Spreading the JOY

One of our passions while traveling is to try to spread love. One of the ways we do this is by finding a place where we can spend some time helping out in some small way. Usually we get way more out of "helping" others than we can possibly give. This trip the intentionally planned visits will be to two places. Both being small orphanages in Asia. The first one is called Home of Joy.

http://www.ywamthai.org/chiangmai/joy_video.html


I met Kathleen from the Home of Joy when I was at a mission conference with my friend Sarah in N.Y. last fall. I talked to her there for  while and by the time our conversation was over. I put my face close to hers and said, Kathleen, I know you have met many people here this weekend. But look closely at my face because you will be seeing it again soon in Thailand.

When we had finalized our plans to go a month ago. I e-mailed Kathleen and reminded her of who I was and asked her if we could come and she said of coarse we could. So we will be traveling to Northern Thailand to the city of Chiang Mia, where we will try to bless Kathleen and the little orphans that live there. The last few times we visited orphanages we had so much fun. Colton and Miranda as so great with the little ones. Playing with them and showing them that they are loved. We will be bringing a few things to do with them while we are there. We can't wait to get there.

We will also be visiting an orphanage is Cambodia. This is a story from a woman who visited this orphanage call The Children of Hope in Cambodia.

 It’s hard to imagine that babies are sold for $10 on the streets of Cambodia.  Randy and his team do their best to bring in as many children as they can fit and feed.  Each day is a faith walk.  Sometimes Randy has no idea where they are going to get enough rice to feed the kids.  But somehow, it always comes.

But the love and support doesn’t stop with the Children of Hope.  There is also a Center of the Arts for teens and twenty somethings called Water of Life.  When the children are old enough, they can live here IF they commit to continuing their education.  Randy and his team of teachers (who are mostly local Cambodian twenty-something, young men that were once his first orphans) teach the kids piano, flute, guitar, singing, drawing, English, writing, computer skills, Internet tools of building websites, and some are even law students. These young men are AMAZING!  They have so much to give the world, and they work harder and study more than anyone I’ve ever known.

The stories go on and on.  All the boys and girls are miracles.  Some of their parents have died, but many of them have been given up because their parents can’t afford to feed the family.  They have experienced traumas that would cause them to sleep with the light on and the door locked for the rest of their life.  And yet, they have risked to love again—to let Randy and his staff in—to believe that there may be more to life than being abandoned—that there is a God of the impossible who loves, has not abandoned them and can heal the most broken of hearts. They are the living testimony that healing like this is real.  They look at you and smile.  They hug you and share their powerful stories, and then they share the hope they hold for their lives—I have never been so inspired in all my life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK4vy0Mxn3Y

We are so blessed to be able to go and meet Randy and the children that he so powerfully helps.  Please keep these places in your prayers and also pray that we can make an impact while we are there.