Hello readers. Aww so as I thought would be the case the blog entries have become further and further apart as the trip has gone on and now we are at end!But hope you have got a little idea of what's been going on out here, and thank you most of all for praying for it! So it's been as always a mixed few weeks, including all sorts even a ride on an elephant! The nursery has been quite a sickly place to be lately. A lot of the children have been really poorly and it's meant that it hasn't been the place of fun like it usually is. However after insisting on visits to the the doctors and a fair few spoonfuls of paracetamol, they are all so much better and today the nursery was louder than ever! I love it. One child called Guy needs your particular prayer. I wanted to take him to a private hospital as he has deteriorated a lot over the months I've been here and he needs a check up and a proper diagnosis. I will attach a picture! He is 3, but is tiny. However I was told that he has no identification papers as of yet and so it's nearly impossible to get him decent healthcare. Please pray that the social workers that are in charge of his papers get them done ASAP (this would be a miracle in Thailand!) and that in the meantime he doesn't get any worse but gets happier by the day, which this week he already is! We ended the week with trip to the theatre which was great! I took Fah, the only girl in the nursery. She is one special and hilarious lady. She cannot speak in words just sounds (last week she put her all into praying at lunch time, We didn't understand but we gave a massive Amen. Amazing), but is so clever and I love communicating with her mainly through action and then laughter! It was lovely to do something normal with her and to mix with other children and adults. Although it became apparent that the Thai view of the disabled is still completely a miss, and it reminded us that for the most part the reason we work with disabled orphans is because people believe these children do not have value. We called 3 taxi's before we found one that would take a disabled child. We are praying that God transforms the people of Thailand to display love and acceptance to this precious people group where there is currently misunderstanding and neglect. Last week was also my last day on the girls sick ward and I had to say goodbye to Nurse Po which very sad. However due to a generous donation from the UK I was able to give her medical supplies and also an observation monitor which brought her so much Joy! Although this will not cure their conditions, I hope it leads to the government taking these children's health more seriously now they have numeric evidence that the child is very poorly. One girl who they have previously said is fine, had oxygen levels of 69%. I have never seen this level before. She has a heart condition, (I knew that from just hugging her and feeling her completely irregular and pounding heartbeat) and I pray that they put her on medication for this, if nothing else to make her more comfortable. But as I left I knew God hadn't left. He stays with those children. Thank you also for praying for Por. He is making a good recovery. However he still has 3 pressure sores that need care and new colostomy bags to get used to. So as I leave in a few days, please pray his carers will have wisdom and love in caring for him now and that things we started with is care will continue. He has been a model patient!
Last week we also visited an organisation called night light. Check it out. But to cut a long story short we heard of the horrendous prostitution and trafficking business that is so prevalent in Thailand. An eye opener to yet more in justice in the world and it broke our hearts to hear the stories of these women. There's only so much you can have your eyes open in one day. However God knows this. And in his gentleness that day he spoke to us once again, and reminded us that he is the God of LIGHT. In him there is no darkness at all. (1 John 1 v5) And he has shown us the darkness here so we may know the overwhelming need for light. Complete and perfect light. And such perfect, transforming, all consuming light can only come from God. And here is the mind blowing part! He has made this light shine into our hearts and captivated us with the truth of who he is (2 Corinthians 4) and we are to display this light to others, changing darkness to light. What a life we have in him.
So off to say more goodbye's I go, but I'm so excited for the up and coming Hello's. We finish in three days and then we are off for a bit of beach time. We have no idea where, probably should of planned this a little earlier! But as we have sun, sea, sand, a fan and ice cream, It will be great and your pretty much guaranteed to find that very easily in Thailand!.... So in case we don't get to the blog before...See you all VERY soon! In the meantime if any of you want to adopt a child do let me know and I will try to get it sorted/ smuggle them in my case!
p.s-Whoops, so we didn't get chance to send this update few days ago, so here it is now. Its the weekend and we have officially finished at CCD. This week has actually been so much fun and our wonderful Thai friends have made last days here so special. I miss the children already, but I know I leave them in the care of incredibly loving people, and most importantly in the care of their heavenly Father. Our God has been faithful to the end, We praise him for the way he has used us, and used you to encourage us along the way. Thank you so very much. See you in the UK! Love Nic xxx
Hey UK! I'll follow from Nic's and won't talk about the nightlight stuff but she is so right, gosh it was REAL, God had stirred my heart before at home about it but seeing girls who it's happened to, mindblowing. So much injustice in this world. I also got to go to the Theatre and took Dok who I mentioned in the last blog. It was incredible taking her out, but strange as the whole theatre was full of children and parents and you just wonder what she thinks about all that but she was glued to the play but when she got all comfy and cosy in her jumper she fell asleep on me! I had to drop her back to the ward after and all the time i'd had her ward clothes in my bag and had to put them back on her and take the lovely little dress off her, felt so very wrong and sad. And i'd never seen the orphanage at night before and never want to again, very eerie. I say that but these children are in it everyday!
But work at Rachawadee is as fun as ever! So the day after I wrote the blog saying how I don't really want daycare to go back to normal and would miss the wards and stuff..welll we unpacked the CCD block and then soon got back to normal...and i've been loving it! I see now how daycare is so much more beneficial for the girls, especially CP ward and we still take outside Pink ward in the afternoons usually, so Praise God for revealing that to me because I was pretty anxious. God knows what He's doing with His girls!! Things have been positive (well as positive as they can be in the situation!) and that's an answer to prayer. We really prayed that our final week would be filled with joy and things would kind of naturally come to closure for us and this week has brought girls along that I've really wanted to see and also the staff are just brilliant and have had fun with them! Took them to the cinema last week which was an experience! It was an English film in Thai but totally got it, a bit of lip reading helped, still don't know if some characters were in a relationship or family though ha! And today Pi Wee put on a lunch for us as she wanted to teach me Thai ways so bought a kit along and we had a FEAST! Best lunch i've had out here (apart from McDonalds....) bless her, she's a wonderful woman of God and the work she does and the love she has for the girls, so beautiful to see! I know I'm leaving Rachawadee in awesome hands! A sight that really encouraged me today, one girl called Bee from CP ward who we knew had a Dad (but i think I heard they are poor and cannot look after her) but at the end of work the last thing i saw was Bee in her Dads arms both giggling away and he was taking her out of the ward for a bit..so great!! Praying she'll one day be able to leave Rachawadee for good and be back with family permanently! Would appreciate prayer for Green ward though as they've had an outbreak of chickenpox and have closed the ward so I haven't seen those girls for nearly two weeks, so prayer CCD can get back in there and healing would happen and as you know we leave on Friday so would love to see them and say bye if I could, will leave that one in God's hands.
( It was my fault the blog wasn't posted, I never finished my update and now we've actually finished work! Apologies!) So yes, work with CCD is now over, petty strange feeling but have taken time to think and reflect and pray and I just know God is BIG and he loves each one of those girls and will never leave them! It was a weird day though because it was Fathers day out here so alot of the girls were brought out the ward and sang songs and did some dances, felt odd, but I guess it's a tradition for them. So that was a lot of the morning taken up but then brought CP girls back to the CCD block and I did some balloon modelling with them, great fun, but the pump kind of broke in the afternoon, which was quite good actually because I didn't want to do it for the whole day, I wanted to just hang with each girl. Then all the staff had lunch together, they cooked some thai meals,yummy! After that we had Pink girls out which was beautiful!! Really strange saying bye, I don't think they totally got it but I got to say it so that was good for me. Then went round each ward after work and said goodbye, the ward mums were so kind too. Very emotional but God answered prayer big time, I got to see Op from Green ward who I haven't seen for over 2 weeks and we had like a run up hug, praise God!!!! And girls who were ill in the week seemed to be getting better. A very different day, but looking back I see God in it all and he's reminded me he always will be. Flip I'm going to really miss that place, the girls, the staff. Maybe i'll be back one day :D Never want to forget the lessons i've learnt been here, never want to forget the power of prayer and He's incredible strength and grace. This has been the most amazing 3 months!!!!!! Now got to pack up and rest really and on monday were heading to an Island for a little holiday before coming back to see you lovely people!!! Thankyou again for your prayers and love and support, your prayers have been answered in awesome ways! SOOO much to tell you all, a blog is never enough (and the mann girls aren't the best at doing it!), but hope you've had a bit of an insight, but maybe you should just come and check it out for yourself :D
Not long now till we'll be freezing our bottoms off in the UK, oh gosh we're not going to know what's hit us, I woke up and had to put a jumper on last night, got a bit chilly :S Mum and Dad get thermals at the ready ahaha! Ooo can't wait to be back for the next chapter, very excited! Thankyou guys, so much love!!!!!! X x X
