Update February

Dear Friends,

Hello everyone! I have been back in Thailand for more than a month now and it seems to be such a busy time of the year for the children. Their school year is coming to an end soon and they are starting to feel panicked about all the reports and research projects that they have known about for months but have put off doing until now. I remember the feeling very well. It is comforting to know people are essentially the same all over the world.

Our 12th and 9th grades are finishing school in the next two weeks so last Friday we took all the teenagers (27 total) to Chaing Mai for their first ever trip to the mall and to see a movie. They were freaked out by the escalator. It was funny to see the intense concentration on their faces as they gingerly stepped on and even worse – stepped off. But by the end they were old pros and they had a great time at the movie – they had popcorn and soda and money to buy whatever kind of food they wanted at the food court. On the way home we stopped at a beautiful waterfall and they took endless pictures of themselves in front of it. It was cute. Three girls will be leaving us for university and bible school. This will really be the first time we have had graduates. I am feeling mom-like and not very thrilled about it. I have this irrational belief that they should just stay with me forever. I mean 5 minutes ago I had all these beautiful little girls and now I have a house full of gorgeous, grown up, young women sitting in their room most of the time talking and looking in the mirror. Again teenagers are the same everywhere. Our two young ladies that want to go to university are having a difficult time getting funding. They have been trying to get loans from the government and have been turned down several times. It seems very arbitrary to me because one of them is from a very poor family of 7 children and we have supported her through school the whole time she has been with us. So they must not give the loans out based on need. I want to help them if possible because they are both good students who I think would do very well in university and have certainly always tried hard and been good leaders here in our home. One of the girls - her name is Pa La Eh (which means lovely flower) is our very best English speaker. She has a gift for it. The cost per person is as follows:

1st term - $270 (includes school fees and dorm)
2nd term - $270 (includes school fees and dorm)

If anyone would like to sponsor either of these young women we would so appreciate it. Education is really the only chance they have to break out of the poverty they were born into.

The little ones were so disappointed not to be able to go to the mall/movie so on Saturday we took them to the festival that was in town for the weekend. I gave them about a dollar each which should have bought a toy/game and something special to eat. They all got normal things except our little Orawan who is very unique little girl – she spent the entire thing on fried sausage. $1 buys an enormous amount of fried sausage let me tell you (probably around 30 sausages!). Last night she excitedly called me to her room because she wanted me to see that she had finally perfected her rabbit nose wiggling and special fishy face. She is so funny and an endless source of entertainment for me.

This is the time of year as we are accepting new students for next term. It has been amazing actually but somewhat frustrating because we have to turn so many away. I put the cap at 35 children because we really are full at that point which means we could take 6 new students. However we have had around 30 children come here asking to be accepted. It seems crazy because there are children’s homes in this area that have their own land and big buildings and some of them even very beautiful and we have only our little rented homes and not enough bathrooms but they want to come here. One man who is from a village that is home to 4 of our children came to see us. He has a daughter and he said he saw how much the children from his village have changed since they came to us, how good they are and how much they love God and he is BEGGING us to take his daughter. We told him we are totally full and he offered us more than $250 dollars and to build a little bamboo house for his daughter to sleep in the back yard if we would only take her. Of course we don’t take children based on money and the bamboo house is out of the question. But we did take his daughter. We have chosen the children we feel have something special, they seem to have vision and purpose for their lives whether they know it or not. One little girl is the daughter of a village leader in a totally non-Christian village that we have preached to for years and yet they all remain unconverted. He is not Christian but he knows we will take care of his daughter and she will be well supervised and taught and loved here so he wants to send her to us. It is another way to reach this village with the love of Jesus because whatever else the children who come here learn they most certainly learn about Jesus. One man came with a 2 year old little girl and asked us to please save a place for his little girl for in 10 years when she is old enough! It is really crazy! But we have narrowed the list to 9 children that we feel we need to take which makes us MORE than full (38 children). And we have recently learned that our boys home may be sold and so we will probably have to convert our garage to be the boys home. Our poor boys have had to more 3 times in the last two years. It is the problem with renting. So please pray for us. We really need a bigger place and really we need to buy land and build our own children’s home.

It is a blessing to have such a good reputation amongst the people in the mountains here. It is humbling and I know it has only been God who has done it. Everyone sees how fabulous our kids are and none of us feel like we can take credit for it. It was only God and His word that changed them and He lives in our little home here and so people are drawn to it though they don’t know why. We don’t have the best facility but we do love these children fiercely and would lay down our very lives to give them a better life. Children can feel something like that. God’s love. It is all any of us really need. Thank all of you who give and pray for us. We appreciate it so very much. You are doing a great thing here in the mountains of Thailand. I am attaching pictures from our outing to the mall and some pictures of the little ones being cute! God Bless you!!

Love,
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