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.
No comments:
Post a Comment