Jesus, Japan and the Cowells

Thailand was a wonderful experience.

Clive and I were so blessed to be able to go on behalf of Honolulu Christian Church. What at different experience it was from our time in Japan. I have to say that it was a bit bewildering seeing so many children accept Christ.

Our team of 10 was sent to work with Zoe International based in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Zoe has three different homes that they operate there. One is devoted to raising orphans. The second is a Bible training school for older students. And I have to confess that I neglected to learn about the third house. We visited the first two but not the third.

The Zoe Children's Home in Chiang Mai is filled with delightful little souls who are rescued. Meaning, they are children who truly have no living relatives who are able to take care of them. They come from all over northern Thailand. Our first meeting with those kids was a power charged moment. The team walked in the main door to a riot of applause and cheering. How those kids longed to see us. Just as much as we longed to see them, only they displayed it much better than we could.

Mostly we visited and worked with these kids. We had some informal classes with them. We taught English, crochet, Stomp (the rythmic, beat keeping dance sort of thing), oragami and hula. We brought them gifts from Hawaii tailored to the specific age groups of the youth.

Zoe also took us out to visit another children's home in the local area.

As you can see it is a rather rustic place. The children live in the structure that you see behind us. It is made of concrete cinder blocks. It is very simple. Two large sleeping rooms, with boys and girls seperate bathing areas on either side. There is also an open air kitchen and a patio for school and eating. While very simple, it was clean by Thailand standards. And it was obvious that these darlings were loved by those who cared for them.

We had an entire lesson plan including crafts and games which we lead for the kids. Clive was our preacher/teacher and when it came time to invite those children to accept Jesus as their Savior, nearly every single one did. It was an honor to be there.

Zoe also took us up into the Hilltribe area of Chiang Mai. We went to work in a village that houses the area school, where over 200 children attend. The Hilltribe of that area is called the Karin (pronounced Cah-reee-uhn with a rolling of the r.) Here we were somewhat thrilled to discover that nearly 180 kids had stayed behind over the weekend to meet with us. We played games, lead a craft and even had Bible sharing - where yes, nearly all of the children raised their hands to accept Christ. (This is a Buddhist area.)

For us "Westerners" this was the place where we got to go native. We were allowed to sleep in the little local church. The floors were concrete and we had lots of mosquito nets to protect us at night. We used "squatty potties" when nature called and ate our meals in this awesome bamboo hut on elevated stilts. That was fun. We sat on the floor and ate family style. This was also the scene of our Sunday School class for the weekend.

The community honored our team by presenting us with these gorgeous hand loomed bags - which I will always treasure.

Zoe also took us up to Thaton and the Golden Triangle area. In Thaton we visited Faith Village which is a home for children that has a big vision. They have a band which is quite famous in the area and are invited to perform (with pay) all over the area. The one stipulation that the band has is that they be allowed to share the gospel wherever they play. Which is really unheard of. Yet they remain in demand.

The Golden Triangle is the area which unites Burma, Laos and Thailand on the Mekong River. Not more than 10 years ago this was under the control of opium drug lords and had been for decades. The government put in place some tough measures which cracked down on the drug rings. In addition, the rise of "Ice" in the West cut back on the demand for opiates. Now the area is popluar site for tourists.

In the Golden Triangle we were going to visit Mae Ab. In this village there is a home for children run by missionary Patty Culpepper. She has about 17 kids there. Unfortunately, there was flooding in the village which prevented us from driving up to visit. (You need 4-wheel drive to navigate the washed out roads.) So Patty brought the kids to us. Most of them have not been out of the village, nor had they been to a hotel. We managed to book a conference room there where we served the children a roast chicken dinner. Another first, they are used to eating on the floor, but we served them at a long banquet table. You never saw such tiny people stuff so much into themselves. And we fed them until they begged us to stop serving.

The whole team learned a lot. Most of the team had not been on short-term missions before, so it was a thrill for them to see that Jesus is worshipped in other places.