"Children's Village"

Monday I had a really cool opportunity to go spend the day at a children's village in western Thailand. It is a massive compound including a school, residences, auditorium, soccer field, gardens, and swimming area. The village serves as a home for children who are orphaned, abused, and abandoned by their parents.


We went there to serve lunch for the kids. In the above picture the kids are starting to line up for food.


Serving a gigantic heaping of noodles are left to right myself, Poo, Lin, and Walai. We dished out noodle soup to all 155 kids. Poo has been coming here to serve the kids once a month for 15 years! Now I can understand why.

After lunch we got to tour the grounds and discuss with the director of the facility. The children study in a classroom in the mornings, and then they learn practical skills in the afternoon. The compound includes animals, fish ponds, vegetable gardens, a bakery, pottery studio, weaving looms and much more. The kids who graduate go into regular life with job skills and a great education.


Whenever you get hungry you can just go out and pick some food. The whole place is self-sufficient. They even pump and filter their own water supply from the river.


And the riverside is beautiful. They have a huge dock and cool, crystal clear water to swim in.


It was nice to get some fresh country air and see some pretty scenery.


No one told me to bring a swimsuit! Oh well, it was nice to see the kids having so much fun.

Pray for this place and the children. In Thai it is called "Moo-baan-dek." It is not a Christian organization, but they are open to having Christians come and teach and want the kids to have exposure to different beliefs and choose for themselves what to believe. That kind of openness is rare among secular organizations like this. Perhaps the church can come and do a camp here sometime.

Also, pray for me. I will be gone all next week (28th-5th). We are going to Northern Thailand to participate in a seminar at a seminary and visit some friends and ministries up north. I'll have some pictures from that trip when we get back.

Superbowl Sunday!

Before I can tell you what happened at church yesterday morning I have to introduce you to Rurk. Rurk is a college senior who just showed up at the church back in mid December. He was feeling down, mired in alcohol, drugs, and depression and called information to ask for the address of a church. They sent him to Immanuel. He told us he was Buddhist, his whole family was Buddhist, but for some reason even he was not sure of he felt he needed to go to a church.

From that point he pretty much never left the church, and Big C took him under his wing and began to disciple him. Amazingly, after just knowing him a week, he was able to go on our Christmas trip to Khao Lak.



That's Rurk with C at the beach over Christmas. During the trip, Rurk said he would consider becoming a Christian, but he wanted to read through the whole Bible first. Well, only a week or so after getting back he decided that he didn't need to wait and he trusted in Jesus for his salvation. He has been a very welcome addition to our young leaders group Thursdays, and he goes to help Terry at Jarurat slum on Sundays.

This past Sunday Rurk got baptized. He wanted to wait until his Mom and a few college friends could be there.



I am simply amazed at the clear evidence of God's hand in leading this young man to faith and the pace with which he is growing in Christ. It seems to me that God has a very special purpose for Rurk. Please pray for him this week, and be praying for the salvation of his family.

The church service was also special becuase the students from my afternoon English class were invited to sing a song in the church. I was scared that none of them would come and I would be doing a solo act, but praise God that they all came! I am glad I did not have to sing alone, but I much more glad that they were able to attend the service and hear about Jesus and experience true worship. Please be praying for them.



As soon as English class is finished, I race off with the slum team to Baring. We had a good turnout for what was a really hot day.



Today, I started teaching from the beginning of Scripture on Genesis 1. I made seven cards representing what God did on each day. After teaching the story, I challenged the kids to arrange the cards in proper order from day one to day seven. Praise God! they actually understood me and were able to do it! woo-hoo!



A slum is a tough place for kids to live and grow up, but it is also a tough place for dogs too. If you know me, you know I am a dog lover. So, I was excited to see that our local mut has given birth to a litter of seven little slumdogs.



Thank you all for your continued prayers and support. I'll do my best to get more regular with the postings.

God bless