November Update

Dear Friends,

Hello from Mae Chaem, Thailand. The cold season has come suddenly this year. It was still raining last week and we were worried about the rice harvest because the rain should have stopped middle of October. Then all of the sudden it stopped and got very cold. If it keeps raining after the rice is ready to be harvested then it will start to sprout again and the harvest is ruined. Thank God that didn’t happen and it seems like this year they had a good harvest. The means the difference between a prosperous year for our kid’s families or a year of hardship and hunger.

The kids were gone for much of October for their mid-term break but we are happy to have them back and have been very busy since they arrived. We were blessed to have two ladies from Australia come to minister here with us for 5 days. They taught English and ministered to the kids. They had the kids make these beaded bracelets where each color represented the story of the Gospel for them to wear to school to share with their friends. The next day two of our kids came home so excited because they were able to preach the gospel to their friends who asked about their bracelets. It is wonderful to hear about how they are ministering in their schools through their lives and testimony.

The team also taught them about how to listen to God and we had a time of prayer and quiet worship and then in their journals the kids were asked to write down or draw what they felt God say to them. It was very powerful and you could really feel the presence of God. Some of the kids were crying as they wrote or drew. I saw a few of their books and two of them drew a picture of Jesus holding them in their arms. It was so sweet and so touching. I just cried myself. Because really when you strip it all down that is all I want for these kids, to somehow lead them to Jesus and put them in His arms. I know if they could ever really know what it feels like to be held by Him they would need it all their lives. I am attaching the two drawings to this email. One was done by our girl Julie who is 17 and the other by Masha who 11.

We went to the village and the team bought supplies for a very poor children’s home in the jungle. There are 50 kids without soap, shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrushes washing powder for their clothes etc.. The team brought all these things along with rice, sardines and noodles. The kids were so excited it was like Christmas. The next day I went down to the river to pray and I saw three of those kids scrubbing like there was no tomorrow. I never saw anyone be so enthusiastic about a bath in my life or take so long to wash their hair. It was so cute. The things we take for granted are astounding –in America we would think we were suffering to have to take a cold bath in a river but they were so thrilled just to have soap.

We are getting ready for Christmas and our Christmas outreaches. I give the children about 12 dollars every year for Christmas which is an immense amount of money for these kids to go to the market and buy whatever they want. Every year we take up an offering for the children on the Burma/Thailand border who are refugees, and every year I have been so impressed. All of the children give from 25 -50 percent of their money to these little refugee children. So this year we plan to take them in December to buy and deliver the Christmas presents themselves so they can see the joy on the little faces of the children they are blessing. This will be a little mission trip for them. It helps them to see people who are so much worse off than they are and learn that they have something to give. For me living here I have a very difficult time feeling sorry for myself when I see those who have so much less and suffer so much more than I do and I want that experience for my kids as well. I want to teach them to be thankful and focus on what they have and what they can give rather than what they don’t have and what they can get.

This month also as part of the outreach to the borderland we are sending money to buy food for 10 families there who are in desperate condition. We are targeting these 10 families to help on an ongoing basis and hope in the next year to also help them find a way to start a business where they can start to generate income for themselves. We have found a local pastor that is leaving a very well paying job because of his burden for these people and so we can start to do more now since we have a trustworthy person there to oversee the project.

So things are going very well. We have been able to minister several times a week to about 50 kids and our Friday Youth Worship usually runs around 100 youth. The kids are doing great and continue to amaze me with their passion for God and the love I feel in our home. It has been a season of prayer for me personally and for the children. Our Thursday night prayer has been awesome and many of the older kids are getting direction for their lives as they prepare to leave us here in the next two years. It is a wretched thought for me and I really can’t bear to think of even one of them graduating and going on to school somewhere else but I know it has to happen. I just take comfort in knowing that God goes with them and I feel confident that they know God and love Him and feel at home in His arms and in the end, no matter what comes in the future, it will be enough for them as it has always been for me. Thank you so much for your love and support. We can’t do this thing with out you. We love and pray for you.

God Bless you,
Candace

PS: You can send a tax deductible donation to Rhema Missions PO Box 50126 Tulsa, OK 74150 Memo Rev Candace Smith 100% goes to the work in Thailand