UPDATES
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 2019
In the month leading up to the most anticipated month for the children, we were busy preparing for our Christmas parties as the children has to practice their song and dance items. We also had our dear Japanese friends Kazuo and Toshiko come visit us. They have been such long and dedicated friends of YCF, since the beginning years with Toshiko’s late sister who encouraged Tasnee to start YCF. This lovely couple has been coming every year to visit and we appreciate their time and are so encouraged by their love for us all at YCF. We had a great time enjoying their company and catching up. The new children could finally meet them and likewise they could meet and spend time with the children too.
DECEMBER 2019
December oh December, the best time of the year as it is the most wonderful time of the year (Christmas!) We had such a delightful time celebrating and had so many Christmas parties and just enjoying all the good food and the company of family and friends. We were so blessed to be invited to join in the many Christmas parties and we were so stuffed with good food and too much Christmas treats. Such a joy! We also had the team from Singapore come visit for the annual children’s camp and all the children were so excited to have their Singaporean friends come again. Thank you to BPMC church for all the annual children’s camp. We have seen how the children enjoy so much each year and how the workshop sessions have helped them to learn more about God’s word and strengthen their spiritual growth and relationship with the Lord. The children also love the games and of course the fellowship with each and every one. We look forward to next year’s camp!
In the days that neared Christmas, we had the privilege to do caroling and to showcase our dance items to send some Christmas cheer to those around us and to thank those who have supported us throughout the year. We went to Vivo Bene, we visited some friend’s houses, and we even had our own in-house Christmas Party where we had a lovely night out with some dear YCF friends and all our children. We had such a simple yet scrumptious dinner spread that night. During the concert, all the children put on such a great show and everyone was well entertained. We even had our very own Christmas tree next to the make shift stage in our open field. We hung little bags of snacks on it and after we were done with the Christmas party and gathered all the super eager children around the tree as we all shouted “Merry Christmas!” and they all jumped to grab a bag off the tree. It was such simple yet great fun!
Another year just went past in a blink of an eye. 2019 was a good year for us, yes there were days and times that everyone was just so busy with school and work around the house but we are all so thankful that the Lord has seen us through yet another year. He has blessed us with plenty, He has showered us with so much goodness and His grace always seems to find a way into our hearts.
JANUARY 2020
We started the year with a simple worship and thanksgiving and it was such a lovely night. We started the year in full gear as we had some Taiwanese University volunteers who came to visit and they brought about so much joy to us. The children loved their company and were all so psyched to be part of all the activities that they had lined up and prepared for us. The Taiwanese University volunteers also were very helpful around our homes, they helped to do cleaning and repainting the walls at House of Grace. Everyone was very blessed by them and their high energy and enthusiasm really lifted our spirits and laughter filled the house.
January is also the month where our Grade 6 and Grade 9 students have to prepare for their examinations (O-Net). We have 4 children who are sitting for their examination in early February. Please keep them in prayer. The new year is going by really fast. In no time, we will have new children joining YCF and a few graduating. This year started with so many things going on and we have to ensure that everyone is staying healthy and well. Let's continue to pray for the Lord's mercy and grace over us all in this new year. 2020, let's go!
30 January 2020
Twenty Twenty
Scroll through the gallery to share in some of the moments of the past 3 months.
31 October 2019
Enriching Experiences
"Go for it.
No matter how it ends, it was an experience."
31 days have passed by again so quickly! The children have had such a fun month as it is their school holidays and for two of them they had a chance to get holiday jobs. One of our older girl was so privileged to have been able to work at Vivo Bene for 2 weeks and one of our younger boys who is in Grade 5 he worked in the noodle shop called Dtee Noi. It was his first time working and he learnt so much from those few days there. We are always so glad when the children have the chance to go out to work as they get to learn so much from the experience and it helps to prepare them for when they are older. Not only do they get the opportunity to gain working experience but they also benefit from earning some pocket money. Their confidence is also boosted and they come back sharing the experience with their peers and it’s always so nice hearing them talk about it and we get to delight in their excitement and walk with them in their worries or encourage them in times of doubts.
We also went to Chiang Rai this month with some friends from YWAMM and they had prepared some programs for the children there and came with us to visit our children who are studying in Mae Fah Luang University and one who is in his last semester at vocational school. It was such a fun time and everyone had so much fun. Thank God for bringing them to visit us.
As Christmas is fast approaching…less than 2 months away, we have been busy getting ready for it. Yes, you read it right, we are already preparing by having the children practice songs for Christmas worship and celebration. We all enjoy and adore Christmas and having to celebrate it brings us all so much excitement and joy. The children have also been cutting up a storm, cutting really lovely and very cute paper cuttings during their short school holiday, especially for those who did not return to their villages. It’s good that we have this activity as it allows for their creative juices to flow and at the same time is very therapeutic and enjoyable. So we hope that this year, we will see a good sales in the Christmas cards created by our very talented children.
The next two months before the year comes to an end will be filled with many activities and events, especially as Christmas draws near. We want to thank God for watching over everyone at YCF, the children and the staff and for all His goodness over us. We can’t wait for what is to come, looking forward and enjoying each day as it passes by.
30 September 2019
Everyday Goodness
"Nothing ever becomes real, till it is experienced"
- John Keats
We have been having sunnier days of late, this month the rains have stopped pouring and Mr Sun is out again to grace us with his presence. It has been a month of good fun as we had a team from Sydney-Australia visit us, bringing about much fun through the lessons they taught us about their Samoan culture, singing worships songs, doing crafts, learning English and not forgetting showing and teaching us (the boys in particular) how to do the Haka. Our friends in school were also so delighted to have a chance to meet them all and were blessed from the time spent together.
We also had two staff who were unwell this month, one of our female staff was feeling really under the weather and had a massive headache for about a week. She has to be hospitalized and was on bed rest for 5 days when she got home. Praise God as she has recovered well and is back on her toes, caring for the children. Our driver, Uncle also had met with two accidents, during the first week of September, he was out at dawn tending to the cows we have at House of Grace. In the darkness he was not careful and he slipped and hit his knee, which left him with a bruised and super swollen knee. But being the ever so crafty and innovative man that he is, he made a homemade walking stick with bamboo and a pipe head and was walking around the place in no time. However, just last week, Uncle was careless again and accidentally cut his leg while he was working with a knife. We brought him to the hospital and told him to rest and not work until his wound healed, he got stitches at the hospital. Uncle is a hardworking man and loves being out and about, but at his age, we always remind him to be extra cautious and careful. Do pray alongside us for fast healing and recovery in uncle’s leg and for the Holy Spirit to continuously guide and protect him in his daily doings. We are also in need of prayer for our staff, we are a small team and hence, we pray that we will be able to find new staff to join the YCF family and for all our current staff to be well as they serve.
With the sun out on most days now, the children are all happy as they can be in the outdoors- running and playing, catching fish, playing sports and one of their all-time favorite activity…swimming! It is good to see the children all so active and having fun together. It brings us so much joy too!
In just a few weeks’ time, our school-going children will be sitting for their school examination as the school holiday is approaching soon. Please pray for them to be focused and self-motivated as they prepare for their examinations. It’s going to be end of the school semester, when it feels like the children just started school. They are all also growing up fast and we now have many teenagers in the house.
We also want to thank God for His goodness in seeing that the rice we planted are growing well and soon we will be able to prepare to harvest it.
31 August 2019
Blissful Times
August has been a month filled with so much laughter and new memories. We hosted friends from Taegusndo University, who came and brought with them so much fun activities and even came to our elementary and high schools to visit. Not only did we get to have fun with them but our friends in school were also able to get to know them and learnt more about the Japanese culture and we all had fun playing together. It was such a privilege to have them come to visit our schools. Back at home, we also enjoyed delicious Japanese food that they prepared with so much love for us to eat and enjoy. During the time that our Japanese friends came to visit, they took our children out for a treat at MacDonald's. For some of the children, mostly our new children, it was their first visit to MacDonald's and their first time having a hamburger! We heard so much squeals that day as they were waiting in line to place their orders and the children could not stop talking about their MacDonald's trip when they got home. We look forward to them coming every year and we appreciate that they take the time to come visit us. It is nice that we are able to foster good relationships with our Japanese friends.
We were also graced by the visit of BPMC church from Singapore, we are so thankful for their constant love and support for us at YCF. We enjoy having visitors and are truly so encouraged by their visits as we feel all their love for us. Thank you to all our YCF friends from far and wide. We are one big family in the Lord.
On 11 August, some of our children were chosen to participate in the Taekwondo Championship at the 700 years Stadium in Chiang Mai. They did such great jobs and clenched medals, ranging from gold, silver and bronze in their respective divisions. We are so honored to have the Chiang Mai Taekwondo Association come every Sunday to provide free lessons to all our children. So even the youngest ones at our homes have the opportunity to learn and exercise through being actively engaged in this sport. Some of our children are really good at it and have excelled in this sport. We were even featured in a sport broadcast by Thai PSB, it is such a big blessing. We are so happy seeing our children pick up this sport and doing well in it and of course, enjoying themselves.
[Watch the broadcast below]
August is also the month where the rains fall hard, and it has been raining daily this month and we are glad as the rain waters will fall and flood our rice fields. The rice seedlings have all been planting and now we are just waiting for the rice field to flood up and for the rice to grow well and strong. Time just passes by so fast, it is already the end of August, two more months of rain and soon it will be harvest season again. Not only are our rice and crops growing well, we thank God as the children are all growing well too. They are getting taller and bigger fast! We look forward to what next month has installed for us.
31 July 2019
Hello Again!
We have been so loved and greatly blessed by our visitors from near and far, we have started swimming class at Vivo Bene, Chiang Mai for our new children, our rice fields have been filled with rice seedlings and the children have been growing well and being good at school.
In July, we had a bittersweet moment when we had to bid farewell to two of our older girls who had been with us since they were both in Kindergarten. We have watched and been with them from the time they were so small and now they have blossomed into fine young ladies. We take delight in knowing that they are heading out to further pursue their higher education. One is pursuing a degree in Nursing at Mae Fah Luang Univeristy, Chiang Rai and the other is taking up a certificate course to be a dentist assistant in Chiang Mai University. We are just sad that the girls will no longer be living with us, but they will still be under the YCF scholarship funding program until they have graduated from their courses. We want to thank God for His goodness in ensuring that it was a smooth process as we planned for their accommodation and prepared them for the huge transition into their next chapter of their lives. We had to opportunity to personally send both girls to their new schools and lovingly assured them that they can do it and we are always keeping them in prayer. They will also have a home at YCF, but now it is time for them to learn to be independent and work hard to achieve their life’s goals.
Apart from the goodbyes we had to say this month, we said many hellos too! We said hello to visitors from Japan and Taiwan and we also said hello to the rice planting season! The rain has been pouring and it has been flooding our rice fields, which is a good thing! We need all the rain water to flood the land so that the rice will be able to grow well. The children were also hard at work after school on some evenings to help plant the rice seedlings, they did a fantastic job and now we are just awaiting the growth of our rice this year. So happy to see that the children were all working together, splitting up the task and getting the rice planting done fast and well.
Please keep us in prayer, especially for our health in this wet season. We are so appreciative for all the love we receive.
30 June 2019
Let it rain!
June came and went by quickly. This month the children got right back to their school day routines and our staff have been busy caring for the children and our homes. The highlight of this month was that we harvested the remaining rice in our field at the back of House of Hope. Everyone helped out to harvest the rice and helped to also thrash the rice to gather the rice grains. The older children geared up in their long sleeve shirts, plopped on hats and had a sickle in hand and they set off into the rice field to harvest the rice by hand. The younger children were also very helpful as they put their energy to good use, running back and forth from our big open space where they transported the harvested rice for the middle aged children to thrash.
It was such a hot day, but we managed to get the work done in less than 2 hours. It’s always such a joy when we work together to get the work done. However, the rice harvested this year was not as good as compared to other years. We suspect that it is because of the weird weather change this year, the rains did not fall down enough to flood the field and nourish the hard soil and the scorching hot sun rays blasted upon our crops. Hence, when we thrashed the rice, we did not gather as many rice grains as before. Regardless of the harvest this time round, we are still very pleased and thankful that we have 16 sacks of rice for our consumption. Thank God.
We also want to thank God for allowing the new children to integrate smoothly into YCF. We have gotten to get to know them so much better and they are such dears. We have discovered that they are very talented, we have a girl who sings and plays the guitar so well, a boy who is so capable and can do many things and is so helpful and of course a few very adorable small children who just captures our hearts with their contagious laughter.
In June, we also started our Sunday school lessons before our Sunday church service. We have 3 staff and 2 YCF friends, Teacher Jean and Khun Scott who conduct Sunday school for our children. The children get split according to their age groups and we teach about the bible through games, activities and scripture reading. Everyone has been benefiting from it and we are so happy to know that the enjoy it.
The last few days of June, we have started planting ‘new’ rice. We have started to rack our fields and have scattered rice grains into some. The raining season is schedule to be now, however, with the freaky weather it is quite unpredictable. So please pray alongside us, as we pray for good rainfall this rainy season and for our rice fields to be flooded with rain fall so that our rice may grow tall and bear many rice grains. For July, we will continue work on the rice fields during the weekends and we are still praying for more funds to continue work on our House Building Project at House of Grace. Currently, we have started putting in cement for the second storey floors and we have a staircase that is up but some work is still needed to get it functional. The children at House of Grace are so excited as they get to witness first-hand how the house is coming up and they can’t wait to be in it to enjoy their library/play room.
Onwards to the second half of the year, we will continue going strong as we know we have Jesus always by our side and He is our strength, joy, peace and everlasting love.
31 May 2019
Oh The Fun We Had!
As we enter the mid-point of the year, we want to share with you all about our month of May. May is the month when the school holidays come to an end, but yet there are many new beginnings for us! You may be thinking…many? That’s right, many because not only do we have new additions to the YCF family, the start of the new school year kicks off and for our children it means the start of their new grade level, new friends and teachers and for some, new schools! Last but not least the beginning of the busy period for us, now that the children are all back to school and to flow of school life sets in on top of all the activities we have back home.
We are so happy to introduce our latest additions to the big YCF family, these children have joined us this year and have happily embarked on their educational journey and are enjoying their new friends and schools. Please continue to pray alongside us as we pray that our new children will settle in well and take to their new home and environments. As we get to know them better, we hope to shower them with God’s love and to allow them to experience His goodness in their own lives. We are also excited for them to be exposed to all the works at YCF, for them to learn and experience new things. May our new children be good children and take their schooling seriously and may they come to love their new YCF family.
One of this month’s greatest thanksgiving is that one of our boys received his Thai Identification Card after a long period of just having an Ethnic Thai Minority Identification Card. Thank God for His wondrous grace and mighty works. We are overjoyed and we are looking forward to more of such news as we pray and have faith that our other children who are still in the midst of waiting for their Thai Identification Card will also be able to obtain theirs. Though the wait is long and the process gets tedious at times, God is so good and He delivers!
Right: Our new children for this new school year. Welcome to the family!
Left: Our boy proudly showing off his Thai ID card. Yes, it is his to keep!
As we wrap up the last few weeks of the long school vacation, we were blessed to be able to bring our older children to Hua Hin for a week of bible study camps and a time of rest and recreation. The children attended the “Walk with the Holy Spirit Camp” and we had our good friends, Edgar and Toto to accompany us to facilitate bible study and to teach the bible to our children. It was a splendid week of not just soaking up the salty sea waters and sunshine- but also soaking up knowledge on the bible and learning more about the great God that we worship. The children truly enjoyed their time at the beach and of course found it hard to have to leave. Nonetheless, we want to give thanks for the opportunity and support from our friends who made this trip possible.
We also had a fun activity back home where all the children participated in. It was a fun time learning about relationship building. The children loved being able to get creative, to dress up and find props that were needed for the activity. They learnt and had so much fun.
Dear June, you rolled in too quickly yet at the same time we look forward to seeing what this new school year holds for us. Watching the children grow brings us much joy and so much anticipation to seeing them get closer to reaching their full potential. We ask for your continual prayers as we care, love, nurture and grow with our children, may God grant us renewed strength daily and may we not lose sight of his love even in tough times.
"My strength comes from God who made heaven,the earth and mountains."
-Psalm 121:8
30 April 2019
Splish Splash
What a busy yet fun month it has been for us at YCF! It was such an eventful month, even though April is the hottest month as the temperature these days hit 40 degree celsius in the day…yes it is that hot! However it is the month when the Thai people celebrates their New Year. More commonly known as “Songkran” to many internationally, it is a 3 day water festival which extends over a week where the nation of Thailand celebrates by throwing water which signifies ‘blessings’. Well for us at YCF, we take this time as a good time to head out for the children to have some fun playing with water in the crazy heat. This year, the children had so much fun playing at the nearby dam and canals. They were splashing around, swimming and lounging in the cool waters. It really feels good to be able to soak and have some fun in the water when the heat is so bad. The children also got to have a mini water fight at home, where we allowed them to splash water at each other. If only you could hear their war cries, the contagious giggles and their little feet scrambling around in the wet grass.
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Aside from all the fun and games, we toiled in the heat to harvest the peanuts which we harvested a week ago. We gathered so many! Thank God for how well they grew and for such a plentiful harvest. The children enjoyed munching on them and were so pleased to see how much was collected. We also commemorated Good Friday but remembering how God loved us so much that He sent his one and only son, Jesus Christ to die upon the cross for our sins, to wash us free from it all. 3 day later, He rose from death to life and we celebrated Easter Sunday by rejoicing and singing praises remembering that joyous day! The children sang a lovely song at Pastor Songkiat’s church for Easter and we were so blessed to be able to be there to listen to the sermon.
Our staff went for a 3 day staff retreat that was ran by our friends from Singapore-Bethesda Pasir Ris Mission Church, along with some other church worked from Chiang Rai. It was time well spent as the staff were able to learn through the workshop they attended, by engaging in discussions with other church workers exchanging experiences and knowledge across the table and sitting in for bible lessons by the Singapore church members. During the staff retreat, the staff were also able to have some time to rest and relax and they enjoyed themselves greatly.
Half a month left of school holidays for our children, soon it will be time for the new school year to commence. We are looking forward to welcoming new friends to YCF, they should be streaming in the early weeks of May. Excited to meet them? So are we! Those children who returned to their villages during the school holiday will also return to YCF soon, as they will need to prepare themselves for the new school year. Many changes, but we are eager to see what lies ahead. As for now, we are just so thankful for friends who have been coming to keep the children occupied with enriching and fun activities for them to do.
31 March 2019
Marching On
Our 10 graduating grade 6 students. They all look so grown up now.
March is the month we celebrate the end of one school year, the month which the children look forward to as they graduate and move on to the next grade, or next school for some and not forgetting the long summer school vacation which lasts till May.
This year, we are so proud to see 10 of our grade 6 students graduate from elementary school. This has to be our biggest batch of graduands in all of years of running YCF. Ten! 10 of them, just so thankful to the Lord for seeing them through their 6 years of elementary school education. Our hope is to see all our children get educated for a better life ahead of them and of course to attain the highest education possible for them. We tell them to be grateful that they have a chance to go to school, to receive education and always remind them to do their best as they owe it to their sponsors who so generously supports them in financing their school fees. Thank you to our sponsors, we will appreciate each of you and all that you are doing and giving to our children. They are truly so blessed and we want them to be aware and know they have to do their job as a student well as they are accountable to the Lord and to their respective sponsors but most importantly as they get an education it is for their own futures. We are pleased to announce that all 10 students have done well and passed and will move on to enter middle school, grade 7 in May.
We saw 3 of our older children graduate from middle school and high school too. 1 will go one to pursue and education in a vocation school and 2 are in the midst of sitting for entrance exams for university. We will keep you posted on where they have been enrolled when they get news of their posting results next month. Please keep the 3 of them in prayer as they prepare for the next chapter of their lives as young adults and as they go to new educational institutes where they will pursue their desired courses that will chart the course of their careers once they have graduated. The children are all growing up so fast, and seeing them being able to express themselves and their goals for their lives makes us even more thankful for the opportunity to journey and watch them grow and develop into adulthood.
Left: Two of our beautiful girls graduated from High School.
Above: Our sweet boy who graduated from Year 9.
In this month, we also welcome with much anticipation the summer school vacation. A few of our children have returned home to their respective villages and will only return late in April to prepare for the new school year that starts in May. For those children who are unable to go home, they stay on in YCF and they get to enjoy the vacation by resting, relaxing at our homes and also take part in the various activities that we have planned and prepared for them. Often times when a child is unable to return home to their villages during the school vacation, it is because the situation of them home is not the safest. They may not have anyone home during the day to care for them or just the dynamics of the family is not the best and we want to ensure our children are safe and cared for, hence they stay on at YCF.
It’s been just 2 weeks of school vacation and the children have been kept busy already and enjoying themselves. Even though the weather in Chiang Mai at the moment is really bad with the horrible haze causing a hazardous air pollution, it is very hot during the day. The hot season is fast approaching and with the haze in toll it is just makes this burning season one of the worst in all the years. Hence, with the hot stuffy weather, the children wanted to go swimming. As much as we wanted them to stay indoors as much as possible we decided to allow them to go for a quick dip in our friend’s pool. Khun Michael has always been very hospitable by opening his beautiful home to us for the children to swim in his lovely swimming pool. The children could not wait to jump in to splash around in the cool waters. No regrets, we all needed to cool off in the heat and thankfully that morning we were at the pool, the haze cleared a little and the air was fresher. The children even had the opportunity to visit 50FLY Trampoline Club, which allowed them to be indoors and to burn off their never ending energy by jumping on the various trampolines and to be wowed by the stuns they could pull off while jumping around. It was a good exposure for them and a whole lot of fun! Aside from all the fun and games, the children went to a 2 day bible camp which was organised this week by our Pastor friend, Ajarn Songkiat and his church. They were thrilled as they got to meet and make new friend, participate in games and learn more about the bible through workshops and activities.
This holiday we are going to start work again on the house building project at House of Grace. This is all thanks to God for providing us with some funds to engage a contractor to come down to help assist us in building the stairs for the interior and to purchase the materials needed to do so. Thank you to those who have gave to bless us with funds as we work on this house building project. As we receive funds, we will work with what we receive to move on to another step and we believe we will be able to finish building this house by the end of this year. If you would like to give to this project, please let us know by dropping us an email at youthcharityfoundationthailand@gmail.com We still have to gather funds to put in the walls for the building, purchase the roof, tiles, paint, windows, doors and electrical components. So for this holiday, we will get the children to help out with the house building project. As they say, “working together is success”, so with more hands chipping in to help, work gets done faster.
Put the cursor on the pictures to see a slideshow of how the children have been spending their school holiday and to view more precious pictures of the children's graduation.
Next month the children will also be able to have so much fun as Songkran (Thai New Year-Water festival) approaches. Which child does not like a good water fight? Well for ours, they all absolutely love playing with water so they will surely have a whale of a time. We are also looking at sending our older children to Hua Hin for a bible camp with a bible collage there. Some children will also have to return to school for summer school. Many things to come, we are excited for all that is to come and at the same time very thankful for all that has happened. One last thanksgiving item is that all our children who were unwell and for some who were warded in hospitals, all of them have recovered and have been discharged. Thank you for all your prayers.
28 February 2019
Ending the School Year
28 days is not enough, especially so when we have a house full of children and that in February we have so much to do! In this month, our children have to sit for their final school year examinations as it is the last month of school before the long summer vacation starts next month. Two of our older girls will be graduating from high school and soon they will be headed to further their studies in university or in vocational schools, they are now in the midst of sitting for their school entrance examinations as they have finished their high school final year examination. We are so excited to see where the Lord will lead them to in their next chapter of their lives as young adults.
The weather this month has not been the best as even with the nice cool nights and early mornings, it has been rather hazy. Thus, some of our children fell sick with the fever and flu. We had two who had to be hospitalized, but by the grace of God they are now much better and have recovered. We pray that the haze will go away and for better weather to come as the hot season approaches.
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Thankfully, our vegetables in our vegetable patch in House of Grace has been flourishing. With the hard work that the children put in to weed, water and tend to it, the vegetables that we have planted have grown well and we are now seeing the fruits of our labour. Just a while more till we can harvest them for consumption and the children are starting to get impatient and want to harvest the baby vegetable to eat. In the meantime as they wait, they can continue to learn the importance of having patience and also how to care for the crops. Everyone has a part to play in our household, regardless if they are small or big, everyone is in charge of a certain chore. They learn from it and it good skills to have, as they grow up and eventually lead their own lives. As pictured, you can see how our youngest boys are busy enjoying collecting the eggs daily from the chicken coops we have. They learn to be gentle with the eggs as they have to carefully remove them from the coops and focus as they walk when carrying a tray full of eggs back to the kitchen. The older boys, more is expected from them and hence, they are in charge of self-grooming. Yes, they help cut each other hair. You know, boys and their head full of hair which grows too quickly! So with a clipper and a chair, they get busy as they rotate helping one another, until all of them gets a fresh haircut. It saves a lot of money and also it helps them pick up a new skill and should one of them be keen to be a hairdresser or barber one day, we will fully support their endeavor.
Thankfully, our vegetables in our vegetable patch in House of Grace has been flourishing. With the hard work that the children put in to weed, water and tend to it, the vegetables that we have planted have grown well and we are now seeing the fruits of our labour. Just a while more till we can harvest them for consumption and the children are starting to get impatient and want to harvest the baby vegetable to eat. In the meantime as they wait, they can continue to learn the importance of having patience and also how to care for the crops. Everyone has a part to play in our household, regardless if they are small or big, everyone is in charge of a certain chore. They learn from it and it good skills to have, as they grow up and eventually lead their own lives. As pictured, you can see how our youngest boys are busy enjoying collecting the eggs daily from the chicken coops we have. They learn to be gentle with the eggs as they have to carefully remove them from the coops and focus as they walk when carrying a tray full of eggs back to the kitchen. The older boys, more is expected from them and hence, they are in charge of self-grooming. Yes, they help cut each other hair. You know, boys and their head full of hair which grows too quickly! So with a clipper and a chair, they get busy as they rotate helping one another, until all of them gets a fresh haircut. It saves a lot of money and also it helps them pick up a new skill and should one of them be keen to be a hairdresser or barber one day, we will fully support their endeavor.
Apart from all that, we have been truly blessed to have our dear friends, Edgar and Toto come on Sundays to share the bible with us. They make learning bible stories so fun and engaging. The children have so much fun listening and learning. Thank God for people He sends our way. Our children also enjoy presenting their song or dance item as an offering to praise and worship Jesus and watching them brings us so much pride and joy.
Looking forward to the upcoming school holidays, where we will all be able to catch a breather to rest and enjoy. As soon as that is, it will come even sooner when we will have new additions to the YCF family with new children for the new school year. Speaking of new additions, our beloved dog, Momo gave birth to 7 puppies in January and they are just so adorable. They are growing up well, all chubby, wide eyed and ready to explore this world as they waddle around with their stumpy feet. Time is just going by so fast, we will also have to see 3 children into new chapters of their lives and we look forward to doing that with the Lord.
31 January 2019
A Fresh Start
As we welcome the New Year, January is also one of the children’s favourite months. This is because Children’s Day falls on 12 January and on that day, the children of Thailand are celebrated with lots of snacks, sweet treats, fun activities and of course lots of freebies- free entry to attractions, free movies and even free meals! Apart from Christmas, Children’s Day is very much anticipated by our children. They are so blessed and we feel happy just seeing them enjoy themselves and being able to watch them grow.
The cooling weather is such a bonus as we get to throw on our jackets and get busy in the fields where we have started planting some vegetables like, lettuce, peanuts and corn. The children learn so much from planting food crops in our fields and learn how to appreciate food even more. In a few months’ time, our vegetables will be ready for harvest, check back to see how they have grown. Just speaking about it makes us excited as we have planted extensively this time round, hoping for more harvest.
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It may not look like much now, but with love and care as we tend to the crops, in a few months time the vegetable will grow!
How we celebrated our Children's Day! It was so much fun!!!
Earlier this month, the children had a day off from school and we brought them to a children’s home in Chiang Rai to help run a day camp with the children there. Our children are so blessed as they receive love from all of you and have the privilege to experience going for camps, doing fun activities to help them grow and learn and they receive so much. For that we are ever so thankful and we want our children to be appreciative and of course learn how to pass their blessings on. So we decided on holding a children’s camp for some children at a children’s home in Chiang Rai. Our children did such a fantastic job! The older children were in charge of planning and running the camp, our younger children helped out and also took part in the camp activities. They all had such a lovely time getting to know their new friends and of course it goes without saying they loved all the games. It is so good to see our children in action and seeing how they are able to help others and bring a smile to other’s faces. We want them to be able to spread the word and love of the Lord to others, just as how they receive it so freely, we want them to give freely too.
We were also able to squeeze in a quick trip to Pai, where we went to visit some of our children’s villages as well as to celebrate a dear friends’ 12th anniversary-thanksgiving for their drug rehab and church ministry in Pai. We make often trips to our children’s villages, this is so as we want our children to be connected to their families, regardless of whether it is their direct family or relatives. It is also a good opportunity for us to check in with their families to see how everyone is doing and to pray for them. The children also enjoy visits back to their villages and they get to give a tour to their friends and take them around and it makes them so proud and pleased.
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The first month of 2019 has been nothing short of His amazing grace. We started the year with many enriching activities and we are looking forward to see what else is in store of this New Year. Please keep our 9 Grade 6 students in prayer as they will be sitting for their final grade school examination next month.
31 December 2018
Christmas Delights
December was a month filled with so much celebration and love for us. We has friends come to visit to gift us with many gifts and sweet treats as well as friends who came to visit and bless us with us with their presence during the festive season.
As we celebrated Christmas this year at YCF, we had in mind the theme “Faithful King”, this was in line with the camp theme that we had with the BPMC Singapore team. God is our faithful king, He sees all and He cares and love us- His people so much. We had such a lovely time remembering that He is faithful not only because He loves us but because He has been with us throughout, in all times. When we celebrated Christmas this year, we also looked back at the year 2018 and were reminded of how good God has been to us all at YCF.
We had a 3 days camp with BPMC Singapore team and the children has such a good time learning more about the bible with how God’s faithfulness and their personal faith aligned. They also had so much fun during the games segments as we could hear so much laughter and little squeals coming from our open field. It was such a joy and blessing being able to participate in the camp. We want to thank our Singaporean friends for coming annually to run camp programs with our children. They benefit so much from all the activities, from the workshops, to the worship session and of course through the interaction with their friends from Singapore.
The children also had the privilege to be invited to sing some Chirstmas carols at various places this year. The elementary school children went with their school to some places around our province to sing Christmas carols to bless their audience and spread the good news that Jesus is born and the true meaning of Christmas, and our children also went to Chiang Mai Christian School as part of the All Saints Festival of Carols. Our children enjoy singing and dancing, hence, they had so much fun preparing their performances and they worked hard to practice.
We were also blessed to be invited to Christmas gatherings and parties by our friends, they had such big hearts and welcomed us to their homes and churches to take part in their Chirstmas programs. Everyone had such a good time and loved getting to eat delicious food and of course receiving little gifts.
On the last day of 2018, we had a morning of games, where all the children took part in mini games that were ran by the YCF staff and some older returning children who are in university or have graduated. We love having such gatherings, where everyone comes together as we are all part of a big family. At night, we had a worship-thanksgiving time where we sat around to look back on the year and to look forward to the new year. Everyone shared and enjoyed a simple barbecue.
We want to thank you all, our supporters, readers and friends for all your love and prayers this year, we are excited and thankful for the new year ahead. May 2019 be a year filled with great wonder and joy, and may we continue to stay close to the Lord and seek Him in leading YCF onward to greater heights as we keep loving our children and to welcome new children in the months to come.
Please do help keep our graduating children in your prayers. We have 9 grade 6 children who will be sitting for their final school exams in February and 3 older children who will be graduating from high school, they too will sit for their final examinations. We pray that God will continue to see them through and that they will be responsible and hard working to study hard. Thank you!
Blessed New Year 2019!
From all of us at YCF to you and your family.
30 November 2018
Little Grains of Gain
SNIPPETS OF THE MONTH:
Everyone working hard, harvesting and drying out the rice from our rice fields. Our male staff working on repairing the roof of our small lounging area. The children playing and Sunday at church.
We are nearing the end of 2018, the last 30 days of November has passed us by so quickly. The children are all back to school, the staff are busy around the homes running errands, taking care of the children and most importantly we are all preparing and counting down to Christmas! Just 26 days more to Christmas! We can’t wait!!! We have all been well this month, the weather has been starting to get colder, the days are shorter and the nights long. It seems like this year we will have a nice cold and cosy Christmas and New Year.
In the month of November we spent the month harvesting the rice in our rice fields, we had the help of a rice harvesting machine that we hired to help us. Once the rice was harvested, we had to work together to spread out the harvested rice on tarps as the rice was still a little damp. After leaving it out for a few days to dry completely, we gathered all the children and staff to help with the collecting of rice grains. We had to do this a few times as we have a few rice fields that were harvested. It is tiring but seeing the fruits of our labour was worth every sweat. The children were in awe of the quantity of rice collected. We foresee that the rice harvested will last us about 8 months in total, for our daily consumption. We tasted the rice for the past two week and it tasted really good. Thank God for seeing us to harvest!
The children have been really busy with all their school activities, from sports to the arts. The grade 6 pupils have been studying hard for their upcoming major examinations which will be in a few months’ time. They have been going back to school on Saturdays for extra revision lessons and have been revising work at home. The children are also super excited for Christmas as in the weeks leading to Christmas, they will have small treats from school or from friends of YCF. For the past few weeks, they have been practicing Christmas song and dance items for the mini celebration that we will have for Christmas and New Year.
Work around the homes never stop, the staff were busy repairing the roof of the Sala (sitting area), preparing the outdoor stage and tidying the homes. They are good workers, who work together to get things done around the house. We want to just say thank you to all those who have been loving and supporting YCF. We are still seeking building funds for the small house at House of Grace, which we hope to complete by the mid of next year. Thank you to all who have given and helped pray for and over us. Your kind thoughts are well received and appreciated greatly.
The countdown to Christmas has already begun for us, has it for you?
26 days to Christmas!
31 October 2018
Far and Wide
“Welcome, may all who enter as guests leave as friends”
This quote is so apt, especially for us at YCF. We are so blessed to have many guests come visit us and to spend time and shower their love on the children and our organisation. We truly appreciate everyone’s time and we are thankful for all the support and love we receive. The children learn so much from visits from guests, through their interactions with our guests they build up their English vocabulary, it boosts their confidence to practice speaking in English and through conversation shared, it broadens their horizons. We thank God for the people He has allowed us to meet and to partner together with to help our children in their education and in their stay with us in YCF, without them we will not be able to proceed with our education sponsorship program, start and finish our projects around the house and to afford for the daily living expenses of the home. Thank you to friends from far and wide, for all your prayers, time and love. We hope that those who enter as guests, we leave YCF as our friends.
With all that has been said, this month has brought the feet of many new and old friends of YCF. Earlier this month, we had the honour of meeting Khun Marilyn who flew in from United States of America to come visit our children and our two homes. Khun Marilyn has been such a dear, she has been helping YCF greatly by working together with her church back home in the states to gather church members to help sponsor a few of our children for their education sponsorship. Even though she has not met us before her visit this month, she continuously helped us communicate updates, and shared about YCF’s education scholarship program and our house building project at House of Grace with her church members. She garnered information from us and would always inform her church and would also send well wishes over from her church to the children at YCF as well. We were so glad she could come visit us and that we could finally meet her in person to thank her for all that she is doing for us. We had a lovely day together, showing her around our homes, having her meet all our children, bringing her to see how the progress of the house building is coming along and finally ending the day with a night of fellowship, where the children donned their ethnic tribal clothing to sing and dance to worship songs. Thank God for His goodness and thank you Khun Marilyn. We have truly gained a new friend and many new friends from the church who we hope can come visit us one day too.
Scroll to the right to see how we spent the day with Khun Marilyn >>>>>>>
This month, we also had to bid farewell to a new friend, Glendon, who has been volunteering at YCF for a few months. He was such a big help and his enthusiasm and good care for the children will make us miss him even more. Thank you Glendon for your time and love for all of us. You have been a blessing to us all, we wish you well as you head home.
Just a few days ago, our long time old friends Khun Kazuo and Khun Toshiko from Japan came and will be with us for a week. We want to honor this couple and their relentless love and support, from the start of YCF to what we are today. They have the kindest hearts and have seen our children past and present grow and have journeyed so loyally with YCF. It is always a joy to have them come visit and to catch up, to relive old memories and to make even lovelier new ones.
October is also the month for school term break. In which the children have a month off school as they are done with the school term and are awaiting the start of the new term. So some of the children have returned home to their villages, while those who are unable to, stays back at YCF. Those home with us have been kept busy doing spring cleaning, playing and resting as well. The new school term will start next month, so most of the children who returned home have returned back to YCF to prepare for the new school term. The staff also managed to squeeze in some time for rest during the school holiday, thank God for that as self-care and rest is very important for all. Everyone is doing well, those who were unwell are all recovered and back to their usual self, our boy who injured his hand is recovering well with 5 stitches in his hand, he is as active as always. God is great and our awesome healer, watching over us always.
We have a big thanksgiving item, we want to acknowledge the Lord’s providence and grace in seeing us through the long tedious process of obtaining a Thai ethnic minority ID card for one of our older boy who is currently in his second year in university. He came to us at a young age, he was without any Thai identification. Hence, over the years we have put in applications to get him his Thai ethnic minority ID, he is of the Lua tribe. Many years we have been working hard to assist him and by the grace of God he has finally obtained his Thai ethnic minority ID card. This will ensure that he will have more opportunity to find work and is now a recognized citizen. We have been praying for so many years and each time there would always be new hurdles, we refused to throw in the towel and persisted. How big a sigh of relief for us and even more so for him. God is so good!
"Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to Israel failed, every one was fulfilled."
-Joshua 21:45
Lastly, we are getting started on our paper-cutting, card making project! Christmas is just a month and a half away! The children will be doing paper cut-outs to make Christmas cards to sell for fund raising. Stay tune to see some of their wonderful and very creative creations. The cards will be on sale, they will make such lovely greetings to loved ones and friends this Christmas! We are looking forward to getting them done, the children feel so proud of their craft and get excited each time one of their card gets sold. If you would like to purchase some cards for Christmas, please get in touch with us at youthcharityfoundationthailand@gmail.com to place your order and find out more. Each card is unique, specially put together to brighten your day.
My Channel
30 September 2018
Grace Abounds
30 days in September... we did so many things and of course so many things has been happening around our two homes. We have had great days and a few not so good ones. You must be wondering, “What could have gone wrong?” or “Did something bad happen?”. This month sure did push us all physically and mentally .Sometimes, things which are beyond our control just happens, but we know the one who holds us in His hands is the good Lord who holds all things. By now you must be curious as to what happened, well, this month many of our children were hospitalized for various illnesses and injuries. We were all so worried and concerned, the staff were all so busy running around as they had to accompany or visit the children who were hospitalized. The other children back home were also praying for speedy recoveries for their friends. We had 5 children who made trips to the hospital this month. 1 big boy went to the clinic to get checked for the pains he had in his arm from a soccer game, 1 other big boy was warded for a fever, 1 middle aged boy was admitted to the hospital in town for a serious injury he got from a knife accident, and 2 younger girls were admitted for fever with 1 whose case was very serious and she had to stay in the intensive care unit (ICU) for 3 nights.
You could have imagined how hectic it was, having our staff scramble from home to hospital almost daily and how we were all so distressed knowing that our dear children were ill or in pain and had to be away from home to stay overnight at the hospital. But the Lord is so good, He was with them and us throughout! We want to declare His mercy and grace for watching over them and for allowing them all to be better as the 3 out of the 4 who were warded have been discharged and are now recuperating back home. They are doing so much better and getting back into the pink of health. Please continue praying with us, for our last child in who is still resting in the hospital, she is one of the young girls who was in the ICU, but has now been moved to the normal ward. She is getting stronger and regaining her strength, her temperature has gone down and we are glad to see her communicating and out of the ‘danger zone’. It is really by the Lord’s grace we can get through tough times, He does not forsake us and He hears our cries. Nonetheless we are very thankful for the Lord’s grace over us each and every day and we trust in His goodness and might.
On a lighter note, this month we also were graced by the visit of 4 very talented Japanese friends. They came for a short visit but were able to use the time they had with us to teach our older girls some bead works. One of them is a well-known jewelry designer and he is so skillful and creative. He and his friends taught out older girls how to make some lovely beaded dangling earrings. It was definitely not an easy task, even for their nimble hands, the girls had quite a hard time trying to bead the tiny delicate beads through the thin string and even struggled a little when it came to the part where they had to intertwine the beads. There were many attempts made before they successfully strung in the beads and got the loops done. The big girls shared so much laughter together as they were learning and they all were so pleased and proud of their finished product. Why do they have to learn or why were they taught bead work? Well, these Japanese friends have a social enterprise platform called "CRAFTAID" (http://craftaid.jp/) where they teach and help the hill tribe people sell the hand made crafts made by the hill tribe of Northern Thailand for a good cause. By learning how to do bead work, we believe it is a very good opportunity for our girls to learn new skills and we enjoy seeing how their lovely final products turned out and them taking pride in their work.
We have also been working at the rice fields, weeding and tending the rice. The toughest part of planting rice is not the planting of the rice but rather the hard labor is in taking time to continuously ensure that the rice field has a good supply of water that the weeds are weeded and the rice is growing well without the wild snails eating them all up or destroying parts of it. It is a good thing that we have many hands, and when all these little hands chip in to help tend to the rice field, the weeding work gets done faster and everyone has a good time singing, laughing and just enjoying the company though the actual work is so tiring.
This month has really exhausted us, but we are not defeated! God is good and so we are well! The importance of prayer and love just echoes even more, we are always so grateful for all the love and support we received from people, the financial support and donations, but even more so for the prayers you say for YCF, for the children, for Thailand and for the works we are working so hard for daily. Thank you! We will only get stronger, because we are fueled by the Lord’s great love and we have you all journeying with us in this big journey. Please continue to keep us in your prayer, we greatly appreciate all your love and support.
31 August 2018
He Watches Over Us
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The Lord watches over you
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all harm
he will watch over your life;
the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.
- Psalm 121:5-8
What a month it has been! Surely the month of August has kept us on our toes with so many delightful activities such as celebrating Mother’s Day, Farm work on planting rice and vegetables, our annual taekwondo competition to having some wonderful Japanese and Korean friends over to visit us. The wet weather has not dampen any of our spirits, we are all feeling so warm and cheery as we have many things to look forward to and be thankful for. That said, the heavy rains this month came with it some unfortunate events of mini flash floods, at the children’s elementary school and in other areas of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. Hence, we all had to take extra precautions and to ensure safety for everyone at YCF. Thank God for His goodness over us in keeping us all well and safe throughout all.
On the 12 August, we celebrated Mother’s Day in Thailand, to commemorate the birthday of Her Majesty Queen Sirikit and also to appreciate all the mothers in Thailand. This year we were in for another lovely treat at Duke’s pizza. We want to thank Duke’s pizza and Khun Bill for setting up with the great treat that most certainly filled all our tummies with yummy pizza and fries and fried chicken! The children and the staff all enjoyed the scrumptious meal and it was our second visit to the Duke’s Pizza as they treated us last year during Mother’s day. With a day off from school, and such a delicious meal, the children had such a good time out. We also want to extend our love to all the amazing mother’s out there!
On the Sunday that we went out for the pizza treat, some of our children came later on to join as they had to be somewhere else earlier. Where? Well, they had to attend the annual taekwondo competition as they were chosen to represent YCF by their taekwondo instructors. They did well and performed to their best, we are pleased to see them putting in their best effort and having such good sportsmanship. They came joining us with by eagerly sharing how their match went down and came with such good appetites to consume all the tasty food.
In the second last week of this month, we had some Japanese high school friends and a team of energetic Koreans come to visit us. They came with so much enthusiasm and we had so much fun taking part in the activities they prepared for us. We played so many fun games, ate the local food they cooked to share with us and the best part was that we made new friends. The children enjoy meeting new people, chatting with them about their home countries, getting to know more about their lives and dwelling in their company. God is so good as He allows us to meet people from all over the world, to share in their joy and receive their love. It is a valuable exposure for our children as they get to practice speaking English and through their interactions with the guest, their knowledge of the world and other countries’ culture expands. We are also so grateful as we know the teams that come to visit put in so much thought and preparation to ensure the children all have a good and fun time. Thank you!
Lastly, a quick update on our rice planting and vegetable crops. Thank God for allowing us time to invest in this project, as the children get their hands on planting their own rice and vegetables for consumption. Our rice is growing well and is thriving in the rainy season. We have also started planting vegetables like long beans, cabbage and corn at House of Grace. It will be so nice to have more varieties of vegetables in our garden as when it is ready for harvest, we can all enjoy the sweet fruits of our labour by cooking up different dishes. Everyone is anticipating harvest day, as we wait for it to roll around, we have to be diligent in making sure we weed the fields, our crops get enough water and sunlight and keep praying for the Lord’s hands to be over it all.
It is so unbelievable how this year will be nearing an end so soon, just 4 more months before we welcome in another new year. Yet, we are so thankful to see our children all growing well, there are bad days but the number of good days outnumbers the bad ones and brings us such immense joy as we live together as a family of Christ in YCF.
31 July 2018
Fields of green
Hastily we are bidding farewell to the month of July, how fast the days go by. We are all well at YCF, getting use to wet shoes, rain pouring down every day, the cool rainy days and enjoying our days out in the rice fields planting rice and playing in the dirt. We have been diligently working in the rice fields, planting rice, as the rainy weather will bring about downpours which we are hoping will flood our rice fields with an abundance of water for our rice to grow. The children can be found in the rice fields when they get back from school and on the weekends when we all come together to help with rice planting both at House of Hope and House of Grace. It is easier when the weather is cooler to be working out in the fields, however when it is raining heavily, we don’t work as it is dangerous and quite a hindrance to be out in the fields. Nonetheless, God is good and He has allowed us to accomplish what we needed to do, like transporting the rice seedlings from the plots we grew them into the larger areas of our rice fields. We have also been growing vegetables at House of Grace and they seem to be doing well and growing strong. It’s so exciting yet nerve-wreaking just witnessing the progress of our crops' growth. Just a few more weeks and we will know how much we will be able to harvest from it. The children enjoy harvest time the most, even though it is also very tedious to harvest the crops, yet it is so satisfying when they get to enjoy the fruits of their labor – in terms of them devouring all the yummy veggies, fruits and enjoying the rice they plant in their everyday meals. Such a good lesson for them and in the process they get to not only learn but have so much fun toiling together and making such good memories that will last them the whole of their lifetimes.
Just some quick updates on the House building project at House of Grace, the beams of the structure (house) is all up, the first floor and second floor have the cement as foundation in place and we are now looking at doing the flooring for both floors and getting the roof up. We are currently on hold, with regards to the work there as we have used up the funds that were blessed to us previously. We got so far with it, and managed to get the structure’s walls up and foundation in. We are praying that we will continue to be blessed with more funds to continue work on the house and to get it up by the end of this year. If you feel moved to bless us in contributing to our house building project at House of Grace- a small two-story house that will serve as a library room (first level) and the staff living quarters (second level), please get in touch with us at youthcharityfoundationthailand@gmail.com we are ever so thankful for your generosity. Help us to complete this house by the end of the year!
As the rainy season kicks into full gear next month-August, we hope and pray that the rice and vegetables that we have planted will grow healthily and that all everyone at YCF will remain in good health and not fall under the weather. The rain brings with it so much goodness but often times, we can fall under the weather, hence, we wish all our Thai friends to stay dry and safe as the rain falls harder. We also want to thank our lovely visitors who have came this month to visit and bless us with their time, company and gifts. Thank you so much! We are truly so blessed by each one of you.
Planting Rice
Sending our love over...
Thank You! God Bless You!
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28 June 2018
Work in Progress
The rain is pouring almost daily now, but that has not dampened our moods here at YCF. We have still been diligently working on our house building project at House of Grace and preparing our fields for the planting of rice. Just some quick updates on our House building project, we have been very blessed as the foundation is done and looking strong, we have also put up the beams for the building and have filled in the cement needed for the second storey’s walls. The staff and children have all chipped in and have worked hard together in ensuring that we are on track with our house building project. As we have used up all the funds we have received for the first phase, we are praying and seeking support to gather more funds to continue work as we still have much to do. We want to thank everyone who has contributed to this project, we are so thankful by your generous giving. The children of House of Grace are all very excited as they can’t wait to have their nice sheltered library room (first floor) where they will be able to gather to do their school work, read books and even use it as a playroom when it is rainy outside.
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Building a house is definitely not easy, but when we work together it makes everything easier and all the work so much fun. All of the children help with the building of the house, the bigger children who are older and stronger help with the heavy duty work like transporting the cement up to the second storey as they are skilful and swift in climbing the bamboo scaffoldings. The big boys help with collecting bamboo (which we get from our forested area in House of Grace) as bamboo is needed to be chopped to make the scaffoldings, they do the wood-works like cutting and nailing. You must be wondering, then what do the smaller children do? Aren’t they too young…it must be dangerous? Well, yes it is dangerous and so they stay away from the work site. However, they too help to contribute in the work. They help to collect rocks when needed and help to ferry small items. As they look on to the older ones working, we hope they are watching and learning. Since they are not fully involved in building the house, they help out in the fields behind by tossing the soil, flooding the fields and helping to scatter the rice grains. We have to flood our fields at House of Grace this year as even though it is raining, there is still not sufficient water to flood the fields. Hence, we line up water pipes to get the water from our water tanks. They find it a great fun to be working the fields, often times the little boys will be flipping around in the soil, the little girls will be chatting up a storm as the toss the soil and the really little ones (our 4 kindergarten ones) will be playing a game of catch around the perimeter of the fields. Needless to say, when the water starts streaming in, everyone has a whale of a time playing and soaking their feet in the water.
By the grace of God, we are praying to finish this house building project by the end of this year. If you would like to give towards this project, we would be extremely grateful as we require more funds to continue work on the house. We are also seeking sponsors for our new children’s education who have just joined the YCF family. If you are keen on giving or becoming a sponsor to our children, please contact us at
youthcharityfoundationthailand@gmail.com
and we will gladly provide you with the needed information and touch base with you.
As quickly as June came, it is now coming to an end. With the weird changes in the weather, like how the rains are here earlier than usual, we want to commit all things to the Lord. We thank Him for His goodness over us and we want to thank you too, for taking time to read our monthly updates and keeping us in prayer. The children are all well, our teenage boys have all grown rapidly in the last few months, and they are shooting up so quickly and becoming so tall. The new children are settling well in our homes, they are still adjusting to school and getting into the hang of things but all is well and they are enjoying the company of their friends. July will be a busy month, but as we believe it is better to be doing something than doing nothing at all. Praise God and may His grace be with you.
30 May 2018
Summer Rain
It is time to go back to school as the new school year has just started! The children have now been back to their schools for two weeks already, it just shows how time flies and we have now enter the middle of the year! These few weeks, the rain has been pouring but it has not dampened our spirits. We are actually very thankful for the rain as we are planting garlic, ginger, and of course rice! So the rain is good as it will help our crops to grow and also allow us to feel cooler in the heat. Talking about the entering the new month and planting new crops, we also have new little faces who have joined the big YCF family. They are children from the Lahu and Karen hill tribe groups. We are so pleased to have them and are excited to see how they will grow and flourish with us at YCF. Thank God as they have been settling in well and are getting along well with their new brothers and sisters at YCF.
NEW CHILDREN AT YCF
Welcome to your new home
Our project at House of Grace of building a small living quarters for the staff is coming along, we are still working on it with everyone helping and chipping in, in whatever way they are able to and for that we feel very blessed and thankful. We are still praying for more funds to help us complete the project, as we would like to finish it as soon as possible before the rainy season kicks in making it harder to work on building the small house. If you would like to give we would deeply appreciate your generosity.
The children are all happy to be back to school, we are back to our school-day routines. In this month, we have also been blessed by some YCF friends, who have come to visit and blessed the children in the form of sharing the bible during our Sunday church service, coming to bless the children with treats and little goodies and most importantly, just spending time with us all. Thank you! We also went out to a church to perform and our children did so well. Please do take a look at how well they performed in the YouTube links below. We are always so proud of them and in the things they are able to do.
May has definitely been a busy month, but a month that is so warm and filled with so much blessings. We are thankful that we made it to yet another new school year, and that our children are in school to get an education, they are happy, they have friends, they have each other and most importantly, they are getting to know of how good our God is in every aspect of their lives. So as we enter June, we foresee much time spent in our rice fields, tending to the rice- weeding and harvesting it. We also foresee more time indoors, on days that the rain will shower down relentlessly but looking forward to the warmth we will have together as well.
27 April 2018
Creation sings your praises and so will we
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In this hot month of April, where the whole of nation of Thailand celebrates the Thai New Year (Songkran), we have been kept hard at work with our project of building a new living quarter for our staff at House of Grace in the form of a small two storey house. We are in the midst of laying the foundation of the house now, the children and staff have worked so hard in the last month and a half preparing the land by digging, flattening, moving stones and filling cement in. Why the need for this project? As of now, we have just one small room that serves as a living quarter for the staff at House of Grace, hence, we have decided to use the small empty space that is next to the dining area/kitchen to build a small house. Why two storeys? This is so as we will have more space and rooms to spare, to serve as storage or even for future staff. The whole YCF family is involved in the building of this house, it is our new project which we are very determined to accomplish by mid of this year, hopefully…as we are still seeking funds to help us purchase all the materials and resources needed to build this house. If you are keen to donate and help us fund this project or would like to find out more about our project, you can email us at youthcharityfoundationthailand@gmail.com
Talking about houses, our house in Chiang Rai for our university students had a little mishap a week ago. There was a little storm that came and destroyed the roof of the house, apparently the winds were so strong that it just uplifted the roof of the house, causing a massive hole which the rain waters came through and drenched the rooms. Thankfully, no one was hurt, as it is now the school holidays and our university students were back at YCF to visit and not staying in the Chiang Rai house. Good thing for kind and concern neighbours who informed us of the mishap, we were able to make a trip down the day after the storm to repair the roof of our little house. We made do with scrap materials and purchased some tarp and zinc to rebuild the roof. The older children came with us and were so helpful and we managed by the grace of God to rebuild the roof to prevent any more leakages and cleaned up the mess. The next day during our visit to Chiang Rai, we planted some garlic in the field behind our house. The children had a good time planting the garlic and they enjoyed a well-deserved break after. We are looking forward to our next visit and by then, we should be able to have some garlic!
As we are now in the mid of the school holidays, the children who have not gone back to their villages have been kept busy every day and also getting in lots of play time, rest time and not forgetting, learning time. We have been blessed this holiday by a Filipino lady named Christine who works in a local school as an English teacher, she has been coming to YCF to teach our elementary school children English and they have been enjoying their lessons with her and are picking up on so many new English words.
Earlier this month, we celebrated Easter and Songkran. The month of April is indeed a month of celebration for us and we have been truly blessed by God in all His goodness. The first week of April also saw our YCF staff attending a staff retreat that was organised by our Singaporean friends from BPMC church. It was such a fruitful session and the staff were able to learn more about how to serve with a servant’s heart and how to become more prayerful as they work and the work of the Holy Spirit in our organisation as we work together as a team. The retreat was also a good time of fellowship for the staff as they met with the other co-workers who are working in Chiang Rai.
May is just next week, and the children are counting down the days left of their school holidays. We are also looking forward to the new additions, joining the YCF family! We are just as excited as you are to meet them. Do continue to keep us in your prayers. We will see you next when the rains come….it is quite early this year as we have had days of heavy downpour that follows the dry heat. Till then, we send all our love over.
28 March 2018
Hard work pays off
March is the month where the children end their school year and get to enjoy a long 3 month break from school. It is also when the weather starts to get warmer and the hot season rolls in. Our children are most definitely delighted to have the school holidays and are already enjoying it. For our elementary children, they have two weeks of summer school before they can have their official school break.As for the older children, they are officially off school and for some have gone back to their village for the school holidays and will return to join us when the new school year starts.We hope they will enjoy time with their family and relatives and have a good break.
As for the remaining older children, we have many things to keep them well occupied at home as we have a new project that we are starting on at House of Grace and will need the help of the bigger children, we will share more when we kick start the project soon. The bigger children also will be busy with summer jobs, activities for them to help them in their learning and growth that will be carried out by a friend of YCF, and planting and harvesting of the first batch of rice that we are currently growing in our rice field.
This year we celebrated the graduation of 5 children, 1 from high school, 2 from middle school and 2 from middle school. We are so proud to see them growing up well and attaining good education, we are also excited for their future, but we know and we trust that the Lord has great plans for each of them and will lead them in the path He has paved for them. All the other children were so pleased to be part of their graduation and were so happy for their friends. Well done children, you have done well and you have your whole life ahead of you with so much more to learn and experience as you grow.
As we have shared in last month’s post, our new cow shed is up and its inhabitants (4 cows) are all doing well. The children are having the most fun running to the shed every morning and evening to tend to the cows, to feed them and give them water and just hang around the shed admiring the cows. They have even given them names! We are currently feeding the cows hay and cow feed, as there is a shortage of grass due to the dry and hot season. Our 2 baby cows are just so adorable and we can’t wait till they grow up big and healthy.
We have also planted our first round of rice in our rice fields, the rice is growing well and the staff and children are keeping watch over the crops. Most of the rice fields in our village are filled with luscious greenish yellow rice crops, when the sun ray touched the tips of the rice it is so beautiful a sight to soak in. We will be harvesting the rice soon, before the dry and hot season comes about and we will be planting the second round in June when the rains come.
Next month will be the Thai New Year (Songkran), even though it will super-hot then, everyone is looking forward to celebrate the festive occasion and for the children, it is their chance to play with water.
28th February 2018
Grateful for Small Things, Big Things and Everything In Between
In this short month of February, we were kept busy building a cow shed at House of Grace. We wanted to finish up building the cow shed by the end of this month as we have been blessed by a generous donor to buy a cow to rear at House of Grace. The children were so pleased with the news of getting a cow to rear, or probably for them a new animal to take interest in, care for and play with. We are thankful for this gift, as the cow will be very useful for us and provide in many ways with its manure. We will be getting the cow soon, now we are just glad that its future home-the cow shed is up and ready for its new tenant to move in and inhabit. Our male staff and the older children worked hard together this month to build up the shed, the younger children also played their part by helping to pain the steel rods, helping to clear the land of weeds, and helping to ferry items around. By working together to build this cow shed, we hope to foster the sense of responsibility towards the rearing and caring of the cow to come, among all of our staff and children. We can’t wait to meet our new ‘pet’ cow!
This month, we had the annual district sports challenge. A few of our older boys participated by representing our village in the sepak takraw game and in the football game, along with a few other boys from our village. They did very well for both games, for sepak takraw they made it to the semi-final round and for football, their team emerged as the champion! Well done boys, we are always so proud of you and for each achievement, even prouder! They had such great fun and their good teamwork and perseverance was well rewarded by clinching first place.
The children will be having their long school holidays in March and are now preparing for their final examinations. They can’t wait for the holidays, to have time off school to rest and play. For some, they will head home to their respective villages, for those staying in the homes during the school vacation, we will have them kept busy. There is always plenty to do at home! From cleaning, to helping to cook, farming…many things! For the older children, we hope that they will continue with their summer holiday jobs to help our neighbours in their homes, to rack up fallen leaves in their garden and driveways, to helping to do some housekeeping. We are excited for the activities lined up for the long break!
31st January 2018
Hello 2018!
How is it that we are through with the first month of 2018? This month has been nothing short of wonderful for us at YCF. We welcome the New Year with a small barbecue as we gathered the children around the fireplace for a time of worship and reflection. To take turns to share how 2017 was for them, what things that they were grateful for and were some things that they were looking for in the New Year. We had such an enjoyable time welcoming in the New Year with delicious BBQ food and the company of loved ones.
Welcoming 2018!
In early January, Thailand celebrates Children’s Day. What better day besides Christmas for children then Children’s Day? They were so elated and excited for the day to arrive as they knew that they would be in for a treat by the local community. So this year, a nearby airfield hosted a Children’s Day celebration and our children went for the event. They are so fortunate to be able to go as they were gifted with lots of yummy sweet treats, fun games and prizes and the best experience of all…some were able to go for a plane ride! Our children have always been fascinated with airplanes, and they have always wondered what it would be like to fly in the skies, what it would be like to look down to see the land and to sit on an airplane. Each time a plane flies by our home, the little boys would always run out to the fields, point out the plane and stare in amazement. We thank God that this Children’s Day at the airfield, some of our children were given the opportunity to go for a free plane ride. That experience definitely made their day! They were talking about it for days on end. All the children had such a fun day out and were so blessed with all the snacks and gifts they received.
This month, we also started work in our rice fields. We have to start preparing the fields before we start planting rice in them. Farming is hard work, but work is made fun when everyone chips in to help out and do their part. For our children, they enjoy working in the fields and so when we prepare the rice fields, everyone is involved, no matter their age. We have been weeding, tossing the soil, putting in hay over the soil and clearing out the old crops. The weather is still slightly cool, hence it makes working in the rice fields a little less tedious and unbearable.
We are also glad to have Khun Ludy come every Saturday to help teach the younger children English and Mathematics. They have benefited so much with her help and they love learning. Just last week, our long-time volunteer, Edgar also returned from Brazil. We are glad to have him back. The children are all busy with school and everyone is well, just a few more months before the school year ends for them and they will starting a new school year soon. They are growing up so fast, and we are blessed to witness them grow and love them as they are under our care.
31st December 2017
A Good Year
December has been filled with much joy and lots of activities for the children. From school sports competition, to our huge cleaning day to Youth Camp with the Singapore Team, and of course not forgetting Christmas and New Year celebration! Everyone had so much fun and were so blessed with all the gifts and treat that this month offered.
MERRY CHRISTMAS
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A HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Early in December, our younger elementary school children had a football and captain ball inter school competition. Our children were all involved in the sports event, some were representing the school and some were the cheerleaders. The boys won their football match, however our girls had a close match with the other school and even though they did not win, they played their best and we are so proud of them. We love seeing our children being so involved and active, they are so gifted and their energy was put to good use.
 Our big girls performing a dance |  SIngapore Church Camp |  Teammates! |
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 Christmas Cards |  Football Competition |  BIG CLEANING DAY |
 Christmas Party- Dinner |  Christmas Performances |  Clean Clean Clean |
 Working in our fields |  Our worship band |  Sunning the mats |
 Singapore Camp |  Camp games |  Getting ready for Christmas |
 Beautiful Chapel, Our Beautiful Girl |  Worship Time! Singapore Camp |  Carolling |
 Hard at work, cleaning up the room |
Everyone was so excited and looking forward to Christmas, we were blessed to be able to go out and sing Christmas Carols, at churches and during our Christmas celebration. The children were all looking forward to the gifts and treats that they would receive and everyone was in a festive mood. We thank God for His goodness in keeping us all well during the cold December days, allowing us to be well to enjoy the festive activities and to celebrate Christ’s birth. As we prepared for Christmas, we had a big cleaning day, which was very fruitful as everyone chipped in to help clean and tidy up our homes.
We also had a youth camp which was facilitated by a Singapore team, they have held camps for the past 2 years and we appreciate their support and love for all of us. The children had such a good time taking part in the camp, sitting in the workshops, playing the games and also celebrating together with their new friends. We held a Christmas party on the 20th December in our open field, it was so delightful and cozy, we invited friends and our neighbors to join in the celebration with dinner and the Christmas cheer of Christmas songs and the gospel of Jesus’ birth and the special and greatest gift we have…Jesus Christ! It was a lovely night out under the stars, celebrating and feasting. All of us went to bed happy and full that night. We want to give thanks for all our friends who have loved and helped us throughout the year.
The elementary and middle school children had a week off from school and they certainly enjoyed their free time and caught up on rest and helped with chores around the house. Our high school students have just ended their mid-year exams and they too had a short break during New Year and were glad to be able to rest and enjoy time off school. We had time to prepare a barbecue for to welcome the New Year at House of Hope, where we all gathered and gave thanks for the year and we shared our hopes and dreams for the New Year. The children enjoyed listening to their friends’ sharing and as 2018 comes around, we at YCF are hopeful that it will be an even better year. God has big and beautiful plans for us all, we are excited to see how He will lead us and we pray that His blessings and favor will be upon us as we enter the New Year.
Jeremiah 29:11 “ For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future".
May 2018 be a great year ahead for you, may you be in good health and may the Lord’s peace, joy, strength, love, grace and mercy be with you as you start the New Year. All praise to God who loves us and continues to watch over us and keep us in His everlasting love.
30th November 2017
All Good Things
November has passed us by in a flash, we are pleased to say that we have finished the harvesting of all our rice in our fields. The children have been very helpful and hardworking, in working together with the staff to harvest, thrash and dry the rice. The whole process is time consuming but we are so happy with the outcome and this year’s harvest. Thank God for blessing us with rice! We can now look forward to enjoying the rice and can rest from field work till the start of next year’s rice planting season. We have worked long and hard, good job everyone!
This month, we also have a good news to share! James has finally obtain his Thai-Ethnic minority group ID card, along with his biological brother. It is one step closer to him obtaining a Thai ID card, and we want to give thanks to the Lord for His goodness to Jason and his brother. It has been such a long journey, we have tried so hard for so many years to trace his roots and to apply for his Thai ID. As James grows older, we pray that we will soon be able to get him his Thai ID. This is a huge progress for us and all of us at YCF are rejoicing over this good news! You can read his story here: https://www.ycfthailand.com/a-place-to-call-home . Please continue to pray for us, Jason and his brother as we continue to strive to get the brothers their Thai ID cards, though the process may be long and gruelling, we have hope that one day, they will get it.
We also want to share on how we have been blessed by Khun Ludy from Holland this few weeks, she has been such a big blessing to us as she comes frequently to give extra lessons, in both English and Mathematics to the children. She is so passionate and is full of energy as she teaches the children. They enjoy her lessons and have fun learning from her. Thank you Khun Ludy for your time and contribution. We appreciate all the help we receive, and we want to thank everyone who have been assisting us and loving on us.
As December comes around, everyone is getting excited and hyped up with the Christmas festivities! The children have been practicing their Christmas carols and are looking forward to the month ahead. The weather is also getting cooling and its feeling a lot like Christmas, soon we will start putting up our Christmas decorations around the homes and we are anticipating all the wonderful activities that are lined up for the month of December. All praise and glory to God, for all His great blessings!
31st October 2017
Good Times, Good Fun
What a fruitful month it has been for us at YCF. We have so many things to give thanks for! Let’s start with our rice fields, as mentioned several months ago, in our June and July’s update posts, we started ploughing our fields and scattered the rice seeds. As the rice planting journey reaches its sixth month, we are so pleased to say that it is harvest time! The rice has been growing well and we could not be more pleased or thankful to see how it as grown and is now ready for us to harvest it. We will start harvesting our rice in November, over the weekends the children and the staff will work together to harvest the rice, shake out the rice pods and dry them out in the sun and finally, wash and polish the rice’s husk off in preparation for consumption. It will be a lot of hard work involved in the process of harvesting the rice, but we are sure that the children will enjoy and appreciate their bowl of rice at each meal even more so than before, remembering how they had to labor and be patient as the rice grew.
Secondly, this month was also a much anticipated month for the children, as this month gave them some time off from school for all of them. With just a few more days left of school holidays, we ensured that the children were well occupied during their free time. For some of our children, they were able to return home to their villages to spend time with their families, as for the others who did not home, the older children has half day holiday jobs and the younger children had English and Maths lesson in-house. We also used this time to do some spring cleaning about our homes, both at House of Hope and House of Grace.
This school holiday period, allowed us to make some trips to a few of the children’s villages as we sent them home, we used this opportunity to check in on their families. We believe in ensuring that our children keep close ties with their family members, whether they are older siblings, grandparents, relatives or cousins or any other surviving family members. This is so as family is very important, and when the child is older, he/she will still need to be connected with their family, hence we encourage them to be in regular contact with any remaining family members. It was also very delightful to visit their homes, some tucked away in remote areas, up mountains or even in forested areas. We were able to fellowship with their families and neighbours, it is good for us to get to know them and likewise, for them to get to know us better. We were treated to scrumptious meals, usually their hill tribe group’s delicacies and specialities, which is a rare find back in where we are and had wonderful conversations and catch up sessions.
The children certainly had a good month this October, from playing to learning and just enjoying the blessings showered over them. Their free time has been used well, and we are so thankful for the various opportunities to allow our children to have experiential learning and life skills knowledge taught to them. We have beautiful people who volunteer their time to come to our place to impart knowledge in the form of art- drawing, coloring and painting, in English language- singing English songs, watching English films, studying English, mini tuition groups- mathematics and kind souls who open their homes for our children to work part time to help with cleaning and garden work. We can’t thank them enough for their love and support for YCF. God has always been faithful and He never fails to provide for us in our times of need.
“And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all you need, you will abound in every good work.”
– 2 Corinthians 9:8
Staying healthy and happy together is what we want for everyone at YCF. We have started our weekly exercise, outdoor games for the children and the staff to have fun and at the same time exercise to stay fit and healthy. As our children are so active and enjoy playing so much, we decided to make play into a healthier workout for them. The older boys have the privilege of playing football on Fridays and Saturdays, the younger children have the weekend evenings to go out for a jog, to the sports arena to play some ball or catching and the older girls have recently been cycling and practicing volleyball skills on the weekends. Besides all the activities and sports in place for each group of children, they have Taekwondo lessons every Sunday afternoon after church. It is very important to make sure our children are healthy and that they have the opportunity to exhaust their energy and at the same time pump up their hearts with healthy activities that will benefit both their minds and bodies.
30th September 2017
Healthy Lifestyle
Mid this month, one of our younger boys had a surgery to assist with a burst appendix. We want to thank God for His goodness and grace in seeing him through the surgery and his 7 days stay in the hospital. He was a true fighter, staying calm and positive throughout the ordeal. During his stay in the hospital, we made frequent visits, sometimes bringing the other children to visit. The other children were so sweet, during their visits, they would bring little gifts and would read bible stories to him. It was good to see how much they cared for each other. During morning and night devotions, the other children would also say prayers for him. He is now back home, recovering well and getting stronger each day. We are so pleased and grateful for the Lord’s blessing and protection over him. Please do keep him in your prayers as well, for full and speedy recovery and no other post-surgery complications, so that he will be able to return back to school and get back to playing with his friends.
We also made time this month to help a friend of ours with the construction of his new church. He is a local pastor and has prayed for a new location to set up a bigger church as his existing church has grown small over the years with new members streaming in. We thank God for blessing him with a new location to start construction and we look forward to seeing the new church, ready for more people to come. The older children and staff helped with the construction last week as manpower was needed to help move sand, cement and to help carry some steel and bricks. It is good for our children to learn the importance of helping others and it was also a good learning experience for them. We are very happy each time they have opportunities to help support local projects and at the same time learn some valuable skills. They were tired after working hard, however, they were rewarded with a nice meal for their hard work.
It has still been raining this month, and on days where the rains are heavy the children stay in and are occupied with activities, such as drawing, reading and doing their school work, sometimes they get rewarded to watch a movie. While they are kept busy, they also get to enjoy the cool weather. Our rice fields have also been rejoicing and basking in the rain, our rice is growing well and tall. Thank God for all His goodness. The children and staff have been working during the weekends to tend to the crops, ensuring that the weeds are removed and that there is ample water reaching each section of the rice field. We can’t wait till the rice is ready for harvest, one of the best feelings is being able to reap what we sow and in our case, we get to delight in the rice that we grow and invest so much time, care, love and effort in.
Early this month, we celebrated Mother’s Day in Thailand. Our children were blessed to be treated to some delicious pizza on Mother’s Day, we brought them out to the city along with some friends to celebrate the day and to enjoy the scrumptious treat by Dukes’ Pizza. The children filled their tummies with good food and had so much fun just being able to go out. Even though many of our children have absent mothers in their lives, we constantly remind them to be grateful and thankful for their mothers and the ladies who take care of them. So as we celebrated the day out with good food and company, we also celebrated all the mothers in Thailand.
31st August 2017
Grace Upon Grace
The rains are clearing and we are starting to get more sunshine here in Chiang Mai. Praying and looking forward to the day we can start harvesting our rice. The children have a few more weeks of school before their next school holidays. We are now busy planning and preparing school holiday activities for them.
31st July 2017
Working the fields
We are so delighted and pleased to share that one of our children has finally received his Thai citizenship after so many years of waiting, applying and heading down to the provincial office. Our boy is now a teenager and we have been waiting for this day to come since he first came to YCF. We thank God that he has now received his Thai citizenship and we are overjoyed that the Lord has answered our prayers! We now pray and have hope that our other children who have yet to receive their Thai citizenship, whose application are currently undergoing processing, will be able to receive good news soon, that they too will be able to obtain citizenship. This is one of our area of work in YCF, where we will fight for the citizenship of our children from the various minority groups. This is as important for us as for them, as with a citizenship, they will not be impeded but instead, have much more opportunities for a better future.
Also in this rainy month, we have been hard at work planting rice in our rice fields. We need to cease the opportunity to grow our rice as the rain falls hard and flood up our rice fields with water for our rice to grow. Every year we have our rice planting project and from it we have seen the fruits of out labor both in literal and figurative sense. Our children get to learn the importance of how hard rice farmers work to plant rice and understand how tough it is to labor and toll in the fields. They learn how to properly plant the rice, care and tend to it, harvest and eventually dry it out and polish the rice in the machine that we have in our compound to divide the rice from its raw husk. We also want our children to be appreciative and thankful that they have rice to eat for their every meal, and whenever they think of not finishing their rice, they will remember how hard they tolled to plant, grow and harvest the rice. The rice planting project is something very special and important to us, and we believe that by getting our children involved in the whole process, it will enrich their knowledge and add to their life skills and teach them good values such as patience, perseverance, responsibility and teamwork. We are excited to see how our rice will grow, and we look forward to the day we will harvest them.
July has been a good month for us, though it involved much hard work, working in the rice fields on many days after school for the children and the staff. We give thanks for the Lord’s blessings and daily grace upon us. We pray that as the rain floods our fields, that our rice will grow healthy and our children will also stay healthy and well.
Half the year has passed us by, we are almost through with the month of June. The rains are coming and we have are glad as we have had enough with the intense heat and dryness, and we also need the rain to come so as to help us flood up our rice fields as we are in the midst of preparing to plant rice. We thank everyone for their constant prayers over us, we are all well and our new children are all fitting in well and they seem to be enjoying the company and friendships of the other children, for that we thank God for His grace and endless mercy.
30th June 2017
Halfway through
In the month of June, the children celebrated teacher’s day. The children were all very excited for the teacher’s day as they had prepared lovely little bouquets of flowers wrapped in banana leaves for their beloved teachers. They worked very hard to gather the big leafy banana leaves, wiped them clean, tore out small parts to roll into little holders for the flowers and scurried our dense surroundings for beautiful and the most colourful flowers. They took so much pride in their flower bouquets and could not resist but to show them off to each other and anyone who was at home. We are so pleased that our children have teachers who are so dedicated, loving, supportive and caring towards them. On teacher’s day itself, some of our elementary school children were also prize winners for the various activities they participated in school, eg. (colouring competition, poetry writing and crossword puzzle quiz, etc.) . The prize winners were all smiles, and we take delight in their little achievements and celebrate along with them. Continue to shine little ones; no matter big or small, all your achievements and hard word will shape you to be a better person.
The older children have been taking on leadership roles back at home as we have now started a buddy system which will be closely monitored by the staff. This buddy system is a very good opportunity for the older ones to learn about responsibilities as they are paired off with a younger one, who they will have to care for and ensure that their younger buddy does all their school work on time, wash and iron their clothes and to be on task. We are proud to see them grow as they care and help the younger ones, as well as seeing them grow to be more responsible young people.
This month, we have also ploughed our fields in House of Grace and have worked hard to scatter the rice seeds all over the fields, and to toss the soil in order to get the seeds to be evenly spread out and to provide ample space for its growth. Early in July, we will be able to gather the young rice sprouts and transport them to be planted in our rice field in House of Hope. We need to prepare all these as the rainy season is nearing and next month we will all be involved in our yearly rice planting. It is very tiring but yet serves as a very good lesson and experience for our children as the staff and children will do all the work together, from preparing the land, planting the rice, maintaining the fields, harvesting the rice and praying over our crops. We are excited for harvest and now will work hard to ensure a smooth process of planting the rice.
Lastly, Peter, our boy who is studying in the Bible School has started his 4 months internship at a church in Surat Thani. We ask that you keep him in your prayers as he is away from his comfort zone and in a new setting. Pray that the Lord will grant him wisdom, strength, peace and guidance in all that he does. Peter has such a beautiful heart for the Lord’s people and great talent in music, playing during church service and also reading and speaking the Lord’s word. May these 4 months be a huge learning opportunity for Peter, and may this internship serve as a good starting platform for Peter as he continues to pursue his education in Bible School.
27th May 2017
New Additions
Our new additions, 7 new children who will be joining the YCF family.
This month, we have had the joy of welcoming many new and fresh faces to YCF. Firstly, we want to give thanks to the Lord for blessing us with a new staff, who will join YCF as a full time staff at House of Grace. We want to warmly welcome 7 new additions to the YCF family, we are happy to introduce the 7 new children (pictured above) who will be joining us for this new school year and for the few years ahead! These children are from the Akha, Hmong, Lahu hill tribe groups and all 7 of them will reside in House of Grace. The staff ran an introduction and induction program for the new children and for our existing children, for them to get to know each other and to build new friendships. We thank God as everyone has gotten to know each other better and they are enjoying each other’s company and have kicked off on a good start. We always encourage our children to love and care for each other as they are a family, brothers and sisters, hence, it is important to respect, love and care for one another in our homes.
The children have all started their new school year, fresh new uniforms, new school book and of course eager feet that has been scattering about getting their school items packed, doing their school work, ensuring all things needed for school is done and prepared for. Our youngest child, age 4 has started Nursery and he’s been loving every day of school, being able to see his friends, to learn fun songs and to do all the interesting activities in school. The other children are also enjoying themselves, happy to return to school and proud to be in a grade higher than before. It makes use so happy, thankful and please to see our children enjoying their education and to know that they look forward to waking up early to prepare and go to school. We continue to pray and ask the Lord to bless them as they study and as they learn skills in school, so that in the future, it will benefit them greatly and allow for them to give back to society and to have better lives.
Aside from the new additions and start of the new school year, the weather has been pretty wet here in Chiang Mai. We have been seeing heavy rains and even some flooding in the past few weeks. Nonetheless, we thank God for the downpour as it provide us with water; the rain waters the plants and fields and it also brings with it a cool weather. We just have to be extra careful when it comes to driving the children to school, ensuring that the children don’t get caught in the rain and to make sure everyone stays healthy and refrain from falling ill. “No rain, no flowers”, so we look forward to seeing the beautiful flowers and to busk in all the beauty and goodness that it will bring along with it.
25th April 2017
Happy and Hearty
The children have been enjoying their school holidays, some have returned home to their villages and those who don’t, stay at YCF. We have ensured that they are kept busy, and are constantly active and engaged in activities to help them make good use of their vacant time. This month, we have all been very chill and enjoying each other’s company at home. The weather, however, has not been the best…but everyone is doing well and we thank God for his grace and love over us. The children will be starting school in mid-May, and we are looking forward to meeting the new children who will be joining the YCF family. Stay tune to next month’s update to meet them, and do keep us in prayer as we prepare for them to come join us, ensuring that all school matters and other administrative matters will be settled with ease for them and for some of our children who will be moving to higher institutions.
Our older children, who has been working for the past month, have been enjoying themselves at work and have been learning lots. They are thankful for the opportunity and experience gained. Every day, they come home sharing about what they did for the day and are always so excited to tell the younger ones. The children have also been receiving tuition in Thai language and Mathematics from the staff, daily. The staff have been diligently teaching them every morning. This is good as the children can practice and work on improving their skills in those subjects. We are blessed to have staff who are capable of coaching the children in their work and who are so dedicated in making sure that the children receive the support and guidance they need to do better in their academics.
 Summer JobsOur big girls, working hard sweeping up the fallen leaves in the garden and driveway. |  School RegistrationRegistering our children into their new schools, moving from elementary school to middle school |  GamesPlaying some water games |
|---|---|---|
 PigsOur piglets are growing up very fast. |  Summer JobOur girls doing some paper crafts |  Repairing pipesSome of the little boys helping an older one, to repair some pipes |
 Newborn PiggiesHelping our mama pig deliver her new set of babies, welcome to the world tiny ones. |  GamesMore water games during Songkran for the children to enjoy. |  Our pondOur freshly cleaned pond at House of Grace, now home to 800 baby catfishes. |
 Cleaning upWorking together to clean up the pond at House of Hope, and to do some works around it. |  Pig giving birthThe mama pig in the midst of delivering her little ones. Our children, helping her. |
29th March 2017
Waves of Grace
School’s out for our children, they will have a long summer break from this month to May. The children are all very excited and glad to have a holiday, however we are going to ensure that they won’t be left just doing nothing during their long break. There are some of the children who goes back to their villages during the school holidays, but a handful of them are not able to return due to circumstances back home in their villages or the dynamics of their families. We need to protect our children from any potential harm and we do our best to keep them away from any bad influences, hence, for some they stay in YCF throughout the long break.
April is also the month we celebrate the Thai New Year, Songkran. But, for this year’s Songkran, the children did not go out to town to play with water as the weather was bad and it was raining. Nevertheless, the children were still able to delight in the festivities as they were allowed to play with water at home, in the open field and we had some friends who came to visit and they played water games with the children. Everyone had a good time and soaked in the fun and joy of Songkran. We also celebrated Good Friday and Easter Sunday and joined a local church in our village for the services and fellowshipped with the church members there. We had a good time attending the services and it was nice for the children to mingle with the other children in the church.
This month, we have also been working hard on cleaning up the areas where our livestock’s resides. We cleaned up the pond at House of Grace, scrubbed all the algae off the pond’s walls, took out all the “old” catfishes and replaced them with 800 baby catfishes. The “old” catfishes will be consumed by us, some we have cooked and eaten and some we have left to hang to dry, to be preserved. The children were entrusted with the task to help clean up the ponds, pig sty and chicken coops during their holiday at both House of Hope and House of Grace, and did such a good job in doing so. Now our livestock will also be able to live happily in their cleaner environments and be healthy as well. All of our little piglets, both the pink ones and black ones are growing up well and strong. Thank God for his goodness and for watching over our animals, and allowing our children to learn to care for them.
The children’s school holiday commenced mid of this month, and since then, we have been rather busy with activities for them, to both enjoy and make good use of their free time. Let us begin with telling you about some holiday jobs that we found for the older children (middle school to high school). We have about 10 children who have been working part time for some of our expat friends and neighbors, in their homes and gardens. The children are tasked to help out with projects around their homes, do simple cleaning chores and gardening work. It is very beneficial for them to get holiday jobs, as they not only will earn some pocket money for their hard work, they will also gain an experience that will allow them to realize that money does not come easy, and we have to work hard to earn our pay. They will be exposed to an English speaking environment, which will also help them improve their English, as they have to communicate in English on a daily basis. Our children are so fortunate and blessed, to have such a good opportunity.
On 17th March, we witnessed the graduation of 3 children who graduated from grade 6. We were all so proud of their achievement, and we were so pleased to be able to see yet another batch graduate from elementary school. It really gives us some much joy and hope for our children. We delight and are excited for them as they enter into the next phase of their education- middle school. May the Lord continue to shape them and work in them, leading them to excellence as they pursue their education and as they grow and take delight in him in all their ways.
Every 4 years, YCF makes a trip down to the beach, where we conduct a baptism session, carry out learning journeys, and also the trip serves as a vacation for the children and the staff of YCF. This year, after much prayer and faith in provision, the Lord delivered and allowed for us to make a trip to Hua Hin. It was a 13 hour bus ride, and we thank God for keeping us safe throughout and blessing us with such an enjoyable time at the beach. For some of the children, it was their first time to the beach and there was so much excitement and exclamation of joy when they saw the vast sea. We carried out a baptism session which saw 10 people (8 children and 2 staff) get baptized and openly declare their faith and love for the Lord. We rejoiced in their public declaration and we gave thanks for their faithfulness in committing their lives to the Lord. It was such a glorious sight as baptism took place at the break of dawn, the children were all singing and congratulating the 10 who were born again in Christ. We spent 5 days at Hua Hin and were able to visit some tourist sites, where the children and staff could explore and learn about Thailand history and of the environment. We visited the 6 Kings monument, took a walk along the mangrove boardwalk, visited a palace and even went cycling! It was great fun, and went we return to our accommodation, we spent most of the time down by the sea, playing with the sand and just immersing in the waves of the sea. Everyone surely had a good amount of time out in the sun and have turned at least two shades darker. We thank God for the opportunity to be able to go to the beach, to spend a few days away and to enjoy the whole experience.
Praise the Lord for these 10 souls, who got baptized! Congratulations, for you are born again in Christ!
Now that we are all safely back home, we are keeping busy by having the children take on small projects, for those who are not working outside, they do paper cutting at home, do cleaning, and work around the compound. March has been a month of many blessings, and also a month where we are so thankful to God for seeing us through the many preparations, planning and prayer. As April rolls in, the weather is getting hotter, and we here at YCF will look forward to the festivities of April, Good Friday, Easter and Songkran!
22nd February 2017
The Beauty of Everyday Things
This month, we were pleased and so enraptured to be invited in partnership with Strong Seed Foundation, to sell our paper cuttings-handmade cards at the “City Life” fair on Nimanhaemin JJ market. On the 4th of February, we sent a small group of children along with our two staff to help run the small booth that displayed all the unique and lovely handmade paper cutting cards that were designed and created by our children.
It was a lovely Saturday morning, people were flooding in and buzzing around in the fair. We sold the cards in hopes to raise some funds for our organization along with Strong Seed Foundation. It was such a good exposure for our children to practice their English as there were many foreigners who patronized our booth. Also, there were many other customers and this was good as the children were able to step out of their comfort zones to approach potential buyers and had to explain and market their creative artworks. It was such a fun time both for the children and for the staff as they not only managed to sell the cards, but also to get to know more people and gain such a meaningful exposure. The children enjoyed it so much that they are looking forward to the next time they can do so again.
Remember our recycling project? Good news, we are proud to inform that our little garden- with the plants grown for the recycle project is coming along well. The plants are all growing and the children are taking good care of the plants. Every day in the evening when the children are home from school, they will do their chores and one of them is to water and weed the plants. It is good that the children are taking the responsibility to care for the plants as it grows and they get so much fun out of caring for them together. We hope to be able to harvest the vegetables that they have grown soon in order for them to enjoy the work of their labor, by making a healthy meal out of the crop planted.
Aside from our plants, we also have an expanding bunch of pigs. We have new piglets that were born last month and are very healthy and growing quickly. With that in mind, we had to move two batches of piglets to House of Grace and had to expand the existing pig sty there. The sty was getting too crowded and we needed more space to house the pigs. Our staff have worked hard on expanding and making the existing pig sty better, by doing some maintenance and expansion work on it.
Now that the piglets have been moved over from House of Hope to House of Grace, there is more space for them to roam and grow. Similarly, we will also have more vacancy for more pigs or piglets in the future. Thank God as all our animals (livestock) is doing well and are healthy.
As part of the outreach that we do in YCF, we have recently been helping a local villager in need. He is a bedridden man, who stays alone in his home near our compound. Due to unforeseen circumstances, he is unable to care for himself, purchase daily necessities and pampers which he needs to use. Hence, we have decided to do our best to help lighten his financial load by helping to purchase pampers and occasionally provide him with food as well.
If you feel move to help us fund for this man’s pampers and daily needs, please send us an email at youthcharityfoundationthailand@gmail.com and we will get in touch with you on ways you can help us help him.
It is important that the children at YCF learn to look out for their neighbors, and the people in our village and learn the importance of forging good relationships with others. We rely on the help of our neighbors to keep an eye on our children and to ensure that it is a safe environment for them to grow up in. Thus, we believe in looking out for those in our village and to spread the love of the Lord to the people around us.
Every 4 years, we plan a trip to the beach for the children and staff of YCF. The children always get very excited and elated when they know that it is the year for them to go to the beach. Many of our new children have yet to visit a beach and in saying so, we hope to bring them to experience the sea breeze, burry their toes in the sand, witness the beauty of the vast sea and to soak in lots of sun and fun. Everyone has been praying hard for the trip and we have been asking around for funds to help us take the children to the beach. As we will be going full force, all 37 children and all the staff, we require more funding as we still do not have enough budget to fund the entire trip. Should you be able to help us in any way or if you are able to give to help us reach our goal, please drop us an email at youthcharityfoundationthailand@gmail.com or contact Tasnee directly through her phone. We will be most thankful and appreciate any help that we can get. Please also help us to pray for accommodation to fit in our large family and also for a place which will allow us to do our own cooking.
26th January 2017
Ushering in the New Year
We welcomed 2017 with an entire day of rain, New Year’s Day came with a heavy downpour and chilly winds. However, we still thank the Lord for His grace in seeing us through 2016 and for all that He has blessed us with. On the last day of 2016, we had the children sit through a time of reflection to look back on the year and to share one thing that they were grateful for. Our children’s hearts were full of thanks and gratitude as they shared of the things they rejoiced over and for some, how the Lord has been so good and how has He answered their prayers. The children also had some time off from school, and spent the time resting, playing, cleaning and enjoying each other’s company. They are all back in school now, looking forward to when their school term ends, in two months’ time.
The weather this month has been quite irregular, it is the cold season now in Chiang Mai, yet there has also been much rain. But on a brighter note, the wet weather has passed and the days are much warmer and the nights and early mornings are cool. With sunny days ahead, we will start the big boys on their swimming lesson at the end of this month and they will be the last of our children to learn how to swim.
One of our staff, Seksan, who graduated with a major in Social Psychology from Chiang Rai Rajabhat University had his convocation earlier this month. We were so pleased to be able to witness his graduation and to see him dressed so smartly in his graduation gown. We thank God for seeing Seksan through his university education. We have big hopes for all our children and we believe that education is key to a success and for better future life prospects. Hence, we will ensure that they receive education to the highest possible level, during their course of their stay in YCF.
On the 14th of January, we celebrated children’s day in Thailand. This year, our children had so much fun in their school’s celebration and going out to a nearby carnival for children’s day. They had lots of games, prizes, sweet treats and presents! Also this children’s day, four of our elementary school children were recognized and awarded with a certificate by their school for being outstanding students who displayed good attitude, manners and for being hard working in their studies. Having the chance to see them receive awards for their good behavior, is such a proud and joyous moment. Out of seven children who received the award, four of them are our children! We pray that they will continue to be good students in school and aside from their achievements, continue to be humble and gracious to their peers and respectful to their teachers.
Last week, the children from both homes participated in a local taekwondo competition (Lana 2017 Taekwondo Championship) that was held in Chiang Mai city. Every Sunday, we are privileged to have local taekwondo coaches come to engage our children in two hours of taekwondo lessons. The children enjoy learning taekwondo and we feel that it is good that they learn not only self-defense skills but also learn about self-discipline and perseverance through the sport. We were pleased to be invited to participate in the competition, and we are proud to announce that we have three gold medalists, one silver medalists and a handful of bronze medalists. The children all did so well, they fought their best in each of their sparring rounds, and gave it their all. Not only did the children have a good time competing, the experience and exposure gained is surely and they also met and made many new friends from the event.
26th December 2016
The Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year!
January has been a wonderful month. It has been busy here at YCF, but nonetheless, we are all very thankful for everything that has happened and for the many blessings and opportunities upon us. We look forward to February, it will be yet another good month ahead of us. Lord, we commit 2017 into your hands and we are excited to see where you will steer YCF to this year.
From all of us at YCF 🎅
Season greetings, December has been a busy yet fulfilling month for us here at YCF. We give thanks for this month as we have had many activities for the children by many wonderful people, and we have received so much love and blessings from those around us. We started this month with a Youth Camp for our children of both homes, facilitated by a delightful team from Singapore who ran the day camp with the children, the camp was centered on the bible verse Hebrews 6:19, “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure”. The older children sat in for workshops where they learnt the importance of the Lord’s promises and His goodness and the younger ones had their own activities, where they did arts and crafts and played games. All in all, everyone had such a good time and they took away many lessons from it. We are thankful that the children has such opportunities to be able to interact with their Singaporean friends, and to also participate in camps that will enable them to learn more about our great God.
Also, this month, two of us Japanese friends came to visit us. We are so thankful for their continuous thoughts of love and support over this past few years. Each time that they visit, we give thanks that they can be part of our lives and are moved by their interactions with the children.
For Christmas this year, we had a small and simple gathering in our open field, with dear friends. The children were tasked with the planning of the Christmas programs and each prepared an item (song or dance) to present to our guests. The staff and the older children prepared the food for our dinner party. It is always a joy to be able to celebrate Christmas, and the children always have a good time as there is much food, gifts and so much love. We thank God for allowing us to be able to host Christmas parties each year for the children.
The elementary and middle school children will be having a week off school, as they get the privilege of enjoying the Christmas-New Year holidays. We intend to keep them busy with activities during the week, as they are full of energy all the time. 2016 is ending in a week’s time, the Lord has been so good and gracious to us all here at YCF, He has indeed seen us through the year and have provided for us in so many ways, through various people and channels. Our hope in the Lord will not be shaken as He proves to us how great a God he is, no matter what, He will never forsake us. His love for us is so great, and because of that, we can do what we do at YCF. We will be having a time of worship where everyone will reflect and give thanks for the year and for us to sing praises to the Lord for all that He has blessed us with on the 31st of December. For all that has happened in this year, good and bad, we acknowledge the Lord’s mightiness overall and we give Him the utmost praise and thanks.
15th November 2016
Learning in Progress
This month has been rather rainy, however we are thankful that we have cool weather and water for the crops and plants. All of the children are now back to school and are very busy with school activities and their school work. We are pleased that they are all enjoying their time in school and are actively participating in their school activities and events. Our children’s confidence will be well boosted and they will learn very practical and useful skills from their participation, in each activity. We highly encourage them to try new things, speak up and to learn how to work in teams. Hence, we are thankful that their schools are able to provide such platforms for them to be part of and to learn from the experience and exposures.
During the weekends, the children are kept busy with activities such as swimming lessons and taekwondo lessons. We want them to be as exposed as they can and to learn and try new things. By taking up sports, the children are able to learn skills about endurance, team work and also keep healthy. They have so much energy and it is good for them to put it to good use when it comes to playing sports. The weekends are meant for rest and leisure, so the children can unwind from a long week and just enjoy each other’s company to play a game of badminton, football and hang out under the shade of our trees playing and chatting. The big girls are enjoying their turn in swim lessons, and are making good progress in picking up the skill of swimming. Despite the rainy weather, they are still very hopeful as they look forward to going for their swim class each week. We wish them all the best and we are very sure they will be swimming gracefully and agilely in no time! Our children are our pride and joy, and we delight in the small things that they accomplish and we celebrate little successes. The big boys will be the last group for the swimming program, and once they are through with their lessons, all our children will be able to swim. Thank God for the opportunity for them to learn swimming and to be blessed with a swim coach and a swimming pool for their lessons each week.
21st October 2016
Work Hard, Play Hard
The children have the month of October off school and are clearly enjoying their school holiday. Apart from just play and rest, the children have been working hard every day as they have been tasked to clear the weeds from the rice fields, do spring cleaning, work on handicrafts, paper cuttings and gardening. This month we have started planting rice in recycled plastic bottles as a mini project to teach our children the importance of recycling and being creative in the process, to find ways to reuse items beneficially. This is a very good lesson for them as they are able to be understand the importance of recycling and also contribute to finding out about more innovative ways to garden through using recycled plastic bottles and containers.
Our elementary school children also had the opportunity this month to be part of a broadcast program “SuperBook” with the Christian Broadcasting Network, the children were so pleased to be asked to participate in the series. It was a good experience for them as they were able to learn more about broadcasting, and learn how to be part of a team. The children came home so excited to share about what they did, saw and learnt at the studio. We are so thankful for this wonderful opportunity and for a priceless exposure for our young curious minds. So proud to be part of the program that broadcast bible stories for children.
This month our third group of swimmers will start their swimming lessons, they can’t wait for lesson to begin. Down with two groups and two more to go, till all our children learn how to swim. We are also very privileged and blessed to be receiving external support with the maintenance of our two wooden houses’ roof and stairs. One of the wooden houses’ roof caved in on a rainy day in August, and we have been very blessed be offered help in the funding and assistance in the maintenance work needed on the roof to fix and ensure safety for the children living in the houses.
Please continue to keep us in your prayers, and for the nation of Thailand in your prayers in this time.
18th September 2016
So Thankful
Everyone has been very busy getting work done around the homes, the children are all well and are busy with school and school work, yet we are very thankful this month. We have been so blessed by a donor who funded the entire expense for the kitchen extension project at House of Grace. Work started in mid-August and we have completed the project last week, with the help of some external workers, our male staffs and our older children. The kitchen area in House of Grace is now very spacious as we have extended the kitchen by lengthening the old space, our new kitchen also now boasts a new roof that is able to cover the whole cooking and storage area. The children at House of Grace love their new kitchen, the staffs are also delighted as they can now cook with ease when it rains and are so glad to have more proper storage spaces for the kitchen utensils and cooking condiments. Thanks to the generous donor, we now have a lovely new kitchen space, which is functioning, commodious and fully sheltered.
Next, we want to thank God for His goodness in seeing our rice and crops growing healthily and briskly. Last month we planted rice seedlings and now, the rice field in House of Hope is a sea of green. The rice is growing beautifully and we cannot be happier to see the rice grow taller each week. With a steady flow of water streaming in, we need not worry about our rice plots not flooding with water and also that the soil will be too dry and cracked up. Our pond is also now refilled with water and the fishes have found its way back into our modest pond. The children are beyond glad to be able to jump into the pond, catch fishes and enjoy the cool waters. We give thanks for the growth of our crops and also for the inflow of natural water in this season.
Above: Extended New Kitchen Area at House of Grace.
Left and Below: A sea of green, the rice field in House of Hope and the children happily playing at the pond.
Last but not least, we have great news to share with you! After 7 years of relentless searching and seeking out information for James’ long lost older brother…we have finally found him! Yes, Praise God for His goodness and grace, we managed to locate James’ brother back in their village. We brought James back to his village last week to gather information about his birthplace in order to put in an application to obtain a Thai ID for him and we were pleasantly surprised when the village pastor told us that she had news about James’s older brother, the two boys have met twice since then. We were informed that the older brother was taken in by a local children’s home in their province, as to why the organization only took him and left James to roam the street alone, we are unsure. Nonetheless, we will ensure that James and his brother will rekindle their relationship and Tasnee is persistent in helping both boys to obtain their Thai IDs. Please help pray for Tasnee and the staff as they continue work on finding out more about the two brother’s background and as they converse with the village elders and villagers in the process of attaining Thai IDs for the two boys. May the Lord grant them favor as the do so and wisdom as they meet with people who may assist. This is what we do at YCF, we want to ensure each of our children maintain their relationships with their surviving family members and also to hopefully help with citizenship issues. God is so good, He answered our prayers as He has helped by ending our 7 year long search and have reunited the two brothers. We pray that they will be able to get to know each other better and to develop a strong sense of brotherhood with each other in the years to come and also in success in their quest to be granted their Thai citizenship.
You can read about James’ story here: http://www.ycfthailand.com/a-place-to-call-home
14th August 2016
Fertile seeds
The rain is finally here! The month of July has brought the rain along with many things to be thankful for. We have been so blessed and we continue to thank God for His goodness and grace.
Firstly, our first group of swimmers have graduated from their swimming class. Each child in the group is now able to swim the full length of the 50meter pool on their own without assistance. They have also mastered the skill of breathing underwater and now possess the ability to maneuver swiftly in the water. We are pleased to see how fast they have picked up this life skill and we delight in seeing how much they enjoy themselves in the water, it comes so naturally for them now. The second groups of swimmers are now embarking on their swimming lesson for the next 3 months; we wish them the best and await the day that we can celebrate their achievement. We have been so blessed to receive these swimming lessons for free for all our children, it is such an important life skill for them to learn.
18th July 2016
Showered with Blessings
Big smiles from the first group of swimmers, who completed their 3 months of swimming lessons.
Let the rice planting season begin! We have a ritual of planting rice every year at YCF, this week we started planting the rice seedlings in our rice field. At the start of this month, our staffs started preparing the field at House of Hope for rice planting. We have been praying for sufficient water flow to ensure that we can water and flood out the plots for the rice seedlings, and true to His grace and goodness, the Lord has provided us with water.
The staff and the older children were very diligent as they had to clear up the rice field, toss around the soil, segregate the land into smaller plots, install and secure water pipes, get the irrigation system up and working, and also gather the rice seedlings for planting. Once everything was ready, the younger children joined in and helped to plant the rice seedlings into the flooded plots. Everyone had fun despite working under the heat, we had to ensure that the rice seedlings were delicately implanted into the soil and had to make sure that the seedlings were nicely and neatly spaced out, for them to have sufficient space to grow well.
It will take around 112 days for the rice to grow and for us to harvest and consume. We will continually work in the field till the day it is ready for harvest. It is important to ensure that the rice grows well, we do not use any pesticides or chemicals, and hence we will have to check on our crops religiously every week. When the rice is fully grown, we will harvest and dry out the rice pellets. In the previous years, we have taken much pride in consuming the delicious rice grown from our very own field. This teaches and illustrates to our children the importance of how we reap what we sow, when we put in effort and take care of our crops well, we will be able to enjoy the fruits of our labor. The sight of everyone coming together to work in the field, is simply beautiful. The older ones are able to teach and impart their knowledge of rice planting to the younger ones and the younger ones bring with them so much innocence, as turn work into child’s play which never fails to out a smile across the tired souls of the hard working older children and staff.
Every year, we look forward to planting rice.
This year we thank God for yet another year of rice planting and we continue to seek His favor upon our rice crops, may He bless the water, the ground and of course the hands that have nimbly planted the rice seedlings.
Second Group of Swimmers, commencing their swimming lesson.
Secondly, we are looking forward to the start of rice planting next month, so in view of it, the children have been tasked to clean up the rice field, cut and clear away the weeds and to toss up the soil, over these past few weekends. However, we are still praying that with the downpour of rain this month, the water will start accumulating and welling up, in order for us to have sufficient water to flood our rice field. Currently, there is still a lack of water as the rain water is all seeping down into the dry ground. Please pray with us, that the Lord will send more rain and that we will have enough water by next month for us to carry out the rice planting.
Talking about planting, we have successfully planted various types of vegetables and fruits in House of Grace and have delighted in harvesting and consuming it. We have planted purple corn, leafy greens and mulberries. The children were very much involved with helping to dig the dirt, fill the ditches with seeds, water and tend the plants, under Ku’s watchful eye. We thank God that we are able to have these mini gardening projects for the children as it teaches them not only about the importance of sustainability by growing our own food, but also being mindful and thankful for Mother Nature. We love it when the children take pride in their own work, learn new skills and get to reap the harvest of their hard work…in this case, the lovely and delicious healthy greens and sweet fruits to munch on.
Lastly, this month the staffs have begun attending a series of counselling workshops and English lessons. The teachers are such lovely and dedicated volunteers, who each embody great generosity and an admirable teaching spirit. The staffs are not only able to enhance their own skill sets and better improve their knowledge, but are also empowered to share their new knowledge with the children and the organization. We are so thankful for their brilliant teachers and mentors, for their time and heart in imparting their knowledge to our staff. Life is all about learning and we are pleased that both the children in our homes and our staffs are able to have opportunities to further learn and better themselves.
The staffs having a good time participating in a group activity, as part of their counselling workshop session.
Hello June! It is already the sixth month of the year, time has passed by so quickly. The children are all back on schedule with their school work and daily chores. God has been ever so good and gracious towards us, His blessings are new every morning.
During the first weekend of the month, we got busy fixing the fence that surrounds our compound-House of Hope. The old fence was old and some parts were damaged, it has served us well for eight years and we decided that it was time to change the barb wires and bamboo stilts. All the children worked hard that morning to help build up the new fence. Thus, the new fence was done up by lunch time. It is always such a joy seeing how the younger ones enjoy and take ownership of their involvement in such re-buiding projects, they are able to gain a good experience while also picking up new skills.
In the week that followed, our male staff placed their muscles to good use as they worked on implanting new water pipes for the water tanks at House of Grace. All in all, over sixty water pipes measuring four metres each was placed underground and now the water from our main water tank is able to be conveyed, to be kept in the four cement water wells around the compound. The children also played a big role in helping to dig the soil, whenever they returned from school and helped to burry the water pipes after they were connected and placed in the ground. The project took a week to be completed and the water pipes are all working perfectly.
Maintaining our homes is very crucial, especially so because we have to keep the place and safe and secure for the well-being of our children. By providing a safe and healthy environment, it will help florish the growth and development of our children, during their stay with us. Our children are all very skillful and are always eager to help out with the works around the house, we are thankful for their little hands.
9th June 2016
Maintenance Work
18th May 2016
Welcoming New Friends
The new school term has started and the children are all back to school. As this month sees the schools reopening, we are pleased to have seven new children joining the YCF family. Here at YCF, they will receive a better education and a safe shelter as they pursue their education. We give thanks for each one of them and we are also very excited to journey with them as we get to know them each better during their stay with us. Two of the seven are housed in House of Hope and the other five children are housed in House of Grace.
We have surely enjoyed the long school vacation and our children had a great time delighting in their break, as school reopens they were all very glad to return to school. Our youngest has also entered pre-school at the age of three this school term, he is taking to school very well and we are so proud and thrilled to see him excel in the institution. Education is so important and we acknowledge that with an education, our children will be able to have a better future and improve their standard of living. We want our children to be educated individuals, to grow up well, to give back to society and to go return home to their villages, where they can impart their knowledge and skills with families and friends. This is the best gift that we can give them here at YCF, an opportunity to go to school and a place to call home where they feel loved and safe as they are in the process of attaining a good education.
These seven children will be sure to form lifelong friendships here, we believe that in no time they will be happily integrated and playing with their brothers and sisters in YCF. Welcome to the YCF family, we thank God for blessing us with them.
5th April 2016
Summer Break
To kick start the month of April, our little ones went swiming to cool off in the pool as this month is known to be the hottest time in Thailand. They had so much fun playing around and soaking their bodies in the cool waters and spent a good three hours paddling in the pool.
They can't wait till the next time they get to go visit the pool.
On the 1st and 2nd of April, we drove down to Tak province, Mae Sot district, Tha Song Yang district and Mae Sariang district. We made the long trip of almost 500km by car to send three of our children home to their respective villages in Tak province and to also pay Orrasa a visit, she is now based in Tha Song Yang district.
After attaining her law degree, Orrasa now works full-time at the law advisory clinic in the hospital of Tha Song Yang, where she advises and assits the minority hill tribe groups and Burmese refugees regarding human rights issues.
We were pleased to visit Orrasa and to learn more about the work she is doing there. We also went to visit Mae Usu cave and the border between Thailand and Myanmar. The children who came with us for the trip learnt so much. We came across many refugee camps and refugee children who were seated along the roadside, selling freshly picked vegetables and red ant's eggs.
It was such a memorabe trip even though we spent many hours travelling. We were so glad that some of our children were able to return home to their families for the holidays and that we had the opportunity to visit their homes, where we spent a good amount of time talking to their parents/relatives. Likewise with Orrasa, we had such a splendid time catching up with her and exploring Mae Sot and Tha Song Yang district.
28th March 2016
Learning to Lead
The month of March came and went by so quickly. The children started their long 3 month school holiday, they were definitely delighted. Having much spare time on our hands, we decided to run a three day children camp at Chiangsaen,Chiangrai for our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who resides there. We got out older children and the staff to plan and prepare for the camp that was held at Maeapp Church, they all did such an awesome job and executed the camp fantastically.
We stayed over with the camp attendees in their humble church for two nights, shared and taught the bible, lead worship, played games and did many group activities. Everyone was so blessed by the camp and our children learnt how to be leaders and also how to give back to others. At YCF, we are blessed when people come visit and run programs for us, we also acknowledge the importance of serving and loving others, thus we enjoy helping and serving others in need. It is our joy and privellge, all praise and thanks to God who saw us through the camp.
On the 19th of March, four of our children graudated from elementary school. It was indeed a day of joy and pride for us as we watched them receive their graduation certificates and dressed smartly in their graduation gowns. It is going to be an exciting time for them, as well as for us as they start a new chapter and as they move forward with their education. A big congratulations to the four of them, and we continue to pray that they will each grow up well and do well as they enter middle school. Good job guys!
29th February 2016
Celebrating Lives
At the start of the month we threw a birthday party on a lovely Saturday morning for five of our children at House of Hope, who has their birthdays in the months of January, February and March. Our birthday children were blessed with a huge and creamy chocolate-coconut cake, freshly baked with love by one of our YCF's volunteer. It was so delicious and such a great treat for all.
At YCF, we want to celebrate each child and to show our appreciation to them, for being part of our big YCF family. We had everyone gather around them to sing them a birthday song and to come together in prayer to pray over them as they turn another year older. We love celebrating the precious lives of our children and to acknowledge the unique individual that they are.
The festivities went on as after everyone devoured the scrumptous cake, the children indulged in candies, enjoyed the party favours and played some indoor games. The children were on a sugar high as they laughed and played loudly together during the games. We all had such a joyous time together celebrating.
