El Shaddai Childrens Home

First of all we’d like to thank everyone that donated towards the home and had their name entered in the draw for the picture. The picture was sketched in Chang Mai and is of two “Hmong hilltribe children”. It held special meaning to us as most of our children are Hmong and seemed to be loved by everyone who saw it.

Hmong Hilltribe children

The winners are from Edmonton’s Victory on The Rock Church.

Congratulations Evelyn and Bruce

Thanks for your support.

Terry, Dave and the EL 2 children

This is a guest post from my daughter Jenn of her visit to Thailand. It’s a little old from last spring but I’m trying to get them all out of the drafts. May 31st, 2009 I boarded an airplane in Vancouver BC with my 12month old Daughter Joy. I was prepared for the 20 hour flight (including layovers), however I was nervous about traveling for the first time with my Daughter alone. As it turns out Joy is actually a joy to travel with (parden the pun). Unlike many of the babies on board the flight she stayed in the basinett playing, sleeping or being goofy with her mom. Travelling with a Baby is exhausting to say the least, however you are given ’special’ treatment. We were wisked through security in Bangkok ~ we got to go through the locals line instead of the foreigners line. It was so nice to finally arrive in Thailand, we had to wait at the gate for the baby stroller before heading through security, however I was done with sitting and needed to stretch my legs, I think I got to security before the rest of the flight regardless of them leaving the plane earlier than us. A nice Thai gentleman helped me gather my bag from the carousel ~ looking tired with a baby that looks to be ready to throw a tantrum helps get help. I finally reached my Mom, Peter, and David. After hugs and a currancy exchange we were into the truck and headed ‘home’.

In Thailand there are no seatbelts, so not much use for carseats. I held Joy in my arms like the ‘older’ days. I have to say I always found carseats a bit of a pain (besides the uses for safety), however by the end of the 2 week trip I don’t think I’ll complain again. A wiggling toddler who has a mind of her own makes you enjoy strapping them in!

The first morning came early, Joy wasn’t wanting to sleep regardless of her tiredness. Mom got up and took the kids to school (Peter and Mary work at home now so they remaind behind).  The first day was spent sleeping mostly, Joy was determined not to switch the 14hour time change so I got alot of rest in that first day. The days ended up flowing together and this is an example of ‘everyday’ with my Mom and the kids;

5:30am Mom and I would go exercise at the park near by ~ the first day the ‘zooming’ on the motorbike at 5:30am sure woke me up in a hurry!

Return home to quickly shower, have a coffee, make sure all the kids have lunch money and out the door to School. It takes 45minutes to drop the kids off at the 4 different schools. There is so much more traffic than usual during the drop off at school and pick up times that they even change roads to one ways just for that hour!

Return home to make sure Mary and Peter know what they are supposed to do for the day. She sometimes gets time to sneak in some internet time here. Breakfast and lots of chores. Mom was busy with Mary’s help, I don’t know how she did it before she had her help. There is always cleaning, laundry, sewing, shopping, cooking etc to be done. Mom is also taking Thai lessons so she can learn the language and further her relationships with the kids. Lunch and errands usually wrap up the afternoon. Then it’s time to go get the kids. Again another 45minutes just to get them, if they are all waiting at the gates like they are supposed to be. When the kids get home they change out of their school uniforms and into casual clothes. Their laundry is spread out over the couches in the living room and they each pick through and gather what is theirs. Mom usually has to call out their names repeatedly as they always miss a few items of clothing. It is rather amusing to watch them all digging through the laundry calling out to the others identifying whose is whose.  Dinner and Mom spends time with the kids. 16 kids is a lot to spend special time with each one. The kids do their homework and everynight there is family time(after showers). Mondays they have a Thai cell group, and the other days of the week the family just gathers around, sing some worship songs, read about God, talk and just visit with one another. Then they do any last homework and their chores (if they didn’t do them in the morning like they are supposed to). The kids have 3 different bedtimes depending on their ages. Soon it’s quiet and everyone is asleep and the doors are locked. We didn’t stay up much past the kids as all that noise and activity sure wears you out!

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!