Life in a Northern Town - Issue 13
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Transcript of Life in a Northern Town - Issue 13
Life in a Northern Town
(of Thailand)
It has been way too long... These last three months have been
very busy, very challenging and so
much fun. I love being here at The
River, it is such a great place to
serve God. In February, just before
school finished, our English teaching
volunteers, were joined by a team
from Melbourne for a special one
day English Camp at a local school
for around 120 students. We had lots
of fun! We also connected with the
local North Chiang Mai University for
the English Department’s Annual
Camp.
I had the honour of being
part of the graduation at one
of the schools, I teach at,
Baan Kuan School. It was a
special celebration for whole
school with all students taking part in the performances
throughout the night.
Generally at this time of year in Thailand everything slows down as people enjoy their Summer
holidays and other activities. Most people will return to their villages from the cities and they will
spend time catching up with family and then celebrating Thai New Year before heading back to
their homes to get prepared for the return to normal routine in early May.
Well, that is what happens for the local people, but people like me just don’t seem to have
enough time to fit everything in. During the first week of March, I was the Airport Taxi service for a
FIDA Development Conference we hosted at The River, and I made 15 trips to the airport over
the week. We also started another set of English conversation classes down at The River Café in
Hangdong town centre. At the end of March our ladies all enjoyed a few days of love and
attention, whilst us men all tried to help make The River run.
"But be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: to love the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, to keep his
commands, to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.” Joshua 22:5 NIV
My name is Shayne Rochfort and I
am a servant of God, volunteering
in Hangdong, Thailand. I am
helping support The River Team in their work in
the local schools and community. My main role
involves everything and anything. Please consider
supporting me in my work here in Thailand.
Highlights - River Team
Women’s Retreat
.Life at The River
Concert
The River Team
Partners Confer-
ence
Completing CHE
TOT2 Course
Doing my first ever
Keynote Speech
and getting in a
Thai Newspaper
Summer School
Program SOP
Life in a Northern Town (of Thailand)
While we had all these seminars and retreats
through March and April, I was helping with a
local school’s Summer program with around 60-70
children from the local community, as well as
trying to fit in all my normal activities.
In the first week of April, I took a
couple of days to head down to
Mae Sot, where I had visited for a day last year. I went with a friend Emily and
we had a great time seeing all the things happening down there. I also had
the chance to visit Agape Orphanage and Learning Centre - a special
children’s home and school for migrant children from Burma.
As April came around, preparations for the
Thai New year got into full swing, with
everyone finding their buckets and getting
ready for the big water fight.
I had made Songkran plans to stay with friends
in the city and so on the Friday night I couch surfed with a
friend, Kevin at his place in Chiang Mai so that I would be ready
and raring to go for Day 2. Well that plan was going great, until
just after lunch I was heading back in to town to my base there
and just 100m from another friend’s house, I came way to close
to the road for riding my bike. It was all because someone
decided to walk in front of me as I was riding up the street, but
as far as motorbike accidents go, I was very lucky. So I have
had my first motorbike accident and I didn’t die!!! So blessed!
Well that put a halt on all the fun activities of Songkran, but I did
meet up with a bunch of Couch Surfers and I let them head into
the wet and wild world of Songkran. Day 3 of Songkran was just resting and recuperating at
home, before taking a few pics of some of our team out splashing the cars as they headed
home from Chiang Mai.
After Songkran, we held a Kids Camp for all the Kids Club kids and
that was a very tiring 3 days, but just great to have a chance to
connect with our local kids for more than a couple of hours each
week. The team did really well and everyone had an awesome
time. The following week, it was all go again at The River,
preparing for our annual River Partners Conference for all our
friends around Thailand. We had some great teaching from Ross
from Brisbane and everyone had the chance to be refreshed and
renewed for their next season, the harvest season.
During the conference, the first ever .Life@TheRiver concert was
held with about 300 people from the community joining us for a
night of music and celebration.
After conference was
all over, I went into a
week long
Community Health
Evangelism/
Education Training of
Trainers course (CHE
TOT2). It was great to
learn about how we can connect to the community,
we had people from 4 countries doing the course,
and there was a lot of English, Thai and Finnish
language flying around the room.
It has been way too long… (continued)
FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO PRAY:
Praise for God’s blessing through The River Team and myself personally - It has just
been a very challenging few months, but God has looked after everything along the
way. We have had many people believing in Jesus and had many baptisms in our pool.
Please pray for the whole River Team - Please pray as we are all going through many
challenging situations, that we can just keep our eyes focused on God who is leading
and directing our paths. For our many different villages and communities.
I would like to Praise God and thank the people who have started to support me.
However, I still need to raise more support to continue to serve here in Thailand.
Life in a Northern Town (of Thailand)
PO Box 11
HANGDONG
CHIANGMAI 50230
THAILAND
Phone +66801202074
Email -
Skype - shayneinthailand
The River Training and Convention Centre
Any questions please do not hesitate to send me an email, [email protected] or give me a call.
Supporting Shayne
I am committed to being in Thailand and with The River Team in a full time capacity. I would like to let you know that if you are able to support me in my work, then you can do so through One Mission Society. There are many ways you can support me, through prayer as well as financially.
My prayer card with all the details is avail-able at
http://tinyurl.com/shayneprayercard .
Please include my missionary number #803833 with any donations.
You can support me financially by :- Cheque - Please make cheques payable to: OMS International, PO Box 897, RING-WOOD, Vic 3134. Include a note with my name. Direct Debit - If you wish to make a pay-
ment directly through your bank, pay to: Westpac. Acc Name: OMS International Australia- Inc. Acc Number: 733172 BSB: 628724. NOTE: In the transaction details please be sure to include your name and ROC. Credit card donations - can be made through the website. http://www.onemissionsociety.org.au OMS phone – 03 9872 4209
So after months of
camps, conferences,
seminars, training,
concerts and other
events, then just last
week, I did my first
EVER keynote speech
and I was doing it for
a group of Thai
teachers. I was asked
to speak about the
Cultural differences
between Thai and
Western classrooms, it
went really well with
all participants
enjoying it and finding
what I said useful. I
was very stressed and anxious before it
because I am not a teacher and I had
never done anything like this before. I
was relieved when it was over.
Amazing experience!!! I even got my
face in a Chiang Mai newspaper!!!
Closing statements