hey guys... a lot of people have been asking about how they can help and be a part of this organization that we have teamed up with here in thailand (life impact international). so below you will find their most recent needs list that they have. hopefully this will help those of you that were asking about it to see where the are needs. also, i just want to reassure anyone who is considering giving that this organization is beyond legit and changing lives everyday... literally.
Baby’s Home-7 babies:
Baby Safe Home Play area and mat flooring- $800
Rent for the month-$156
1month supply of wipes- $82
1month supply of diapers-$180
1month supply of formula-$300
1 month’s salary for a care giver (mom)-$125
Emergency Shelter- 4 single at-risk mothers, 1 family
Rent for the month- $218
Play area and mat flooring for the children- $700
Sewing Machine for vocational program/emergency shelter (At-risk woman and young girls)- $150-$325
2 water coolers (for the land and emergency shelter)-$100eachx2= $200
Bicycle- $125
Land-
Chainsaw- $320
Bamboo & Wire for temporary secure fence- $200
Start up repair costs- $3,000
Safe home- 22children
Rent for 1 month- $250
1 month’s salary for a house mother- $125
Cyclone Nargis Orphanage (Burma)- 49 children
Budget for 1 month- $1,500
University Scholarship for poor village students:
Tuition for 6 months- $250, $320, $650 (3 students)
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Monday, June 7, 2010
a brilliant idea!
matt here - kristine and i were laughing about how we catch ourselves trying to speak the foreign language we know with the thai and burmese people here. so when we are trying to communicate with them kristine tends to want to speak in spanish because it is foreign to her yet she knows it and i want to use sign language because it is foreign yet i know it. however, this would get us no where with these people! all that to say, we have decided that everyone in the world needs to know sign language! every language has a word for say "ball," yet there would only be one sign for ball no matter what language you "speak." it's brilliant! everyone in the world could communicate so easily! just know your native language and then sign language and you will be communication with everyone. not to mention, i could tell the guys at the land that a i need a tool and not have to search the whole 23 acres for it myself! hahahah
any given day...
kristine here - alot of people have been asking us, "what do you guys do on a daily basis?" it's a good question. there really is no answer because it literally changes day to day. For example, one day we were all at the land and the men were working when we got a call that a mother of two children already with Life Impact had given birth that morning and didn't want her baby. so some of us went yet again to the same Burmese clinic where we got baby long life and were going to see what the situation was. We had just arrived when we got another phone call saying that one of the burmese girls that lives at the children's home but works at the women's shelter teaching them how to sew, got picked up by police and is in jail. so half of us went to the police station to try and get her out. this of course isn't every day, but often at any given moment on any given day, things happen and when they do, they happen fast and sometimes all at once. this is where God's grace and strength come in and all you can do is pray and watch Him work.
updates are: the mom who doesn't want her baby has been a little manipulative. meaning she has called Life Impact there saying she doesn't want her baby, but when they got there, she said she now wants to see her other two daughters. sidenote is she has another daughter that's two. so story goes like this. she was with a man, got pregnant, there was not enough food for them so she started breastfeeding her two daughters and the man got angry she was using "his" baby's milk to feed her other two children so would beat the two little girls. that's why Life Impact has them. Now she has another baby with this man, and he's out of the picture. he's gone to Bangkok and word on the street is that when they leave to go there, they don't come back. So now this mom wants her two little girls to take care of the other two children so she can go "work." A lot of factors play into this situation. first you have mom's history, which probably is a pretty messed up childhood herself and then you have the fact that they are starving and in survival and it's just like, where do you even begin? and how do you help this lady the most? and think of her kids...they are at so much risk. IF they survive past the age of 3, then they have a lifetime of starving, working, raising their younger siblings, stealing until they are old enough and then will either be sold for money, or used as a sex slave to feed their family. it angers me. I have to remind myself that anger will do nothing. compassion and love are the only answers. we can't fix all of their lives here on earth, but we can give them jesus, a gift so great, and they can know that one day, there will be no more pain, no hunger, no evil, no sorrow, no survival... none of that. Jesus can heal them and love them and he is all they need.
the other update about Po Po, that's the girl that was arrested basically cause she is Burmese and beautiful. as we drove there, the driver stopped suddenly and pointed to the ground and there was one of Po Po's shoes all torn up and broken. i felt my heart just tighten. i thought, "no way, it can happen just like that? one random day the police decide to be mean so they take her and can do anything?" yup. that's the way it works for the Burmese. they have no rights. they can't walk in the street alone, they can't ride in a car or on a bike alone, or they will be picked up, thrown in jail, and then deported back to Burma. and this is the life that they choose to have...makes you wonder about the awful things going on in Burma. she sat in the jail for about 2 hours waiting for us and our biggest fear was to get there as fast as we could cause the longer we took the more likely it would be that some police officer or some guy in jail would rape her. I was praying so hard. and again so very angry. if we had gotten there and found out that she had been touched, i was about to kick some serious police butt.(most of them are shorter than me anyways) we got there and she had the biggest smile on her face when she saw us. she told us that she was okay, and no one had touched her. i can't even write this without tearing up. she said, "i no scared, jesus with me. i pray. i no scared." talk about faith. we found out that to get anyone out of prison is about 8000 baht. that's about 240 bucks. after talking a very long time with them, they let her go for free. as we were walking out, one of the police that had picked her up said, "see i have good heart" and pulled out 1000 baht to give her and said, "go buy a new pair of shoes." just disgusting. we were so proud of Po Po cause she wouldn't take it!! the girl has some dignity and won't play into their control games. the other police said he didn't want money, just her phone number, and it's a good thing he said that in Thai (Po Po only knows some Thai). Po Po told us later that as soon as she got put in, there was a man waiting outside that offered to pay her "bail" if she would sleep with him. she said, "i so angry and shouted NO!" but just kept saying how angry she was at him. she's a very strong girl for being about 4ft and 80 lbs. she's smart too. can sew anything, knows english, burmese and thai, and goes to a computer class to learn more. i absolutely love her. the moment we stepped outside of the police station when it was just us, i saw her take a big sigh, and she just held on to Lana (one of the girls) and just said thank you thank you thank you. then she said, "i sorry to waste your time..." and again my heart broke. it was so unbelievable. someone who had gone through all of this, is still thinking about others and their time more than herself. i get cranky if i haven't eaten in six hours cause there is so much to do, and here she is concerned about wasting our time. a very good lesson for me. and quite the experience. I don't know the last time you've been thrown into jail for being cute and american, but maybe next time, when we get so worked up over little things, we can at least be grateful that we don't have to worry about that happening on any given day.
updates are: the mom who doesn't want her baby has been a little manipulative. meaning she has called Life Impact there saying she doesn't want her baby, but when they got there, she said she now wants to see her other two daughters. sidenote is she has another daughter that's two. so story goes like this. she was with a man, got pregnant, there was not enough food for them so she started breastfeeding her two daughters and the man got angry she was using "his" baby's milk to feed her other two children so would beat the two little girls. that's why Life Impact has them. Now she has another baby with this man, and he's out of the picture. he's gone to Bangkok and word on the street is that when they leave to go there, they don't come back. So now this mom wants her two little girls to take care of the other two children so she can go "work." A lot of factors play into this situation. first you have mom's history, which probably is a pretty messed up childhood herself and then you have the fact that they are starving and in survival and it's just like, where do you even begin? and how do you help this lady the most? and think of her kids...they are at so much risk. IF they survive past the age of 3, then they have a lifetime of starving, working, raising their younger siblings, stealing until they are old enough and then will either be sold for money, or used as a sex slave to feed their family. it angers me. I have to remind myself that anger will do nothing. compassion and love are the only answers. we can't fix all of their lives here on earth, but we can give them jesus, a gift so great, and they can know that one day, there will be no more pain, no hunger, no evil, no sorrow, no survival... none of that. Jesus can heal them and love them and he is all they need.
the other update about Po Po, that's the girl that was arrested basically cause she is Burmese and beautiful. as we drove there, the driver stopped suddenly and pointed to the ground and there was one of Po Po's shoes all torn up and broken. i felt my heart just tighten. i thought, "no way, it can happen just like that? one random day the police decide to be mean so they take her and can do anything?" yup. that's the way it works for the Burmese. they have no rights. they can't walk in the street alone, they can't ride in a car or on a bike alone, or they will be picked up, thrown in jail, and then deported back to Burma. and this is the life that they choose to have...makes you wonder about the awful things going on in Burma. she sat in the jail for about 2 hours waiting for us and our biggest fear was to get there as fast as we could cause the longer we took the more likely it would be that some police officer or some guy in jail would rape her. I was praying so hard. and again so very angry. if we had gotten there and found out that she had been touched, i was about to kick some serious police butt.(most of them are shorter than me anyways) we got there and she had the biggest smile on her face when she saw us. she told us that she was okay, and no one had touched her. i can't even write this without tearing up. she said, "i no scared, jesus with me. i pray. i no scared." talk about faith. we found out that to get anyone out of prison is about 8000 baht. that's about 240 bucks. after talking a very long time with them, they let her go for free. as we were walking out, one of the police that had picked her up said, "see i have good heart" and pulled out 1000 baht to give her and said, "go buy a new pair of shoes." just disgusting. we were so proud of Po Po cause she wouldn't take it!! the girl has some dignity and won't play into their control games. the other police said he didn't want money, just her phone number, and it's a good thing he said that in Thai (Po Po only knows some Thai). Po Po told us later that as soon as she got put in, there was a man waiting outside that offered to pay her "bail" if she would sleep with him. she said, "i so angry and shouted NO!" but just kept saying how angry she was at him. she's a very strong girl for being about 4ft and 80 lbs. she's smart too. can sew anything, knows english, burmese and thai, and goes to a computer class to learn more. i absolutely love her. the moment we stepped outside of the police station when it was just us, i saw her take a big sigh, and she just held on to Lana (one of the girls) and just said thank you thank you thank you. then she said, "i sorry to waste your time..." and again my heart broke. it was so unbelievable. someone who had gone through all of this, is still thinking about others and their time more than herself. i get cranky if i haven't eaten in six hours cause there is so much to do, and here she is concerned about wasting our time. a very good lesson for me. and quite the experience. I don't know the last time you've been thrown into jail for being cute and american, but maybe next time, when we get so worked up over little things, we can at least be grateful that we don't have to worry about that happening on any given day.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
squatty potty
this is the new squatty potty that i (matt) installed out at the land. it is the pink thing in the corner and these are the toilets here in thailand. use your imagination... it's called a "squatty potty." they have a couple buildings at the land as of right now out there and the last week or so we have been working to get those buildings livable so there are people out there at all times. unfortunately some of the brass fittings for the irrigation system on the land have been stolen so they need people living out there for security. we also installed lights on the property and continue to work on the perimeter fence. we are hoping to finish the gate tomorrow!
i have adopted the role of head foreman out at the land which is quite hilarious! first because i don't know anything about construction and second because my fellow workers don't speak my language! it's quite an experience trying to figure things out and then somehow relay it to the workers... but i am mastering the art of charades.
the "real" foreman for the whole construction of the land came out this week and will be moving here with his family in the fall. they are from california and have four kids under 6. we really bonded and he is an amazing guy!
pink is the new black for harleys
exhibit A... the whitey mobile. she's a bute.
this is a morning that we documented the kids with their new school uniforms and backpacks that were donated. you can hear in the background the "morning announcements" that go off every morning at 6am.
exhibit B... kristine. isn't she adorable? :)
to the least of these...
hi everyone! so sorry it's been too long since our last update. it's been crazy busy. i don't really even know where to begin. I guess the biggest news is that i was able to go get some great footage of the muslim slums and also skyblue...sounds like a fancy restaurant right? yeah, it's a dump. probably one of the most shocking scenes i've ever seen in my life. as you can see from the last two pics the people there have actually built their homes on top of the trash and live there so they can be the first to go through it and gather the recycling, food etc. out of it. the sad thing is that they don't do that themselves but make their children do it for them. seeing this dump was heavy for me. to think that the children live there, and this was their home just took my breath away. the smell alone was awful enough. i've never seen, touched or played with kids that were so dirty. one kid i could see his bones prominently in his chest and no exaggeration probably 25-30 flies on him all at once. it's hard to explain the scene and i can't wait to show you more pictures. it was an amazing experience...very heavy. matt hasn't seen it yet, so we will be back. and this time i will be prepared with clothes, food, water and maybe a toy. as we were leaving we literally went through our car and gave them everything we could. scrounged up enough water bottles for each of them to have, and they were estatic. i mean like jumping up and down with the biggest smiles. like we just told them they were going to disneyland. all over a waterbottle. it just baffles me.
the first two pics are of the muslim slum. the lliving conditions here are not much better. multiple people, sometimes even families live in not much bigger than 10x10 space. they have to pay to be there, and are overlooked by the muslims. I could feel the oppression just walking through there. the children were as darling as ever as they always are. broke my heart.
long life update
so long life went to chiang mai for surgery but it turns out the doctors wanted to wait to do the surgery... he is set for june 25th. he is now back here with his caretaker and getting used to having people touch him and hold him and talk to him. he is adjusting really well! please pray for him as you think of it.
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