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We serve with the Thailand NOW
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Monday, December 19, 2011

Christmas Family Outreach 2011 at Blessing Home


We and the children and staff of Blessing Home wish you a Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!
On Friday, we celebrated Christmas at Blessing Home with our annual Christmas Family Outreach.  As always, the place was packed to overflowing, and we could not fit everyone in the room.  The children were divided into 4 groups to sing and dance, because it would be impossible to get all of them in the room at one time.  Also the volunteers had to leave the room and go outside or upstairs to make room for the families and guardians of the children.  But that is OK, the more the merrier, especially in Thai culture.


The staff at Blessing Home prepared costumes for the children on a shoestring budget.  We are always amazed at how far they can make a little money stretch.  They made the costumes out of brightly colored garbage bags.  The “hula” skirts and shirts were made by shredding plastic bags with a nail and then weaving the shredded plastic at the top to form neon “grass” outfits.  They looked great.  Teacher Pui is incredibly talented and creative, and we are blessed that she serves on the staff of Blessing Home. 







Church volunteers came midday to start preparations for the Christmas outreach.  We praise God for volunteers from Life Center UMC of Pattaya who sacrificed to come put this outreach on.  And for many of them, it was a great sacrifice.   For example, one of the volunteers, Aun, has a tiny beauty shop in downtown Pattaya (when we say tiny, it is about 5 foot by 10 foot).  Aun gave up earning her living on a Friday, her busiest day, to serve at Blessing Home by styling the hair and doing makeup for the children.  We know that Aun’s sacrifice to the Lord, giving up her most profitable day at her beauty shop, was a sacrifice that will cause her to have to skip many meals over the next week so she can pay her bills.  This is true of many of the Thai church volunteers.  They sacrifice deeply for the Lord, giving out of their need rather than out of surplus.  It is a great honor to serve beside these Thai volunteers, they are an inspiration to us.

Without church volunteers, the ministry of Blessing Home would not be possible.  We are greatly indebted to Teacher Amporn, who is Pastor Banya’s wife.  She volunteers everyday at Blessing Home, because there is not enough funds to pay her salary.  She prepares delicious and nutritious food for the children everyday, visits in the homes and neighborhoods of the children every week.  Every church, every ministry has people like Amporn and Aun whose volunteer service makes an eternal difference.  For New Years Day, it should be a time where we look around at who give themselves sacrificially to make the ministries of the church happen.  Tell them how grateful you are for their ministry.  There are so many times that Sunday School teachers, children’s ministry workers, and other volunteers at church could really use the uplifting words of God’s people, so they know they are appreciated and that they are making a difference for God’s Kingdom.

Church volunteers at Blessing Home's "Beauty Shop" - doing the hair and makeup for the children and helping them into their costumes

Church volunteers preparing dinner

The Christmas Family Outreach is always a huge event at Blessing Home with a  crowd that overflows
After the children had finished their singing and dancing,  there was a gift ceremony where children picked numbers out of a hat to win a prize that had that number.  Every child received a random gift as well as a tin of cookies and a toy elephant.  The toy elephants were made by the women of Campbellsville First UMC in Kentucky.  The elephants are a token of God’s love that the children will take home so they have something to hug at night while they sleep. 

A Blessing Home child with her elephant, a gift from Campbellsville First UMC

Missionary Christine Villa, Teacher Amporn and her husband Pastor Banya with one of the boys


At the end, we all ate Pad Thai (Thai stir-fried noodles) and oranges together.  There is always lots of food, so we send the extra food home with the children and their families so they have something to eat for breakfast the next day.

We thank you for your support of Blessing Home, which saves and protects children from Human Trafficking in the sex and drug trades.  Without your help, many of these children would have no hope. 
We are getting closer to the goal of $144,000 for a new building for Blessing Home.  We have now received over $95,000. 



Donations may be sent by mail or by internet.
Please make your checks out to TMM and send them to:
TMM
P.O. Box 56
Mannsville, KY 42758

Or donate through the TMM website at thailandmethodist.org


Thursday, December 08, 2011

Christmas at the Pattaya Akha UMC

The Pattaya Akha UMC is a special congregation in the United Methodist Church.  It is a church for those of the Akha hilltribe who work and reside in Pattaya.  From the very start, this church has over 100 members in attendance, which is unheard of in Thailand.  God has blessed this congregation and it is a place of strong bonds of fellowship.

We were invited to come celebrate Christmas with this congregation.  They celebrate very early, during the first week of December, because most of the members will head back to the far north in Chiang Rai to be with their families.  Many of the members have children who live in Chiang Rai with their grandparents.  The parents must live in Pattaya to work to send money home to support the family.  So it is a time of homecoming for the Akha people.

There were over 200 Akha people at the Christmas celebration.  Pastor Ahlong had told us that they did not have any funds for purchasing gifts for the children, so the Thailand Methodist Mission made gift bags filled with toys and treats for the 20 children who attend church here.

The Christmas celebration was a great feast and it the members always give us a warm welcome.  These members work hard every day just to make enough to feed and clothe their families and they try to educate their children so that they will have a better future and more good opportunities than what they have had.  The Pattaya Akha people are truly the "salt of the earth" and we ask that you will pray for this congregation. Pattaya is a very expensive city, and it is difficult for them to afford to keep the doors of the church open.  Please pray that God will greatly bless the Akha members and their families, that they will prosper so that they will no longer be in poverty and that their church will thrive.


A Christmas feast


The sanctuary was beautifully decorated.

Christine Villa, missionary at Blessing Home, with one of the Akha members wearing traditional clothing.

Most of the Akha people ate dinner outside on the street, because only a small number could fit inside the  building.

Sherri with one of the Akha members wearing traditional clothing.


Thursday, December 01, 2011

Meet Christine Villa, the new missionary at Blessing Home


Christine Villa on her second day working at Blessing Home.
We have been blessed to receive our first missionary, Christine Villa, who will be serving at Blessing Home for the next 3 months (and we pray God leads her to serve long-term).

Christine is a teacher from Vine Grove, Kentucky (near Ft. Knox), and she has worked hard to do her calling to serve the children here at Blessing Home.  Christine took a year off from teaching to be available to come here to Thailand.  She worked for several months with UPS as a temp worker to earn the funds to come and serve.  What a great a sacrifice for the Lord she has made, and we are honored that Christine is serving with TMM.

Please pray for Christine as she makes adjustments to the culture and climate here.

On a different note, the Blessing Home Building Fund has grown to around $90,000.  We need $54,000 to meet the goal of $144,000.  Please remember the children of Blessing Home for Christmas through family offerings and church offerings and be sure to designate your gift for the Building Fund, if that is your intention. Otherwise your gift will go toward the operating expenses of the ministry.

Remember the Chidren of Blessing Home for Christmas

You can give by sending a check to:
TMM
P.O. Box 56
Mannsville, KY 42758

or online from our website at
http://thailandmethodist.org/