Thailand Week 4

Teaching drums to the boys at Baan Nana

Our 4th week in Thailand, we spent a lot of time at a ministry called the Baan Nana Center. It's a safe home for Burmese kids to grow up and have a more positive childhood. Like I said in previous entries, all these kids have different stories, all of them laced with the tragedies of war, some of their stories infiltrated by them. For example, one of the boys at the home lost his father and was abandoned by his mother. He went to live with his uncle who had an opium addiction and forced him to go out and beg to earn money to feed his habit. If he didn't come home with enough money, his uncle would beat him. His aunt heard about the Baan Nana center and sent him there to free him from his uncle's abuse.  It's located outside the city in the middle of nowhere and has a summer camp feel to it. We went there several times to play games with the kids and teach them skills like guitar and drums, bracelet making, and english. The kids there are all different ages ranging from 2-18 years old. One little girl, the youngest one there caught my heart so strongly that it hurt. She was breathtakingly beautiful and only about 2 years old. I am naturally drawn to people who are sad and hurting and I've never seen so much fear and sadness in a child's eyes. She'd seen things and been through things that no human should ever see let alone a 2 year old baby girl. I don't know her story, I don't know what she's seen or what she's been through, but I know by the look in her eyes that it must have been tragic. So young, so vulnerable, and so hurt yet she cannot even speak yet to talk about her pain. I only got to hold her once, and I immediately wanted to take her home with me. God has not forgotten her. He sees her and he knows her. He loves her and I have faith that He will use her in tremendous ways.

Precious faces of Baan Nana

This little girl was gorgeous. She wants to be a singer. 

I loved this girl. She was a soccer superstar. 

The chapel at the Baan Nana Center

My little baby girl who broke my heart 

Thailand Week 3

The kids made their own animal masks for our Noah skit

Learning Bible verses

Our location for weeks 3-5 in Thailand was Mae Sai. Mae Sai is the northernmost part of Thailand and houses a major border crossing into the country of Burma. Our first week we spent split up helping out with different children's ministries. I went with 2 of the students to a ministry called the Rainbow of Hope Children's Home. It is a home run by a Filipino family that houses 9 children (most of them from Burma) ages 7-12. The home is run more like one big family than an organization because that's essentially what it is. The kids live, eat, play, sleep, and are taught in this home. We went for a couple days to teach English and love on the kids. They all have different stories as to why they are there, some of them have parents but they can't take care of their kids for numerous reasons. Some don't have parents at all or it isn't safe for them to go home. These kids were some of the smartest kids I have ever met. They knew English better than any kids we had met so far, they would sing us worship songs in English with rounds, they would draw pictures they found in their story books perfectly. They excited something in my heart that there is huge hope and potential for these children's broken lives. One little girl attached herself to me the first day we were there. Her mom passed away when she was little and her dad got tuberculosis when she was about 3.  He died while they were trying to get him over the border into Thailand to go to the hospital and she disappeared. The couple who runs the home tried everything they could do to find her, and by the grace of God they did and she has been living with them ever since. She was quite the character: beautiful, stubborn, smart, independent, and quite the photographer. She loved taking pictures with my camera and would make me sit by the flowers so she could take pictures of me. I love that little girl and its stories like hers that give me hope when working in these seemingly hopeless and cruel situations.

Me my little photographer

Teaching the kids English

Acting out Daniel in the Lion's Den

Thailand Week 2

Cooking a western style lunch for the kids a.k.a. spaghetti

The second week in Thailand our team went to 2 hill tribe villages. We stayed at the first village for one day and one night. During the day we played some games with the kids while the rest of the village sat and watched, entertained by the big group of white people playing children's games. That evening we joined the village church for a worship and prayer time. The next morning we headed off to the next village where we would stay for the rest of the week.

During the day the kids would gather in the church and we would split into about 5 different groups to teach them English. We had the opportunity one afternoon to go into the village with our translator to find someone to talk to and pray with. It was very quiet and empty (afternoon nap time according to our translator) but we kept walking and started to head up a muddy slope towards some more houses. We passed a house with 3 young women and their children sitting on their stilted porch. We said hello and asked if we could join them. They welcomed us in and so we climbed up the wooden ladder and made ourselves comfortable on their front porch. We started having casual conversation with them (well, as casual as you can when you are speaking through a translator) and then one of the woman asked us if we were Christians. When we told her we were, she said she was too. I was really surprised by this because Thailand is a significantly Buddhist nation with very few Christians, so to find a Christian in a random village was crazy. We talked to her more about what she believed and became confused quite quickly with some of the things she was saying. She brought out all the material she had about God and her Bible and it turns out that she was a Jehovah's Witness.

Teaching English to the kids in the Hill Tribes

 Some of the girls on my team asked her some more questions and explained more of what they believed about God. We had been talking for almost 2 hours and things were getting even more confusing with the language barrier. So we ended by praying for the woman and her children and went on our way. I was at a loss for what to do. In this type of situation, where communication is difficult and confused doctrines are being tossed to and fro, do you try to convince this woman that what she is already so confused about is all wrong or do you trust that the words you have shared with her about what you believe will touch her heart in a way that God can bring her closer to Him? I saw no point in trying to convince this woman to believe a certain way by arguing doctrine, in fact I believe that would have caused more division between us. It's not our job to convince people to know God or to believe a certain way. We're not salesmen trying to get the most buyers. Our job is to share how God changed our lives through what Jesus did on the cross and personally in our day to day lives. Our job is to share the love that God gives to us so freely so that we can give it away to the lost and broken. We can't save people, only God can do that. We can guide them, encourage them, love them, support them, and share with them. The rest is up to Him.

Our team with some families from the village

Thailand Week 1

Hey guys!
Sorry I haven't written in forever. So I just returned from about 6 and 1/2 weeks on outreach in Thailand. We spent our time in about 3 different locations but there is so much to tell that I am going to write an update for each week of ministry in Thailand, so this is week 1 but stay tuned for more.

Teaching English at Agape Home

Thailand is known as the "Land of Smiles", a nickname that acts as a mask to cover the incredible pain and injustice ravishing this nation. We started off in a place called Mae Sot which is located in the North Western part of Thailand, bordering the war-stricken country of Burma. It is home to thousands of Burmese refugees and economic migrants fleeing the 60+ year civil war that has been devastating Burma. We had the opportunity of working with a ministry called the Agape Children's Home. It's located right outside the city and run by a man named Pastor Wanai. It serves as a home for Burmese and Karen (I will write more about the Karen people later, their story NEEDS to be heard) refugee children to live safely, eat daily, play, and get a small education. All the children have their own story,

Singing songs with the kids

 some have lost their parents, some simply can't live at home because it's just not safe, some have parents living in the refugee camps but their parents wanted to give them a more positive environment to live in. While we were there, we taught English, played with the kids, did programs teaching them about God, but most importantly we loved them. I've learned that the most powerful thing to combat evil, fear, rejection, poverty, broken hearts, lonliness, and everything in between is the love of Christ. Pure, selfless love with no alterior motives or ambitions can soften the hardest of hearts, pierce the toughest skin and conquer the darkest evil. I was challenged with the language barrier while in Thailand and frustrated that I couldn't have meaningful conversations with these kids, but God taught me a language that I could use to communicate with these precious children of His: love.

Adding a net to the basketball hoop at Agape Home