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.
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.