Songkran water festival

We finished the summer camp just in time to play in the water during Sonkran, Thailand's yearly water festival. Sonkran is actually the traditional Thai new year. Water is "sprinkled" on people as a blessing. However, that "blessing" has turned into an all out water fight of major proportions. This year, Sonkran was from April 11 - 16. Poople stand at the side of the road with hoses and buckets spraying and dousing everyone who passes by. Others ride in the back of trucks with water buckets and throw water at everyone they see. A few people throw ice water. A few people color the water various colors. A few people add powder to the rinse. This year, for the first time in Chiang Khong, there was a cordoned off place where people played in soap suds. Yes, I did say soap suds. On the lighter side, there are also boat races and beauty contests and concerts.

I personally stayed dry and cool by driving the truck up and down the streets of Chiang Khong with the girls in the back of the truck playing in the water. And a good time was had by all. :-)

Summer camp 2012

March 19 - April 11 2012

We held a summer camp for the boys and girls who live with us. 10 girls and 6 boys attended. The staff consisted of Bible students doing summer internships with us as well as other Bible college/college students that have lived with us in the past.

Weekdays started at 8 AM with Old Testament history taught by Jaelyn followed by 2 hours of English. English was taught by Pha, a Hmong American who is here visiting. It's such a blessing to see Hmong Americans have a heart for the Hmong here in Asia. Afternoons we broke up into smaller groups for a more enriching learning experience. The theme for the afternoons was Christian service. La taught a group on teaching the Bible to children. Pha taught a group on sharing personal testimony/evangelism. Jaelyn and Yua taught on leading worship. Chai taught piano/keyboard. We now have some budding musicians!! Many of the students can already play guitar and one of the boys can play drums. Every evening we had a time of games/worship and teaching from the Word. The worship was student led and the Bible students shared from the Word on a rotating basis. Late afternoons and evenings were filled with games and sports and everyone had a blast! Yee, pastor Somboon's wife even did a short seminar on basic first aid which everyone loved. Nu did a short seminar on waiting for the person that God has for you rather than getting married quickly. That was the highlight of entire time for some of the students. The last night, the 11th, we had a banquet and the students shared what they had learned. Time and space don't permit me to share everything, but I would like to share a few highlights.

God is raising up a few worship leaders among the students, cheifly Daniel.

Esther (a nickname) has decided to give up reading teenage romance novels in favor of reading the Bible and has given her books to me to hold onto.

Nai shared a Bible lesson with the children in the village where we are teaching children for the first time ever. She really has a gift!

None of the boys had ever done anything like this before and the first day there was nothing but complaining from the boys, but the testimonies from all of the boys at the end was that it was really fun and nothing like what they expected.

For the first time in a long time I've seen our students, both boys and girls take an active interest in teaching children in the village and they are really get into teaching and spending time with the children in the village. And, most importantly, they have a heart to do it.

Some of our students actually wrote their own worship songs to teach the children in the village. The songs are totally awesome!!

Travel, travel and more travel!!

Straight travel for 7 days.
We had a great time, but there is no place like home, sweet home! Home here in Chiang Khong, that is.
March 8th, the girls and I left Chiang Khong bright and early at 4:30 AM (some of you didn’t think I could actually get up that early did you??) to travel to Pastor Somboon’s wedding. It was a 12 hour drive, the last hour going up and down 3 mountains before finally reaching a Hmong village nestled in a small valley. According to Hmong custom, the wedding was held at the bride’s village. We spent the night in the village, and attended the ceremony the following morning. The boys at the boys’ house arrived before we did, and they did a great job of decorating the church.
The girls at the girls’ house helped with various aspects of the ceremony.
It was a beautiful ceremony. The bride, Yee, was stunning in her wedding dress, and the groom’s face was full of love and joy. It was a blessing to be a part of the ceremony. After the ceremony we drove back to the groom’s village to be part of the reception there. (Again, according to Hmong custom.) That was a 9 hour drive, and we arrived at midnight. And, yes, I was driving! After the ceremony the following day, we drove back to Chiang Khong. Sunday
evening we had a small graduation ceremony for 2 of the boys, Wee and Tong, who
are graduating high school this year, as well as 3 girls and 2 boys who are
finishing 9th grade this year, a milestone for Thai students. Monday, many of the girls went back home to their villages and I went to Chiang Rai for a much needed 2 day vacation. I got a 3 hour massage for $12. I love this country!! Wednesday, our last day of travel, we went to
the border town of Measai as I needed to renew my visa. I had successfully renewed it in February, but they now stamp your passport for 1 month, and then you come back and they
stamp it for one year. Why? I don’t know.
I took 3 of the girls who are still here along with Mai who used to live
at the girls house and came back to help me this week. Phab, a Hmong American who is visiting and Chai went too. We had a great day of shopping. On the way back, we decided to visit a monkey cave. Well, I call it a monkey cave, but in reality it’s a mountain with a cave. There are many wild monkeys around. It’s a blast! There’s a great view at the top.
By the time we walked back down, we noticed that the sky was really dark. We had been driving back about 45 minutes when the wind and hail started coming down and rocking the truck. There were 5 people sitting in the back of the truck when this happened. They got soaked. I could only see about a foot in front of the car as I was driving and we were out in the middle of nowhere.
After about 10 minutes, we located a small restaurant on the outskirts
of a small town, and we stopped there to wait out the storm. I got out of the car, and all of the girls were grinning from ear to ear! They quite obviously enjoyed it more than I did.
Preaw, one of the girls, said to me “oh, Susan, I’m so glad you’re not crying”. She knows I get freaked out by this stuff. During all of our travels, the girls were great. Whenever I would
get freaked out, or get really tired, or there were more windy roads, or we weren’t sure which route to take, the girls would tell me to go ahead in faith. They would tell me that God is
with us and He will get us safely where we need to go. I am so thankful for each of these girls that
God has brought here this year. Just when I think that what I’m teaching isn’t getting through and that what I’m doing isn’t making a difference, God does little things to show me that He is
indeed working whether I see it or not.

11 girls this year!!

Name: Keam Seayang
Age: 15 years old; 9th grade Birthday: 25 September

She has 4 brothers and 3 sisters. In the future she wants to be an evangelist or a teacher. Her parents are Christians. She is very quiet, but hard working. She accepted the Lord before coming here, which is a very rare thing here indeed. I’m not sure why, but Hmong Christian parents usually don’t teach their children about the Lord. This is her first year here.
Name: Nam Seali
Age: 14 years old/8th grade Birthday: 30 May
She has 2 brothers and 1 sister. In the future she wants to be a high
school English teacher. Her father was selling drugs and was arrested
over 2 years ago. He committed suicide in prison. Her mother was pregnant with her youngest brother at the time. Her mother is a new Christian. She just came to know the Lord about 6 months ago. This is her first year here.

Name: Sai Saeyang
Age: 13 years old/7th grade Birthday: 1 December

She has 2 brothers and 4 sisters. In the future she wants to be an elementary school teacher. Her parents are Christians. Even though she comes from a Christian family, she knows very little about the Lord. She’s interested in the gospel. She’s also homesick – this is her first time away from home. School is a struggle for her. This is her first year here.

Name: Peace Sae Syong
Age: 15 years old/9th grade
Birthday: 25 August
She has 1 brother and 2 sisters. In the future she wants to be a tour guide or a flight attendant or a missionary or a boxer.  Her mother is a new Christian, but no else in the family is a believer. Her father wanted to send her to a Buddhist temple to study before she came here. This is her 3rd year here.


Name: Nee Seayang
Age: 17 years old/11th grade Birthday: 16 February
She has 2 brothers and 6 sisters. In the future she wants to be an architect or an accountant. Parents are Christians. Father is an elder in the church. This is her 5th year here. She is the student leader in the house. God has gifted her with some incredible musical talent and the other girls look up to her.


Name: Newt Seafa
Age: 14 years old/9th grade
Birthday: 30 July
She has 1 brother and 3 sisters. In the future she wants to be an artist. Parents are divorced. Mother remarried, lives in the same village and refuses to speak to her daughters. Her older sister, Mone lives here as well. This is her 3rd year here. She had prayed to accept the Lord, but I think now that she was just something she did because others were doing it. She wants to be accepted, but she doesn’t really understand the gospel.
Name: Mone Saefa
Age: 16 years old/10th grade
Birthday: 27 December
She has 1 brother and 3 sisters. In the future she wants to be a doctor or a policeman. Parents are divorced. Mother remarried, lives in the same village and refuses to speak to her daughters. Mone’s younger sister, Newt, lives here as well. This is her 3rd year here and she is the “assistant” student leader.

Name: Crème SaeSyong
Age: 14 years old/ 9th grade
Birthday: 31 July
She has 3 brothers and 3 sisters. In the future she wants to be a nurse. Parents aren’t Christians. She lived in a Buddhist temple one year before coming to live here. This is her 2nd year here. She is very quiet and her feelings get hurt easily.
Name: See Saeli
Age: 16 years old/10th grade
Birthday: 26 March
She has 1 brother and 2 sisters. In the future she wants to be a nurse. Parents are Christians. Father is an elder in the church. This is her first year here, and she also accepted the Lord before coming here.
Name: Nai Seayang
Age: 13 years old/8th grade
Birthday: 1 November
She has 1 brother and 2 sisters. In the future she wants to be an
astronaut. Parents are divorced and she has no contact with her father whatsoever. This is her 2nd year here. She hasn’t accepted the Lord.

Name: Paew Saehur
Age: 18 years old/11th grade
Birthday: 8 Sepetember
She has 1 brother and 2 sisters. In the future she wants a nurse.
Parents are divorced. Both parents have remarried and neither parent wants the children. The children have been living on their own in the village before Paew came here this year. Her 2nd day here she begged and pleaded for a Bible and upon receiving one reads it constantly. She says she doesn’t really understand it, but she’s reading it everyday, even taking it to school with her.

Kia's wedding

Thursday, April 7th was Kia's wedding. It was held in her home village of Chaang Khiang on Doi Sutep, a famous mountain in Chiang Mai. The last 5 or so kilomters of road leading to this village is a steep, winding one way road that has 2 way traffic on it. There are many signs along the way in both English and Thai to inform drivers that there is a steep S curve ahead and to honk one's horn to let anyone coming the other direction know you are there so they can pull over a little to let you pass. Parts of the road get washed out in the rain, so it's a little treacherous in the rain. I prayed for no rain, and I was confident that the Lord would answer my prayer. It was, therefore, much to my surprise to see that as we were ascending those last few kilometers, it started to rain. Not just normal rain mind you, but cats and dogs raining. I started to freak out. I had 8 girls in the truck with me and I was the only adult. I prayed and asked God why He didn't keep it from raining. His reply to me in that still, small voice, was "my grace is sufficient for you". I said ok, and started singing praise songs in my heart to God. I know the girls were praying also. At one point, it was raining so hard that I couldn't see 1 foot in front of us, even with the headlights on. I started to get freaked out again, but God reassured me that since He had caused it to rain, He would also get us safely to our destination. We were almost at the village when right in front of the road was a downed tree from the storm. We couldn't go over it, couldn't go around it, and it was too heavy to lift. I just stopped, not knowing what to do. Then Nee gets out of the car with this long knife that is kept in the truck for emergencies and starts cutting the tree branches away. Three of the other girls went to help, and then another truck with 3 men came up behind us and they helped clear the tree away. They then went on ahead of us and led the way. I was so grateful to the Lord when we finally arrived. What did God say to me? "Oh ye of little faith!" I just want to say that when it looks the bleakest and there doesn't appear to be a way out, God will make a way out where there is no way. Our God is a great God!!!

This wedding was the first Christian wedding in this village. When the marriage vows were said, there was a gaggle of laughter from many of the people there as vows aren't said at a Hmong wedding. But it was a huge testimony to God's love and saving grace. There were 3 flower girls all dressed in traditional Hmong clothes. A Kodak moment that slipped away from me! What was so interesting about the ceremony is that it was such a great blend of traditional Hmong culture (bowing and receiving blessing from both sets of parents, clothes, etc.) and western Christian traditions (exchanging vows, candle lighting ceremony, teaching from the Word, etc). After the ceremony, the pastor in charge of the service invited the happy couple to stay up front and anyone and everyone who wanted to take pictures with the couple could. After that, he had Kia and Song (her husband) in different poses and anyone could take photos. It was hysterical because the pastor had them pose like they were kissing, and Kia was so embarrassed she kept laughing! FYI: Hmong couples NEVER show affection in public.

What a great Sunday!

C
Nai, Creme and Newt at the waterfall.

We had a great day yesterday! Of course, since it was the Lord's day, it was a great day to begin with! What a joy it is to meet with other believers and worship the One who alone is worthy to receive our praise and worship. There were 2 first time visitors at church. They were 2 teenage girls studying at the local tech school. They are Thai and from this area. One of them, we know isn't a believer, and God brought them and they heard the gospel.

children @ Muankan village watching the festivities.

In the afternoon, we took the girls to Muankan village where the girls put on a Bible club for the children in the village. This was actually the first time we have done this since the start of the school year in May. For the first time in about 5 months, we had a great turnout. There were about 20 children total, most of them between the ages of 5 and 10. Nee, Kung and Mae did a great job of teaching. Creme and Nai, the 2 new girls, watched and Creme had a blast playing games with the children. Newt, Peace and Mone are more reserved around people they don't know, so they just blended in with what was going on. Wee and Golf (Golf is his nickname), 2 of the boys at the boys house wanted to go with us, so they played guitar during worship and during game time. These 2 boys will be going with us more and more as the Lord leads. This is Wee's 2nd year here, and Golf's first year.

While the girls taught the children, Kia led a time of prayer and encouragement in the Word with 7 adults, one or two of which aren't believers. There is no church in this village, so the few villagers who are Christians have no regular time of worship and teaching.

We then ended the day by going to a waterfall that is close to Muankan village. It was a hot day yesterday (another HUGE praise) and so the waterfall was quite refreshing.

Students 2010-2111

Nee

Peace and Nai

Mai and Jaeyln

Mone

Mae

GIRLS HOUSE:
I wanted to give you a quick update on the girls’

house. We had planned for a total of 10 girls, and just before I came back, there were indeed 10 girls. However, a few days before I arrived, 2 of the girls unexpectedly left. I’m not sure why they left, either because they were homesick or because they don’t like the rules here at the girls’ house. Kia (the staff member who works with the girls) said they didn’t give a reason for not staying, just that they refused to stay. Unfortunately, things like this happen. So, we currently have 8 girls, 2 of which are new. There are also a total of 8 boys at the boys’ house, 4 of whom are new this year.
Here is a list of the 8 girls currently living at the girls’ house:

Nai: She is 12 years old and in 7th grade. She is new this year. Her parents are divorced and she has 3 brothers and one sister. Nai comes from a family riddled with family problems/issues. Her parents are divorced and since neither one of her parents know exactly what to do with her, they were going to put her in a Buddhist temple. She didn’t want to go, and God opened the door for her to come to us. No one in her immediate family is a Christian. She came not knowing anything about God, and she has a lot of questions. (Nai is the 2nd picture from the bottom.)

Crème: She is 13 years old and in 8th grade. This is her first year here. She has 6 brothers and sisters. Crème has had an introduction to Christianity, but mostly through the Catholic church. Her family is very poor. She is a very sweet girl with a sweet disposition. She likes to play and have fun. She is very interested in learning more about Jesus and I believe she will very soon accept the Lord. She is very open to the gospel. (Creme is the bottom picture above.)

Newt: She is 13 years old and in 8th grade. This is her 2nd year here. Her parents are divorced and her mother remarried and lives in the same village. She lives with her father who has also remarried. Even though her mother lives in the same village, her mother refuses to speak to her and because of absence of love in her life, she finds it difficult to understand God’s love for her. This causes her to act out in ways that are not always appropriate. Pray that she would understand God’s love for her. She raised her hand to accept the Lord last year, but she needs to grow in the Lord. (Newt is the 3rd picture from the bottom.)

Mone: She is 14 years old and in 9th grade. This is her second year here. She is Newt’s older sister. She doesn’t act out like Newt does, but she is very quiet and keeps to herself a lot, but she’s coming out of her shell more and more. She wants to be a scientist and gets good grades in school. She accepted the Lord last year.
Peace: She is 13 years old and in 8th grade. This is her 2nd year here. She is very cute, but sometimes has problems obeying staff. Her mother is a fairly new believer, but her father isn’t. Her father wanted to put her in a Buddhist temple as education is free there. But God heard her and her mother’s cries and brought her here to us. She accepted the Lord last year and is growing in the Lord, so pray for her growth and that she would understand God’s unconditional love for her.

Kung: She is 14 and in 9th grade. This is her 5th year here. Her family is very much into the spirit/ancestor worship that non-believing Hmong practice. Kung has accepted the Lord and her desire is for her family to come to know Jesus. Last year we finally started seeing spiritual fruit in her life. She is now taking on more responsibility and is growing up. Pray that she will stay close to the Lord and that she will continue to grow spiritually.

Nee: She is 15 years old and in 10th grade. This is her 4th year here. She is at the top of her class at school. She is a believer and her family are all believers. She has grown in the Lord quite a bit since she first came. She is now starting to lead worship and taking a more active role in student leadership. She is very bright and loves to laugh. She tends to get stressed about her homework and studies, though. Pray for her.

Mae: She is 17 and in 12th grade. This is her 3rd year here. When she first came, she looked slightly malnourished. I really don’t think she was getting enough to eat at home. She comes from a Christian family, but they are very poor. She accepted the Lord and is growing in her faith. She’s praying about what to do after graduation. Pray for a goal and a vision from God.

THOSE WHO HAVE GRADUATED HIGH SCHOOL THAT WE ARE CURRENTLY SUPPORTING:
Mai: She is studying accounting at Achiwa. She took some general college courses last year at Rajaphat University and has now switched to Achiwa, which has a very good accounting program. She is a believer. Please pray that this year, the first year on her own, that she stays connected to her power source. Pray also for her adjustment to living in a new city with other people and her adjustment to this new school.

Nai: This is her last year of Bible College in Bangkok. She did her internship with us last year. The girls loved her and hated to see her go. She has a gentle, quiet spirit and is a blessing to everyone she meets. Nai was one of the former Bible training center students when we used to have the Bible training center.

Chai: This is Chai’s first year of college. He is Pastor Somboon’s younger brother and he has lived in Chiang Khong with us for the past 6 years. He is studying music at Rajaphat University in Chiang Rai. He is majoring in piano and he is already a very talented musician. He has been leading worship, and in the future he wants to use his talents to teach music as well as being part of worship team at church.

Jaelyn: She is going into her 2nd year of Bible College. She is doing ok. She had actually gone back to her village during summer break April and May. I talked to her a few days ago, and she is doing ok. Her health is ok. She went to the hospital in Payao where her Bible college is and the doctors there finally did an X-RAY and discovered that there is indeed a problem with the bone. I don’t understand everything, but it has to do with a time when she was about 10 years old and she fell out of a truck that was going at a good rate of speed and she never sought treatment for it. She feels relieved that there is actually something wrong with her and it’s not in her head. She says it’s difficult, but she’s determined to finish Bible college and serve the Lord. Pray for her.

Please pray for all of these students, that they grow up in the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ!