The Ranong Kids Home Visit

During our time in the south last week, I have to say that the children in the Ranong Kids Home were the biggest encouragement to us.  We were very impressed to see how they are growing in so many areas of their lives, since we were last with them. Our last night with the visiting team, we went to the home and they gave a performance for us.

Two of the older girls performed a Thai cultural  dance.

All of the children were in at least one dance or more and they made up the whole program themselves. Their confidence level is where we have seen the most development.  Years ago, these kids were so shy and would never perform in front of a group.  It was obvious that they had a lot of fun with this program that they put together. 

Some of them are continuing on with the musical instruments from the music camp a few years ago. 

The program that they did for us was actually the same program they did for thier Christmas party which is a really big deal to them.  They are each allowed to invite 3 friends which turns into a huge party and after eating and having a lot of fun they share the true meaning of Christmas with thier friends.

This was one of the songs and dance telling about the life of Jesus to their friends who knew very little of who Jesus is.

They were passionate about their songs and want their friends to know Him too.

After their program, they shared some words of thanks to the visiting team and then the group from CTK gave them some gifts.  Each child got a new pair of rubber shoes.  This is the guys picking out their size and color. 

Each child also got a new toy.  Since Chet was part of the group that picked out the toys, he wanted to be sure they knew how to play with each of them.

We had such a fun evening with the children and it was so special as they prayed for us and we prayed for them.  The next morning was a sad good-bye as we told the team good bye.  Thank you again CTK for coming to visit and work and bless the Moken people and these children.

Matthew 25:40

 "Truly I tell you,

 whatever you did for one of the least 

of these brothers and sisters of mine,

you did for me".

Happy Birthday Hayley!

Hayley turned 7 yesterday on Jan. 19.  She chose "Frozen" as her party theme! (Hmmm- just like 90% of the little girls her age!) One of the reasons that I wanted to document her party is because of this amazing cake. She had asked me to make her an Elsa cake which would not have looked anything like this.  I was talking to a friend who LOVES to decorate cakes, thinking she may help me- but we just decided she would do it herself.  Emily is so very talented at cake decorating.  She shocked us with how detailed and perfect this cake was.  Hayley was thrilled!

Personally, I think decorating cakes here in the heat is nightmare-ish!  You should have seen me trying to transport it from her house, across town, walking through the mall to the iceskating rink in the sun as the trees and ice figures were already beginning to melt. Thankfully, it was still served in it's adorable form once we got into the cold rink.

And yes, we do have an ice skating rink in the mall here in the tropics. Hayley wanted a small party and invited just a few from her class for her party last Saturday.

Even the party favors had the Frozen theme.  Each little girl got a tutu to wear while  ice skating.  (Thanks, Maggie)

Watching little 7 year olds trying to skate on thier own is really pretty cute. They hung on to the edge or each other, feeling proud if they made it very far without falling down.

Hayley continues to be one of the most thoughtful, tender, compliant, silly, diligent, little girls ever.  I am one proud grandma when I am with her.

Happy Birthday sweet Hayley and thanks again Emily for your magical and delicious Frozen cake!

Special day at Elephant Island

After shopping and stocking up on supplies on Monday, we took the boat out to Koh Chang on Tuesday.  The whole village was expecting our visit and lined up on the pier when they heard the boats coming in off in the distance. 

The children were playing in their front yard (sea) as they waited. 

The Moken children spend so much time in the water- it is literally their place of play most of the day. 

The whole village came up to the church and the children gave several different song and dance performances for us.

The men from the USA shared some words of encouragement with them, and then they revealed one by one what was in the black garbage bins that each family would receive. Rice, cooking oil, detergent, bar soap, shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrushes, dishes, cups, a mosquito net, and a broom were all things that they needed but did not always have the finances to buy.

Then we had  a big variety of toys and the children got to pick one each starting oldest to youngest. We were told to prepare for about 50 children, but ended up with almost double that many children. We did a quick improvise and gave one toy per family.

The teachers at the island school cancelled school on this day and all 6 teachers came to our party too.  There are only 50 children in the school and 41 of them are from this village- so they must have decided it wasn't worth holding classes at the school.

We just got a new count of villagers in this community of 44 huts.  There are 233 total.  117 are adults and 116 are children.

The children were so thrilled with their new toys.  If they put the toys in their house to just look at, they last awhile; but if they actually play with them, they usually end up in the water and destroyed after just a few days. 

For some of them, this was their first toy ever.

After playing with the children, we headed down to the pier and gave the filled garbage tubs to each family one by one.  They broke the team up into four groups and each family was prayed for when they received their gift. It was a very crowded pier with the whole village waiting to receive their tub and four families being prayed for at once. 

This was very meaningful for each family to be prayed for by the visiting foreigners and yet brothers and sisters in the Lord. 

There is a committee of people that live on the island that make decisions for this community of believers.  We ended our time by having them stand in a circle and all of us praying for all of them.

We said our goodbyes to the Christian Moken Village, feeling so blessed to be a blessing to them.

Once we arrived back on the mainland, the giving did not stop.  We met a pastor and a group of Christians at a house church to  give him Study Bibles to be passed out to pastors and house church leaders in the area. For most of these pastors it will be the first study Bible they have ever had.

Next on the agenda was to visit the children at the Ranong Kids Home as they were patiently waiting for us, too.

day of shopping for gifts

This week we had a team come visit us from Christ the King Church.  They were a huge blessing to the Moken people in so many ways.  Some of the team had visited us four years ago and gave rice and oil to the villagers. This year before they even returned they told us they wanted to do more than just oil and rice.  In fact, they told us they wanted to fill a whole boat load full of gifts, which actually turned into two boat loads.

Half of the team came down a day early to shop and pack the gifts.  We ended up spending almost a full day negotiating and buying things.  This was in a store with no air-conditioning and only a few fans and wow was it hot, hot, hot!

While Mike and Steve were buying, detergent, soap bars, toothpaste, and toothbrushes; Karla, Chet and Lynette were picking out toys for the children in the village.  They chose a nice variety of toys which was a fun job. They also picked out some new games and toys for the children in the Ranong Kids home that we would give them their last night there.

This truck was also given by the church.  It takes all 29 children to and from school each day.  On this day it was loaded to the brim with the gifts along with another truck we borrowed.

After a full day of shopping and loading up vehicles, we took the children from the home out for dinner at KFC, which is always a treat.

Steve, Karla, Chet, and Lynette were able to sit with the children they have been sponsoring to get to know them better,  while the rest of the children sat at this table.

After dinner they treated the kids to an ice cream cone and right after all 29 children got a cone, the ice cream machine went dry.

Before we went out to the island, they packed the gifts in a big garbage bucket with lids - one per family.  Inside they got: 2 bags of rice, 3 bottles of cooking oil, soap, detergent, toothpaste, toothbrushes, mosquito net, 6 dishes, and 6 cups.

We had told them at church on Sunday, that we had special guests coming on Tuesday who were bringing gifts.  Anticipation was pretty high for both the villagers and the CTK team.  I'm not really sure who was receiving the biggest blessing from all this... the givers or the receivers.  Reminds me of Acts 20:35 "It is more blessed to give than to receive".

The Moken Church

Church in the village on Koh Chang was amazing last Sunday.  We never know what to expect once we land on shore after taking that two hour boat trip out.  Honestly, sometimes it can be very discouraging if we don't see much progress.  This time was total joy as we witnessed how the Moken are growing spiritually and maturing in their faith.

We had beautiful weather for the trip from Ranong City to the island.  This was my first time back since our shipwreck experience, so it was a very relaxing trip in contrast to our last boat ride.

Since they do not use clocks, life just evolves with that days events hour by hour.  Once our boat arrived a wave of chatter went through the village that it was time for church to begin.  The church was soon packed with most every person in the village.  MaWay is emerging as a great spiritual leader.  She is Moken and speaks their language along with Thai.  It is so exciting now to see them enjoy a worship service in their own mother tongue. They have learned so many worship songs both in Moken and in Thai.  Without a written language, all the songs are memorized.

Some of the children sang some songs for us and did such a great job.  They have memorized many songs and sing them out really loud.

Mike taught them a lesson on "prayer" from the book of Acts.  As they continue to learn how to talk with God in a personal way, it is key to their faith in Him growing deeper.

He had MaWay help him with some of the illustrations. He also surprised me by calling me up front and announcing that I would sing the "special song".  After getting over the unexpected request, I decided to "go for it", only after asking them all to close their eyes as I sang (acapella).

After the teaching, Mike had them pair up with a partner and pray together about the things he had taught them. 

This was a new step of faith for most of them.

Even the men who are usually out in their fishing boats were there and prayed together.

It is so encouraging to see them growing in their understanding of God.

The view looking out from the church was as beautiful as the service itself.

The church and the cross on it's roof are such a testimony to what this village stands for.

This little guy was so proud to help his daddy steer the boat, as they took us back to the mainland. Instead of sitting on their dad's lap to drive a car, you can sense their joy as they help with the boats. Meanwhile, we had the return trip of two hours to just sit and reflect on the growth that we had seen in this body of believers.  We are  thankful to be God's messengers with His word last Sunday to these people that God created and loves just like you and me.