High Five (part 1)

"God be gracious to us and bless us, And cause His face to shine 
upon us--  That Your way may be known on the earth, Your salvation among all nations. Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You." 
Psalm 67:1-3
Hello again from the beautiful countryside of Chiang Rai. Our family is grateful for all of your prayers and support which makes it possible for us to live and work here in Thailand. Since our move back here last April, both personal and ministry life for the Rutledge family has been busy but also extremely blessed. God is so amazing and we are so thankful that we can partner with Him as well as with you our supporters to help connect the hearts of the Thai people to the redeeming truths of God’s Word. We would like to take some time to update you on how God has been working in and through our family over the past few weeks and also share with you some ways you can be praying for our family and our work with Hearts Redeemed Ministry here in Thailand. 

God has been so good to our family during the past five months we have been here in Thailand. The first three months were packed full of excitement and also many challenges. Trying to relocate a family of six to a foreign country is not an easy thing to do and we are grateful for everyone whose prayers and financial support helped our family be able to return back to Thailand. Mam and I knew it was going to be difficult to get our family back into the Thai way of life, but God has been gracious and we are seeing amazing growth in our children’s ability to not only speak the Thai language but to also adjust comfortably to the Thai culture and food. One of the most challenging parts of the move back was getting the girls registered for school and helping them to be able to communicate well enough in Thai to attend a Thai school. It has been a long five months, and we are thankful that we are seeing some major breakthroughs. 

Gracie was having a hard time talking with anyone in her class, but after a few months she began speaking with her teacher and over the past few weeks has started to make friends with her classmates. She still misses her good friend Amaya in Pocatello, but we are thankful that she is talking with her classmates. Her ability to learn languages amazes me, and she is already better at the Thai language than I am. She is reading and writing in Thai, she is learning Chinese and Japanese at school, and she is also able to speak Northern Thai. Her teacher is amazed because she is progressing faster than all the other kids in the 3^rd grade class. She misses her old school in Pocatello, and really misses Awanas and she wants to tell all of her friends “hello”. She would like to return to Pocatello one day, but she is really enjoying Thailand and especially the Thai food. Gracie would like to send a special thank you to Abigail for writing her a letter; she really enjoyed getting mail from America.

Joy, like Gracie, was having a hard time at school. She was not talking with her teachers and was really struggling doing her homework at night. Thankfully she has an amazing mom, who was willing to go to 1^st grade with her twice a week and help her become comfortable with the Thai schooling system. She is doing so much better now, and really loves buying snacks after school. She enjoys her teacher and her class, but has been having problems with three girls who have been picking on her and stealing her pencils. Mam has talked to the kids and to the teacher and things are better now, but please pray for Joy. She loves going to school, but does not like it when the girls pick on her. We are proud of her and she is learning to handle the situation in the right way by telling the teacher and not fighting back. She really misses America and especially Awanas and her friend Gaby. She wishes she could ride her bike to school like she did in Pocatello, but our house is too far away from her school here in Thailand. She is driving me to the poor house due to her frequent tooth loss lately. In the past three weeks, she has lost 3 teeth and she has another one ready to come out this week. I warned her that she would not be able to eat food if she keeps losing teeth, to which she smiled and replied, “Daddy, it will not be a problem, because in Thailand we eat rice and you do not need teeth to eat rice.” I guess she is right there. She would like to send a special greeting to her friends at Sunday school and to her favorite teacher Mrs. Miles. 

Hope is a different challenge for us; she unlike her sisters does not have a problem with being too quiet at school and afraid to talk with others. She is so excited to be going to school and everyday her teacher and her friends are amazed at how much energy she has and how much she talks. Her Thai is not as clear as her sisters, but that is not stopping her. She talks with everyone all the time and loves going to school every day. Her favorite day is on Friday though and that is because she gets to wear her special Friday uniform and also has swimming at school. She enjoys Thailand but at least once a week she tells us that she misses Pocatello and wants to move back to her old house. She really misses her two friends from Awana Daniel and Lizzy and is always asking when we can see them again. This past month was really hard for her because she really enjoyed going to our churches family camp and also attending the fair with Grammy and Papa. She misses Pocatello, but is growing to enjoy Thailand as well. She would like to send a special hello to Lizzy and Daniel and also ask you to please pray that she will not miss Pocatello too much?

To be continued in Part 2 coming later this week.