In Chiang Mai

Hello everyone:

We arrived safely in Chiang Mai and hit the ground running. We were received by a small delegation from both Asia's Hope as well as the G.R.O.W. ministry here, including the two little girls who just came to the home recently.

First Faa took us to a nice restaurant by an artificial lake with a nice breeze cooling off the heat from our weary bodies. She had ordered the food ahead of us coming and everything was fast (but delicious) because we had a couple of appointments to keep.

We first visited the home of a missionary from New Zealand who has been in Chiang Mai for four or five years. He first came working with an organization that promotes a model of mission as a business but after a couple of years he and his wife felt called by God to rescue children who have been the victims of sex abuse. Warning: the next two paragraphs are going to be disturbing. Skip them if you don't want to be exposed to the sheer evil of the sexual exploitation industry in Thailand.

There are four children in the home now and they are all hill tribes, i.e. minority children who are discriminated against and treated like animals, to put it in a direct way. One of the children, a boy who is six years old, just two weeks ago sexually abused a classmate in kindergarten. This is not made up stuff. It is a true albeit tragic story. In fact, even as I write this it is still hard for me to believe I am writing this.

The missionary made this statement about the boy: "This boy has been hard wired for evil." He has anger problems, discipline problems and many other problems. As a matter of fact, when the missionary and his wife confronted him, he didn't deny anything. He told them exactly what he had done, with all the graphic details, and then made this amazing statement: "I did it because she wanted me to do it. She liked what I did." Came to find out, through Faa, who was the one who helped placed this boy in that home, that this boy and his sister lived in a home of mother who prostituted herself and forced her children to perform unspeakable acts. As a matter of fact, since this boy was two he was made to perform sexual acts with his sister in front of other people. Again, the evil of this industry is beyond description. You can read about it but when you actually meet someone who has been the victim of it - a boy who on the outside looks perfectly normal but whose mind has been perhaps damaged beyond repair, it is very hard to see it.

Thank God this boy has found a home. This missionary and his wife have dedicated the next 20 years of their lives (and they are probably in their mid fifties) to invest in the lives of these four children and four more that they still hope to bring into the home. Their two children have moved with them her and their oldest daughter has even married a local man here. They are totally dedicated to this work and we learned a lot by just spending one hour with him. I am thankful to God for people like that.

To hear that missionary talk about Faa and how she was instrumental in helping them get their ministry started didn't surprise me, but I have to confess: I was very proud of our little Faa and all the work that God has allowed her to do.

I will tell you more about Faa and her sister tomorrow, but for now let me just say that we had the incredible joy of worshipping with Faa, her sister Ning, and the four children who are in the G.R.O.W. home now. Wow. To see the children pray and recite Bible verses, to see them running, laughing, screaming, as they ran around the house, to feel the love that surrounds that place we know call the "G.R.O.W. Home." Words cannot describe that.

I am giving you the printed word only because we had to walk to an Internet Cafe to get online (G.R.O.W. home does not have Internet yet), so it might be a little less often that I will be able to post in the next couple of days. I apologize for that.

Please keep praying for us. Tomorrow we have a full day visiting some other ministries who are working hard to rescue at risk children for the sake of Christ.

Jeana is still struggling with a bad cough, RAD is still being RAD, though he needed a mad rush to the restroom, which is outside, down a few stairs and then up again, then you have to pay and tried to negotiate with a not so generous portion of toilet paper which they give to you upon payment. How do I know all of this? I just return from a mad rush myself!

Well, other than that, we are doing as well as we can, except Jeana. Please continue to pray for her. Thank you.

There is so much more I would like to share but the time is so short. We are all pretty tired here and Faa has graciously walked with us to the Internt Cafe and is waiting for us to get done. So I must go for now.

Blessings everyone,

Pastor Ivanildo C. Trindade
itrindade@woostergrace.org