From GOD: "Please hold this child of mine"

"Okay Lord, we will."

How can there be any other response than this?

A typical Saturday afternoon; thats what it was on October 16th when we walked into the Hand to Hand child outreach centre. Lying on the table asleep before us was the tiniest thing we had ever seen - two day old baby SaiRoong. You instantly fall in love, thats what you do.

Three weeks previous is when the woman who would give this baby life found out she was pregnant. There was no planning and certainly no celebrating for this twenty five year old meth addict. She left this tiny child in the hospital and called Pai, a woman she knows to have a huge heart for at risk children. Pai also happens to be the nursery school teacher at Hand to Hand. And Pai, doing the only thing possible, went and rescued this little girl. She was named SaiRoong, "God's Promise" - it seemed fitting.

SaiRoong's mother claimed all along that she did in fact want to keep her child, just not right now. After having a cesarean section, dealing with asthma, a heart condition, a drug addiction problem, and extreme poverty, taking a two kilo newborn into the slums of Pattaya didn't seem like the best thing. Thank the Lord for that moment of clarity; for just two and a half weeks after having SaiRoong, she was arrested for possession of crystal meth with the intent to sell. She was sentenced to Nong Palai jail for an undetermined period of time.

Now what? At two weeks old, SaiRoong had came to live with us full time. The first thought in all of our minds was to see her placed in a permanent home, being adopted, but the mother would not agree. She wanted someone to take care of this baby and then hand her back as soon as she was released. Back into a life of extreme poverty and uncertainty. Dean and I along with Baylee and Julia prayed and talked with our co-workers at Hand to Hand. None of us had peace with the idea of pouring everything into this child just to have it all ripped away in the end. Our family was ready to love her as our own for as long as God would have, but not to give her back to a drug addicted, selfish mother. She would have to agree to enter into a drug rehabilitation centre upon her release and also look for housing outside of the slum she was living in. This seemed like a reasonable and workable solution.

Last Monday, I accompanied Pai to Nong Palai jail. We sat across from SaiRoong's mother separated by a thick sheet of glass, talking to one another using the phones attached to the counter. She bowed me a greeting and I her, smiling at one another. "This woman could be my friend" I thought as I looked at her in her new home with compassionate eyes. She looked back at me with tear filled ones. Her first words to me were "thank you", to which I replied "we love this baby, and want only what is best for her. Please, can you want what is best for her too?" I asked Pai to explain to her that no one would be okay with caring for her baby for the duration of her sentence only to hand her back into the same situation. If she expected us to keep SaiRoong and give her back, then she would have to agree to drug rehabilitation upon release. Her response shocked me. She instead said that she would release the baby for adoption. I don't know if it was because God impressed upon her heart that this could be the one lasting gift she could give her daughter or if she just wasn't willing to give up her current lifestyle. We chose to believe she made that choice out of love.

Baby SaiRoong is still with us, for how much longer we really don't know. But she holds firmly within the tiny clasp of her palm all four of our hearts. She will hold them forever.

OUT FROM THE DARKNESS

My eyes were characteristically drawn to the lower darkened corners of the side streets. This is where you typically find children. They run along the shop walls in groups of three to five selling anything from birds to chewing gum. This night however, my eyes found ten month old Walee sitting on her 28 year old mother's lap. They were tucked away behind a parked car; out of the way of police officers views. Kneeling down to stroke the baby's cheek we start asking questions of the mother, Moo.

"Are you Cambodian? Are you safe? Do you have enough to eat? Are you part of a begging ring and is this your child?" Were questions that started us on the journey of returning Moo and Walee to Poipet and the rest of their family. We found that Moo had entered Thailand illegally after running out of money to feed her family. Her husband had left her with three children, two months after Walee was born. Feeling as though she had no other option, and hearing of the wealth in Pattaya she decided to leave her two older children with her mother.

Now her days were spent hiding in her shared apartment and her nights were spent hiding from police and relying on the generosity of tourists to earn not only enough to house and feed herself and Walee but also to send back to Poipet for the rest of her family. We told her that we would return to her spot shortly to talk to her more and see how we could help her. She was surprised to see that we held true to our word and returned with a sweater and milk for her baby and a hot meal for her.

Sitting right down on the sidewalk with her, we learned the conditions of Moo finding her way to Pattaya and how she was living and working. When we asked her if she wanted something different she started to cry and told us that really she just wanted to go back to Poipet to be with her children. When we offered her the opportunity to go back to Cambodia and enter into a training program where she would be taught to run her own business and then given the capital to actually start one, she was skeptical that we would actually follow through. When we assured her that we in fact would - one way or another - she then wanted to know why we would do these things for her.

What a way to share the love of Jesus! We told her Jesus loves her so much that he sent us to find her and help her. In the days that led up to her actually leaving for Poipet, I met with her personally on several occasions. Each time she asked more and more about Jesus and we never parted ways without praying over both her and Walee.

We sent Moo and Walee off with enough money to see them both safely on the other side of the border as well as for food for her entire family for close to a month. Dean was in Poipet a week later to meet up with a team and while he was there he was able to talk with the founder of CHO (Cambodian Hope Organization), the organization that would train Moo to run her own business. By faith, he left enough money for Moo's training as well as food for six months.

There are so many men, women, and especially children that need help and a hope, that at times it seems overwhelming. How can you walk past desperate pleas or hopeless eyes staring blankly due to hunger? But how can you possibly help them all? Someone I admire once said, "you show up, you just show up". And that is what we are doing here in Pattaya, we are showing up. And we will continue to show up and love them until they ask us why.

"All that it takes for evil to prevail is for good people to do nothing"

Edmund Burke

Into the Den

Lucky is the first street child that we came in contact with in Pattaya. Pattaya Praise was in full swing and we were down on Soi 6; one of the busiest streets in the bar district. He seemed to come out of nowhere, he was just at our feet all of a sudden. Bending down to talk to him, he gave me a beaming smile and pointed to the candy I held in my hand.

I asked a lady sitting outside a bar if she knew who the little guy was and who he belonged to. Her answer saddened me, but did not shock me. His name was Lucky and he didn't belong to anyone, he simply lived in the bars. The story went that his mom died when he was born so a lady took him home from the hospital and "cared" for him. By "caring" for him, she had him roam the streets begging and selling. This same lady then looked me square in the face and asked me if I wanted him! Finding Dean in the crowd I told him of this little boy. We didn't really know what we could do at this point. We had no way of taking him home with us and no one in the ministry who was able to either. The one thing that we knew we could do for him at this very moment was pray for him, so we did. Before too long he scampered off into a bar, making it very evident that he did in fact live in the area and he was known by many.

Even though we left Soi 6 and Lucky behind, he was never far from our thinking. Two weeks later during prison outreach I met a couple who lived and worked in Pattaya. They have a heart and ministry for street children and on learning this I shared with them all about this little boy. They were very interested in finding him so I described him as best I could and they went down to Soi 6 that day. They went up and down the street but just couldn't find him. Not wanting to give up, they called and asked if I happened to have a photo. Sending them the same one you see now, they headed back out desperate to find this little boy. They went into brothels and bars up and down the street showing people his picture, asking for help, letting people know that they cared and wanted to help. No one would even admit to knowing who or where he was.

When they told us this, our hearts sank. What happened to him? Where did he end up, and who took him? Was he sold? Traded? Or worse? People on that street knew who this boy was and what happened to him; he lived right there with them, how couldn't they have? How could they not want to see him receive an opportunity for a real childhood and a future? How could they not unless they knew it was already too late. Lucky is gone, and no one is talking. How often does this happen? Far too often to not do something about it. We cannot let another child fade into the dark.

We have spent the better part of 2010 praying and seeking God - asking how He was going to set us loose into our calling while under the ministry of Pastors Al and Terry Purvis. It would be a completely new focus for the ministry here and in the end, we felt it wasn't fair to ask them to stretch the already stretched resources even further. With God's peace, we asked for a release from the ministry here, and with their full blessing they gave it to us. During the annual staff orientation Pastor Al asked us to share our heart and vision with everyone who is a part of the ministry in Sriracha. They all gathered around us laying hands upon us and prayed for us and our mission. We are still very much a part of the Victory Church here in Sriracha, we attend services faithfully every Sunday, and Royal Oak Victory in Calgary is still our home and sending church. Our support is still being run through A&D World Missions in Lethbridge. All the release means is that we are free to focus 100% of our energies on why we are here - at risk and enslaved children.

With the release from the ministry in Sriracha came the release from this small city as well. Although we never pictured ourselves living in Pattaya, it became clear rather quickly the benefits of being in the city we would be ministering in. The drive from Sriracha to downtown Pattaya is an hour each way; coupling this with four to five days of ministry each week, not including emergency cases, it seemed prudent to start looking at housing closer to Pattaya. As soon as we started investigating a move we learned just how beneficial being right in Pattaya is going to be. Any ministry having anything to do with at risk and enslaved children is found in Pattaya. These are ministries that we will be working with or alongside of, so to be available to one another is priceless.

We have found a house that we believe the Lord chose for us. It is close enough to everything that it will not be a hassle to get where we are needed but it is also far enough out of the city centre that we won't feel like we are living right in the "thick of things". And as an added bonus, both Baylee and Julia are very excited about the move as it means they are closer to their new friends plus there is a much larger community of families with kids their own age. The one down side to living in Pattaya is that our cost of living goes up a bit. We are saving in fuel costs, but our rent has more than doubled. (Please take note of our address change on the side bar).

We feel like it has been a year of preparation and we are excited and we are ready to move into this ministry. There will be plenty of opportunity to join with us in this work, so if you ever want to jump into a short term mission experience, send us an email. Our initial focus will be to see children trapped in street begging rings rescued; this too is a deep-rooted problem. Often children are kidnapped or sold into these rings where they are forced to work all night long in the bar districts selling cigarettes, candy and even birds, to bar patrons. Often being fed only one meal a day and they keep none of the money that they earn. The girls are taught to be very "touchy feely" with people; even with women, I myself have experienced this and have had men in other ministries describe how very young girls, even four or five years old, will come up to them and try to sit on their laps hugging them and running their hands over them, trying to sell gum! Oh how God weeps when His children's innocence is stolen!

One ministry that we will be partnering efforts with is Extreme Prophetic; we will be part of an outreach team that is focused on identifying and rescuing children enslaved in begging rings. More often than not, these kids are from neighbouring Cambodia, Myanmar, or Laos. Because they are here illegally they can not and will not go to the police for help as they know that they will simply be thrown in jail and the cycle will be repeated. Extreme Prophetic has a brand new safe house in Thailand that is specifically for foreign children. Dean is going back to Poipet, Cambodia in November and will be networking with Victory Missions regarding the Not for Sale safe house there, as well as an organization called CHO - Cambodia Hope Organization and Hope for the Nations. Our hope is to join forces with these very valuable ministries and work together towards the same end - giving children back their childhood.

Above all, we implore you to pray for our family. We quite literally will be working in the devil's house and with that comes an enormous need for a solid covering of prayer. Please pray that our family will be bound together with cords that cannot be broken. Pray that our marriage remains strongly planted on Christ the Rock. Please pray that Baylee and Julia's minds are protected from the horrors of what can be done to a child and please also pray that they continue to discover God's call on their own lives here in Thailand.

We pray that you will stand alongside us with your prayers and finances. Your support means more to us than we could ever describe; it is what keeps us on the front lines of this fight. We have said before, and we stand firmly on the belief that not all are called to go, but all are called to serve and when we partner together for Kingdom advancement we all share the same blessings. Without "senders" there cannot be "goers".

One immediate need that we have right now is support for Fulgence Nsengiyumva. He is the young man that we met in Rwanda. He was a huge asset to the children's home there and was incredibly generous with his time and talents; not only in regards to the needs of the home but to the children as well. Fulgence has always had a real desire to better educate himself and has worked diligently to achieve high grades. When the opportunity arose for him to come to Thailand to study at the Bible college he did all that he could to get here. It has drastically changed his life, and he works very hard, not only for himself, but also his family.

Tuition is very affordable compared to North America but it is still a very large sacrifice for our family as we ourselves are supported. $1160.00 covers his entire year of school, this includes tuition, a shared dorm, and three meals five days a week. If you are able to take this on, or help out in any way, please email us and let us know. Sowing into Fulgence is sowing into Rwanda; his heart for his country is to work with the men and women in prison, serving sentences for crimes committed during the genocide; these would be the same people who killed members of his family and many of his friends. His vision is to see those imprisoned receive the forgiveness that only Christ can offer and for them to have a real understanding of how much they are loved. All giving to Fulgence's education is tax deductible.

Please consider partnering with us in Thailand with your finances. If you have considered helping but never taken that step of faith, commit it to prayer and action and join us in this Great Commission Destiny. All giving is tax deductible. Please email us just to chat or if you have any questions about our ministry here or financial accountability, we always enjoy hearing from you.

With great appreciation for you all; and our prayers for your continued blessing,

Dean, Kathy, Baylee & Julia

God cannot change but our assignments can...

Because much of the ministry here is focused on the Bible college, it goes without saying that things tend to slow down between May and September. This was a good time and opportunity for Dean to head back to Canada to touch base with family and friends and for myself to take Baylee and Julia on a holiday/mission trip to Northern Thailand. It was the first time I had ever ventured to take the girls anywhere that far from home for that long, alone. We saw many great things, met some truly wonderful people and had our share of adventures. We made balloon animals for hill tribe children, dug out a water run-off way up in the hills, visited some temples, swung through treetops like gibbons, broke bread with some great new friends involved in child rescue, and even went tobogganing! We had a lot of fun and really enjoyed our "girl" time but it still could have been better had Dean been with us.

Dean returned to Thailand at the beginning of July with a few tag-a-longs, his mom and dad and Brittney came back with him to spend two months with us!

We have had a good amount of time to build on some new friendships and contacts made within the child trafficking trade here in Thailand. It seems now that everywhere we go, God is opening doors for us to meet people who hold fountains of knowledge in this area. It is wonderful for us to know that although this is new to us and the ministry we are under, it is not new to many other people who are more than happy to share their knowledge and resources with us.

The last 4 months seems to have been a "hold on and wait for what I have for you" season. We have felt for several months now, really since the beginning of 2010, that the fall would bring breakthrough, and we are more than ready for the Lord to advance us into the positions He called us here to fill.

However, in the mean time, we have had a wonderful time spent with family, showing them all we have experienced this first year in Thailand. We were also able to go into Cambodia as leaders of the 7 Weeks in Asia team. It was an incredible time and a real eye-opener for Dean's mom and dad and especially Brittney. We visited village churches where we played and prayed with the children, even seeing the healing of a small baby!

A trek into the slums brought us to an oasis, a free Christian nursery school. There, the kids sang us "Father Abraham" in Khmer and we taught them the ever famous "Let Me See Your Funky Chicken" complete with actions. We had tug-of-wars and sac races... it was muddy and oh, so much fun! And of course, nothing is ever complete until you have had a snack and a balloon animal.

We went to the CDC - AIDS clinic where we laid hands on many, saw one man delivered of spirits and one woman accept Jesus! The woman who is now the Lord's just wept and hugged me tightly after. When we first went into the clinic she was laying on her bed, hopeless and sick. After, as we were ready to leave, she was up sitting on her bed with her mask off, smiling and chatting and eating a banana! The man with the spirits was sitting on his bed staring at us with no life in his eyes, as soon as we gathered around him and laid hands on him to pray he started to shake, knowing that there was something not of God on him, we commanded in the name of Jesus that he be left alone, and the shaking stopped. When we were done praying he explained, through our interpreter, that he felt as though something was leaving upwards through his body and out the top of his head, and that he felt so much better now. It is amazing how your eyes are opened to the reality of the spiritual world when you live in a place that is culturally, so far away from God. It makes His faithfulness all the more prominent... you cannot, no matter how hard you pray or how loud you yell, cast out a demon in the name of Buddha.

Every single day, all day we were busy. We painted the church, visited a children's home and a Village of Hope that has been set up by the same organization that runs the nursery school. The Village of Hope is a place where widowed women who are affected by HIV/AIDS can go and live with their children. It is a completely Christian community where everyone lives as family and looks out for each other. It truly is a remarkable place and an awesome ministry.

Our time in Cambodia was finished with a bit of fun and sight-seeing with a trip to Siem Reap to climb through the ruins of Angkor Wat, considered one of the seven wonders of the world.

Now, with less than two weeks to the start of a new ministry year we wait with anticipation on how the Lord is going to release us full-time into our calling: rescuing under age children from Thailand's notorious sex trafficking ring. We are full of ideas and willingness, now all we need is the "go!"

To do this without you is not a possibility. We need your prayers and your financial support. In the fall Dean will be going to Chiang Rai for undercover training as well as into Cambodia to meet with a ministry involved with safe homes and safe havens (safe villages, not just individual homes). The training, along with under-cover missions all cost money and to keep this ministry going strong we need a solid foundation of financial partners. Please, seek God in how He would have you partner with us in this, and be faithful to what He has called you.

All giving is tax deductible. Please send cheques made out to:

A & D World Missions

P.O Box 26010

Lethbridge, Alberta

Canada T1H 6H4

*Make sure to write "Torgersons" on the memo line.

Also, please follow this up with an email to us if you wish the funds to go towards something more specific. Ie; surveillance equipment, travel expenses, under-cover investigations, etc...

Thank you so much for your faithfulness and generosity towards our family, it keeps us on the front lines.

Dean, Kathy, Baylee & Julia

WE HAVE A NEW BLOG POST COMING SOON.... WE PROMISE!!!

Into the Den

Lucky is the first street child that we came in contact with in Pattaya. Pattaya Praise was in full swing and we were down on Soi 6; one of the busiest streets in the bar district. He seemed to come out of nowhere, he was just at our feet all of a sudden. Bending down to talk to him, he gave me a beaming smile and pointed to the candy I held in my hand.

I asked a lady sitting outside a bar if she knew who the little guy was and who he belonged to. Her answer saddened me, but did not shock me. His name was Lucky and he didn't belong to anyone, he simply lived in the bars. The story went that his mom died when he was born so a lady took him home from the hospital and "cared" for him. By "caring" for him, she had him roam the streets begging and selling. This same lady then looked me square in the face and asked me if I wanted him! Finding Dean in the crowd I told him of this little boy. We didn't really know what we could do at this point. We had no way of taking him home with us and no one in the ministry who was able to either. The one thing that we knew we could do for him at this very moment was pray for him, so we did. Before too long he scampered off into a bar, making it very evident that he did in fact live in the area and he was known by many.

Even though we left Soi 6 and Lucky behind, he was never far from our thinking. Two weeks later during prison outreach I met a couple who lived and worked in Pattaya. They have a heart and ministry for street children and on learning this I shared with them all about this little boy. They were very interested in finding him so I described him as best I could and they went down to Soi 6 that day. They went up and down the street but just couldn't find him. Not wanting to give up, they called and asked if I happened to have a photo. Sending them the same one you see now, they headed back out desperate to find this little boy. They went into brothels and bars up and down the street showing people his picture, asking for help, letting people know that they cared and wanted to help. No one would even admit to knowing who or where he was.

When they told us this, our hearts sank. What happened to him? Where did he end up, and who took him? Was he sold? Traded? Or worse? People on that street knew who this boy was and what happened to him; he lived right there with them, how couldn't they have? How could they not want to see him receive an opportunity for a real childhood and a future? How could they not unless they knew it was already too late. Lucky is gone, and no one is talking. How often does this happen? Far too often to not do something about it. We cannot let another child fade into the dark.

We have spent the better part of 2010 praying and seeking God - asking how He was going to set us loose into our calling while under the ministry of Pastors Al and Terry Purvis. It would be a completely new focus for the ministry here and in the end, we felt it wasn't fair to ask them to stretch the already stretched resources even further. With God's peace, we asked for a release from the ministry here, and with their full blessing they gave it to us. During the annual staff orientation Pastor Al asked us to share our heart and vision with everyone who is a part of the ministry in Sriracha. They all gathered around us laying hands upon us and prayed for us and our mission. We are still very much a part of the Victory Church here in Sriracha, we attend services faithfully every Sunday, and Royal Oak Victory in Calgary is still our home and sending church. Our support is still being run through A&D World Missions in Lethbridge. All the release means is that we are free to focus 100% of our energies on why we are here - at risk and enslaved children.

With the release from the ministry in Sriracha came the release from this small city as well. Although we never pictured ourselves living in Pattaya, it became clear rather quickly the benefits of being in the city we would be ministering in. The drive from Sriracha to downtown Pattaya is an hour each way; coupling this with four to five days of ministry each week, not including emergency cases, it seemed prudent to start looking at housing closer to Pattaya. As soon as we started investigating a move we learned just how beneficial being right in Pattaya is going to be. Any ministry having anything to do with at risk and enslaved children is found in Pattaya. These are ministries that we will be working with or alongside of, so to be available to one another is priceless.

We have found a house that we believe the Lord chose for us. It is close enough to everything that it will not be a hassle to get where we are needed but it is also far enough out of the city centre that we won't feel like we are living right in the "thick of things". And as an added bonus, both Baylee and Julia are very excited about the move as it means they are closer to their new friends plus there is a much larger community of families with kids their own age. The one down side to living in Pattaya is that our cost of living goes up a bit. We are saving in fuel costs, but our rent has more than doubled. (Please take note of our address change on the side bar).

We feel like it has been a year of preparation and we are excited and we are ready to move into this ministry. There will be plenty of opportunity to join with us in this work, so if you ever want to jump into a short term mission experience, send us an email. Our initial focus will be to see children trapped in street begging rings rescued; this too is a deep-rooted problem. Often children are kidnapped or sold into these rings where they are forced to work all night long in the bar districts selling cigarettes, candy and even birds, to bar patrons. Often being fed only one meal a day and they keep none of the money that they earn. The girls are taught to be very "touchy feely" with people; even with women, I myself have experienced this and have had men in other ministries describe how very young girls, even four or five years old, will come up to them and try to sit on their laps hugging them and running their hands over them, trying to sell gum! Oh how God weeps when His children's innocence is stolen!

One ministry that we will be partnering efforts with is Extreme Prophetic; we will be part of an outreach team that is focused on identifying and rescuing children enslaved in begging rings. More often than not, these kids are from neighbouring Cambodia, Myanmar, or Laos. Because they are here illegally they can not and will not go to the police for help as they know that they will simply be thrown in jail and the cycle will be repeated. Extreme Prophetic has a brand new safe house in Thailand that is specifically for foreign children. Dean is going back to Poipet, Cambodia in November and will be networking with Victory Missions regarding the Not for Sale safe house there, as well as an organization called CHO - Cambodia Hope Organization and Hope for the Nations. Our hope is to join forces with these very valuable ministries and work together towards the same end - giving children back their childhood.

Above all, we implore you to pray for our family. We quite literally will be working in the devil's house and with that comes an enormous need for a solid covering of prayer. Please pray that our family will be bound together with cords that cannot be broken. Pray that our marriage remains strongly planted on Christ the Rock. Please pray that Baylee and Julia's minds are protected from the horrors of what can be done to a child and please also pray that they continue to discover God's call on their own lives here in Thailand.

We pray that you will stand alongside us with your prayers and finances. Your support means more to us than we could ever describe; it is what keeps us on the front lines of this fight. We have said before, and we stand firmly on the belief that not all are called to go, but all are called to serve and when we partner together for Kingdom advancement we all share the same blessings. Without "senders" there cannot be "goers".

One immediate need that we have right now is support for Fulgence Nsengiyumva. He is the young man that we met in Rwanda. He was a huge asset to the children's home there and was incredibly generous with his time and talents; not only in regards to the needs of the home but to the children as well. Fulgence has always had a real desire to better educate himself and has worked diligently to achieve high grades. When the opportunity arose for him to come to Thailand to study at the Bible college he did all that he could to get here. It has drastically changed his life, and he works very hard, not only for himself, but also his family.

Tuition is very affordable compared to North America but it is still a very large sacrifice for our family as we ourselves are supported. $1160.00 covers his entire year of school, this includes tuition, a shared dorm, and three meals five days a week. If you are able to take this on, or help out in any way, please email us and let us know. Sowing into Fulgence is sowing into Rwanda; his heart for his country is to work with the men and women in prison, serving sentences for crimes committed during the genocide; these would be the same people who killed members of his family and many of his friends. His vision is to see those imprisoned receive the forgiveness that only Christ can offer and for them to have a real understanding of how much they are loved. All giving to Fulgence's education is tax deductible.

Please consider partnering with us in Thailand with your finances. If you have considered helping but never taken that step of faith, commit it to prayer and action and join us in this Great Commission Destiny. All giving is tax deductible. Please email us just to chat or if you have any questions about our ministry here or financial accountability, we always enjoy hearing from you.

With great appreciation for you all; and our prayers for your continued blessing,

Dean, Kathy, Baylee & Julia

So This is Songkran

It has been a month full of Culture to say the least.

April is, from what we have been told, by far the hottest month of the year. So how do the Thai's handle it? Well let me tell you! They take an age old tradition that started as a honouring ceremony whereby they slowly poured water over the elderly and a century later it has become an all out, no holds barred, government sanctioned, water fight. Yup you read that right, a water fight that takes place for an entire week throughout the whole country of Thailand - no place is safe!

This means that if your only mode of transportation is a motorbike, then you are very likely to get wet, and you will, as every street is lined with people, because everyone gets the week off of work, they are all armed with water guns, buckets, bowls and hoses. Their artillery? - empty oil barrels filled with shaved ice and water. If they are going to douse you, its gotta be chilly or whats the point!?

The main Songkran festival travels across the country slowly with each city and town picking its main day to play. This year all the bible college students, a few leaders and Baylee and Julia got in on the action, when enjoyed with safety in mind it can be a lot of fun and a great way to stay cool. But here's the problem, there is not a lot of care given to people's safety. If you are deep in concentration driving your motorbike through crowds of people and you don't notice the truckload of people loading their buckets and taking aim then there is a dangerously good chance that you are going to get knocked off your bike and possibly into oncoming traffic.

Here is something to ponder; with 21 dead in Bangkok protests, it's called a 'State of Emergency', while 212 died in the first four days of the Songkran Water Festival and it's called a 'successful party'. On day four they were eight deaths under quota, this was reported in the local news with a slightly disappointed tone. How's that for irony?

To end the Songkran Festival here in Sriracha they have a huge parade. This year Julia and Jan Jan, one of the students from Philippines, were our Thai princesses. It was crazy hot and I thought Julia may actually pass out at one point but it was still a lot of fun. It was a really great opportunity to get out into the community and make known all that the ministry here has to offer. We handed out, I am sure, thousands of fliers for all the different ministries we have here. Everything from the english outreach centre, to our music school, youth programs, apartment building and nursery. The entire city of Sriracha now knows all that we have to offer them!

April 24th marked the very last day of classes for VBCI-Thailand for the 2009-2010 school year. Sunday night was the graduation ceremony held at the church with a huge feast that followed. It was so great to see Fulgence as part of the student body. Even though he was only here for the last two months of school, he fit in so quickly it was like he has always been here. He has not had any issue with keeping up in class and consistently earned A's and B's in all the classes earning him a spot in the top five students.

With school now over until the fall, Fulgence has moved to our house and will live with us for the summer. He has gotten a job as a night security watchman for the dormitory for the month of May which is great as we are still in the process of finding him some sponsorship. If God lays this young man on your heart, please pray for him and pray about the possibility of helping him financially with his education and living expenses while he is here in Thailand. All giving is tax deductible.

Dean is heading back to Canada in just under three weeks. We have flip flopped back and forth several times about whether or not the girls and I should join him. Mostly due to the unrest here but the fact still remains that is it very expensive to travel and we do have Fulgence to consider, so it looks as though we will be holding down the fort while he is gone. All will be well though, and I do plan to take Baylee and Julia up north to do some outreach ministry. There will be lots to share with you all about that when we get back.

We love and appreciate you all so much!

Please keep in touch...

Dean, Kathy, Baylee & Julia

And We're Off...

It has been a busy few months since our last update. Busy, but very good.

We spent Christmas Eve and Day in Hua Hin. We had outreach ministry at a hospital where we visited severely injured patients ( mostly motorcycle related) and the maternity ward. It was a lot of fun as the church we were working with had received numerous shoe boxes from Operation Christmas Child (Franklin Graham's organization). What an incredible experience it was to witness the receiving end of this. Back in Canada we would always fill up the shoe boxes to be sent out but it is something else altogether to be there when a child opens one. Fun, fun!

Our time in Hua Hin was also spent evangelizing to hundreds of people at a local Shopping Mall. We were given the full stage for 2 to 3 hours each night and the Bible College students performed flawlessly. There were dramas and singing and some comedy and a wonderful message about Christ's redeeming love preached by Joseph, one of our students form India. It was Holy Spirit inspired; just awesome!

Once back in Sriracha we had a huge Christmas party at our home, all staff/missionaries and students were invited. We roasted a pig on a spit in front of our house (super yummy) and had a Christmas gift exchange. It was a lot of fun and we ended up with the best gift ever - pancake mix and real Canadian Maple Syrup…actually from Canada!!

For the entire month of January we were living at the El Shaddai 2 children's home while mom (Terry Wharf) went to Canada to spend some time with her husband Dave and have a bit of a break. For us this was like falling right back into Africa. There are 14 wonderful kids living at home right now and they age from 5 to 18. It really is a big family there and it was a lot of fun. Our days were incredibly full, right from 5:30am wake to 6:30 am devotions, a crazy drive to school, a full day at our regular jobs, 5pm pick ups, dinner, family worship, and 14 tuck ins. Exhausting, but oh, so much fun!

The beginning of the New Year also marked the beginning of Dean's new role as Academic Dean and Registrar of the Bible College here in Sriracha. He is really enjoying the new opportunities and challenges; and getting to know each of the students on a deeper level. Please pray for the students that God wants to bring to Thailand.

Together Dean and I are working on developing some new areas of ministry. Two ministries we have going for the remainder of this school year is prison ministry in Pattaya and and hospital ministry here in Sriracha.

Here's a look into what ministry looks like at the prison's in Pattaya.

I can hardly believe what I am witnessing. I've seen children in prison in Thailand before, but always accompanied by an imprisoned parent. On this day, however, I find myself in a shadowy concrete building, crouched in front of a tiny, trembling boy. He is sitting by himself in an eight-by-eight cell, illuminated only by a small window. I am grateful the police have at least had the decency to keep the child separated from the dozen grown men crammed into the cell next to him.

The boy is huddled in the corner closest to my interpreter and I. His scraped knees are tucked up to his chin and pressed tightly against the prison bars; his skinny arms reach out to us and clutch our hands in desperation, as though they anchor him to security.

"Are you scared?"

"Yes," he whispers shakily through the rusty, paint-chipped bars. "Nobody knows I'm here. My dad has been in jail for years and my mom is gone. I live with my uncle but I don't think he knows what's happened to me." The boy swallows a few times; I can tell he is trying to keep the tears from spilling down his dirt-stained cheeks. "I tried to tell the police it wasn't me who took the money! I told them it was my friends, but they won't believe me."

The young prisoner begins to plead with us. "The police are moving me to a different prison in a few days. Can you phone my uncle and ask him to come?” As he weeps in his lonely cell I see a hopelessness in his eyes, as if he's already resigned himself to a life behind bars.

What can you do when faced with this kind of injustice? Should you yell and scream at the guard, demanding to know what he thinks he's doing? In a country like Thailand, all that’s likely to get you is a spot in the cell next door.

No,we have only one logical choice left. I clasp his tiny hands in my own and pray protection over his young life. Then I say, “Give me your uncle’s name and phone number. We will contact him as soon as we go and make sure he knows you're here.”

In the Western world this would never happen. Children can pick up a pair of scissors and stab their teacher in the middle of science class. Their punishment: Mom has to pick them up early and keep them home for a week. Western kids take guns to school and slaughter each other, receiving minimal sentences and free counselling.

But in this tiny cell in Thailand, a little boy is tossed mercilessly into a grown-up prison system. He hasn't killed anyone; he hasn't even hurt anyone. Even if he did steal money does that justify his being locked away and forgotten in a dirty, rat-infested cell, without a trial, or even a phone call to his guardian?

“Five more minutes!” the guard yells, and he means it. In his opinion, I have gained enough information from this child. I quickly scribble down the name and number of the boy's uncle, and, as we are ushered out, we assure him we will keep our promise.

When we get outside we also promise ourselves we will get on our knees and fight for this young prisoner, and countless others like him in cells across Thailand.

Hospital ministry is something we are equally excited about. We will be going into the government run hospital weekly on Wednesday nights starting in the beginning of March. Our vision is to break the students into to 2 or 3 groups and minister on the children's ward as well as hospice, the same kind of ministry I did while visiting the HIV/AIDS clinic in Cambodia.

This is a ministry that you too can become a part of! We will have ongoing needs of balloons, small treats as well as milk boxes and juice to bless the patients with. All of these things can be purchased quite inexpensively here in Thailand so with a small donation of even $15 to $20 we can generously bless the patients each month. Of course all monetary gifts are tax deductible so if you are able to partner with this particular ministry please email us and we will tell you how! We look forward to sharing some of the incredible stories that are sure to come out of that!

We are really excited to share some news with you all, and for those of you who have been to Rwanda, you will know who Fulgence is. But, for those of you who haven't; there is a young man by the name of Fulgence that we "adopted" into our family when we lived in Rwanda. He was a huge help to not only our own family while we lived there but he was also a big part of life at the children's home. We love him very much an have kept in contact with him since we left Africa. Fulgence's desire has always been to gain further education and he was very blessed by a group of individual's out of the mission team that visited us in Rwanda in 2007. They sent him to school in Kigali where he learned mechanics and graduated number 1 in his class. Shortly after we left Rwanda, we partnered with a couple of other individuals and sent Fulgence to YWAM where he also excelled. So much so, that they actually offered him a job when they returned from their mission trip. But Fulgence's heart remains in furthering his education and his walk with the Lord. This has led him to his next step. He leaves Rwanda on the 22nd of February where he will go to Nairobi to pick up his Thai Student visa. From there, he leaves on February 28th for Thailand! He has enrolled and been accepted at the Victory Bible College-Thailand! He is enrolled in the 4 year program and he is so excited as are we!

Right now, Dean and I are covering all of Fulgence's expenses, and we are happy to be able to bless him. However, as we ourselves live off of the generosity and obedience of our supporters, if you feel led by God to help Fulgence while he is furthering his education and his walk here in Thailand please email us and we can tell you how you can make a tax deductible contribution to him.

Here is a breakdown of his tuition and other expenses:

One School Year (two semesters) - 33,000 baht ($1065)

Monthly Living Expenses - 500 baht ($17.00)

Monthly Food - 800 baht ($25.00)

School Supplies - 200 baht ($7.00)

Air Fare - $848.00

We pray God's abundance over your lives and we love and appreciate every single one of you.

Always love to hear from you so please email us anytime!

Dean, Kathy, Baylee & Julia