June 07

Dear Friends,

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Hello from <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Thailand.  I know it has been a long time since I have updated everyone.  I had pneumonia for 4 weeks – 3 weeks of it I had no idea I even had it.  Walking pneumonia they call it – all I knew is I was very sick but I wasn’t smart enough to stop and rest or call a doctor.  Anyway I am much better now- I just have to rest more and get tired easily.   Things have been going well with the children.  We have 30 children this time – all in one location which is very nice.  We spent a lot of time and money getting set up here – building rooms and renting a boys home.  But things are nice and roomy now.  The children seem happy.  We bought a truck to transport the kids.  Last year the high school kids had to walk about a mile to school and while in the dry season that is no big deal – in the rainy season it is difficult – especially since it rains almost everyday around 4 PM when they get out of school.  So the truck was a big blessing and very much needed.  Now when we go somewhere we can transport ALL the children. 

 

We have been very blessed.  We were able to offer full scholarships including uniforms to 12 children who were not able to pay for school and would not have been able to go without help.  Thanks so much to a pastor in Ohio who wanted especially to pay for this.  It meant so much.  One or our girls – her name is Julie – she stood up in worship and wanted to give a testimony thanking God so much that He prepared a way for her to go to school.  She was so worried about it because she is an orphan and has no one to help her.  She is one of our best students and loves to study.  She was so blessed and says now she knows God will prepare everything for her – even university when the time comes and now she has so much hope for her future.  Her school cost about 125 dollars.  Can you imagine?  That is not very much to pay to give someone so much hope.

 

It is always so fun to get new children and see them so skinny and overwhelmed by everything and know what will happen to them.  I love to see them get fat and healthy and start to change as they come to know God loves them.  This year God has led us to preach and teach them again and again – God loves you.  I want them to KNOW it – not just believe it but KNOW it so deep inside them that no one or nothing can ever take it from them.  When they know this truth then they can love God back and face the world without fear but with unending hope and faith.  We have only just started but already the children are changing and growing.  God does so much with the little we give Him.  I see the light starting to shine on their faces, a light that comes only from spending time with God.  I was standing beside our little 6 year old girl Stella who has been with us more than a year now and during worship she was lifting her little hands worshipping God and unbeknownst to her she kept hitting the little girl next to her.  She didn’t even notice in her enthusiasm.  The other girl was a little annoyed but I guess she will learn to give Stella some room when she worships.  I was trying hard not to laugh.

 

I have included some pictures at the bottom so you can see the new kids and our old ones too.  We have 10 brand new children,  two of them are orphaned or abandoned children (little ones) and some from extremely poor families who could not feed their children and then a couple of older kids who needed to go to school and there was no school for them anymore in their village.  We believe God sent each and everyone to us and has a plan for them.   I also have a new addition to my family – God gave me a special present – a little dog named Cookie.  He is just like my dog in America who recently died.  He is really a miracle dog because God sent me the exact same breed of dog I have in America two days before I found out my dog was dying in America.  I had never seen this particular breed of dog here in Thailand and my staff just showed up with the little bundle of white fur as a present for me.  Every time I look at my Cookie I KNOW God loves me and cares about my heart and knows what I need and is MORE than able to get it to me.  He has brought me so much joy and laughter and I had no idea how lonely I was until I got him.  I talk southern to him and he understands.  To everyone else around here I have to talk Thai or broken English.  He has brought me no end of comfort and the kids love him.

 

We are doing a lot here – working with the kids, we have a weekly youth meeting with the other youth in town and on Sunday I teach Sunday School for the teenagers.  We are studying about the promises of God.  It has been so fun.  I think I was just enjoying myself so much I didn’t notice I was getting desperately ill until I simply couldn’t breathe anymore.  But God healed me and has been blessing our work here as He always does.  Our new staff is great and they are doing an awesome job.  I am coming home for the month of July.  I want to attend our Rhema Campmeeting and it was just a good time to come home as there has been a lot going on for me personally with my family and my health.  I have been here 6 months and that is about the time I usually need a break.  My family decided to give me a plane ticket home for my birthday.  I am excited and I feel confident that even when I am gone everything will keep going here.  I am not a good missionary if everything falls when I leave.  My ultimate job is to train the national people here to NOT need me and do everything themselves.  So thanks so much for all your prayers and continued support.  We are blessed and I pray that all of you are too.    Don’t forget to look at the pictures below!

 

God Bless,

Love,

Candace