El Shaddai Childrens Home

This was actually Febuary 2009, just found it in the draft file so thought I better post it. (Thailand Daddy) While Dave was here for a 6 week visit we decided to take the kids for a holiday, most of them have never been on a holiday before. We left not knowing where we were headed, we just wanted to get away from home, find a waterfall to play in and just have fun!

 We first went to Kanchanaburi which is about a 5 hour drive from our home. Here we stayed out front of a vacant house, next to the church. We put up our 4 tents; 2 for boys, 1 for girls & 1 for mom and dad. It was so hot the first night, the older boys took turns standing up and fanning the rest of their brothers. Isn’t that incredible………..I wish they were in our tent.
The next day we found our first waterfall………….the pictures tell the stories, the kids just loved it!  The end of death railway at River Kwai.

Tenting at the river Kwai

Waterfall at end of Death Railway

 The next day we went to another waterfall which the kids enjoyed even more…….in  this waterfall are just our kids having fun for hours.

Fun in the water

The next day we went with the fellows from the Thai church and worked, weeding at the rubber tree plantation. (the Thai church is growing both rubber trees and banana trees in order to make income to help financially with all the churches in Thailand) Of course the lil’ ones made a big game of it….it sure was nice for them to be able to run around everywhere.

At the rubber tree plantation

Looking at the River Kwai.

 
Our next stop, pulling up our tents and moving on, we went to Chiang Mai where we stayed in a Bible College as the students had left for their summer holidays. We didn’t have to put our tents up here, we slept in the 1st year classroom………..they even had mattresses for us and fans so we were living in luxury!

At Chang Mai Bible school

again we were looking after our own meals.
ok…going back, at River Kwai, we took the kids across the bridge………they were impressed, but it was soooo hot, it wasn’t fun.

Bridge over the River Kwai.

 
Back even farther………like the 2nd day, we took the kids on an elephant ride. Most of them had never been on an elephant, they had fed them but not got to ride on them. When we went to the elephant place, they told us it was going to be 300baht each, well, we could not afford that. So, we stood down in front of the ticket place and just watched the elephant show that was going on and all the other people going for rides. Eventually, the ticket fellow came and said, okay, we will let you go for 100 baht each. We definetly had favor, so we took all the kids……….Dave & I didn’t really need to go on an elephant ride again - they are so uncomfortable but the kids really wanted us to go. They love having us do everything with them……of course. The pics are a little blurry as we took them with our movie camera but you get the picture!! lol………

Waterfall in the North of Thailand

Then a pic of the entrance of the last waterfall we went to. All our pics for this one are on movies………..

A well loaded truck we saw on our way home.

Notice the hammock for the driver under the load, nothing like built in shade wherever you go!

More coming soon.

To make a difference in some lives! In Thailand thousands of children are abandoned, given away and even sold into the sex trade by families that are unable or unwilling to give them the life they should have. That is a loving, safe home where they can recieve an education to break them out of the vicious cycle of illiteracy and poverty that is sure to happen. Many of our children have come to the home for a better life, some given to us by a family member or the village that they were left with. In many Thai second marriages the children from the first marriage aren’t welcomed to the family so many suffer abuse at the hands of other family members. Many of our children have stories of abuse or neglect that are typical of many children living in the poorer villages in the country. But they all have a few things in common: poverty, little education, large families and sometimes young parents (14-16 years old). We see these problems any time we travel thru the country and plan on making a difference with our children. We know that in spite of our best efforts we still can’t control what our children do but we can give them the choices that can lead to a better life for them and others.

Terry and I (Dave) were first introduced to the El Shaddai 2 family in Thailand (2002) while we were on holidays visiting family and touring the country. It was a couple of days before we were to leave for Canada that we met the children  but we were immediately taken by their smiles.  Then we got an up close and personal tour of the existing facility by the children and noticed all the things that they needed.  Honestly there were so many that we were overwhelmed. Sewage bubbling up in the sinks during rainy season, toilets elevated 5 feet in the air on platforms outside in a shed so that they would flush, torn and decaying flooring, lack of clothing etc the list goes on.  We left there with many questions about what would be the best way to help. (Lord knows we spent many hours both on our trip back and once home trying to come up with a plan). The plan we came up with was  to return in 3 years to help out with our own money to do whatever we could to help make the home better. Whatever that might be we honestly didn’t know. In the meantime the Tsunami hit in 2004 and while it was all fresh in people’s minds  our Pastor (Andrew Picklyk of Bible Truth church in Kamloops) found out about our plan to go help out in Thailand and asked us to lead a team over to help build a new building for the El Shaddai family. A call went out for volunteers interested in joining us and the fundraising began. Our team of ten with help from many others raised $25,000 towards building costs and off we went (everyone at their own expense) to SriRacha Thailand where we spent the better part of three weeks pouring concrete and labouring alongside Thai workers building our present home. We were quite excited about this as we were not just building a new home but participating in a viable plan to provide funding for the home in the long term. We were building  a 5 story building, (four floors of rental rooms, bottom floor the home) that when paid for would provide an income for the Children’s home longterm.

Our new building

Before we even got back to Canada we knew that we being called to help the home on a greater scale, little did we know how much. After arranging for leave’s of absences from our jobs we sold our home and most of our worldly possessions in order to go to Thailand for 2 years. Our jobs originally were to help oversee building construction and provide help to the El 2 family and parents anyway we could. As things progressed we found ourselves busy with the family and noticed that the parents were doing it as a job not as parents. And the children had been through a few sets due to different circumstances but were missing out on the stability and relations that come from a loving home and parents. So in Feb 2007 we officially took over El 2 when the others let us know that they no longer wanted to be the parents. That gave us a family of  13 children and we all squished into temporary housing while we waited for our building to be finished.

Daily family transportation for 13 children, soon to be 20 plus 2 adults.

In October 2007 we were settled into the daily routines in the new home and decided we should add a baby or two to the family (like 13 wasn’t enough) so off we went to the northern jungles. To make a long story short we returned with 7 more children ranging from 4 to 10 years of age to give us a nice round 20 children total. Phew, crazy or what??? We’d been offered 15 children in the one village.

The illiteracy of the people was that many of the people signed the papers with their thumb print. (we didn’t just go scoop babies as we joke to friends) It was all done legally through the ministry and government offices. But you sure see the ral living conditions of the people in these villages, kids picking up leftover cobs of corn after the chickens abandon it to chew on, thatched huts and in general poor hygiene conditions for everyone.

More to come at a later date of trials and tribulations of raising 20 children in a foreign country. Many thanks and blessings to all of our El Shaddai 2 family supporters.

first arrived in northern village in the rain

Thailand Daddy

Love the extra room!

The ’silver bullit’, our truck we’d been driving, was not worthy of taking on the highway, let alone taking the kids to and from school. The frame was badly broken in many areas and it was on it’s last leg. For well over two years our family has been praying for a new van and putting all our fundraising towards that purchase.

We soon realized that God had another plan! We didn’t get enough funds for a van however in reality a truck was what we really needed.

Lets Go!

Dad (Dave) was able to come home to Thailand for 6 weeks and in that time we went vehicle shopping. We test drove both a van and a truck. In order to have a van that would provide for our family it would need to be a 15 passenger van. I(Terry) do all the driving at present and driving that big of a van in Canada would be a challenge parking, etc, let alone in Thailand where there are skinnier roads and more traffic! We had enough funds come in to purchase a ‘new’ truck, get a canopy on the back which is outfitted with air conditioning and stereo speaker, plus put on a hitch. We are very excited about our new truck and riding in style………………

Thank you everyone for you generous donations and prayers! We love you all! God bless you!

8pm had rolled around and the younger children were preparing for bed, 8:30pm is their bed time on school nights. Hannah who is eleven came to me and said “Mom, I need to make and take a stool to school”, “when?” I asked. “tomorrow” …..Yikes!

It always amazes me how when kids have a big project at school that they need our help for they never mention it until the night before. I also do not know why the kids need to do this as they do not know how to cut boards, nail or even have the stuff to do it.

So I went on a scavenger hunt, I found some boards – some from outside and some from my storage room. Then some nails, glue, hammer and saw. SAW…yikes, we don’t have a saw, most people in Thailand wouldn’t have a saw! Then I remembered we had a saw for cutting pipe (hacksaw) however that would just take way to long to cut. Well, it is a miracle, mom did have a skill saw in her room – I had borrowed it before I went to Canada and hadn’t returned it yet. Thank goodness. Peter measured 3 boards out and I cut them. Then the fun really began when all the kids gathered around – they always love watching mom use the saw because they have never even seen one be used let alone by a woman. So, Peter, with the help of his on lookers glued and nailed the stool together. Tadaa……..what a beautiful stool.

The following pictures are of Peter and the other kids watching as the stool came to be. It was so cute and so typical of the things they need to do for school. I doubt any of the other kids in her class made their own.

Hammering Away.

Gather around.

 

 

 .