As many of you know, we were gone all of the month of March and into early April visiting Happy Home. To say the least it was action packed. Sinte and Ewing handled the trip very well. The kids adored Ewing and I’m afraid its gone to his head. Rakchat did an amazing job too. At one point I sent Rakchat to go to an area recently attacked, Sinte and Ewing remained behind at Happy Home teaching the kids while I went to the farm. We are becoming quite a team which is multiplying our ministry efforts. Below are just a few snippets of what is happening in our work. Praise God!
Pigs: The Karen pigs at Happy’s Home are doing well and they have a new litter of 8 pigs. We also brought in 3 new pigs of a different breed to Happy Home. This type in 4 months is about the same size as a 2 year old Karen pig so they are happy to say the least. While there we think we convinced the people there to keep the pigs locked up and the pens clean. We also explained that we didn’t think having the pigs walk around the kitchen is a very good is a very good idea.
Rabbits: When I went to Happy Home I found that there weren’t as many baby rabbits as I expected. I mean they are rabbits and so I expected… well lets just say I expected more effort on their part. So while there I was able to breed some of the females who are old enough. We had one litter born but the Board master’s cat got into the old cage and ate 7 of them. Afterwards, we built a new cage and I explained that the cat had to go. I think that is the main reason we have not had an increase in rabbits. That cat has been sneaking in and eating them.
Fish: We were able to transport 85 large catfish into Karen state with only 5 dying after we got there. Those five quickly became dinner by the kids. We also were able to breed the fish there and get around 2,000-3,000 small catfish. Rakchat stayed behind for about another week to teach the people there on how to breed the fish one or two more times in April and how to care for the fish better.
Farm Land: As mentioned before, I was able to survey the land and the irrigation to it. The farm has been developed nicely with the paddy field burms well built and with a lot of room in the land to expand. However, the irrigation is our primary concern. There is a great deal of work needing to be done on fixing the ditch and also hopefully widening and extending it. We also have a plan to hire two more temporary workers to work on the irrigation during the rainy season (4 months) if we get the water flowing into the land. That is my number one concern on our development work right now. If we can’t get water into the land through the irrigation ditch, I might have two other options next year. But my hope is that they can get it working this year. If this happens, then next year we can improve the ditch to flood the land even more, then Happy’s Home budget needs will greatly decrease.
Karen Internally Displaced People (IDP) Relief
I was going to go visit the IDP areas which have recently been attacked but because of many factors, the time just was not right. I sent Rakchat instead for his first relief mission and he did a great job documenting what happened and getting support to those in need. We have a plan to make a video in the Karen language with the footage he shot to inform Thai-Karen churches and Christians on what is happening in Karen State, Burma. Unfortunately, many have little understanding of the suffering that is occurring to their own people. This past month we provided about $800 in rice relief to areas that have been attacked. We hope to provide more support for rice relief or a medical unit in May.
While all of these things are happening here, God continues to bless our work in the US as well. Recently, we had our 4th Annual Thai Dinner and from what I hear, it was a great success. For those who were able to attend thank you so much for coming. For those of you who didn’t. We hope to be around for it next year. Your encouragement means a great deal to us as we continue to follow where the Lord lead us!!!
With all the trips we have been doing, I am a little behind on blog posts so please forgive the delay. We plan to post another blog post shortly which has exciting news. Stay tuned for that. Thank you again for all of your prayers and support. To God be all the glory.