Surprised by Love

Since coming to our home all of the children have become Christians. This is the most important thing of all and our number one goal. We give our children food, clothing and education but none of it means anything if we don’t give them Jesus as well. But now in only a few short months they love Jesus and are becoming famous all over our area for their worship. Buddhist teenagers come from our town to hear our children sing each night during worship. This prompted us to do a free concert to reach our Thai neighbors who are 100 percent Buddhist. We worked with another children’s home and an American missions team to make this an unprecedented event. We had more than 300 people and after 3 hours of music, drama and preaching over 150 people accepted Jesus as their Lord and many others received Bibles and literature. The children have come so far and it’s in their hearts not just to receive but to give. They understand that God chose them and blessed them. Some of them have told me how their family doesn’t have food and I tell them “God chose you and blessed you so you can bless your family and give to others as you have been given to.” They look forward to the day when they can help their families and their villages and fulfill the plan God has on their lives. Right now we spend between $150—$200 dollars a month on rice. Simply because the children eat so much!! So many of them were starving when they came that they still are not used to having food everyday so they eat like there will be none tomorrow. It takes a long time for them to be secure in the fact that they will always have food. God’s love is changing them and it is a miracle to watch what God’s love can do. When I moved to these mountains I expected it to be hard and it was and I expected God to be faithful and He was very much so and I expected to learn a lot and I have, but what I didn’t expect was to love these children the way I do. I was surprised by love. I feel so inadequate for the job God has given me. I don’t know enough and am not wise enough and my prayers and faith are not perfect and I am definitely not perfect but God gave me the best tool He could have given me to enable me to do this impossible task—He put His love in my heart for these children and God’s love is stronger than all the things that I am not. And it is enough everyday. Thank God– without Him we can do nothing, nothing at all

Meet my children

This spring Hope of the Nations Children’s Home expanded from 35 children to 50! We opened our home first to those children who had lost one or both parents and then from those with no access to education, desperately poor living conditions and last of all those who come from non-Christian villages. We now have children from age 5 to 16 and they are doing incredibly well. They came to us in various stages of malnourishment and poverty and now they are thriving. Here are a few of their stories.

This is Paul. He comes from a very, very poor family in a village where the people the people worship both Budda and give sacrifices to trees and pigs (animists). When he came to us he was dressed in rags and I promptly took him to buy some new clothes which he’s wearing in this picture. This little boy is a treasure. He is very shy and has only a few friends which is why I have been so shocked by his boldness. His village is staunchly anti-Christian. If you choose to be Christian you are ostracized—literally they force you to move to another village. I knew that our Paul had become Christian in our home but now he has asked to be baptized. Doing this will make him an outcast from his village and cause problems with his family but he says he doesn’t care. He wants Jesus. He wants to be a Christian and is willing to undergo persecution if necessary. He is eleven years old. I only hope that if I were in his situation I would be as brave. He is a very loving little boy and shyly submits to my kisses and hugs. His real name is not Paul—I named him this when he cam. The other day I asked him his real name and he said my name is Paul. Paul the messenger send by God, fearless and willing to stand up for his faith in the face of persecution. When I named this little boy I had no idea that this name would fit him so well.

 

This little five year old is my baby. Don’t let his innocent face fool you. He is as mischievous as they come and carries my heart around in his pocket. His name is KoonLek which means little man. I asked how on earth could a father send his son away at such a young age and the father said “I’ve worked hard in the sun all day long all my life just for a little food because I don’t have education. I want better for my son.” When he came to us his belly was swollen from malnutrition and now he eats the most incredible amount of food—I joke that he eats his body weight in rice everyday! But he is transformed. He picks flowers for me and gave me his precious necklace he made from a bead craft we did with the children. I wear it always around my wrist. He laughs and plays and throws me kisses with his little hand. True to little boy form, during worship, he sings especially loud the words he knows and unfortunately he doesn’t know many, He closes his eyes and raises his hands like the others and then squints to look at everyone to make sure he is doing it right. We can’t watch him during worship or we will be laughing and not worshipping. He is pure entertainment and I thank God for him.

Meet my Sara, she is 9 years old. She is has become my daughter. Her mother died when she was a baby and her father didn’t want her. She was living with an aunt who had to send her away when her husband went to prison. This little girl had never had enough to eat until she came to us. She has been passed around and unwanted all her life. But no more. Her smile is the joy of my life. She calls me mother and we play a game endlessly. I say “You’re beautiful” and she says “Mom you’re beautiful” and I say “You are more beautiful” and she says “No you’re more beautiful!” And it goes on as you can see endlessly. She also eats a tremendous amount as a result of the starvation she suffered before and I pat her stomach and say “Big!!” and she giggles because she is very ticklish on her stomach and agrees with me. Often after she has eaten she comes to me and sticks out her stomach and says “Big!” and laughs. We bought her new clothes when she came and she cried because she had never had anything new before. The few little things she had were practically rags. She cries a lot even still, the trauma of all that happened to her is still in her mind. Often when I am in my room or office praying and listening to worship music she sits with me and lays her head in my lap and the music makes her cry especially this song she understands in English, all it says is “Jesus You’re beautiful”. It touches her tender heart because now she knows He is indeed beautiful and has given her more than she could have ever dreamed of.

August Update

  Dear Friends,   Hello everyone.  I hope you are all doing well.  We are doing well also here in Thailand.  It is rainy season now and it is certainly living up to it's name in the jungle where I live.  Sometimes I think I need a helicoptor instead of my 4 wheel drive to get from place to place unless of course I want to take up white water rafting as my primary mode of transportation.   This last month has been so good.  I have been mainly spending time at my children's home getting to know the lovely little people God has given me.  I prayed for God to send them a mother to come work with us as staff but he sent me instead.  Heartstealers each and everyone.  We adore each other and the boys new funnest game in the world is to tickle Tharamu (me) and watch her scream.  We play and play until I get so hot that they have to fan me usually hitting me in the face in the process with whatever paper they have in their hand or worse yet blowing their bacteria infested spitfilled breath in my face.  But it is amazing how much you can love being tickled and hit in the face and spit on.  They were out of school recently and we took those that could not go home to see the waterfalls about an hour away.  They loved it as none of them had ever seen anything like that.    We are in Chaing Mai buying supplies again and God has blessed us so we can buy a set of drums for our home.  We have a little boy who is 9 years old who is so small he looks like he is maybe 6 or 7 but he is an amazing drummer - we have truely talented children and they are becoming well known in the area.  Our little band and worship team could travel to minister in the churches every weekend if we had time.  Last month we went twice. I am happy we can buy drums so the band can practise more and get better and better as it the call of God on our home that our children should teach their people how to worship. In most churches they don't even use a guitar or piano or anything for worship so what we are doing is so different and exciting. We hope next month to buy a bass guitar - we have another 13 year old who is extremely talented on the guitar.    Next week we are hosting a team from America at our children's home and our children's home as well as the team will be doing a free concert for our town.  We are expecting over200 people and at this concert we will preach the gosple as well as sing.  We want to reach the Thai people that live near us who are 100 percent Buddist.  The young people often come to our home because they hear our children worshipping every night and they come to hear the music but they don't understand the Karen language that we worship and preach in.  So this concert will be in Thai to reach these young people.   I have been preaching and teaching alot and last week we had the bible school so I had the opportunity to teach on worship.  When our children go to the churches to sing I usually am invited to preach.  I teach about worship and oru children show them how.  I am teaching our children not to be afraid of people because in the churches they only sit and sing an old song and there is no life at all.  And sometimes our children our scared to worship like they do in our home.  But last time I saw my little girl that I am teaching special as I know God has called her to preach and to work with me in the future - I saw her stand in the front of 200 people who have never worshipped God in their life and while all of her friends who stood with her were scared - she raised her hands to God and sang from her heart and she is only 14 years old.   More brave than you can imagine in a culture where no one ever does anything different and the people are so shy.  I don't recall ever being so proud of anyone in my life as I was of her at that moment.  She will lead her people.   It becomes increasingly difficult to go between my children's home and the village where I live as the children need me so much and have completely captured my heart.  I am looking at next year making a change.  Sometimes if you try to do too much you end up doing nothing well.  At the end of August I will be returning to America.  My mom is buying me a ticket home for my birthday and I will be only 3 weeks at home.  I have been in the jungle for 6 months and it feels like a lifetime.  And even when times are difficult I know that everything I want in the world is in a little children's home in the jungle and I wouldn't change places with anyone.  God is so good and so faithful and I am so very very blessed.   Thank you for your love and support and prayers.  God is doing great things here in Thailand usually inspite of me and not because of me.  But that is the beauty of it all - none of it has anything to do with me.  Only God who never lets me go.  When I get back to America I will send pictures so you can see the beautiful children that you help feed and love everyday.  I wish you could hear them laugh and sing and see the light on their faces as they worship God.  I don't have words to describe.  I tell God often - I hope you are videoing this - when we get to heaven I want everyone to see this moment.  I hope to hear from some of you when I am back in the States.  God Bless you all!!   Love, Candace   PS  To make a tax deductible contribution send checks to RHEMA Missions PO Box 50126 Tulsa OK 74150 write Rev Candace Smith on the memo line.  100 percent goes to the work in Thailand  

Update - July

Dear Friends,   Hello everyone!  I hope you are all blessed and very well.  I am doing well myself.  We came down from the mountain to buy our monthly supplies for myself and the children's home.  I am happy to report that my house is finished except for the huge gaping hole in the wall where my chimney will be as soon as they figure out how to manage this miracle called a fireplace.  The idea of an unventalated fire in my beautiful new house was just something I couldn't handle.  But my house is beautiful and a wonderful place of refuge for me.  It is a blessing.   Things are good.  This month we start recording the CD.  The music is done and now all we have to do is sing.  Yikes!  This is the fun part.  Pray as the plan that I should only sing 2 songs has changed to me singing back up on all 12 in the Karen language.  We need a miracle!  But when it is finished it will be one of the first true praise and worship CD's ever produced in the Karen Language.  Then we will start distributing it to all the churches in the area as well as a song book to go with it.    Recently we completed the first series of sessions for our bible school.  We have only 7 students but they are hungry to learn and very open.  I taught on the Holy Spirit and at the end they all were baptised in the Holy Spirit.  Next month we begin teaching them about worship which I am excited about.    The children's home is doing well.   All of our children have become Christian now and their lives are so changed.  We took two children from a village near mine that is entirely non-christian and very very poor and when we took them home to visit their parents recently everyone was talking about the change in them,  They came to church and worshipped God with their hearts - more than the children that had been in church their whole life.  They told me the little boy used to be so bad and hit all the other children and he refused to go to school and I was shocked because he is the sweetest boy now and so good and obedient.  God changed his little life at only 11 years old.   They told me that while I was driving them back to the village he was sitting in the back with some women from our village and we got stuck in the mud going up a mountain and I had a hard time going and the women were scared and he said don't worry - God will help us.  And the other little girl from this village when we got unstuck because God did indeed help us - I heard her say "Thank you God".  It is testimonies like this that make everything worth it.   I have also taken over buying food for another children's home that is actually in the village where I live.  I found out they didn't have food because the Thai government who sponsors them hadn't sent any for over a month.  Apparently they are always 3 or 4 months late and when the money comes it is only a small fraction of what they actually need.  So I can't have starving children only a mile from my house so we have been buying food for 50 more children and I am starting a Sunday School at this children's home as it is almost entirely non-christian.  These children come from villages so far in the jungle you can't even drive to them except by motorcycle.  So now we feed over 100 children every day.  God is so good and faithful and I am so happy that I am able to help them.   Driving has been a huge faith adventure.  I can't even go anywhere without using my faith in a big way.  Now that it is rainy season an already dangerous road becomes treacherous but I have to go visit my children so we go every week.  And God has been faithful.  He holds off the rain for me and keeps my truck on the road when it is so slippery it is like ice.    The worst of my adjustment period seems to be over.  God told me that I could be happy in the village if only I would.  So much of life is just deciding to do something and stop consulting your feelings every 5 minutes and just decide to be happy.  It is ridiculous that we let our circumstances tell us if we are happy or not.  It is all a matter of what we chose to focus on and I have so much to be thankful for.  The rice crisis is over.  I can eat rice 3 times a day now and actually prefer it now to most things.  I have cereal that I don't even eat now.  God is so good to me - He knows how to bless me and has given me so many lovely things and the awesome privilage of being able to help so many people and give his love to His children.  It is amazing.  Sometimes my patience wears out and my strength is gone but God put his love in my heart and that is always there no matter what.  I always love my chidren and God's love is what does the miracles in the world.  My prayer is that God will make me better so that I might do this work and do it the way He wants it done.  I want more than anything in the world to complete this task He has given me and do it well.  Pray for me in this - there is so much in me that needs to change and grow so that I might do more and do better.   Thank you all for your love and support.  My sponsors are all wonderful and God uses you more than you can imagine.  Sometimes I don't know how it will all work out - how we will have enough money to do all that we have to do - all I know is that somehow it will work out because God is faithful and you are faithful to give and to pray.   Sometimes I admit my faith is weak and God is still faithful.  He tells me all the time that it is not about How good I am but about how good He is.  Our children pray for the sponsors that give them food everyday and I pray for you as well.  I know that you are blessed.  Thank you.   Love, Candace PS  To make a tax deductible contribution send checks to RHEMA Missions PO Box 50126 Tulsa OK 74150 write Rev Candace Smith on the memo line.  100 percent goes to the work in Thailand  

Back from the Jungle

Dear Friends, Hello everyone!  Finally I am able to email!  I have been in the jungle for 6 weeks and have not been able to get to an internet cafe.  I tried to see if I could use my computer to hook up the the internet using the phone in the village where I live and that was quite the phenomenon.  Let me tell you I had quite the crowd of people wanting to see if such a miracle could occur.  This phone you have to scare the chickens away to use it.  But alas no miracle occurred that day - we cannot have internet there right now.  But anyway I am in Chaing Mai eating everything that is not rice and catching up on what is going on in the world.    I have been very busy of course.  This would be an incredibly long email if I told you everything that has been happening but I will try to keep it as short as I can.  I have been traveling a lot.  We visited our children and took applications for 15 new children to come to the children's home.  We went looking especially for children who were not Christian or very very poor and from villages with no schools.  It was very good for me to see where my children come from and see the terrible poverty that many of them live in.  I will send pictures as soon as I can.  Whenever I get so tired of eating rice and the same thing every day now I think about this little girl I saw who is the little sister of one of our boys who was so malnourished eating only rice as fast as she could because she was so hungry.  And it makes me ashamed because I have so much and sometimes I am not grateful.   We also went to the refugee camp - I wanted to meet the family of a friend of mine and pray for his nephew that has polio.  I had one of those moments where as I was driving through this Burmese refugee camp of over 40,000 people and as I looked at all the people with no home, and no place to go and nothing to do but wait for a miracle to happen where somehow they could someday go home and I knew that coming from America there was no way I could really understand with my mind the horror I was seeing but my heart understood it and all I could do was cry and cry for days and now the refugees are a pain in my heart that will not go away and moreover I don't want it to go away.  In order to do my work and do it the way God wants it done I have to cry over the horrible things God asks me to look at because the day I don't cry is the day I don't have the compassion of Jesus and this is the day I need to go home.  Because what you can get used to you can never change.  You can only change what you hate.  You will only fight what you are angry about.  I know in the future God has called me to work with the Burmese Karen but right now I am having the Authority of the Believer by Bro Hagin translated in Karen to take to the refugee camps - this book will teach the Christians there how to pray for their country from who they are in Christ and I believe has the church takes its place in prayer that the government of Burma will not be able to continue to oppress and slaughter their own people.   We received permission to record the translations of the Hillsongs of Austrilia music in Karen.  Praise the Lord!  So this project is underway.  I am practicing everyday to be able to sing 2 songs alone on the CD in hopefully comprehensible Karen.  The Lord seems to want to make me and my Burmese friend famous Karen singers.  We went to the Baptist Karen Conference where over 1000 Karen had come for their Yearly meeting and 150 year anniversary and they invited the most famous Karen Band from Burma to do a concert two nights of the seminar.  I had opportunity to meet them and then after talking them for about 2 minutes they invited me to sing one song during the concert.  This was the first day so I had no idea how many people were there and  I thought a little meeting in the church.  But after I agreed oh dear they took me to the stage.  Huge stage in front of a huge football field and I realized I would be singing in front of a least a thousand people.  Oh dear!!!  I was very very scared.  I couldn't look at that stage anymore.  But I went that night and sang a worship song and the lights were so bright I couldn't see anyone which was very good I thought.  But it was good and everyone very much enjoyed it. I sometimes wonder what God is doing because things are happening so fast and growing so big and I don't feel ready for any of it.  I am overwhelmed sometimes with the work and how fast the vision is expanding and all I can do is rely on God to do it all because I can't do it.  I don't know enough,  I can't understand many things but God is calling me to so much and I feel like there is no way - I am only one girl who can't speak the language and I don't know anything but I know God and I know how to pray and He is teaching me everyday about faith and how to believe Him and somehow this is enough.  He is bringing amazing people in my life who want to help me - who hope someday to work with me and I am so blessed and honored because I know the call of God on their life.   Last of all I have been living in the village and I love it.  It is peaceful and very beautiful and I hear God so well there.  It is my place in the world.  I have been preaching a lot and last weekend we had a youth seminar and I preached 4 times and we saw about 15 youths and adults receive Christ.  I am teaching English a lot and in May we are starting a small Bible School and English school for some of our young people who cannot not go to school anymore.  At about 16 years old it becomes very difficult and expensive to go to school in Thailand so many cannot go so we will be helping them in the village.  If they can speak English they can get good jobs even without a lot of formal education.  We are also making improvements to the children's home.  We painted and are fixing the water.  With 50 children coming now we did not have enough water so we have to put in a pump and fix more bathrooms.    So keep us in prayer!!  I need it so desperately but God is very very faithful.  We always have enough.  The interesting thing about being way way way over your head is that you see miracles everyday because not only am I not drowning but God is holding my hand and together we are walking on the water.  Thank you all those who give financially and pray and love and care about me.  Because of you I am here in Chaing Mai buying a 4 wheel drive truck.  I need it to go between my village and my children's home.  God is real - if I ever had any doubts these last 6 weeks has taken them all way.  He is real and and He loves me so much and He loves my Karen people and has a plan for their lives that does not include the poverty oppression and bondage they live in now.  Revival is coming.  We can feel the spirit of God moving and it will only grow stronger.  Well I hope to have better access to email after I have my truck so it will not be so long next time for me to write.  Thank you for everything.  Love,
Candace PS  To make a tax deductible contribution send checks to RHEMA Missions PO Box 50126 Tulsa OK 74150 write Rev Candace Smith on the memo line.  100 percent goes to the work in Thailand

Very Far from the Mall

The first time I saw Malota, a jungle village in Northern Thailand, I fell in love. In love with the people, in love with the children, in love with the place. God put something in me that has been aching to be born ever since, a longing to belong to these people and to this place that was so overwhelming I would just cry with frustration wanting to be there, to live and work among these people everyday. And finally a year later God granted me the desire of my heart by preparing a place in a mountain village so perfect for me that I knew it unmistakably was Him. So I have moved to a Karen village high in the mountains, so remote that it is two hours from a paved road and inaccessible at times except by 4 wheel drive. It has no electricity, no hot water, no Starbucks and is about 6 hours from the mall but it is surrounded by the most beautiful mountains I have ever seen and is inhabited by the loveliest, kindest people I have ever known.

My role will be to teach the children both the bible and English, to preach in the church and travel to the surrounding villages preaching and teaching the Word of God. I am also in close proximity to my children’s home so I will be able to be more involved there teaching, educating and taking them with me as we preach the Word in the mountains. I know this new assignment for me will not be easy, but as I look into the eyes of the children God has given me in this village (approx 150) I know that the potential of God is in each one of them and they can change the world if only they have a chance to fulfill the plan God has for them. The smallest, dirtiest, poorest child is worth my life because Jesus died for them. They could be the next Billy Graham or Mother Teresa if only they have a chance. My assignment is to impart to them a passion for God and give them the education they need and then step back and see the miracles and the healing that only God’s love can bring.

Hope of the Nations Children's Home

In May of 2004 it was my great honor to help bring to life a children’s home in the mountains of Thailand. It has long been my dream to have a children’s home, not in a city far from the children’s families and culture but in the mountains themselves so the children can still be apart of their communities. Children’s homes are necessary in the mountains because many villages do not have schools especially after age 12. Many Karen families are too poor to feed and clothe their children so if they want to have an education or simply enough food to eat they have to leave home and hope to find a place in a children’s home. Our new Hope of The Nation’s children’s home is just such a place. We provide education, food, clothes and medicine for the children as well as a healthy environment full of love where they can learn about Jesus. We take the older ones with us on weekends as we travel preaching in the villages to train them to give as well as receive.

We have 35 Karen children from desperately poor families, some have lost either one or more of their parents, many were not Christian when they came to us and our goal is to train them up to be leaders and ministers among their people. We have ages 6 to 16 in our home and already they have changed so much! They were malnourished when they came and now they are healthy and strong, many of them only had one or two sets of old clothes and now they have many new things to wear, jackets for the cold winters and even a toy that they received for Christmas. They had never seen a Christmas tree or a Christmas present! They love to learn the praise and worship songs that we have translated into the Karen language and churches from villages all over call and ask our children to come and sing and teach the people the songs. They are already leading their people. They are a beautiful gift and I am so thankful that God gave them to me and continues to provide faithfully for them. They are so precious and truly are the hope of the Karen Nation.

The Karen People

One hundred and fifty years ago the first missionaries to ever leave America headed for an unheard of place in Southeast Asia called Burma. They labored for 7 years tirelessly without seeing one convert. They were trying without success to convert the staunch Burmese Buddhists. Little did they know that all around them was a tribe of people who were not Buddhist and while in practice they were Animist (worshipping trees, pigs and flowers) they believed something else that made them unique. If the missionaries only could have understood the songs they were singing as they passed the mission each day, ancient songs from the time of Adam and Eve that told a story of one God that created the world and of a precious book that their white brothers would bring to teach them about the God they knew existed but knew nothing about. These were the Karen people. God had put eternity in their hearts and prepared them to receive the gospel. When the missionaries finally did preach the gospel to them it lit a flame in their hearts that spread like wildfire from village to village and from tribe to tribe as the Karen themselves became the missionaries taking the gospel to over 10 tribes in SE Asia from India to Thailand and into Laos and Cambodia. God had chosen them and kept His truth alive in their hearts through the centuries through their songs and legends for this specific purpose and at that time people were converted to Christianity in such numbers as had not been seen since the book of Acts.

But 150 years have passed and the fire has cooled for most of the Karen and in its place is a stale religion, most don’t even know what Christianity means anymore. The songs they sing are the ones their great-grandparents sang and there is no meaning in them, only the routine of Sunday morning. But God has a plan, just as He always has had for these precious people. People so devastated by poverty and persecution, people who are so poor and so ignorant that they unthinkingly sell their children into prostitution and scarcely have any hope of their circumstance ever being different They live without knowing their fine heritage and their importance to the plan of God for Southeast Asia. They are the carriers of revival and they always have been. These are my people. The ones God has given me eyes to see as He sees. He is raising up a generation of Karen people that will worship Him again and when they do the whole of Southeast Asia will follow as it didbefore. They are so hungry for God. For He has put eternity in their hearts. To this end we have translated the worship music of the HillSongs of Australia into the Karen language and are endeavoring to record them on CD for distribution. Imagine having no worship songs in your own language! Because many are illiterate we are also providing audio Bibles, in their language, so they can hear the Word of God and let it change them and set their religion ablaze once more. Jesus must become real again. And when He does there is nothing and no one who can stop them for they are chosen and prepared by God since the beginning of time to be His messengers to a lost world.