It's been awhile since I've update this blog. We've had a lot going on and I would like to share some of that with you.
We have seen God working and moving in many lives in K13 Village. One of our sewing ladies came to faith in the Lord Jesus and her children are hungry to know the Lord as well. We praise God for this! We've also seen God miraculously heal a little boy in the village. He was in a Thai hospital and the doctors had lost hope that he would live. Just after we prayed in the village for this boy, we received a phone call that this 2-year-old suddenly woke up and his body was working again! This was a tremendous testimony to the village - and we again praise God. The boy was home in two days and was totally well. I look around and see gardens started in the village and I can see many improvements in the lives of the villagers from one year ago - both physically and spiritually. Very poor people are getting health attention they've never been able to receive and are able to work for the first time in years.
At the same time we also see opposition from the enemy in regard to our present location. The owner of the property has been very difficult to work with, and he has only given us a few months contract at a time as he wants to sell the property. We hardly know from one month to the next whether or not we'll be able to continue on at the present location. This has made it challenging to improve and develop our own center. There are virtually no other suitable locations in K13 Village, so after much prayer and discussion, we have made the decision to formalize ourselves into a local NGO and have started fund-raising to purchase the center. We would very much appreciate your prayers with us as we undertake this huge step. We need to raise $45,000 to purchase the house and 2.5 acres of land.
The largest enemy we see in the village is the addiction to both alcohol and gambling. You would think that people that are very poor wouldn't have the money to drink and gamble, but the truth is, because of their addictions, they gamble instead of feed and care for their families. If they do make a bit of money, they use it in wrong ways - compounding this spiraling problem. So we are asking for prayer that these chains of bondage will be broken and that they will experience freedom from these addictions.
Here are some photos from the past couple of months:
Pastor Jim visiting the center
afternoon literacy classes:
Praying at a villager's house:
