Pastor Kevin Pinkerton and the kids from Doi Saket 4

It’s early morning on my last day in Thailand. It’s been a bit of a blur. And while it seems that I’ve been away from home for far too long, it also seems that I’ve left quite a bit undone. There are people I had hoped to meet, issues I wanted to address, kids I wanted to hang out with and staff I wanted hang out with – but it’s time to leave.

Andy and I spent the last few days with Pastor Kevin Pinkerton. His church in Fremont, Ohio sponsors our Doi Saket 3 and 4 orphan homes. Without his church’s support, we would not be able to provide food, clothing, education and shelter for 40 incredible kids.

It’s been a amazing to see Kevin with his kids – he and his church have only ever seen the kids through a video screen or computer monitor; the kids have, until this week, had only a vague impression of the church. Kevin’s visit has put some flesh on the bones of the relationship – it’s been a real incarnation.

He can go back to his church and say “I’ve been there. I’ve seen it. I’ve felt the heat of the Thai sun, I’ve hugged every one of those kids.” And the kids now have a tangible representation of God’s provision and the love of the church that supports them. The staff feels a sense of camaraderie with their colleagues half a world away, because Kevin has made it clear to them that he considers them to be an extension of his own church’s staff.

I’ve spent somewhat less time with the kids from the other homes than I might if I hadn’t been hanging with Kevin all week, but I’ve long realized that there’s never enough time on each trip to do everything.

This afternoon, Andy and I will be flying back to Cambodia to wrap up a couple of loose ends and then we’ll be heading home, arriving in Columbus on Saturday morning. My to-do list is daunting, and I’m sure I’ll be swamped when I get home. I am a tired guy with too much work on his plate, but I am so grateful that God has called me to this work. I can think of things that would make my life easier, but I can’t imagine a better job.

Well, despite relatively fast and widely available internet access, Thailand has not yet provided me much time to blog. We’ve been here for what? three days already? and have been busy from just after sunup to way-past-sundown. 

On our second day, Tutu invited some of the kids from Doi Saket 1 and 2 orphan homes to swim with us at our hotel pool. Everyone had a great time, forgetting language barriers for about four hours until the kids had to go back home and the white guys had to rest.

Yesterday we drove about an hour and a half north of Doi Saket to our property at Wiang Pa Pow. We own (or will own once we pay off the mortgage) about 20 acres in the foothills of the mountains. It’s a beautiful plot of land that we’ve already started to develop.

We’ve refurbished the farmhouse, and will be accepting kids into a new home, Wiang Pa Pow 1 (Sponsored by Wooster Grace Brethren Church), in about two weeks. We’ve also planted 6,700 mulberry trees, which will provide the food and lodging for about 100,000 silkworms. We’ve also started a silversmithing project that will provide hilltribe widows and orphans profitable vocational skills. Andy Taylor has been helping Tutu and I develop sketches for the property’s master plan.

There are many things to do – but the first is to actually pay for the property. We have a contract and we’ve been paying interest on the mortgage, but we need to raise about $100,000 to own it free and clear. In Thailand, loans and contracts can be pretty exotic financial vehicles; we’re hesitant to develop the property much further without the deed in our hands.

This morning we’ll be visiting some other silk farms to see how it’s done. I’m thankful for the Queen of Thailand – she has funded a project that is designed to train hilltribe people in silk production and the creation of other traditional handicrafts. The Queen’s people are helping us already, but will be even more involved once our mulberry trees mature and we’re ready to start making silk in earnest.

We’ll also do some other research related to vocational training and microenterprise projects, and then it’s off to see the kids. We’ll be visiting Doi Saket 1, 2, 3 and 4 and perhaps making the drive to see our kids at Hot Springs. 

I’ll post more pictures later, including ones of the pig we killed (well, our guest Chris Ramos from Back2Back ministries was the one with the spear in his hand) and butchered at the farm. Bloody, but fascinating.

And delicious.

To get another's perspective on this trip, you should read Andy's blog.

Here are some pictures of our trip -- if you're a FB user, you can join the Asia's Hope page. If not, this could be a great time to start!

It would be impossible to recount all of the past few days’ events even in the scantest of detail, but it should give you some idea of our pace to know that we were in Siem Reap yesterday, Battambang this morning, Phnom Penh this evening and will be traveling to Chiang Mai via Bangkok tomorrow. 

This trip has been much more hectic than most of my others, thanks mostly to the ambitious excursions we planned – all the kids from the four Prek Eng homes went with us by bus to the beach at Kampong Som and all of the five Battambang homes traveled with us to see the Angkorian temples at Siem Reap. We enjoyed so many sweet moments with the kids; I only wish I hadn’t lost more than 200 photos from our time at Angkor Wat. 

I’ve played more games of freeze tag, follow-the-leader and hangman than I can count. I’ve had literally thousands of hugs. Each child is so precious, each director so amazing – I’m at a point of overload. Yesterday we said “goodbye” to the kids in Battambang, including the precious ones from Battambang 1 I first met years ago. It was difficult, but not as much as it was on my first few trips – I know I’ll be back soon. 

Tomorrow we leave the Prek Eng kids and start all over in Thailand, where we will meet a whole bunch of children I’ve never even seen at our new Battambang 4 and perhaps even at the just-being-born Wiang Pa Pow 1. I’ll have to switch from “Chum reap suor” to “Sawadee krup.”

Tonight I had a wonderful dinner at Le Duo with Ted Olbrich from Foursquare Children of Promise. They have more than 100 orphan homes in Cambodia, and lots more experience and knowledge than any of us. He ratified a lot of my thoughts and opinions about ministry here and challenged others of mine. I look forward to many years of ministering with him here in this country.

And I’m minutes away from an evening snack with Joe Crawford a member of my church – Central Vineyard – who is on holiday from his teaching job in Thailand. 

Life is complex. Life is good. The task before us is so daunting that only God could accomplish it.

More later.

It’s a beautiful day in Battambang, Cambodia. It’s been raining for the past week, but today the sun is shining, presiding over a nearly cloudless sky. And, for the first time since I arrived in the country, it’s hot. Very hot.

Last night’s assembly with the kids was wonderful. Andy and I walked away refreshed and encouraged. And to wake up to such beautiful weather, one can really feel the newness of God’s mercy that he promises to send us every day. 

In a few moments we’ll be meeting up with Savorn and going to visit our BB2 and BB3 homes. After a couple of hours we’ll head over to see where some of our older boys are learning the silversmithing trade. I’ll talk with their teacher and try to negotiate some of the details of an upcoming order for our Trade Justice Mission jewelry co-ops.

And then tomorrow, it gets crazy. We’re loading all of the kids and staff into a caravan of mini-buses and heading off to see the Angkor temples at Siem Reap. None of the kids have ever seen the temples in person, but they’ve all learned about them in school. Cambodia is very proud of Angkor Wat, and all of the kids are thrilled to make the trip.

I don’t know what my schedule will be like over the next few days; I don’t know whether I’ll have internet or not. I’m praying that all goes well with the travel arrangements for Chris Ramos, a representative from Back2Back Ministries in the U.S.; he is planning to meet us in Siem Reap, travel back with us to Battambang, then to Phnom Penh, then to Chiang Mai. Quite a few stops, quite a few opportunities to lose track of details. Pray that it all goes well.

Oh, and I’m having camera troubles, so it may be a while before I post any more pictures. But I’ll have a couple hundred to post when the time comes.

Okay. I’m off. Peace.

It’s 3pm on Thursday afternoon, and I’m lying on the bed in my hotel in Battambang. This has been my first rough day of this trip. I have a headache, and I feel a little sick to my stomach. Andy and I spent all morning playing with the kids, and now we’re taking much needed a mid-afternoon rest. I’m beat.

Today I feel like one of Jesus’ disciples on the day He fed the 5,000, pre-miracle. “Give them something to eat,” He said. “How are we supposed to do that? We don’t have anything for them,” they said.

Like the disciples, I find myself forgetting who I’m working for, and what he’s capable of doing. I focus on my own resources and on my own abilities, and I look at the hungry people and start to panic.

There’s never quite enough money. Never quite enough energy. Never quite enough mental capacity to remember all of the little details: names, dates, dollar amounts.

Sometimes I feel very strong, very capable and very much at the top of my game. Today I feel like the game is moving just a little too fast for me. Tonight, I’m hoping to catch up. I’m praying I’ll be filled up. The kids are planning a special assembly tonight. There’ll be dancing, singing, skits and ice cream.

I pray I’ll be fully present. I want to just soak in God’s goodness reflected in the smiles and songs of the kids. I want to trust Him to provide and believe that He is in charge. I want to see Him do some sort of a miracle, some sort of a multiplication of resources. I want Him to take center stage and take both the glory and the pressure.

Amen.

It’s about 8:30 at night in Battambang, but it feels much later. I still haven’t completely gotten over the jet lag. I can get up in the morning and feel fine, but I get sleepy early at night and tend to wake up a lot. That’s one of the reasons I’m not doing a particularly good job at blogging. That, and the intermittent quality and duration of internet connectivity is keeping me from updating as often as I’d like.

I am, for the very first time, not staying at the venerable TeO, Battambang’s most established hotel. Vando, one of our orphan home directors, booked us at a brand new place called The President. For its grand opening, the hotel is offering some kind of promotion, and we’ve landed ourselves in a ridiculously large room for $17 per night. It’s very Cambodian, whilst trying very hard to be Western.

There’s an extensive list of regulations and requests including “Thanks for not using towels for cleaning foots or as a cigarette astray” and “It’s also prohibited to carry out sex trade.” I can’t speak for the towels, but the latter seems to not be enforced here at The President.

At any rate, it’s good to be back in this town. I love the people, and I enjoy the relatively sleepy pace; I just wish they would move it closer to Phnom Penh. The 6-1/2 hour bus ride was grueling, and Andy arrived here feeling quite under the rainy and surprisingly chilly weather. While he rested, I went to our main Battambang campus and enjoyed a large and late lunch with our staff.

I spent the next couple of hours hanging out with the kids at BB1 (sponsored by Westview Bible Church in Montreal), BB4 (sponsored by Wooster Grace Brethren Church in Wooster, Ohio) and BB5 (sponsored by Western Reserve Grace Church in Macedonia, Ohio). It’s been raining non-stop for the past few days -- we’re getting the remnants of the typhoon that has devastated other parts of Southeast Asia – so our campus’ outdoor common areas are now more marsh than park. I joked with Savorn, complementing him on his beautiful volleyball pool.

So, instead of playing giant, unruly games of volleyball, capture the flag or even duck duck goose, I visited each of the homes that share our main Battambang campus and sat quietly with the kids and told them the following things:

1. I missed you all, even the new kids I haven’t met. I think of you all the time, and pray for you day and night. I am so glad that we are part of a family, and I look forward to returning to see you again and again, and I am so happy that we are going to know each other when you have grown up and I have grown old.
2. For those of you who are new here, I want to tell you that you will always be welcome here, always safe, and always have enough food to eat. You will get an education, and you will have opportunities for a good future. Your mom and dad and brothers and sisters love you and will take care of you. When you are sad, you can talk to your brothers and sisters, because their life has been very similar to you. And you can always talk to God, because he loves you and always watches over you.
3. You have many people in North America who love you as well. When I walk into your sponsoring churches, what do I see? Pictures of you! Those churches are so proud of you, and they pray for you all the time. When they have Sunday morning services, they talk about you. When the pastors get together for meetings, they pray for you. And Asia’s Hope has a board and many supporters who pray for you often as well.
4. My wife and kids wish that they could see you. I wanted to bring them this time, but we could not raise the money. But we are working hard to raise funds, and I pray that next summer they will be able to all come to visit. You will love my wife. I am very loud and funny. She is gentle and sweet and has very good hugs.

We joked, we jostled, we hugged. I whooped them up into cheers for this Saturday’s excursion to Angkor Wat, and then I left and returned to the weirdly shabby elegance of The President Hotel to rouse a recuperating Andy for dinner.

I’m hoping that the rain stops today and we can run and roughhouse with the kids. If not, we’ll find some quiet indoor games. Or maybe we’ll just ignore the rain and play outside anyway…