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.

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!

Mary cutting.

The school system in Thailand is not even comparable to the school systems in Canada. Last week I was called to the school on three separate occasions to talk with Peter’s teachers. One night all the grade 9 and grade 12 students that had ‘zero’s’ and their parents had to come for a general meeting. Zero’s are achieved from the classes that the kids have failed exams, not attended the classes or not handed in homework ~ they had failed the class.These zero’s are kept throughout the years from grade 7 to 9 and from grade 10 to 12. The meeting was to find out what the kids could do in order to get rid of these zero’s. The students need to fill out a paper and to go to each of the teachers and get a project that they need to do in order to pass the class. Now some of these kids have many, many zero’s ~ our son Peter, in grade 12, has 8 zero’s. However one of his friends has 28 zero’s and the father of the boy asked the teacher what could he do to pass- the teacher made a horrid face and said no - he has failed! What they needed to was get the course, the teachers name, the assignment, get it initialed by the teacher and when he has completed it he is to get it initialed again by the teacher.

John taping.

Peter so far has completed 5 of his zero’s. He has a math test to do for one of them and he goes every lunch hour to work on 2 others that are in English.

Here are some pictures of the job he had to do to get rid of one of his math zero’s. He did have two choices, he could either sweep the teachers classroom for one week during lunch or do a ‘future board’. He couldn’t do the sweeping(whatever that has to do with math??!!) as he is taking these other English courses so then he choose the future board. Again, I am not sure what this has to do with math and it cost us money for all the supplies and he had a brother and sister helping him on it. Mary must of spend 4 hours just cutting out those little creatures and John put all the 2 sided tape on everything - Peter did the rest.

Peter working hard.

Wow, eh, isn’t it pretty??!! The kids have to do these regularly and I believe all it does is teach them how to cut and past. Oh well, again we are in their country and the kids have to do what they are asked. We will be so happy when all is said and done and Peter will of graduated(which isn’t like what they do in Canada it isn’t a celebration over here - they do nothing)

The finished product ~ Future board

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.

 

 

 .

Setting the Tree up

“In the beginning God created the heavens & the earth”  Gen. 1:1   (CEV)

“And with this Word, God created all things.  Nothing was made without the Word.   Everything that was created received its life from him, and his life gave light to everyone.    John 1 : 3

” Christ is exactly like God, who cannot be seen.  He is the first-born son, superior to all creation.  Everything was created by Him everything on heaven and on earth, everything seen and unseen, including all the forces and powers, and all rulers and authorities.  All things were created by God’s Son, and everything was made for Him.” Col. 1 : 15-16   

The “stand” represents the “axis” holding the tree in place, until the Master Designer decides to disassemble.

” God’s Son was before all else, and by Him everything is held together.”

  Col. 1 :17

The “star” on top represents   the “star’ that led the wisemen to Bethlehem.  It also signifies that Christ is the “Bright and Morning Star” and He is not only over the entire world, but entire universe.

“I am Jesus” And I am the one who sent my angel to tell all of you these things for the churches.  I am David’s Great Descendant, and I am also the bright morning star.”  Revelation  22:16

David, Mark, Mary, and Peter

The “lights” all around the tree represent:  “Christ is the light of the world”  John 12:46

And we as Christians (Christ’s ones) are members of that “light of the world”. And we are to shine unto the world with Christ glow/love.

” You used to be like people living in the dark, but now you are people of the light because you belong to the Lord.  So act like people of the light and make your light shine.”   Eph. 5:8

Isaac, Esther, and Matthew

The “bulbs” all around the tree represents the people in the world, all over the world whom Jesus was born to die for, red & yellow, black & white all are precious in His sight…. English, Irish, Scotch & Jew, Polish & Italian, too.

  “Since we are all God’s children”  Acts 17:29

The “garland” represents the long, long journey the wisemen took when following the Star to Bethlehem, but also, the long journey mankind takes when they are searching to fill the void in their life that only Christ the Savior can give them.

“A thief comes only to rob, kill and destroy.  I come so that everyone would have life, and have it in its fullest. ” John 10:10

“and I give them eternal life, so that they will never be lost.  No one can snatch them out of my hand.  John 10 : 28

“eternal life is to know You, the only true God, and to know Jesus Christ the one You sent.”  John  17:3

“We know that Jesus Christ the Son of God has come and has shown us the true God.  And because of Jesus, we now belong to the true God who gives eternal life.”       1 John  5:20

The “gifts” represent the gifts that the wisemen brought to the Christ Child and also the greatest Gift given.  God the Father sent His Son to be the propitiation of our sins, because of His love to all mankind.  If He so loved us, He commands us to love one another, so we practice by giving to one another. 

“God showed his love for us when he sent his only Son into the world to give us life.  Real love isn’t our love for God, but his love for us.” 

1 John 4:9,10

And to those brethren in Christ who do not regard Christmas celebrations I say  ” But each of you should make up your own mind.  Any followers who count one say more important than another day do it to honor their Lord.”

Roman  14:5b, 6a

“Whether we live or die, it must be for the Lord.  Alive or dead, we still belong to the Lord.”  Romans 14:8  

Victor, David, Ruth, Esther, Hannah, Isaac, Jessica + Matthew

They love Tinsil!

<Biblical quotations are from the “Contemporary English Version”>