El Shaddai Childrens Home

So do you ever think your kids aren’t grateful for what they have and all that you provide for them? Well we do think so every now and again.  Now all our kids in the home came from different situations, but they all came from poor families. Sometimes they don’t realize just where they’d be if we hadn’t taken them into our home. We’ve struggled at times trying to come up with a way of educating them about this without point blank telling them “ Look this is where you would have ended up, sex trade workers, drug addicts etc”

So we thought one of the best ways would be for the children to work with under privileged children to see for themselves what their lives could be like. Through the Ministry we have made contact with some groups and Terry started taking the kids to different events. One of these was over the Christmas period. A lady from our International Church in SiRacha has an out reach in Pattaya (about 1/2 hr away) for children and needy people every Saturday. For Christmas she had Santa come and give out gifts for the children. Terry took our children to this event to help out and let our children see up close what happens with these children.

Terry called me after to relate some of the things that happened to her during the celebration and I thought I’d pass them on. At the beginning she was standing just watching the goings on and a little boy came up to her and kept tapping her leg. Once she looked at him he just proceeded to lean up against her and watch too. Once he was called up to Santa to get his gift he brought it back to Terry, he’d never had a gift before and didn’t know anything about unwrapping it. Terry showed him what to do and he was off to the races, amazing how fast they learn. There was 115 kids there so it took awhile to pass out presents, during that time Ter sat down in a chair. Not long after a little girl comes up to her, pulls Terry’s arms off her lap and proceeds to climb up onto her lap. As soon as she sat down she leaned back against Ter’s chest and fell fast asleep. Terry says to me “what gives? These kids just pick me out and settle in” I said because you must look like a loving caring person they can trust, our kids giving her hugs and kisses might have had something to do with it. 

Our kids came home with a different outlook after they mingled with kids that suffered daily abuse, got pimped out for a parents next fix and  slept on the streets when they had no safe place to go. You have to realize that Pattaya is the sin city of Thailand and these kids are exposed to it all day after day, year after year and many have no choice as they are forced into some kind of service. Terry came away with many different stories of  people dropping their kids off at the outreach as they needed somewhere safe for them. Women showing up beaten by their spouses or boyfriends and returning to them so they don’t hunt them down and possibly kill them.

In the end we hope it sinks in to our kids that it could definitely be worse for them, even if  they do think it’s so tough sometimes.

Another thing Terry did with the kids was to bake ginger bread men and then go carolling around the neighbourhood and hand them out. Interesting times were had by all, many people tried to give them money for singing (turns out when some other groups do this they expect to be paid).  They couldn’t get that we wanted to bless them and their families in this time of giving. After all that’s what Christmas is all about!

Christmas morning

Christmas tree

In the end it does our kids good to get out and help others.

Dave

I hadn’t hardly been home and Mom texted me to say that the kids were just wound up like crazy. At first she thought it was because the weather was cooler but ??????? Who knows, maybe it was because Dad had just been there? Christmas is coming? They had been out of school for a few weeks? You just never know do you? Or was it because Mom was feeling lost without her husband there so things were driving her crazy?

Anyways things have settled down to a dull roar in the home again, the kids are back to school which is another story.  I would say for another time but I won’t. So here it is. The schools set home a questionaire for the parents to vote on what time they wanted the students to stay at school until. As it was the children were done at 3:30 which gave the children time to do homework when they got home before supper. But with going to school until 5:30 they wouldn’t have much free time for anything before supper. Of course the extra time at school is supposed to be for doing homework and studying.  But from past years when they’ve done this we know it’s just a fooling around time for the kids due to the lack of supervision. Of course most of the Thai parents want the later days so they don’t have to go get their kids until later.  Terry filled out the forms for all of our kids saying that we wanted them home at 3:30. So after the kids returned the forms to school the teachers had them fill out their own forms. Then one of the teachers told Hannah that she’d give her another form for her mom to fill out again. This was because she filled her’s out saying that she wanted to go to school until later and the teacher said your mom will change her’s too then. Hannah said ” Not Mom, she’s already filled out the forms and she won’t change”. But we knew what the decision would be as they did this every year. LOL :)  It sure makes a long day for the kids, 8 till 5:30 even the ones in kindergarten. It does give us more time to do things during the day but it is hard on the kids.

It’s amazing  how things work, kids find things to do no matter what. Like the one of the last days I was in Thailand, I come around the corner to find most of the younger kids throwing rocks. Okay throwing rocks by itself is no big deal but when they are throwing at a sibling, sitting on top of the swing set, it’s a big deal. Now he (Isaac) was playing it safe, he had a 5 gallon bucket over his head. I guess that’s how all the rocks end up on the neighbour’s roofs.

Just like the picture of the kids playing in the rain water they found coming down the mountain while we were out camping at Kok Chang Island. They had a great time in the water and they didn’t need any fancy computer games etc to do it, just an imagination and someone else to do it with!

Anyway’s I watched the kids open their stockings on Christmas morning from my daughters in Canada and they all seemed to be a little more relaxed, not so wound up. Just having a great time with family.

So from our family in Thailand to your family wherever you may be over these Christmas Holidays. MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!