Integrated Ministries for Ethnic Minorities Foundation (IMEMF)

Prayer and Praise for August, 2010

 

I am so grateful for each of you who come alongside all of us in Thailand in prayer and financial support.  I wanted to share a story from this past month so that you know your actions are impacting our kids at the House of Love.  This past month, everyone at the HOL sat down together to talk about changes that could be made in our home life.  Someone suggested that we not have worship and prayer every night, but make it less often, and another child was quick to say, “Don’t you want to eat?”  She went on to remind everyone that God is the one who is keeping us in this beautiful home and taking care of our needs, and we needed to be praying and worshipping nightly.  How wonderful to learn the lesson that going to God in prayer and then seeing His provision is a necessary part of our family life here.  We are blessed.

                                                                                                                                                                               

Praise and Prayer Points:

         I know if you are in America, schools are on summer holiday—but here in Chiang Mai, we are already at the halfway time for the semester.  Please pray for all of the kids at the House of Love (HOL) that they would do their best on mid-term exams.

         A praise from the Christian Center for the Development of People with Disabilities:  a proposal for funding to build a vocational training center and handicraft store was submitted to the Japanese government, and it has passed the first round of approvals.  Please pray for the next step - the foundation that owns the land must approve our director, Khun Saylo, to be able to oversee the process and have the authority to sign for the foundation. 

       Thank you for praying for our House of Blessing day care staff who added 10 new students from a different urban community this past month.  Our health project staff have worked in this community already, and we look forward to strengthening our ties with them as the  children come to the HOB daily. 

         A few year ago, a Norwegian volunteer had a creative solution to helping our House of Blessing daycare students to stop working at nighttime, begging in the night market.  The problem was that the families needed the income from these preschoolers in order to buy food, but because the children were staying up so late, they were too tired to come to school.  So, in exchange for rice, parents of student s sign a contract that their children won’t work on school nights, and the program has been very successful.  We are grateful for friends in Norway providing this money for rice on an on-going basis.

         “Ahead of schedule” was something we did not expect to hear—but the women’s apartments will be ready for our 2 women to move into as soon as the electricity is hooked up in the next week or so—both Meedor and Panang are very excited about their new home!  The boys’ dorm/daycare a classroom building also continues to move along with plans to be using the building by October.

         The Health Project teams are finishing up a 2 year phase of a project for clean water, sanitation and mosquito nets.  Please pray for them as they work to evaluate the effect these changes are having on the villages they work in.  Please also pray for us as we look into the possibility of having the staff take training to be child protection policy trainers. 

         Last month, I asked for prayer as I was considering the timing of returning for a visit to the US this summer.  I am convinced that my trip should come later in the year now, and I do want to thank you for praying for me.