The Im Jai House

Here is the Im Jai House. We got to do and see a lot of other things while in Thailand but this one of the main reasons we went. There are about twelve kids living in each of these houses. Each house has house parents. Some of the house fathers are pastors and some of the staff have been through seminary. Christian teaching, living, and growth are a big part of life at Im Jai. They have devotions each night in each of the houses.
The Im Jai kids are fun and full of life. We had so much fun with them. Most of them remembered Josh being there twice in 2005 and so I was a celebrity when they found out I was his wife.
They sang for us when we fist got there and some of the girls danced for us before we left. They are taught music along with art, computer, and sports there on a regular basis. It was neat to see the talent of these kids.
Jay and Toon were both attached to Josh both times he was there. They were immediately attached to me when I showed them his picture. They both wanted to me to be sure to tell Josh hi for them.
This is Oi. She is the secretary in the office. She also helps with the kids after they get home from school each day. She has a son of her own that lives with her at Im Jai. She and her husband are separated because she is a Christian and he is not. Being a Christian isn't a real popular thing in Thailand. Pray for Oi when you think about it. It is not easy for her to raise he son and have so many other responsibilities at the same time. We had an English camp for the staff for three days that we were there. She was one of the staff members that I worked on English with. It was fun to get to know the staff. Oi really became a good friend while we were there and I was sad to have to leave so soon.

Huay Numrin Children's Hostel

Huay Numrin offers village families a way to help their children get schooling past grade 6 and while living in a Christian camp environment. In the above picture I am with two older girls that hung around me the whole morning that we spent visiting there. We didn't do to much at Huay Numrin. We did take a bunch of soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and powder to them. We mostly just spoke English with them. (Thai people love to get to practice and learn English. Everyone learns in school but have few opportunities to get to speak it.) We also got to tour there hostel. It was amazing how poor they were but the joy that they had. I don't know if any women that went on the trip will ever complain about their situation while thinking about the children of Huay Numrin.
There are 67 children there and about 10 of them are orphans. The rest have the freedom to go home during school breaks. Most of them cannot though because their families live very far away and they are too poor to be able to afford to travel back and forth.
This is the group of them and us. We had such a good time with them. They were located up in the mountains a little and it was so beautiful up there.
This was right as we were getting ready to leave. We would have all loved more time to stay longer but that was the day that we went bowling with the Im Jai kids and staff and we had to leave to go do that.

The Team

It was so great to be able to go to Thailand with some of my best girl friends. The picture above is Jen Oshman and I. She is one of my closest friends and mentor. Her family lives right across the yard from us. Her two daughters are some of Kaylee and Ethan's best friends.
This one is Michelle and I. I didn't know Michelle too well before the trip. If you want to get to know someone, go on a trip with them. We had so much fun!!!!
Here is Michelle and I again. The girl in the middle is Amanda. She is one of my best friends. I have the privilege of mentoring Amanda. She is also dating one of Josh's best friends. She is like part of our family.
There were thirteen girls in all and not one fight between any of them. It was a great trip and there were many friendships built or strengthened. It was so neat to be able to be part of this team.

Chiang Mai

Here are just a few pictures of Chiang Mai, the city that we were in. Thailand was great. I can't wait to go back.
The night market was right outside our hotel and they set it up every night. You could find so many neat things and it was so cheap. It was great!
This little girl was dancing at the Sunday night market. It was a lot bigger than the walking market that was right outside our hotel. The Sunday night market was interesting. There was so much to see but our legs gave out way before we could see it all.
There were Buddhist monks everywhere. There were even a group of them staying in our hotel. This picture was taken at a flower festival that we went to the day we left Thailand.