Sunday, July 26, 2009

Cheaper by the Dozen

I haven't been updating this blog for quite a long time. I know for sure that I already lost the handful of people who read this blog. The reason is that our ministry have made a big turn about. Aside from teaching full time, we are not taking care of the 12 children. This took my time away from blogging time to put up a decent theological blog. We are also preparing for a big move this coming months. The day care center we are running will be moving to a new place. In the past two months, we have been moving a lot and had been trying our best to help people who need assistance that Narlin and I can give in our own small ways. I haven't given up blogging yet.

Now for our news update:

Rising tension between the United Wa State Army (UWSA) and Burmese government forces is reported by sources in Shan State and along the Sino-Burmese border. The Burmese army had deployed reinforcements .Wa soldiers in the southern region are stockpiling food and supplies in case armed clashes break out, according to the news agency, Wa soldiers now on leave reportedly have been called back to duty. Wives and children of Wa soldiers have been sent out of potential conflict zones. - Source: Irrawady News

The agreement between Burmese and Wa army had expired last month. The Wa people aware of the impending arm conflict start sending their children across the borders to Thailand for safety. Parents do not even know if they will see their children again.

For lack of better terms I called our ministry a "mini-orphanage" it is because our original intention is to provide a home for a limited number (not more than 8) of orphans and abandoned children. But in the light of the impending crisis, we could not reject children who came to us for shelter. Hence, we end up with twelve children from age four to eight and we know what the phrase "cheaper by the dozen" means.

The question people are asking us now is how are we going to provide for these children's daily needs knowing that we are receiving limited support. Just like George Muller who expected God's miraculous provision on a daily basis running his orphanage. We trust that God will do the same for us.

Presently, we are sending five children to a Thai school and the rest are going to Grace Home Kindergarten Center (GHKC). All of the children speak Wa except for Tina who speaks English, Thai, Burmese, Wa and Tee Lek who knows little Thai and fluent with Burmese and Wa. For the mean time, they serve as our interpreter until they learn to speak English, Thai, Burmese or Tagalog or we learn to speak Wa. Whichever comes first.

We know that it will take a miracle to provide food, shelter, clothing and education for these children but we believe that with your prayers God will accomplish the impossible.