Friday Night Live

When I came here in 2006, I was introduced to the Baptist Student Center, located in the heart of Bangkok. The BSC operates one of the most respected English language schools in the country, enrolling thousands of Thai students a year. Young adults and college students see English proficiency as a key to their future and almost all of them take some kind of training. Because the BSC is staffed by volunteer teachers (folks from Baptist churches in the US, Australia England and other English speaking countries who give up four months to several years to come and teach), they can afford to hold tuition far below what any other school charges.

James Redeker, the director of the BSC immediately took me up on my offer to help. My job was simple. I was to show up in the small commons area just outside the ground floor about 6:30 in the evening. They have sessions from 5:00 - 6:30 and from 7:00 - 8:30. In between, students gather in the commons area to visit and eat supper. My role was simply to introduce myself to students and offer to visit with them and let them practice their English. I loved doing that, and the students really responded. I was there almost every evening for the three months I was here last time.
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The commons area where students gather to eat supper and visit. There is a concession stand that serves hot meals that are very tasty and average maybe a dollar.

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So far this time, I have been too swamped at work to do the conversational English practice as much as I would like, although I hope I am able to increase that in the weeks to come. One thing I DO get to do most weeks, though, it participate in Friday Night Live. Each Friday evening, instead of holding classes, the BSC hosts an evening of fun and games in English. Generally, the evening starts with singing some simple Christian choruses (it is quite cool to watch a big group of Buddhists singing about Christ.) Then some games are played, centering around English somehow. Thais LOVE to play games and even if they are simple, this is a fun time for them. Finally, a guest speaker comes up and does some kind of presentation that has some connection to the gospel. They might share their testimony or they might tell about their home country and its customs... you never know what the guest speaker will talk about. After the speaker finishes, we break into small discussion groups for ten or fifteen minutes of discussion (in English) about what the speaker said. It is an amazing thing to me, but scores of young Thais show up each week for Friday Night Live, and I love being part of it.

This week's guest did a magic show, and the point he made was that everything he did was an illusion, but that the love of Christ is very, very real.

Folks watching intently at FNL.