Taking the kids home to Phayam Island

Last weekend while we were in southern Thailand, one of our stops was to Phayam Island to visit some of the families of the children in the Ranong Kids Home.  As I was looking through the photos tonight- I decided it was time for another blog post.  Even though, I can't keep up with posting about our life anymore- I feel like it's a good way to share just how different life over here is for some of the people that we work with.

You may notice that we go to Elephant Island to visit those families a lot more often, mainly because it is so much closer.  This island (Phayam) usually takes three hours on the long tail boat (6 hours for a one day trip)- but this time we took the speed boat and got there in 30 minutes.  I am spoiled for life now. The islanders were very happy to see their kids.

This is Sarena with her mother. They were so sweet to watch together. 

I love this mother-daughter photo of them.

Her little brothers were happy to see her too.

Their interaction with each other was precious to watch and as we left, as all good Thai children do, she stuck a little cash in her mama's hand to help her with finances. 

Their simple village kitchen.

We took six of the children from the home with us and at each home after the visit, they all prayed for that family. 

Sarena was fervent in her prayers for her parents. 

Our next stop was to the home of Chalay and Phet but his father was out to sea and they were not able to see him.  Their mother died many years ago and the father is rarely home.

They usually find an empty house when they come home to visit.

We visited  the parents of Ariya (Pop) and her home.  Her father used to be the village chief.

The kids and dorm parents prayed for their family.

The children in the home are really like one big family and care for each other.

Thong Dii does not have a mom, but this is his grandma.

Later on, his father came by- but is not very involved in his life.

Kew, is a very diligent guy.. The love between him and his family is obvious, and they are so proud of him for getting an education. 

Praying for Kew's family.

Some swings and climbing tires have been added to the village with some help from a foreigner.  The children love it and were constantly on the swings. 

Most of the  women are always working on the nets, getting them ready for the men to take back out on their boats. 

And when the nets don't work for fishing anymore- they can be recycled into a chair, I guess. 

This village has two communities, so we took the path over to the other group of huts. 

This guy makes it hard for us not to have favorites.  Gang is one of the kindest and most helpful kids in the home. I learned more about his background on this trip. He has no father and does not know where his mother is.  This is his grandma.

She has many health issues and is blind.  Gang is so tender with her, it's the only family he has. When I asked him which home he lived  in before he came to the Kids Home, he answered, "none, I  lived on a boat with my mom."   So now he literally has no home, other than the kids home. 

When his grandpa heard that Gang was back to visit, he came over right away.

His grandpa carves boats and sells them in town, but he wanted us to know this one was not finished yet. 

Gang praying for his grandparents. 

The kids praying team, walking back through the village. 

Phillip, who lives in the village has started a chicken project that has been very successful in providing eggs for them.

Before we left, we gathered the villagers together in the church to have a time of encouragement with them and prayed for them all together.

Life is hard in the village and yet in some other ways, it is so simple.  It's honestly such a whole different world. It's a life that sometimes, I think is appealing but usually it makes me so thankful for how much I have been given.

The dorm parents, kids, and us- all rented little motorbikes to get back and forth across the island. Some bikes held 3, the rest of us- just 2. It was a great visit with some of the families that we had not seen in a long time. The children feel privileged to get an education and be in the Ranong Kids Home and we feel privileged to be a part and help them on days like this to visit and pray for their families. 

Iowa builders visit Koh Chang/Ranong

Those Iowa builders have come and gone already and we are so thankful for what they accomplished again this year.  The team had 3 Mark's... Brad, Phil, Mark, Mark, and Mark They got a good start on a home for Pope (gray shirt) who I'll share more about later.  Her sister "Nung", is in blue and the two Thai builders on the far right will complete the project.

These guys have been coming here during Feb. for years to build a home wherever Mike finds a need. This year it was in a new area that they had never been.  There were two newbies this year, so they wanted to make a visit to Elephant Island where they have done most of the building in past years to show them their builds and to visit the the village. We did this one of the first days.

The view up on the church steps is pretty amazing, and they spent some time looking over all the homes/huts they have built and recalling memories of years past. This is where they usually sleep.

When I walked in to the village preschool the little ones were either taking baths or playing in the water to keep cool.  Probably some of both with smiles, giggles, and squeals as I watched them.

We walked around the village and the guys inspected some of their homes to see how they were holding up.

This villager has a broken arm and he made his own cast with sticks and cloth.  They asked us to go to his home to pray for him. The villagers get by on so little, making us realize how much we take for granted.

When we got back to the mainland, we took the 33 children from the Ranong Kids Home out to dinner at KFC.  It's their favorite treat when Mike comes to town.

We mixed up the "white guys" with the kids, so that they could practice their English while eating.  I'm pretty sure there was a lot of silence because they know so little English- but Thailand will always be known as "the land of smiles".

We spent the rest of the evening at the kids home.  They sang "How Great Thou Art" for us and  sounded beautiful.  Three of the older kids shared their testimony for us, too. They did a great job. 

We are so proud of these kids.  Even the guys commented on how different the children and life on the village is from these kids who live in the home and are getting a better education.  We were thankful for this short visit with them before driving 8 hours the next day on to the building project for this year. 

Meet Suk- a little princess full of potentiality!

When we stayed at the Ranong Kids Home as dorm parents over the Thai New Year- this little girl captured my heart.  She had just come into the home a few days earlier, and was adjusting to a whole new world. The dorm parents have been asking to take her into the home for months and Mike kept saying no for a large number of reasons, mainly because we don't have money for more children and she has no citizenship. They knew that she was living on her own at a rubber plantation, and wanted to save her from future risk.

I don't even know where to start in trying to describe her life, but I will give it a start. 

-She is a total orphan- she had no mother, no father, no relatives that we know of. 

-She is from Burma, but living in Thailand so has no country citizenship or ID card for any country.

-She is 10 years old. 

-She has been living on her own, taking care of herself, sleeping wherever she can find a shelter.

-She has scars on her scalp, forehead, and arms from some woman who has abused her with a knife.

-She is very very sharp, bright, sociable, easy to be around, and lovable.

-She is illiterate because she is simply uneducated and no one has sent her to school, but she is learning to read quickly. 

-Mike compared her to the wildcats in their barns.  I think she will be easy to tame.

One of the first days that we got there, I took the girls to a store with art supplies to find some activities to do during the week with them.  She found this plastic crown and carried it around as if it was made of pure gold, the whole time that we were there.  I knew she wanted it more than anything else in the store and got it for her.  She wore it off and on, the whole week that we were there. 

As soon as we got home, she asked if she could put on all white clothes to wear with the crown. Since she is from Burma, she does not speak very much Thai - so it is really hard to communicate and understand what she is really thinking.  She was so proud to wear all white with the crown. Don't you just wonder what was going through her mind? All that I could think of was that she is a "child of the king"- dressed in her white. 

She spent a lot of time in my room with me.  The other Moken children, see us very differently and are very shy to talk with us directly and would never even come into our room.  She has never been trained or taught and has had to fend for herself and has few inhibitions.  She came to our door at all times of day and just walked right in.  After I explained to her about our family through pictures (in Thai) she stared at this family picture for soooooo long.  This tugged at my heart so much, as I would have done anything to put her into our family photo.  She has never had a family and I want her to feel that love of being in a family.

I kept telling Mike that I cannot get over how normal she seems considering her past.  She is pleasant, cheerful, fun, silly, loving, charming and so competent. She is healthy. The dorm parents had to cut her nails, cut her hair and teach her to bathe when she arrived. She has amazing coping skills.  One day she walked up to me with ear buds in her ears - singing and dancing to music.  I have no idea where she found the ear phones, but when I followed the cord to the end, it was in her pocket with no connection on the other end,  She was so silly just pretending to listen to music, which she has never had. She made me laugh a lot 

One night, when she was in the room with me- I taught her to play a game on my Ipad. She was quite fascinated with it. Because she has lived so much on her own, she is very independent.  She would walk out of our kids home and wander down the street on her own.  When we took the kids to the store, she would not stay with the group and we ended up looking for her a lot. Hopefully she just needs to be taught and trained.  She is obedient when she understands the instructions given. 

She discovered that I liked her to comb my hair (oh the blissfulness) and I did not even need to bribe her with money as I do my granddaughters. :)  For being alone so much of her life, she wanted to be around us, probably starving for attention. 

Please pray for this adorable and bright girl who is so very precious in God's eyes and ours. We do not know her future.  Because she has no paperwork and citizenship, she has no legal future. She will live in the home with the other 30 children. She will be able to go to school when it starts back up next month, in the 2nd grade. 

She is just beginning to learn who the God of the universe is and what Jesus has done for her. It is all very new to her.  As we explained it to her, we told her  that it would take some time for her to learn about God and her new Christian friends.   After a Bible story one night, she brought me a book that she had found in the home with pictures and Bible stories.  She looked through it several times, and I know she is curious and wants to know more.  

Please pray for understanding of the Bible.  Pray for her to adjust to living with people and to fit into the home. Pray for wisdom and a bright future for Suk and her life.