Dear friends,
We praise the Lord for His loving kindness and constant provision of what we in our growing Ministry here in Chiangrai may do, so need.
Rainy season finally has started with occasional showers and thunderstorms, after a long and very hot and dry period with temperatures up to and even above 45 Celcius. Even though most of the rain seems to pass around us it usually means that on a regular basis we do not have running water, electricity, and this year because of that, our internet is really very bad for weeks on end now.
This means that some things that need a good and safe connection, or looking
at uploads that need a longer time, could not or certainly with delays be done.
At date the internet still is in a on and off mode. For us, but certainly also for the girls
needing the computers for their homework a regular problem.
Baan Zion 1
Since we as a Thai foundation next to Baan Zion under the same flag for a longer period are expanding our activities in the villages with our village project for girls and with helping local Hill Tribe churches with conducting services, praise, and worship, preaching and advice on church growth, we had to add all these extra foundation activities to our government
reports. This as well as for the labour office for my work permit and work visa.
For this we had to update all our general information, the girl’s files, both for the girls in our house as well as for the girls in our village project etc. In all we are talking about more than two and a half inch of paperwork and something that without the hard work and expertise of Wan and Wee, could not have been done.
As said, we by the grace of the Lord are growing and extending our area of influence to many villages both near and high up and far off.
Girls
We are so very blessed as a family with all our awesome girls. They all walk with the Lord, are very healthy, study with high grades and in and around the house we really do everything you can think of together. Fearn finally after more than a year since
graduating from university, found a job as a waitress in a hotel. Not really what she has studied for, but for her in the educational system being her major, it still is impossible to find a suitable job due to the still existing injection demand. Da, who is a very special girl blessed with many qualities and talents, next to her third year of her A grade MBA studies, always finds new challenges to explore.
She is growing anything you can think of in our garden and whatever she puts in the ground blooms and produces herbs, fruit, or vegetables. Making wine from grapes, she harvests from the garden, she breeds fish and crayfish, she plays the guitar and is a fantastic artist in drawing and painting. And next to all that, she is working part time at the barbershop of Mimee one of my former staff. Also, here she is performing so amazingly that many times she is running this shop on Saturdays by herself.
Wee, still after 11 years of legal proceedings, has not received her Thai nationality which may be a problem when she starts her DTS next month since she is not even allowed to leave the province without an over and over application at and permit from the local government.
Village girls
During the last two months, we recued 6 new girls and took them into the care and protection of our village project and more are on our waiting and assessment list and will be taken into the project the following months. Starting October.
The need among these girls is still very high due to the wrong choices made by their mothers and occasional father.
Within our peer group being the Hmong, smuggling of and or trading in drugs still is an enormous problem and today not only out of poverty or being coerced into it, but also because people want to earn quick money for cars and luxury goods.
Unfortunately, the result often is the opposite and many are caught by the police and sentenced to many years in prison. Or, what we see, when being tracked down flee to neighboring countries and never come back.
In the end it comes down to the fact that the girls we focus on suffer most due to these wrong choices.
They are the ones that are left with their old and poor grandmothers, they are the ones that are abandoned and they are the ones that by all this loose even the little security of a mother, so family life, and future they had.
Without our help for them no more school, a very high risk of abuse, many varying relations, so STD’s and being married off at a very young age and youth pregnancies.
The coming month we will start with making new assessments from our long waiting list and foresee, based on what we know so far of individual cases, that many girls need a place in our project.
The Lord willing and providing, we will help and assist wherever we can.
Baan Zion 2
What goes for the girls in our village project, also goes for the girls who need a place in Baan Zion.
The situation of some girls in the villages is such, that we the coming month will have to make decisions of bringing them into our house. Not always easy and often time consuming, since
without the needed paperwork like a birth certificate, they cannot go to school in Chiangrai.
Of course, we make exceptions for girls that are sexually abused or in direct and present danger of trafficking and in those cases the school is cooperating.
Looking at Baan Zion we are getting sort of full and at date are looking for an extra rental alternative so we can bring in and house more girls. Of course, we faithfully pray that the Lord, in His time, will bless us with the needed financial means to buy the land next to Baan Zion and on this built a new and large girls home for 20 to 30 girls.
House maintenance
For us taking good care of our house so doing all maintenance needed, is very important looking at heavy rains, storms, scorching sunshine with temperatures up to 45 degrees Celsius and sometimes earthquakes. During the three years we live here, we added an outside kitchen, large canopies at the front of the house against the rain and the sun, a covered motorcycle parking, we had part of our electrical wiring and fuse box in the house renewed, had our roof repaired several times due to severe storms and because of small earthquakes had to install new drainage pipes under the house.
Two weeks ago, we had to replace our septic tanks and all the underground drainpipes in our garden coming from our bathrooms, toilets, and kitchens, that proved to be broken and leaking with a very smelly result. Repairs and house adjustments needed for our large family that certainly do not come cheap, but by the Lord’s provision could be done.
Finance / sponsoring
Talking about money is one of the most difficult things to do when serving the Lord in the place He has called you for. But we also know that in doing so the Lord may touch hearts and minds to give for the work in His kingdom. Also here, due to the aftermath and economic consequences because of several years of lockdowns in combination with the present international situation, prices for many daily necessities spiralled up. Rice, fish, chicken, eggs, fruit, and veggies in some cases have risen 20, 30 or even more percent. The same goes for sanitation goods, washing powder, clothing, school stuff and everything else you can think of we need for our girls and in our support for the girls in the villages. Something we really feel in our monthly budget.
The same goes for us as a family since we do not receive any salary from the foundation and personal donations have gone down sharply.
We are very grateful to all of you who pray for our Ministry, our girls both in Baan Zion and in the villages, for our family and give us support in whatever way.
You help us to make the difference in the lives of many.
God bless you all for your loving kindness,
Pastor Ellen and Rev. Dr. Jan Smit
Thanking points:
- The Lord His constant provision
- The girls in our house
- The girls in the villages
- The staff team
- All those that stand next to us
Prayer points:
- The so needed issuing of the Thai nationality for Wee
- Our girls in Baan Zion
- Our girls in the village project
- The running school year and upcoming October holiday
- Wisdom and insight for us as a team for bringing girls
- into Baan Zion and the village project
- Increase of our sponsoring / donations
- A suitable extra rental house
- The funding for the land and to build house
- Our own family needs