Ferbruary-March 2006 Trip to Myanmar

The first week after leaving to visit with our orphans and friends in Burma , on February the 15. 2006, was spend in Bangkok waiting for the visa to enter Myanmar( Burma). Bangkok is hot but not opressive in the dry season and I stay at the same hotel every time I go. I was under heavy spiritual attack through out my whole waiting period. The embassy in Bangkok had once again changed their way of obtaining the visa and it made almost next to impossible to get a visa ,if one wasn't waiting in line by 7:00-7:30 Am. A week later I finally had my visa and flew to Yangon(Rangoon) on a Thursday in the morning.
Everything becomes complicated once one is in Burma. It took a while till a plane flew to Kale Myo where our friends and the orphans are located.But I am glad I finally was able to go there, having had insight from the Lord that HIS plans could not be thawed! In Mandalay I was joined as traveling companion the Vice Consular of the American Embassy in Rangoon. He was a very pleasant young man named Walter from Yew York City, and his Burmese assistant named Mr. Mynt OO, quiet and efficient.Once in Kale I found out that Moite, Henry's wife (our director of the Faith Children Village) had given birth to her third son and he was named Hermon ,like Mount Hermon in the bible.He is a big, round and healthy baby. he was born on the same day the Jonathan, her first son was born,January the 28. To my joy I saw that the dormitory had all the windows put in and doors attached. Even the stairs where now in place to go to the second floor.The new kitchen foundation was also put in place and on Sunday the 5. of March after I had preached that morning at the church on the Rock,we joyfully laid the foundation stone with prayers and thanksgiving. All the children have school vacation and had just completed a week of final tests for the year. Now there will be no school till June. The women's ministry's project of running a teahouse has not been going as planned and the painful but wise decision had to be made to close the teahouse by the 1. of April. I would need to live in Kale for a month or more to show the women how to do the teahouse ,for none of them have any experience,but that is impossible at this time. I realized that it was too much asked of them.Well, we learn more from our failures...
ALl the furniture ,which we so painstakenly painted only a few months before in bright red ,will all go to the children village for them to eat on or for other uses.
Jean Accola, my artist friend here in Durand had donated some of her beautiful prints to decorate the teahouse, and they where given to the workers of the teahouse to adorn their homes once it would be closed.The children are all happy and healthy and we had a chance to celebrate a birthday party for all the children and grownups who where born in March. Each one received a crown made out of jackfruit leaves held together with bamboo and a loaf of pound cake and an orange, but also each child and grownup who's birthday was not in March received the same. We have several gifted children we will need to concider mentoring when I go next time to foster their talents. My desire is to spend more time next trip in June/July 2006 to evaluate these children and seek channels of fostering these talents.
We where able to leave funds to start the kitchen building and of course for the usual needs and daily expenses as well as a medical emergency fund. Recently Faith Children Village recieved a grant from an org. in the USA to purchase ricefields and it was done. We are very grateful to God for it ,it is very important to raise your own rice. We tried to go to visit the site of the ricefields but the military and the police would not let me pass. It is in an area restricted to non- Burmese. God was all the way with us and our hearts are grateful and rejoyce in that He leads and uses us and all that was accomlished for His glory. HE IS AMAZING!The next trip will be in the end of June 2006-?

]]> We are hoping to finish this year 2006 our basic building projects at our Faith children village in Kale Myo , Myanmar : We have build a two story dormitory, with four large rooms/halls. Lower floor on the left,chapel/social room and lower floor on the right future office and apartment of two workers. The room is going to be separated in to two spaces,as indicated.The flooring there is brushed cement and these rooms/halls do not have glass windows but wooden shutters. The doors are made of hand huen wood, strong and safe.The upper level has a set of stairs, wide and comfortable to climp, one on each end of the building. The upper left room/hall is the boy's sleeping room with the helpers Mr. Peng and wife Moite having a separate space in the same room,at this time a curtain as separation, later a wall is planned. The floors are iron wood, a very strong ,termite resitant tropical wood since the boys and girls are sleeping on the floor till we can build beds. The windows have blue tinted glass and shutters.The same wooden doors are in these rooms. Each room upstairs and downstairs have two doors.The building itself is made mainly out of bricks with tropical wood frames ,a common method in the area called "bricknogging".-First a wooden frame is build on a stone/cement foundation and then the empty space within the frame are filled with cemented bricks.-the girls sleepingroom/hall is on the right and laid out like the boy's room, with the girls, Biakte,who's husband Sunny is in India to study, lives.We have 26 boys and 11 girls. The outside of the building still needs to be cemented and the dividing walls need to be build to complete the dorm. We have a metal roof on the dorm. More durable then the common wood shingles.
Then we need to finish the new kitchen right now in progress, but the cost has tripled and we are in need of more funds.The old kitchen is made of bamboo and wood and is about to break down. With new rainy season coming we have no choice but to at least start the new kitchen so we will have protection from the monsoon. The kitchen serves as dining hall for the children and an extra room is added on to the kitchen to serves such function.

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