Updates
YCF
There are many things to be thankful for everyday at YCF, and we would love to share snippets of our thanksgiving with you. In this page, we want to also share prayer request items, provide updates and to create a platform where we can showcase what we do at YCF.
Its a joy and privilege for us to keep you updated, we hope that you will delight in our sharing and do remember to keep us in your prayers.
May & June 2023
Waves of Grace
March & April 2023
Newness
There has been so many things happening in the past two months, the weather has not been the best with the worst combination of heat and haze, however we are thankful that everyone is well. March and April in Thailand are the hottest months as the Thai New Year (Songkran) is celebrated in April where Thai people enjoy all the water splashing activities to help quench the heat and it is also during the long school holidays that lasts for two months. In the month of March, it is also when we up North, are hit by the horrible haze which sees the air quality index going up to PM 2.5. It is very bad as the haze is thick and it just lasts for weeks. This is due to the irresponsible farmers who still practice the slash and burn farming methods. We can only pray for the rain to come shower down and wash away the thick choking haze to help clear up the weather. God has been good as it rained a few days, and those days were good, and we gave thanks and enjoyed them.
We have also had much progressed with the roof repair and maintenance works, the main building’s roof has been replaced, electrical wires and new paint has all been done and now we are moving to the lower building over the dining room, kitchen, laundry area and all the internal rooms’ wiring, paint job and ceiling boards will be put in soon. It is so nice to see everything coming together, the children are all so excited to have a ‘new building’ and we are also looking forward to having it completed.
As most of the children are back in their villages with their family and relatives to spend their school holidays at home, our staff were able to get their own much needed breaks and had the time to do their own things and some even went to visit family and friends. Self-care is so important, as they have to take care of all our children daily, it is good that they rest and have time to themselves too. We all had a good week to rest, clean and just recharge. Once the staff returned, it was back to work as we had to welcome the new children for this year. This year we will have a handful of new children joining the YCF family, thank God for sending them to us and we are looking forward to getting to know them better. It was a busy period for us as we had to go fetch some of them from their respective villages as their villages were far away, remote, and hard to access without a vehicle. We spent much time on the road, but we are glad that they are now with us in YCF and starting to settle in well. We also had to settle all their schooling arrangements and administrative matters. The new children are still rather shy, it will take a while for them to adjust as most of them are still working on their Thai language and do not speak fluent Thai as they are used to speaking their ethnic hill tribe language back home in their villages. However, we are confident that in no time they will pick up the Thai language and will be well settled into YCF, their new schools and will make good friends here.
As May comes about, we are all getting ready for the new school year, in which we will know the initial weeks will be rather hectic, but we know that the Lord will see us through it. More updates to come regarding our new additions to YCF in the next update and we will share about the children’s schooling.
January & February 2023
A Great Start to the Year
So quickly the days past, it is already two months in of 2023. We started this year with many things that has been keeping us busy and on our feet. If you have been following us and reading our updates and prayer requests, you would have been aware that we have been seeking financial support for repairing and maintenance works on our main building. This is because over the years, wear and tear and unwelcomed guest- bats have infested the roof and hence has led to stains and foul odor seeping through the ceiling boards and the electrical wirings were also giving way. It was a big problem as it was unhygienic, and we did not want the children falling sick from the bats’ droppings and to prevent any unforeseen dangers related to the faulty wires etc. It was a big project to take on and the amount needed for the contractor, repair and maintenance works, resources like roof tiles and new wires were too much for us to finance on our own and so we have been praying that we would be able to find people to help fund it. Thank God for His providence, He has sent help and now we are able to start the repair and maintenance works. We are so blessed and would like to share this big thanksgiving with all of you, who have been praying alongside and have given to bless us in this project. So, these two months, we have been busy moving the things and looking into the children’s sleeping arrangements to prepare for the works to start. However, it is good as there are many of us and when we all come together to help pack and move things, it gets done faster. We cannot wait for the new tiles, ceiling boards, wires and all the cracks and holes to be filled in and for us to get a ‘new’ building as we utilize and are in the building most of our time.
On top of the repair and maintenance works, we have been busy at home ensuring that the children are on track with their studies as they will be sitting for their final examinations soon, during the last 2 weeks of March. We will have a few graduating students this year and we spent some time with them individually to sit down and chart out their future paths and to talk about it. The next thing to look forward to will be their graduation ceremonies and this year it will be back to physical graduation ceremony; the children are all so glad. Graduation is such an important time to celebrate and commemorate, precious memories as everyone prepare for a new season ahead and treasure the friendships and times spent together before setting out on different paths.
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November & December 2022
Ending on a Great Note
The last two months of 2022 were really packed months as we had to prepare for many big scale events and juggle between the children school time and free time to prepare and pack. Nonetheless we are very thankful for the smooth completion of the year with the Lord’s guidance and blessings over us.
In November, we were busy preparing for Christmas, and the children were privileged to be able to learn how to sing Christmas carols in English with a group of kind volunteers who gave their time to help teach and train our children in their singing. We are so glad that they have this opportunity to brush up on their singing skills as well as to boost their confidence. They sang so well, like angels and it was all thanks to our friends from Faith Lutheran Church. We appreciate all the singing lessons and the dedication and passion they had in training the children. We look forward to next year’s caroling. The older children were also tasked with a very important job of preparing for a Christmas program that we had at a refugee camp and village school in Mae Sot, Tak Province. They were very task oriented and gave many good ideas for the Christmas activities and games for the program and it was very nice seeing them come together to plan, prepare, and try out their activities together.
In the second week of December, a small group of us headed down to Mae Sot, Tak Province and carried out the Christmas program at the refugee camp and village school. It was such an eye opener for everyone, and we really counted our blessings seeing how they lived their lives so simply with just the basic amenities and how they delighted when they received a small token of our love – towels – as their Christmas presents. Their living conditions and the village schools was something that will always be etched in our minds. It was our blessing to be able to be a blessing to them during this festive period and to show them God’s love through our actions and short time together. We hope to be able to do so again soon. We thank God as it is because of Him, we had this opportunity and He help us get permission to enter the refugee camp and really opened doors for us during this trip. We also did a community outreach in Chiang Rai with the church we are working closely with to give out some food rations as blessings to the villagers during Christmas and to remind them that the best gift that they can receive is Jesus Christ which is a gift for all to receive. It was really heartening to see the smiles of the villagers who received the gifts, and we are glad that we can bless them in small ways.
We celebrated Christmas and New Year on the last day of 2022, with a simple celebration in our open field with good food, company, and worship to thank the Lord for all His goodness over us and seeing us through 2022. 2022 has been a year of many ups and downs, but one thing we know is that the Lord is with us always and He has always delivered us and sent us the help we need during that specific time. We are very thankful to all who have helped YCF this year and we cannot do our work without your help. Thank you for all the love for the children, for all the encouragement to the staff and for all the gifts and donations to YCF. We are so blessed, and we look forward to entering the new year with big hopes for the children and anticipate a great year ahead. We wish you and your loved ones a great new year ahead too! God bless and keep you in His love always.
September & October 2022
Gone Home
We have had such a cramped couple of months in September and October. Thank God for seeing us through as we have really been back-to-back with ensuring the children are well and ready to return to school as school just reopened this month and with the new variant of Covid still lingering. Some of our children were able to return to their respective villages during the school holidays. For those who did not go back, they stayed with us, and we had many activities lined up for them to keep them occupied. The children had singing practice, as they have been practicing hard for the upcoming Christmas where they will be singing lovely hymnals. We are so blessed to have kind and experienced volunteers who can guide and instruct the children in their singing practice. We are so proud of how well they can sing now, and their harmonizing is just music to the ears. Wait till Christmas and you will see how good they are at singing now. We also got loads of work done around the house, cleaning and farming, the children had to participate and were responsible for various tasks. We also got the chance to visit the Chiang Mai Municipality to learn about fire safety and it was such an eye opener and good learning journey for the children. They got to learn how to put out fires, don firemen hats, operate the long power hoses, operate fire extinguishers and even how to do an emergency evacuation. It is good for the children to be aware and know how to react should a fire arise or if they are faced with an emergency. We are very thankful that our community has such good learning experiences for the children.
The weather is starting to get cold, as the cold season is approaching. We have been to Chiang Rai often this month and even participated in a beautiful event of one of our graduated child’s weddings. We are happy and glad we could be part of their union and may God bless and keep them. We also took the time to head down to Tak Province where we obtained permission to visit a refugee camp in Mae Sod. We also went to a few of our children’s villages in Tak Province as it is good for us to do house visitations from time to time to touch base with the children’s families. It was such a good trip as we brought along our staff and it was such a big difference seeing how the living conditions in the refugee camp was, how run down and dirty their schools were as compared to the ones our children attend and to see the state of the villages there. Pray for us as we are planning to run some activities for the children in the refugee camps and the Karen village there this Christmas season. It will be a fantastic opportunity for our children to see how others live and to be a blessing to others.
We lost a precious friend this October, Khun Sarah Mclean. She has been such an angel and a big blessing to YCF ever since the day we met her. She has provided many opportunities such as card making, swimming lessons, provided us with many wonderful story books, summer jobs for the older children, Christmas parties and even had many of her friends come visit and gathered donations and raised funds for YCF. We grieve and we will miss her so much. All praise be to God for allowing us to meet and to be loved by her, we are so thankful for all she has done and will keep her in our hearts always. Thank you Khun Sarah for always welcoming us to your house, into your heart and being such a dear friend of YCF.
Rest peacefully in the arms of the Lord. We are sure you will be smiling down on us, just as how you always greets us with your beautiful smile.
31 August 2022
Joy in Blessing
We have been busy this rainy month of August. We would like to thank God for the rain as it pours down on our lands and flood our rice fields and as it also relives us from the heat. Our rice is growing well, and we are so glad to see the fields turn into a vast span of green.
Another thing to be thankful for was that in early August, a small group of us were invited by Bethesda Pasir Ris Church to visit their church in Singapore for mission month to share about YCF and what we do. It was such an eye opener, we brought two children – our oldest girl and boy and it was their first time ever flying out of Thailand and taking an airplane. They were so excited, and it was so lovely seeing how excited they were throughout the whole journey, and we were so blessed by the people we have met in Singapore. We were well taken care of and had such a great time touring Singapore, eating the local food, and fellowshipping with old and new friends. Thank God for such a great opportunity and for blessing us.
Back in Thailand, we have been doing our community project in Chiang Rai, which we go up two times a month to conduct lessons, play games and even teach the children there some life skills like cooking and cutting hair. It is such a good learning opportunity for our children to learn how to serve, teach and give back to others who are in need. Our children are very blessed in YCF, and it is important for them to learn the importance of being grateful and to know how to love others with God’s love. We are enjoying each time we get to run our community project and we hope to see the village children coming each time and to impart some valuable life skills to them whilst still having fun and enjoying each other’s company.
Thank God for everything in His perfect timing. We are so thankful for all your love and support for us at YCF and the work that we do.
31 July 2022
Growing Leaders of the future
We are proud to announce that we have another graduate in the house! Thank God for His goodness and providence in allowing us to see another one of our children through university. She has just graduated with a degree in Nursing. Each time one of our children graduates, be it from elementary or university, we can’t help but to give thanks because we know that without the Lord’s help, it would be impossible for us to see them through their education and for us to provide the means to help them attain the highest possible education. Each of our children have their own unique strengths and talents, we are humbled and privilege to journey and help them to our best to chart out their education route. Our end goal is for them to each have a good future, to get employed, be good citizens who will be independent and help contribute to the society to help others in need. We are immensely proud of their achievement and filled with great joy as we see how far they have come. So happy to see them pursuing their passion and we are always so excited to see them start their new chapters after graduation.
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The rainy season has started early this year, thankfully, we are prepared and have started on weeding, clearing, and preparing the rice fields since last month. Hence, we started our rice planting at our homes. It is always something we look forward to and we want all the children to part of the process and to learn this important life skill of planting rice. The children really enjoy being in the rice fields, we usually plant in the evenings as it is cooler, and the children can all be there to help and learn. Now we wait for more rain to fall and flood the rice fields for the rice to grow. Praying for a good harvest this year.
In the last week of the month, we had our community project camp in Chiang Rai, and it was nice to resume it after a period of break as our children had to settle back to going back to school and returning to school routines. We were happy to see everyone there well and healthy and as happy as they were to see us, we were also very glad. We have truly seen how the Lord works, He has been and is still working in the lives of our children. Our children are now more confident individuals and they have learnt to be bold and courageous to lead and facilitate the activities and guide the village children. We look forward to more of these community project camps and to raise more leaders amongst our children and to provide them the experience to grow and lead as they give back to other less fortunate than them in the community.
30 June 2022
Clearer Skies
It has been a whole month back in school and the children could not be happier. We are just happy to see them all happy and well. Nonetheless we still must keep vigilant and ensure we take care of ourselves as the Covid virus still lingers. It is juts so good that schools are open, and the children can all head back to school, to learn, play and interact with their friends and to meet with their teachers. It makes such a difference, and we can see it so clearly in their eagerness to go to school and returning home with many stories.
As we got used to the whole school routine, it was nice that the children had the opportunity to go swimming, their favorite activity, at Jasmine Hill. Thank you for having and hosting us. Anytime they can go to a pool, you will see them all getting so excited and when they are in the pool, it is always a hard time getting them out. We have also been getting the fields ready for rice planting as the rains are coming earlier than usual this year as we have had many rainy days already…even before the rainy season hits. But all thanks to God for blessing us with the rains, it is good. Good for us, good for the rice fields and the garden as well. So, we have been getting the children to help prepare for rice planting season, every day when they return from school, we get them to tend and weed the fields. It is always a nice time to just unwind and get themselves ready before dinner and schoolwork time. Our children love being together, working in the fields and just sharing little conversations and laughs with one another. Many hands help to get the work done faster.
Just a week back, our high school students had to stay home and study online as their school was closed, due to some teachers and students testing positive for Covid. As part of the school’s measures to manage the widespread of the virus, they decided to stop and close school for a week and have all the students stay home and to do online learning. We are still hopeful that things will get better, we also want to see our children happy and healthy. Please continue to pray for Thailand and for all of us here in YCF. We also pray every morning and night during our devotion time for the world to heal and for Covid to be cleared and for things to get better in time.
Onwards to the next half of the year, we are glad to see things getting better. Borders are opening, people are also more aware and know the importance of taking care of themselves and being more socially responsible. We are looking forward and ahead, we know God will continue to lead us and bless us. We are working hard to prepare the fields and we cannot wait till rice planting season hits; it will be our annually thing of rice planting together as YCF family and it is always so much fun. Hopeful as we step into the second half of the year.
31 May 2022
Back to the flow of things
We had such a good break in April, resting and enjoying the school vacation. Getting back into gear for both the children and the staff was not difficult as the children were all anticipating the day they could return to school and no longer do online learning. Likewise for the staff, it makes work easier as they can be busy with their respective work and not have to take turns to sit with the children or deal with the hassle of online learning (technical difficulties, arranging for the devices for the children’s use, etc.). So, it is a win-win situation, one that we are most pleased about. On top of that, some of our middle and high school children will be entering a new school this school year, this is because this new school offers a better subject combination arrangement and a bigger and nicer campus for the children to flourish in. The children were most excited, and, on the day, they finally could head back to school, we could hear their cries of excitement and all the buzz about meeting their teachers and friends.
This month, it was also quite a wet yet hot month. The weather has been off, of late, strangely different from the usual. Thankfully for us, we are not in danger of flooding at where we at as the rice fields help to absorb all the rainwater and it is also good for the rice and crops in the fields. Nonetheless, we will not let the bad weather stop us from doing what we need to do. We continued with our social project – where we send a group of our children up to Chiang Rai over the weekends to run day camps for the children in the village. Our children will oversee planning and preparing for the activities, games and we even do some baking/cooking activities to teach the children. It has been very well received for both sides, the village children who we know look forward to the weekends we run the camps, we see how our children have grown in their self-confidence. Our children have stepped out of their comfort zones and now without having to continuously encourage or affirm, they are able to boldly take center stage and hold the fort down. We are beyond proud. Thank God for His blessings and grace over us all.
As the busyness of school seeps in again, we are very thankful for all that we have and all that we have been through. We share in the children’s joy of being able to return to school physically and we continue to pray that they will all stay safe and well in school. The schools still are sticking to the Covid19 measures of having the children all wear masks in school and encouraging Antigen Rapid Testing for those who are unwell and also instilling the need to self-isolate or stay home to quarantine if one is found to be positive to displaying the symptoms. Slowly as we ease back to the times before Covid, we are also aware that much has changed, so we will go about it day by day and be glad for the current moment.
30 April 2022
Down by the beach
It has been such a wonderful month and one to be much grateful and thankful for. First of all, all of us – children and staff have all recovered fully from the Covid virus and we are super thankful to God for seeing us through despite it being so challenging to manage all the quarantine arrangements and having to worry about the children who were not feeling well with flu like symptoms and some who had fever. Nonetheless, God is healer, and His hands of healing were over us through out the whole ordeal and He never left us without help. Thank you once again to all who shared in our concern, supporting us in various ways and ensuring that we had ample food or hands to help care for those who were affected.
That said, it was with much anticipated joy and excitement that our beach trip to Hua Hin was made possible as everyone was much better and had recovered, so we need not stay home or had to leave anyone behind. We were also supported by a few YCF friends who made this trip possible as we needed funding for the trip’s accommodation, transportation, food and miscellaneous expenses. Through much prayer and faith, we saw how the Lord provided for us in funding and we marvel at His greatness and know that in all things we can look to him as He never fails to provide in ways we can never imagine. Praise be to Him and thanks to all who helped chipped in to make this trip possible. It has been an overdue trip to the beach due to Covid the past 2 years. You could only imagine how special this trip was, the children were so elated and extremely elated to know that we could make the trip happen. Many of the children, especially those who joined us in the last two years, it was their first time ever going to the beach as they hail from the highland mountains’ villages. It never fails to amuse us whenever these children get to see the seaside, soak their feet or rather whole-body swimming and splashing in the sea, tasting the salty sea water and enjoying all the sea creatures and of course seafood!
This trip, it was also a bible camp for our children which was conducted by some of our YCF friends/volunteers who we are so very thankful and blessed to have in our community to support us as we love and care for our children. They worked hard alongside our staff to plan the bible study, games and all other activities for the children. We also had a lovely place to call home during our days at the beach, we even had a kitchen where we could cook and prepare meals and a nice big dinning space where we all could come together to eat and share our meals. After our bible camp, the children and staff had time to chill and play. We were so blessed to be situated just right to the beach and they could just change and pop down to play ball games, dig in the sand, catch fish and just swim and splash as much as they wanted to. It was lovely being away, a different environment for a while to just dwell in the goodness of the Lord, to catch sunrises and to enjoy the sunset and to be together as a family making memories and enjoying each other’s company. We also carried out our baptism service and had our youths who stepped forward for their outward expression of their inward faith. It was a beautiful morning, and we sang many worship songs and gave thanks for them declaring their faith. Thank God for keeping us all safe and well throughout the time at the beach. We are so refreshed and of course happy to be able to make this trip possible.
No one wanted to say goodbye to the beach and leave Hua Hin for home, but as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end, we had to pack and head back but were all so glad and thankful for the time vacationing and also catching up in our walk with the Lord. The ride home was long, 13 hours drive back, and the children were all able to catch up on their sleep as every day at the beach all they wanted to do was wake up early to do their activities and play, play and play! Who would not?
A few days after we got home, unpacked all the things and rested, we went up to Chiang Rai to run a Community Outreach Camp for 2 days in a village where our older children were in charge of running the camp and planned all the activities with some of our YCF Volunteers. The main activities were teaching English and also teaching the village children how to make some desserts and treats. It also makes us so proud to see our children taking charge and leading others and helping by serving the local community. We cannot emphasize enough the importance of giving back by blessing others as we have been so blessed. God calls us to love and this is how we want to see our children loving others and being a blessing. We are so grateful for the opportunity to run this camp and to meet with the villagers, it is always such a joy. Our children got to take back many fond memories through their own lived experience and we hope it also reminds them of how blessed they are and to know always their capabilities to serve, help and love others who are of much need as compared to them. The camp ran well, and everyone had such a good time and we look forward to the next one in the near future.
As May arrives, we are soaking in all the school vacation days that are left. We may be getting some new children as we prepare for the new school year. Please keep us in your prayers, as we are seeing some big changes in the children’s schooling – we have moved some high school children to another school as this school has a better quality of education and we hope it will help our children achieve their best learning potential and enhance their school experience for better future prospects. As excited as we are for them, we know the children are also very excited. So we seek your prayer with us on this matter. May the Lord continue to provide us with the wisdom, strength as we move along the year. Thank you for being with us in all seasons of YCF.
31 March 2022
Unity in adversity
It is the shared recognition of the abundance of God’s blessings coming down to us that truly unites people.
"The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”
- Deuteronomy 31:8
It has been such an exhausting, stressful and challenging month for us at YCF. We would like to firstly thank all who have been keeping and supporting us in prayer. We are truly so blessed and thankful for all the love we have received.
This month, we were faced with the worst situation we could imagine, something we have been trying our best to avoid since the pandemic started. However, we are very glad that the Lord has seen us through the ordeal, and He has seen us through and walked with us throughout the whole journey. We have always been very thankful that our home and the children under our care had not contracted the Covid virus but this month we were greatly affected as almost all the children along with some staff and adults got the virus. We are not exactly sure how the children got affected as they have been kept home from school and only went to school to sit for their final examinations and went out to get their vaccinations. It started with one child showing symptoms and then as we saw more children displaying flu like symptoms we got concerned. We immediately scheduled for everyone to get tested and thankfully we were able to secure the help of the district health care services to come in to conduct the tests for us. To our horror, so many children were tested positive and the next thing we dived our heads into were to sort out isolation and quarantine arrangements. We had to keep those who were still negative safe and well away from the positive ones. It was much to handle, we were shorthanded, and the children had to be cared for even more as some were really with bad symptoms and they had to be fed, given their medicine on time, checked on and to ensure everyone else was well. Those weeks were rough but thankfully we have emerged from that darkness and now we can stand in the light, as our children have all recovered and no one is testing positive anymore.
It was indeed a down time for us this month, struggling to care for each other as we all fell one by one to the virus. Nonetheless, with community and God, we pulled through. Due to the pandemic, the children’s final examinations were also greatly disrupted and so some had only sat for a few papers while some had completed all. It is such strange and confusing times. To us it was still important that we spoke to our older children, those who were graduating or moving on to choosing and deciding on their majors or subject combinations in high school, so we found time to sit them down for talks to check in and advise them. With all that is going on, all graduation ceremonies were ceased hence we were not able to celebrate with this graduating batch of children as how we usually do, by bringing the whole YCF family down to witness them receive their graduation certificates and to take lots of photos with them. It is okay as we know this will help to ease the curb of daily infections and we all want the situation to get better and so we will do our part. We have also just recovered from such a crazy month and so the wise decision was to take things slow and to ease by to life.
We pray and we know that April will be an even better month, we have emerged from this covid experience even stronger and we know that we are blessed to have each other to care for one another and we look to Jesus to continue to pave and lead the way for us.
28 February 2022
Emerging stronger because we are together
This short month has kept us on our toes, the Omicron virus has highly transmittable as it is has proven itself to be worldwide really put us to the test when we had a child who caught the virus from school and tested positive. It was nerve wrecking and stressful for the management team as we had to ensure that our other children were safe, and we had to prevent any potential spread. As we have many children staying together in one common place and we do most activities together it was really a head scratching time for us as we scrambled to find ways to help the child who was tested positive and to also monitor the other children.
Thankfully, we were blessed by receiving help from the social healthcare system as they sent in teams to help conduct the Antigen Test Kits for free to test all our children and staff. We would not have been able to afford to pay for the tests without their help and it was most necessary as we had to make sure that everyone else was well and if any of the other children contracted it, we would quarantine the child immediately to prevent the spread. We wore masks at home, ensured that the children maintained good personal hygiene and that they were socially spaced out during meal time, church services, home based learning and whenever they were doing any activities.
We also made the decision to keep the children at home from school as we are very afraid of them catching the virus. It is sad that not all schools are able to manage the situation and so the children in school have been contracting the virus from one another. We did not want to risk it and so it was after much consideration that we kept them home, even though their examinations are coming up, but we told them that they had to be responsible and hardworking to revise for their examinations. Our child who tested positive was sent to a quarantine facility and was well taken care of there until the PCR test came back negative. Thank God for His goodness in watching over us, it was a difficult time, and we were rather shaken, however, the Lord is good and He delivered us.
On a happier and lighter note, this month we celebrated the graduation of another one of our older children who graduated with his degree in Accounting. We are so proud of him and his achievement. He has currently found employment in Bangkok and has started work. Thank God that we were able to join him during his graduation ceremony at his university and we could bring some of the older children along to add to the cheer and celebration. Each time one of our children graduates, we cannot help but be filled with so much pride and joy. It is truly because of the Lord’s providence, the hard work of our YCF staff and generous sponsors who make it all possible for such achievements.
The countdown to the end of the school year has started, our children have been preparing for their examinations. Some have already sat for their papers and have a few more to sit for. Please keep them all in prayer, it is something different from previous times, but we have no choice but to embrace the new normal and to work around or some would say work with it. The children are excited for their school vacation. We hope to make a trip to the beach in Hua Hin and bring all the children.
If you would like to find out more about the trip to the beach or donate to the trip, please reach out to us at youthcharityfoundationthailand@gmail.com .
It is always good to have a getaway, especially so as in the last year, the children have all been cooped up at home and we feel that it would be good if we could head out for a short trip. The new children have not been to the sea, as many of them are from the mountains and have seen the sea before, so they are even more excited. We hope we will be able to raise sufficient funds and take the whole gang to the beach. We are excited and we are also happy to be entering into the third month of the year. Stay safe and take care everyone, God bless.
"For the LORD is good; His loving kindness is everlasting And His faithfulness to all generations."
Psalm 100:5
31January 2022
Taking comfort in His covering
We started the first month of the year with good news that schools were reopening and our children were able to return back to school physically. Everyone was so excited with the news and the children could not wait to say goodbye to home based online learning and were all so eager to go back to their respective schools to meet with their teachers and peers. We know that it is still risky as the exposure to others will be something beyond our control and so we reminded our children about the importance of staying safe and vigilant at all times by keeping their masks on, practice safe distancing and to take care of their personal hygiene.
It has still been quite chilly on some days and we have been encouraging the children to soak up as much sun as they can and have been keeping them occupied with activities such as helping to catch the fish out from the rice fields, which the boys love and enjoy every second of and the girls have been of great help cleaning up and helping with the cooking.
January passed by too fast, every day just went in a blink of an eye. We have been trying to get back into the routine of things despite being interrupted by changes from time to time. In the last week of the month, we have been facing a few Covid19 Omicron strain scares as some of the middle school children's peers had contracted the virus and their school informed us of the positive cases. To be honest, it has been stressful, worrying about the children, worrying about the virus and just being so helpless in this situation. We have however, been fortunate to be blessed by good friends and volunteers who have been helping the children with the Antigen Rapid Testing and they have been so gracious with their time to come down to help teach and administer the ART or here in Thailand we use the term 'ATK' - Antigen Testing Kit. Most of the children were frightened just at the thought of having a long swab stick poked into their noses and were unsure of the whole procedure, but with the encouragement of their friends and the gentle hands who helped administered the test made it bearable.
Please pray alongside us, we are not sure now if or how many children may have caught the virus. We are also stressed knowing that there may be a few of them who may be affected and of course we do not want to risk the others to the exposure. Pray for the staff team as we manage the situation now and for the Lord's strength, covering and grace over us. All we can do now is to put our trust into the Lord and know that He will hold us and see us through. We want all our children to be healthy and well and we will do our best to continue to care for them despite this curveball thrown at us. Together we are strong and with the Lord we are stronger and will come out of this challenging and stressful period.
31 December 2021
Ending off on a good note
Season Greetings ~
December has been a month full of so much hope and faith in action. After 11 months of a every changing-challenging-crazy year for us, we have really experienced the Lord’s love for us each and every step of the way. We could not have asked for a better way to sum up 2021 and to usher in 2022. We have become more resilient, we have learnt to be more patient and loving to each other as we had more time together at home – not just living but also having to study home based learning for almost three quarter of the year. God is good, He never left us in despair yet He came to comfort and provide for all of us at YCF. We are very blessed and extremely grateful for all the love and support we have received. We can only do what we do because of God and the generous and kind people He brings along our way to fuel us with all their kind thoughts, actions and great help in various forms.
We started the month off with a trip to Ubon Ratchathani, we drove about 13 hours to get there – to a village school where we conducted a ‘Fun English Camp’ for the students. Though it was short, it left such a great impact on our older children who went to conduct the camp on their own and we were all so impressed and immensely proud of how they have grown to be such independent and good leader as we watched them lead the students and as they each took charge of their own activities. As our children have the opportunity to learn English in their schools, it was a good opportunity for them to impart their knowledge for the language to the younger children in the village school. With the help of our YCF staff and some YCF friends, they helped our children to plan and prepare for their English lessons and games. We thank God for seeing us through and for allowing our children to be a blessing to others. It was so nice to see everyone enjoying the camp. We even had some time to squeeze in some sightseeing on our way back home and our children had a good time exploring and being ‘tourists’, a well-deserved break and reward for their hard work.
When we returned home from the camp, the children had to go back to school. Our primary school students had home based learning while some of the older children who are fully vaccinated returned back to school. They were elated as it meant that they could meet with their friends and teachers again. It was also time for us to prepare for our annual Christmas party and our staff were all busy getting the children ready with their performances and getting them to practice. Our children love the month of December, they love Christmas and always get excited as the day draws near. This year we had our Christmas party on 30 December and it was nice simple celebration with some YCF friends who came to attend it, we shared a delicious homemade meal, the children sang and danced and did so well with each of their song/dance presentation and we also had a lovely worship and bible sharing that night. For New Year, we brought the older children up to Chiang Rai and we welcomed the New Year there.
2022, we are happy that it is a New Year. We are hopeful that things will get better. We keep praying and we know that God is working. Our desire is for all our children to grow well, physically, mentally and most importantly, spiritually. We are very blessed to have each one of them under our care and we love how special they each are. For 2022, we will continue to do our best to provide and care for them with the best we can and continue to help shape them to be better people who will grow up to help others. Thank you for journeying with us throughout, it means a lot to us. Let us continue in this New Year together, thank God for everything.
30 November 2021
Things are looking up
Our Hope Comes from Him
- Psalm 62:5
The cold season has fallen upon us and we are thankful for the cool breeze in the early mornings and at night but also thankful for the sun’s warmth during the day. We finally got to dry out the rice grains that we harvested from our rice fields, the rainy season this year was prolonged and hence, we could not dry out the rice grains after thrashing them as they would get wet and damp each time the rain pelted down. However, that is all done, thank God!
School has also started for the children this month, on the very first day of the month, our children returned back to school…yes, all lessons are still conducted online. This is because the current Covid19 situation still possess a danger as there still a handful of daily cases and so, the Thai government has decided that the school will reopen but all lessons will have to be conducted online until further notice. We have gotten better managing the children with their online home based learning. We thank God for all the support we have received during this time. To all who have donated funds for us to purchase new laptops and for all who have donated second hand laptops which are still in mint working conditions, a big thank you for all your kind and generous thoughts to help assist us in ensuring we are well equipped for each child to access their education platforms and for the learning to not cease or be disrupted. We are very thankful and feel very blessed. On another note of thanksgiving, all of our big (middle-high school, university/vocational) children are fully vaccinated.
This month, we also had more interactions with some YCF international friends who came to visit. Some came to run some programs for the children and some came by to visit us. Thank you for all the thoughts and love you have for YCF, we appreciate it so much. It also encourages us greatly to see how people want to be involved in helping us as we care for the children and to provide the best for them. The children are also very happy each time we get visitors and we can really feel all the love from each of you near and far. Earlier this year, we went to Mae Hon Song where we brought some children who hails from the village there to bring them home to visit their families. It was so heartening to see the children reunite with their families even if it was for a few days. It is very important that our children still keep in touch with their families and we always emphasize the importance of staying close, keeping their families in prayers and for them to do well in order to help their families and the society. We love such village visitations and it always brings us so much joy in seeing how their family members are so happy to see them do well.
We are setting off for a trip to Ubon Ratchathani and will be there for a week as our older children will be running an English Camp in view of Christmas with a group of school-going village children. We will also be sharing the Christmas gospel with them and be running camp activities, games, worship and visitations during our time there. Everyone is very excited as we hardly travel to Ubon Ratchathani. Please keep the team in your prayers as we head off driving there and as we execute the camp. We want our children to be able to give back and pay it forward as they have been so blessed in so many ways. This is a great opportunity for them to harness their leadership and teamwork skills. With this experience and opportunity we hope that they will grow and realize that they are very capable and talented. More photos to come in the next month’s updates, we can’t wait to share them with you. Please pray for us, for God’s protection, safety and for a great time with the people we will be meeting in Ubon Ratchathani.
31 October 2021
Ready , Set, Go!
It is unbelievable how the year is almost ending! This month went by so quickly, just like the rains that it brought along with it. The children have been home this whole month and even as school starts tomorrow (1 November) – they will still have to be home as even though the new school semester begins, they will all still have to learn online as schools are not physically open yet for them to return. We are glad that they will start the new school semester but we also know how challenging it will be for them and also for the staff as they have to attend online lesson, submit all their assignments online and have to manage their time well and to be extra disciplined in their learning. We hope that you will keep us in your prayers, for extra strength for all the staff as they will have to continue to watch over the children as they learn online and for the children to be focused and for them to be responsible for their own learning. Likewise we also pray that the internet connectivity at home will be good and stable, for the devices that we have to be used and shared well by the children and most importantly for the children to continue to be harmonious as they continue to be in each other presence and company 24/7.
We have three main thanksgiving to share and give thanks this month. First up, kudos to our older children for being brave as they all went to get their first dose of their vaccination. They went with their schools and we are glad that they were all well after the first dose, some were a little more tired but the day after their vaccination they all just stayed home and rested. Due to the rise in the cases, we also felt that it was about time that the older children who qualified to get the vaccination should go and get it. So thank God for their schools who helped to arranged it and it was also nice that the children had each other for moral support. Second thanksgiving item is for our harvest of the rice this year. A few months back we started planting rice as the rainy seasons was approaching and this month we have started harvesting some plots. Thank God for his grace and protection over the rice crops, we are harvesting a little by little as some days are still wet. This is because after we harvest the rice crops, we need to dry them out under the sun before we can thrash them and store them. So after we pray for the rains (for the rice planting season) we will pray for the sun (as we harvest and dry the rice grains). More on the harvest in the coming month, so stay tuned. Last but not least…the children went out for a swim! This was the highlight for them as they have been cooped up at home for the last few months and so when the opportunity came for them to head out for a swim, they were all so excited and extremely happy. We are so blessed to be able to get the chance to take the children out for a swim and just out of the house – safely that is, as we got them to mask up and also briefed them about staying safe and maintaining good healthy personal hygiene. We want to thank Pastor Iain and Centre of the Universe for allowing our children to go swimming.
As we enter the last two months of the year, we are still very hopeful that the Covid19 pandemic will get better, we pray for all our YCF friends and we miss everyone as it has been almost 2 years since we last had international friends come visit. Continue to stay strong and always look to Jesus. We will get through the hard times together and we are very sure that we will get through it. We are excited for school to start tomorrow, as the weather gets cooler and as Christmas is fast approaching, and we are glad we have you to journey with us even though we may not be physically together but always in heart and mind.
30 September 2021
Grace Given
"Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness."
2 Corinthians 9:10
This month we are extremely thankful for all that has been given to us in the form of monetary support to purchase more laptops for the children to use for their home based online learning and for the love and prayers that we have received during this challenging times to spur us on. We have been given so much by everyone’s thoughts and support in various forms and we want to thank you for that. We are super appreciative as we know that God has sent each of you to help us get through this tough time. Words of encouragements and frequent check-ins has really brighten our days and lifted up our mood. Thank you everyone for your constant support, love, generosity and most important we thank God for each of you.
We have survived another month of home based online learning for the children, it is really by God’s grace that we can get through each day. Our staff are very tired but they take much pride and joy in seeing our children learn well and putting good use of their time learning online at home. We are soldiering on, clinging on to the Lord’s extra providence of strength, patience and energy. The children are all doing well, they have been getting use to learning online daily. However, we are still awaiting for good news to hear that schools will be able to resume soon and that they will be able to return back to school. As of now, we are still awaiting updates so, in the meantime, the children will continue with their home based online learning. We will press on and continue to watch and guide them along to the best we can. Please keep us all in your prayers.
Last Sunday we had our Thanksgiving service at Youth Charity Foundation – House of Hope in our open field. We want to thank God for blessing us with a lovely weather that morning through the afternoon. It was a lovely time spent with some YCF friends who came to join in the Thanksgiving service for worship, sermon and sharing and for a scrumptious home cooked lunch to wrap up the Thanksgiving service. The Thanksgiving service was to give God thanks for the harvest this year of our crops we planted, for his constant providence and fulfilling our every need in His perfect time. Even though this year has not been an easy year with many ups and downs due to the Covid pandemic, we are still very glad that we are so blessed and we give thanks for every little thing from the rice seeds to the fruits on our trees, for as high as the heavens above, great is our Father’s love for us. Even as we enter the last few months of the year, we want to remember all these little goodness even in dark days, we can still confidently say we see the light. This is because Jesus is our light and He shines and guides our every step. Amen.
31 August 2021
E-learning
It has been a full month of home based online learning for our children. It has been challenging and very exhausting for the staff but we soldiered on knowing that God is our strength and with the intentions of seeing our children learn despite being home with the limited laptops. We had to stick to the schedule of the arrangements for the laptops to be used according to the children’s lesson time and online assignment timings. There were times that the children logged in late for their lessons and times we had no choice but to miss some lessons as there just was not ample devices for the children. There are 16 classes among them and we only have about 10 working laptops currently. We also had to be very creative in the distribution of space – for the children to be in their respective assigned places that were conducive for learning, away from the other ongoing classes. Some found themselves under the big Jambu tree, while some others found themselves in the middle of our stairs landing. Despite the limitations we are still very thankful that we have devices to be used, Wi-Fi for the online lessons and for a team of staff who are so dedicated to watching over the children and ensure they are learning well and to assist should there be any technical difficulties.
This month has gone by in a blink of an eye, we have been so preoccupied with the children’s home based online learning. I guess you can say that we are all starting to get use to this new normal of online learning from home and staying in most of the time. We still encourage our children to stay active and to keep up with their exercises and allow for them to play their sports at home in our field. It is good they have each other to play together. We are also very grateful for our committed group of YCF volunteers who are located here in Thailand who have given so much of their precious time to come in to teach and tutor our children, from Mathematics to English lesson, they have been so gracious with their time and have imparted so much knowledge to our children in their fun and creative lessons that the children look forward to. We would not be able to keep the children so well-occupied and through their meaningful interactions, we have seen the progress in the children.
The rains have started falling and we are still praying for the current Covid situation in Thailand to brighten up. We are hopeful that we will be able to send the children back to school where they can learn most effectively and where they are happy to be with all their peers and teacher. We also ask that you pray with us for Thailand, for her people and for the Covid virus to cease its rapid spread and for all those who have been badly affected by the virus to be able to pick up and get back on their feet again. God is good and we know He is near, He has blessed us greatly with many people’s love, thoughts and prayers. Thank you, we feel it and we want to acknowledge all your generous hearts. Better days are to come, and we know that God will see us through whatever that may come our way. Stay strong everyone, we here, are staying strong and pressing on!
31 July 2021
Together we are stronger