It's been another great day. I wrote a descriptive and compelling post just a few minutes ago, but lost it due to technical difficulties. Grrr.

At any rate, our morning started with an all-staff meeting, my first as Executive Director. After about 30 minutes of songs and small talk, I opened the Bible to share some words of encouragement. The passage I asked to be read in Thai was Colossians 1:3-9, one which exhorts the recipients of the epistle to continue on in good deeds and faith, and cheers them for their faithfulness.

Unfortunately, the staff member reading the passage thought I asked them to read Galatians 1:3-9, which scolds the Galatian church for foolishly following false teaching and for falling away from the Gospel.

Whoops.

Fortunately, someone picked up on the problem and we got it straightened out before I offended anyone too badly. Over the next hour or so, Dr. John and I poured out our appreciation for our staff and listened to their joys and their concerns. We prayed together, and celebrated God's goodness to our ministry.

The more time I spend with our staff, the more I'm convinced that our organization has a very bright future indeed.

In a few minutes, I'll head up with Tutu, Tamla, Ashley (our intern) and the team from Highview Community Church to visit our farm in Wiang Pa Pow. We'll spend the night and return tomorrow.

We'll be heading up north, so the temperatures should cool down a tad and be close to perfect. Well, I need to go now. My ride is here, and we've got a bit of a trip ahead of us. 

Me and some of my pals at Doi Saket 1Songs before bedtime at Doi Saket 3

Kids' worship band at evening assembly

Pastor Bob Fetterhoff (Wooster Grace) feeding the elephants

For more photos from my last couple of days, click here.

Well, the day has been wild and wonderful. After an early breakfast, we took nearly 100 of the kids to the Maesa Elephant Camp for their world famous show. The kids squealed with delight as the elephants danced, played soccer and painted (yes, painted).

After the show, we headed back to the hotel so I could tend to my ailing stomach and travel-weary body. After lunch and a short nap, Dr. John and I met with Tutu for about three hours to discuss financial and strategic details of our ministries in Thailand. We ran out of time and energy long before we ran out of issues to discuss, but I feel like we got a lot done.

Meanwhile, the kids all got an installment of vaccines -- two shots each. 

We headed out to the main Doi Saket campus for a dinner of sticky rice and grilled chicken. After the meal, we attended an assembly for all of the Doi Saket orphan homes. The kids sang and danced for at least an hour. Bob gave a few words on encouragement, and then Tutu and I handed out prizes to the kids, who were still wincing from their injections. 

The honors ranged from “most helpful” to “best student.” Most of the prizes came in the form of cookies and snacks, but one kid received a guitar for his academic achievements. About two thirds of the way through the ceremony, the lights went out and a wind blew through the room. All of the children danced and sang as the thunder rolled, lit only by an occasional flash from the sky and the dim glow of cell phones.

Eventually one of the staff produced a box of thin, yellow candles. The children gathered in circles and placed one candle in the center of each group. The staff passed around plates of cookies, and the fun continued for at least another hour. Eventually the power came back on, and the party ended and all of us old, tired farangs (Thai for “gringos”) headed back home.

It’s about a quarter after midnight now – I had wanted to post this along with some pictures tonight, but the internet is down. I will try tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, we’ll be heading out of town to our farm up north. We’ll kill a pig, hang with some friends, have a meeting or two and stay the night. We’ll be back the next day.

Thank you all for giving me this incredible opportunity. I can’t tell you how blessed I feel to be able to serve these kids. If I get an opportunity to write when I’m not completely exhausted some day, I’ll try.

God bless you.

Elephants and hypodermics. That's what's in store for the kids today at the Doi Saket and Hot Springs orphan homes. Thanks to the generosity of Pastor Ruth Anne Breithaupt (Highview Community Church), who is paying the admission, we're going to take nearly a hundred of the kids to see the famous Chiang Mai elephant show. The elephants dance, play soccer and even paint portraits. Really.

After that, we'll switch gears from squeals of laughter to just-plain-squeals when we break out the hypodermics to finish up a round of vaccinations. I'll take pictures of all of the day's "festivities" and post them when I have the chance. Tonight, if the jetlag doesn't do me in first.

It really is a blessing to be back here. These kids are so precious to God; it is an honor to serve them on your behalf. Keep praying for us!

Well, I've arrived in Chiang Mai. I was greeted at the airport by Tutu, our national director, one of her sons and one of my good friends from the Doi Saket 1 orphan home. I've checked into my hotel, where I will be joined by Dr. John and Pastor Bob tomorrow afternoon.

I miss my wife and kids already, but it is good to be here and feels like a home-away-from-home. One thing I'll miss from my real home is the steady and relatively inexpensive wireless internet. The hotel charges by the hour. That's better than by the kilobyte, but not by much.

I will probably limit myself to a couple of hours a day of internet access, but I'll try to make those hours worth it with lots of pictures and stories. God bless you all and thank you for your prayers and your support.

Well, thanks to Korean Air's excellent in-flight entertainment systems and Aventis' excellent sleep aid Ambien, the 14 hour flight from JFK to Seoul went by pretty quickly. I'm feeling a bit groggy, but refreshed after a nice, free airport shower, and I'm waiting to board my plane to Chiang Mai.

I'm looking forward to meeting Pastor Bob Fetterhoff (Wooster GBC) and Dr. John Campbell (Asia's Hope executive board) in Chiang Mai. As great as those two guys are, I'm even more excited to see all of our staff and kids.

Although my schedule in Asia is always very fluid, I plan on having an all-staff meeting on Thursday, and then travel to Wiang Pa Pow, where we own a farm on which we will eventually house an Asia's Hope orphanage. We'll stay the night, kill a pig, visit some of the hilltribe villages from which we brought some of our kids, return to Chiang Mai and continue meeting with visiting team members and potential ministry partners. 

There's talk of doing a worship concert at a local prison, but I don't know if final preparations have been made for that. Please keep checking out the blog and make sure you send links to people who might be interested in seeing what God's doing in this part of the world.

Pastor Bob [Fetterhoff, Wooster Grace Brethren Church] and I have arrived safely in Cambodia, and are having a great time. The weather is hot and humid, punctuated by nearly daily rain showers. The rain is not as bad as it could be or has been in the past for which I'm grateful. The food is superior, the fellowship sweet, the mosquitoes and cockroaches only a small bother, and the blessing of seeing old friends again is immeasurable. Kind of gives new meaning to the saying... "Suffering for Jesus." No, we're not truly suffering.

Wooster Grace Brethren Church Pastor Bob Fetterhoff with kids at an Asia's Hope orphan homeSo far the trip has been a resounding success; thanks no doubt in large part to your prayers. The basic objective of this trip was to introduce my friend and former pastor, Pastor Bob, to Asia's Hope work here in Southeast Asia. Let me tell you... he has been introduced.

It would be hard to decide what the high point of the trip so far has been. I guess it would have to be time spent with the 152 precious, smiling, loving, hugging, giggling, inquisitive orphans under the care of Asia's Hope in Cambodia. It reminds me of that old beer commercial (sorry for the reference) ..."life doesn't any better than this". Amen.

Anyone over the age of 30 will remember the time of the Vietnam War, the national unrest, and endless newsreels of soldiers and jungles and death. But our worst fears and nightmares pale in comparison to the nightmares of Cambodians during that time. For these people, theoretically uninvolved in the conflict, suffered daily at the hands ofbothof the opposing sides of the Vietnam conflict. And in the late 1970s, as if this wasn't enough already, the nation suffered under the brutal communist rule of the Khmer Rouge. This "revolution" resulted in the genocide of 1 1/2 to 2 million Cambodians. Anyone over 30 in the country of Cambodia can tell a story of their struggle for survival, of family members and friends who did not survive, and chronicle the horror experienced by all.

We visited the Toul Sleng genocide museum in Phnom Penh. Right in the middle of the city is the former high school which in 1975 was converted to a torture and prison facility for the Khmer Rouge. Enemies of the revolution were tortured in unimaginable ways (vividly and graphically displayed at the museum) in order to extract a fabricated confession which would "allow" the authorities to put them to death. It is a sobering monument to the pinnacle of man's inhumanity to man.

Today, we experienced the opposite... the glory and grandeur of God's hand at work. Asia's Hope and Wooster Grace Brethren Church dedicated the opening of Grace Orphan Home in Battambang, Cambodia. This home opens with 27 beautiful children who will experience a future far different from that which they were destined for before coming to Asia's Hope. After a time of worship, singing, and celebration, Pastor Bob, myself, and Savorn (our country director) cut the ribbon dedicating this facility to God's glory and the future of the children it will house.

Tonight, all 152 children residing in our five orphan homes in Battambang, the staff, and our team will celebrate with a party of roasted marshmallows, dancing, and fireworks. I have been to one of these celebrations before, and I can tell you it is a real treat. To God be the glory.

So in a few short days, we have seen the worst man can stoop to and the nobility man can aspire to when working with God! Quite a trip.

Before accepting the directorship at Asia's Hope, I kept another travel blog. If you're interested in reading about my previous trips to Cambodia and Thailand, you can check it out here.

Hello! My name is John McCollum, and I'm the co-founder and Executive Director of Asia's Hope. I'll be heading off to Asia to check in on our kids and staff on May 4, 2009, and I'll be blogging here regularly, updating pictures and stories of our ministry's work in Thailand and Cambodia.

I've uploaded a picture of my little family. Chien (yellow shirt) is 11 and a half, and was adopted from Vietnam. Pak (striped shirt) is 10 and a half, and is Korean. Xiu Dan is almost 4, and was adopted from China. My wife and I were high school sweethearts, and are in our 16th year of marriage.

We live in the Clintonville neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio.

Keep us in your prayers as we work to serve God, our staff and kids in Asia and the churches who support our ministry. If you ever have any questions about Asia's Hope, or would like to chat, please feel free to use the contact form to drop me a line.