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Protect a Child

Category: Families of Blessing (northern Thailand)

Agriculture Endeavors at House of Blessing

In October, the children and staff at House of Blessing planted a variety of vegetables and have already begun to harvest them.  They use pig and chicken manure for fertilizer so that these vegetables are organic.  The benefits are many as the children learn to grow the vegetables, eat healthy, have energy for exercise and their various activities.  This is helping the House of Blessing to become self-sustaining.

They are also raising their own chickens and pigs, with more pigs to come in December.  Julie personally wants to pass on a big thank you to the church who has prayed and followed God’s direction in leading them to donate to the pig project.  Julie says they truly feel loved by the church.  The staff at HOB have worked hard to buy food for the pigs, plant bamboo trees and prepare before they purchase the pigs in December.

Please pray for the staff as one of them takes on the role of overseeing all the agriculture endeavours.  Praise God for healthy food and children who are excited to learn and help.

Spiritual Gifts

 I Corinthians 12: 1, 4-6, “Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed.  There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them.  There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.   There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.”

Josh and Julie have prayed with the children at House of Blessing and taught them about spiritual gifts.  Then they have given them opportunities to practice using their gifts.  It is a joy to them to have a worship team that they no longer need to be part of because the children are capable leaders of worship and prayer time.  This frees Josh and Julie to help another team or lead in other areas during their daily worship time.  It frees the children to become courageous in using their God-given gifts.

Thank God for the body of Christ to serve Him and build each other up to grow in Christ!

The Life of a Child in HOB

What does a typical week look like for the children in House of Blessing? During the week, from May-March, the children go to school. Amber helps them with their homework, especially their English homework. The children enjoy going to Amber’s to bake cookies but it’s also a time where only English is spoken and the kids have fun learning and laughing.

Saturday is outreach day when the kids from HOB help Josh lead kids ministry outreach in various villages and communities. The older kids are leading the Bible teaching and the younger kids like to get involved in leading worship! Sunday evening, the team gets together to plan what will happen on Saturday. Friday evening they meet again to make sure everyone is prepared before going out the next day.

Sunday is a day for Bible study and worship at church. Even after the church service is over, sometimes the little kids like to stay up front and sing their little hearts out as they continue in spontaneous worship of their risen Savior! Some weeks, they go to the local youth worship service as well. When with youth from other churches, Josh and Julie see the leadership abilities shine amongst the HOB kids.

Proverbs 22:6 says to train a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Let’s continue to pray for these children to grow in God and for the leaders as they train them.

November Birthday Celebration

Every child loves to be remembered on their birthday-even adults do, although we sometimes don’t want to count the years.  It makes us feel special to be remembered.  Furthermore, it gives us reason to pause and thank God for another year of His grace and blessings.  Everyone at the House of Blessing gathers around the birthday people and prays for them.  Often, in Thailand, they all pray at once, thanking God and laying out their requests.

This month, Amber baked special cakes and the kids were all able to go to a Korean BBQ restaurant-one of their favourites!  Each individual goes to the smorgasboard and chooses the meats, vegetables and noodles they want to cook.  On each table, a BBQ is placed-the bottom has coals and the top has a dome to cook the meat and a moat around the edge to cook the vegetables and noodles.