One of the staff members tends the garden.Some of the kids play in the beautiful front yard of the home.These little hams love to pose for the camera.The children gather to sing a song before bedtime.The kids dress in matching uniforms and head off to school.Hilltribe widows live and work on the grounds of our beautiful Wiang Pa Pow campus.

Mike Flinchum translates a message of encouragement from Eddie Hastings, a pastor from Chet's Creek Church in Jacksonville, Florida.Kids from the Hot Springs orphan home relax in the cool of the evening.Tim and Eddie from Florida chat with Pastor Suradet (the home's father), Mike and Deb Flinchum (ministry advisors) and Pak McCollum (son of Executive Director John McCollum) in the dining pavilion. Pastor Suradet leads the band during a service at Hot SpringsThe kids from Hot Springs enjoy the new games brought by visitors from the U.S.

The staff and kids enjoy an outing to a local pool.The kids love learning new songs and dances.The kids prepare to sing in church, many of them in their traditional tribal attire.The staff prepares a delicious spicy meal for guests.

In August, the kids and staff at DS3 welcomed two new children, Tep and Bow. You can read more about them here.

Tep and his new mom.

These girls sit in the shade and escape the hot afternoon sun.

Pastor Boon stands in front of the nearly-constructed new home.The new home is pictured on the left; the old one is in the background.

The kids join together to sing on Sunday morning.

Boys at DS2 enjoy playing soccer after school

(front to back) Dob (Asia's Hope staff), David (Director Tutu Bee's son), and Pak (Exec Director John McCollum's son) seek a little shade on a hot Thailand day.The DS2 girls enjoy playing with Xiu Dan McCollum (in orange shirt), a visitor from the U.S.

The kids from DS2 join all of the other Doi Saket kids for a Sunday morning service.

The kids and staff enjoy beating Executive Director John McCollum in an evening game of Skip-Bo.The children enjoy dressing up in their traditional tribal attire (plus some decidedly non-traditional tiaras) to sing a song in church on Sunday.

Kids from Doi Saket 1 enjoy swimming at a local pool

Boys from DS1 enjoy playing "Takraw," a popular and difficult sport that has been described as a mix between soccer and volleyball.The kindergarten and preschool kids prepare a special song for church.

The girls enjoy hanging out on the porch in front of their home.The high school kids play and sing for a Sunday morning service

The middle and high school boys love playing soccer on the large field at the back of our DS1 property. The new security wall -- provided by funds raised by Asia's Hope Canada -- can be seen in the background.

Pastor Mike Flinchum and I spent the afternoon at a hospital with Michelle, Zack, Ying and Tutu. She is still experiencing seizures, and the doctor has increased her medications.

The doctor has also asked the family to accept that there is a long road for Michelle ahead, and that she will likely experience a variety of developmental issues.

Please continue to pray for healing for Michelle. Pray for her parents, Zack and Ying. And pray for Tutu and Asia's Hope's leadership as we consider how best to help Michelle and her parents as they face an uncertain future.

Michelle with her grandmother, Tutu (Director of Asia's Hope Thailand)

Please join me and Asia's Hope Thailand in prayer for Michelle, the 5 month old daughter of Zack (one of our staff) and granddaughter of Tutu, our Thailand director.

Michelle has suffered from seizures since birth. She also has some other delays. Her medication has for some time helped to control the seizures, but last night she began to experience some seizures again.

She was admitted to the hospital today, and is currently in the ICU. We are all very concerned about her. My wife and I will visit her in the hospital tomorrow and ask God for a miraculous intervention.

Please pray for immediate and complete healing, and for rest for her family's bodies and minds.

Thanks,

John McCollum, Executive Director, Asia's Hope International

Thanks to the ingenuity of our staff and the generosity of donors from Canada, we recently opened our first ever gemstone-cutting vocational training program for our older kids in Northern Thailand.

We already offer weaving, silversmithing and other training, and believe that this will provide the children in this program with skills that will provide them access to well-paying, high-skill jobs in the future.

As the kids' skills improve, we may make some of their products available for sale to reinvest in their education and to make the program available to more of our children.