Hoay Maw

Apologies that this update is delayed but we wanted to report on the visit of some young "Powerpackers" to Thailand.

When we were involved with Powerpack at Kingdom Faith during the Summer, we shared about the needs of the children at Hoay Maw.

We were approached by a family who were due to visit Thailand in the following weeks and we arranged to meet up and to take them to visit Hoay Maw for themselves.

Nathan (who had been in Powerpack), with sister Chloe, Mum Patsy and Aunt Jeanette, joined us on our trip.

Jeanette and Patsy had been brought up in Nepal where Jeanette and her husband now work, so the family had a background in mission.

We set off on Tues 26th August in a borrowed minibus first stop the Charin Garden Restaurant, a.k.a. "The Pie Shop". This is a favourite half-way stopping point where we especially like to take guests. They serve very nice Thai food as well as delicious pies in a very pretty and peaceful setting beside a flowing river.

We continued on to Mae Sai taking a slight detour to stop at a view point in the Golden Triangle where the borders of three countries, Burma, Thailand and Laos, meet.

Jeanette, Nathan, Adrian, Niti, Patsy & Chloe at the Pie Shop

"Golden Triangle"

We received a phone call from Esther at Hope for Life to say that the children were home from school so went on directly to do an activity and worship time with the children.

The children were all specially dressed in their traditional Akha costumes and looked very beautiful.

As usual the children thoroughly enjoyed our simple activity which was to use coloured tissue paper to make a creation picture. First we went through the 7 days of creation and gave them some ideas for their pictures. Nathan and Chloe did a brilliant job joining in with the children and demonstrating different "tissue-techniques".

Eventually we had to persuade the children to finish and to put their wonderful pictures together in a gallery.

Then we had a worship time where they wanted to sing some songs that we had taught them previously. Their main language is Akha but they go to Thai school and speak thai quite well. We have translated some simple songs into Thai and so we sang the Thai versions of "Father God created the world" by Ishmael, "Lord Jesus, I'm here to Worship You" by Jenny, and "Holy Spirit Come" a Powerpack song.

Chloe and Nathan did a great job of leading the actions.

Creation gallery

"Praabidaa Songsang Jakawan" "Father God Created the World"

After that, the children blessed us by singing one of their songs which we tried our best to join in with (mainly the actions).

That evening we enjoyed a lovely meal at our favourite Thai restaurant situated in a garage compound. Chloe and Nathan practised their chop-stick technique (not really Thai - more Chinese) as well as having an impromptu Thai language lesson benefiting from the expertise of Ajaarn Alien (aka Adrian).

Chloe Gin Khao Chloe eats rice

Nathan khit aroy khrap! Nathan thinks it's delicious!

The next morning Adrian, Jenny and Patsy got up early to go to the market to buy provisions for Hoay Maw.

Patsy with the Dragon fruit

Leaving the resort

We arrived at Hoay Maw late morning and delivered the supplies. We were able to see the mosquito nets that had been installed on each of the children's beds.

Kitchen inspection	broken plates
bathroom	bedroom

At lunchtime we enjoyed the food and hospitality of Joseph's family. Nathan and Chloe asked Joeseph some questions about the children.

After lunch we were able to see the significant progress that they had made with the agricultural projects.

Nathan and Chloe particularly enjoyed inspecting the pigs.

Little Piggies

and mushrooms

We stayed long enough for the children to return from home and so Chloe and Nathan were able to meet them and kindly gave them their football to keep.

Next summer at Powerpack at Kingdom Faith, we will be able report about how the £260 raised at Powerpack has helped the Hoay Maw children to attend school. If Nathan is in Powerpack again then it will be great if he can give a personal report of his Powerpacker visit to Hoay Maw.