December 9 2010

December 9 2010


Our visit to the feeding center is a joy and a sadness at the same time. It is joyful because there is a spirit of little children who despite having nothing in life, no place to live, no parents, no regular supply of food, nothing but the clothes on their back, and yet can still be happy and enthusiastic in their interaction with us. Transform Asia pours love and the message of Jesus into these kids as much as they can. That is all they can do for these kids who range in age from three to 9 or 10. Their best efforts for these kids are limited in direct proportion to the amount of money that can be raised to keep these kids fed. I encourage anyone reading this blog to go to www.transformasia.us and investigate what it takes to sponsor a child.

The experience is also sad. It is sad when you realize that these children are orphans because they have been abandoned by parents who see no other alternative to the struggles in their life. Many of their mothers were raped by young men. Many of them never knew their father. Their fathers, believing that things would be better somewhere else, or in an attempt to begin a new life have left for the big city or to Thailand in hopes of finding work. Mothers, some of whom are barely more than children themselves leave them behind for some of the same reasons. Some of the mothers have been kidnapped and forced into slavery and prostitution.

It is not uncommon to see a young mother who is still a teenager herself with two and sometimes three children in tow. Can any of us imagine even in the best of circumstances what it would be like for our 15 year old daughter or sister to have two children? Add to that the lack of a future due to abject poverty, no education, no prospects for improvement and no community services in place to assist her and it becomes easy to see why so many of their kids get left behind.

Last year when I was hear there were several hundred kids in the program. The kids got their meals sitting on a dirt floor of the farm equipment shed. In between tractors and farm machines, the kids ate and never even knew how bad it was. The kitchen at that time was a set up that quite frankly was far worse than the kitchen we set up for In Roads during our In Tents trips to Mexico. In the last year since then, TA has built a large building in which to cook, feed the kids, give the kids a safe place to be and sleep as well as build better bathrooms and bathing facilities.

Today we arrive just before its time to eat and we serve the 300 kids gathered a meal of rice - of course - and soup made from a small amount of meat and veggies. They are ravenous. They are also patient and well mannered. Each circle of 10 kids wait until their food arrives, one child in each group leads them in a prayer of thanks for their food and then they dig in. After the meal we spend some time with the kids playing, taking pictures and just watching them be kids. Every type you could imagine is there, from the shy hide behind the chair kids to the outgoing I want to be in every picture kids. Sam does his version of chick a boom and two of our interpreters teach the kids a song and dance routine that they love to learn. We are invited to stay for - can you believe it - Karaoke, but we pass as we need to move on to our next destination for the day.

Each of the team members I am sure takes a personal moment as we leave to lift these kids and the staff of TA who spend all of their time in this center which is out in the middle of no where amongst the endless rice paddies in prayer and we thank our God that he has given them a heart to serve in this way. Sorry about the run on sentences but is late and I am just too tired to get all grammatical right now.

Tomorrow we will be driving 6 hours back to the capital. We will then part ways with the drama team, the interpreters and our medical missions team. There has been 36 of on this trip counting each of these groups and a better group of adults and young people have never served together.