Helping an orphanage on the Thailand / Burma border

Yesterday…3:30am…I arrived back in Bangkok after being on the border for 7 days loving on some beautiful kids, hanging with some new friends, and working hard to move those kids out of tents and into their newly constructed dorms.

Me and my friends Brett and Kyle left last Wednesday night (the 19th) on a trip to the Burmese border.  The trip took 10 hours on an overnight bus and 3 hours in the back of a truck (called a song taow).  When we arrived that morning, we told the director of the orphanage that we would have both the boys and the girls moved into each of their dorms by the time we left 6 1/2 days later.  With that promise looming, we began working immediately!!

For the next 6 days, the alarm went off at 6am…after long days of both playing hard with the kids and working hard on the dorms, the sound of an alarm going off while trying to sleep 3 people in a 2 man tent with a couple of roots between your shoulder blades and hips and a rooster that crows every 30 minutes or so from 3am on, is not that appealing…I’m not bitter…I’m just saying!!  Nevertheless, we began our days before the warmth of the sun ever came over the ridges from our east.  Each morning would start with a trip up to the schoolhouse for worship songs and a short devotion (that our team did for about 4 days) for the 40 kids at the orphanage.  After our worship time with the kids, we would then eat breakfast and prepare for the days work.

The kids we were blessed with doing this for are, to say the least, incredible and trying to describing these amazing kids to you with words will not do them justice.  I have never been around so many kids with obviously less than fortunate circumstances who never wear anything short of a Hollywood smile across their faces.  The love we experienced from these kids was nothing short of God’s love overflowing out of them.  We were and continue to be blessed by them.

These children had spent the last 5 months sleeping in tents waiting on their dorms to be ready.  So much hard work went into the dorms from so many people.  Since we were doing most of the finish work, we were fortunate enough to see the kids move into their new homes.  And let me tell you, it was a sight to behold.  They  rushed into the dorms with mats and pillows in hand and quickly chose each of their bunks.  There they were, so proud, so happy, and smiling like they had just won the lottery.

Being a part of this process was quite the experience.  We have just begun a partnership with this orphanage and look forward to the next time we can go up north to help those kids with the beautiful smiles.

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