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