November 09

Dear Friends,

Hello everyone! It has been such a long time since I sent out an update. The weather is now in the “cold” season which means it is not miserably hot from early morning till late at night. Gavin and I chuckle at the Thai people wrapped up in their hats and coats and scarves simply because the temperature drops below 80 degrees now in the mornings. As most of you know I had to have emergency surgery at the end of October to remove several tumors and my appendix. It was a harrowing experience, to say the least. I went to the emergency room here in Mae Chaem which is something I would have never even remotely considered doing except that I was in excruciating pain. My fears were justified as I lay on the stretcher in the emergency room and watched the chickens come and go pecking at the dirty floor. To my relief, they said they had a relatively modern ambulance to take me for surgery in Chaing Mai. So I was rushed over the largest mountain in Thailand two and a half hours to a nice hospital in Chaing Mai where I was immediately sent in for surgery. I stayed there 3 nights and was released. I am doing well now but I still have to take it easy and rest a lot more than I like to. Thank you so much to all those who prayed for me. God was with me and it was wonderful to find out that the tumors were not cancerous and to have them removed before they burst. It all worked out very well.

Things are going well with the children. We had a baptism a few weeks ago and 7 of our children were baptized. They were mostly the new children that had come this year. We are up to 38 children now. Gavin is teaching music 6 hours a week. He teaches guitar, bass and keyboard and the children really love the classes and are learning so much. I am teaching English two hours a week and soon we will be starting a third class for the Thai children that live nearby who also want to study. We do this as an avenue for preaching the gospel to them. Our teenagers know so much English now that they will be the main teachers and I will just help them.

We are getting ready for Christmas now. We give the children about 12 dollars to go shopping with and they love picking out their own presents. We are also planning on taking a team of our children to the Burma border to do an outreach there as well. The kids give a portion of their Christmas money to buy presents for the little refugee children and we take some of them over to present the gifts themselves. It is so important for them to feel like they have something to give instead of having the mindset that they have nothing to give and others should give to them.

At the end of October we hosted a pastor’s seminar and we had more than 40 village pastors come and we ministered to them. Gavin and I taught them about worship and about the necessity of keeping God first in their lives. While we were in America, it became necessary to move our children to a new location. The new place is much better for the children as it is farther from the city and more mountainous. There is plenty of room to play and it is quiet. The children love it. The buildings are more rustic but the children seem to be really much happier there. We are working now to fix the building as much as we can to make them warmer and cleaner. Gavin and I are also looking for a house close to them that we can rent. Right now we are pretty far away and we miss being so close to the children. Plus our current house has recently acquired a concrete block manufacturing company directly across the road which makes it noisy most of the day. We found a beautiful house very near the children’s home that would be so perfect if only it were finished. The people started building it and ran out of money so we are talking to the owners about finishing it so we can live there. We are trying to find out how much it will cost to finish it, it seems the owners will let us finish it in lieu of paying rent for two years. Please pray for us that we will have wisdom in this area and can find the necessary funds to complete the house. Also, the house is on 2 acres of land that we might possibly be able to buy as well to build our new children’s home.

It is so wonderful to be back and working again with these beautiful children. I am attaching a photo album so you can see our new children and the house we mentioned above. God is always so faithful. It is a wonderful blessing to have Gavin here with me. He is adapting so well and the children love him. It makes life so much easier and more fun to have such a wonderful partner and friend. God has been so good to me and given me a very great gift – He knew exactly what I needed even when I didn’t. Gavin took such good care of me when I was sick and I can’t imagine what it would have been like to go through that experience without him. I feel so overwhelmed with blessings and so amazed at how well God prepared for me. This Thanks giving we have so very much to be thankful for. We are especially thankful for all those who give to our ministry. Thank you so much!! We pray for you and appreciate you more than we can say. May God bless you and Happy Thanksgiving!

Love,Candace and Gavin

PS: You can send a tax deductible donation to Rhema Missions PO Box 50126 Tulsa, OK 74150 Memo Rev Candace Brailsford 100% goes to our ministry.

Photos at:
http://www.photoworks.com/slideshow/album/A207D8238670?source=pw980