Welcome to Thailand!
Khoadee Children's Home
Khoadee (cow-dee) Children's Home in Chiang Mai is where the six of us girls showed up on Tuesday morning after a 12-hour overnight bus dropped us off from Bangkok. We met Gai, our 30 year old Thai translator, and Pastor Siemon at the bus stop. We loaded into the back of a pickup truck and started the twenty-minute drive to the orphanage. The sun was just peaking over the hilltops as we admired the beautiful terrain. We saw everything from traditional Thai homes to temples. The moments before getting to any ministry are always filled with questions about where we’re about to spend the next month living, working and learning new ways to grow with the Lord. So we prayed, 6 girls prayed in the back of a truck. We prayed for growth, we prayed for God to reveal Himself to us in new ways, we prayed for our team to seek Him more than we had in the past three months, we prayed for peace, and we prayed for our love for each other and the children we were about to meet–to break any language barrier.
(This is the sanctuary and boys dorms before they finished it; the kids helped build it.)
My expectations were blown away as we drove into Khoadee making a left-hand turn into the lush tropical part of Chiang Rai, drove down a rock path over the creek and around the curve to a perfectly landscaped 6-acre property. This was not in the slightest bit what I expected for an orphanage of 100.
The orphanage was started 14 years ago when the Lord led a poor pastor, Pastor Siemon, to this property. God told him that this would be where he and his wife would care for His children. Pastor Siemon didn't know what that would look like so he prayed. They were given this overgrown piece of property, and 5 boys showed up to his home asking for help. He took the boys to the property and they cut down bamboo and started building a home. By the end of the year 22 kids had shown up to the property asking for help and he took in every one of them. He had no money but every need they had, the Lord met. Gai told us that Pastor Siemon would simply pray, never asking others for help or for donations. People would just show up and give. Gai started working with Pastor Siemon and his wife 11 years ago and the orphanage has grown to 100 children from ages one to fifteen. They also have a college home that they provide for those who go on to college and they help pay their tuition.
The food for the orphanage alone costs 15,000 baht or $483 USD a week to feed all of the children. They also have school costs and clothing expenses. God provides it all.
As Gai was sharing with us about Pastor Siemon's faith, it restored a faith in me that is so easily taken for granted. The pastor doesn't ask anyone but the Lord to provide for their orphanage and the Lord uses others to bless this ministry.
These kids are so amazingly well-behaved and they have a busy schedule each day. They wake up at 5:45am and get themselves ready for school. They sleep three in each room–one very young child, one elementary and one junior high or high school aged child. The older kids help the younger ones get ready. They have worship every morning during which they have prayer time where each child thanks the Lord for providing so diligently for them. They also have chores they do, everything from raking, to cleaning bathrooms to cleaning out the pig pens. After chores they eat breakfast then go to school. When they get off the bus at 4:30pm they all go directly to the chapel and pray then they go straight to any chores they have. At 6 pm they all help each other with homework and at 7 is dinner. They help serve each other, they pray aloud, and they clean up after themselves. Following dinner they meet in the dining hall and they pray, play games, and just get to be goofy kids. These children’s prayer life is amazing! They are all adorable and beautiful—both inside and out!
Since we've been here we have worked in the garden, and this morning the boys and the pastor butchered one of their pigs– they do this every other week. One pig sustains the orphanage for two weeks for all their meat needs. Heather, Erica and I all helped the women cut the pig up. They use every single part of the pig! I confess that I felt a little like Hannibal Lector when they held up the skin and we started chopping it up for pork rinds. We cut up the fat to make grease for the meals, the bones for soup and, let’s just say they use part of the head for a few other meals. It was oddly relaxing as we joked with the Thai women as we all sat on bamboo mats and prepared the next two week worth of meat, placing it into piles to be bagged.
In the evening we get to play with the children and teach them games. Two nights ago we taught them the Cupid Shuffle and yesterday we had Children's day. This day consisted of many fun games, the best food I have ever had, worship with the girls in a chapel that overlooks the property, and praying diligently for these kids. God has ignited a fire in me this past week that I can only praise Him for! This morning we worshiped for two hours with 100 kids in the mountains of Thailand in two beautiful languages to the same God, I love my life!
