“O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His Name together.” – Psalm 34:3 (NASB)

Thailand recently celebrated their New Year holiday and we too enjoyed having a little time off. It ended up not going as planned as a fire occurred in the refugee camp near Grace House (not too far from Tiff’s parent’s village) just before we arrived. There are about 10,000 people in this camp who are refugees due to the fighting in Burma. Over a 1,000 of them lost everything in the fire. April is considered the hot season and it is also one of the driest months in Thailand. So when a fire broke out in one of the bamboo homes, it quickly spread and engulfed 200 homes and buildings. Thankfully nobody was hurt but it was devastating to the families. Normally the government doesn’t allow for any visitors to enter. But because of the emergency, they allowed us to enter in to assist. We are also thankful for all of you who partnered with us to provide quick aid and relief to the families.   This included bags of clothes, food, mosquito nets, mats, kitchen items and more.

Campfire: homes and a school for 300 children completely destroyed

Providing and delivering supplies inside the camp

In addition to helping with supplies, we are also working with a local church to visit with the fire victims and minister to their needs over the weeks to come. In the meantime, great work has already started on rebuilding homes and helping these families through this trial. Please continue to join with me in lifting these families up in prayer!

Homes being rebuilt

“The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.” – Matthew 25:40 (NASB)

Grace House Highlight

With the kids out of school, we also had the opportunity to cool off a bit lately with a trip to the waterfall and pool with a bunch of kids from the village.  It was a great way to relax in the 100 degree heat and make some lasting memories. While I’m sure the kids enjoyed their free time, our highlight was just spending time with them and seeing how they have matured and grown over the past few years.  

Summer Fun

In addition to our weekly bible studies and fellowship times, we’ve both been active in our studies. I’ve been hitting the Thai language studies much more recently to try to accelerate my understanding. So far it’s been beneficial and I’m seeing results. So praise God for that. Tiff is finishing up her second semester and has year-end projects and finals coming up. So please be praying for both of us.