S. Now I'm back in Thailand, and this chapter begins the story of life as a full-time graduate student.

After about 40 hours of flying and layover-ing, I arrived safely to the Chiang Mai airport last week Tuesday. I knew that someone would be picking me up, but I was not exactly sure who that someone would be. I was happy to see the Thai national pastor and his wife come to get me from the airport and equally elated to spend some time that first afternoon at the remodeled church/coffee shop where I saw many of my other mission cohorts. The first two days were spent at the missionary's house as a place to recoup from jet lag. It's been a great blessing to reconnect with all these wonderful people here at the mission and worship again with them on Sunday morning.

What's especially new about this time around in Thailand is the element of graduate studies. Wanting to further my training and competency in the international education and English-teaching field, I have enrolled in Payap University's Master of Arts in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) program. It's been three years now since I've done the full-time student thing, so that fact combined with the subtle (and not-so-subtle) nuances of studying in Thailand will make for an interesting, challenging, and likely often comical experience.

To illustrate this point, I bring to the table last Friday's new student orientation as evidence. The university was probably well prepared for the traditional Thai undergraduate student, but as an international graduate student I had little idea of where to go. Eventually I found my seat in the back row of the large multi-purpose sala, and the opening ceremony began. Including new students, older students, faculty and staff, there were probably altogether around 2,000 people gathered for the opening service. Payap University is a private college with Christian roots, and what a strange and exhilarating feeling it was to sit in the opening service, which included hymns of worship and a short sermon, knowing that the student population surrounding me was roughly 90% Buddhist. It gave me the overwhelming feeling that though I'm not working directly for the church mission presently, I'm definitely in a massive mission field that needs to hear and come to know the Gospel message.

And, of course, amidst the splendor and grandeur of this opening ceremony, there were mangy street dogs roaming around inside the building. There were power blackouts throughout the entire day. This, my friends, is Thailand.

Tomorrow I begin my first day of class. I have 12 credits of study, and all my classes are scrunched into two days per week in the classroom. I'm looking forward to beginning these four classes: Teaching the Language System; Teaching Language Skills; Language Acquisition and Learning; and Assessment and Evaluation. To find out more about Payap University and the MA in TESOL program, check out the university website: http://ic.payap.ac.th/.

As I begin from here, there's no way for sure for me to know what will take place in these coming chapters, but I'm glad to know the One who has weaved the entire story from start to finish. I'm excited to discover what's to come and share the journey with you. To Him be the glory.

To be continued!

Eric