To the orphanage again:)

We said good-bye to most of the Eastlake team and saw the off to the Udon Thani airport. I miss the group already. I'm sure Paul, Tim, and Leanne are enjoying there 12hr layover in Korea about now. I imagine Jim and Janet are near home now since they left Bangkok on an earlier flight. Amy, Bank, and Joy were huge supporters as local team members that could speak Thai and loved playing with the kids.
Anna and I are sticking around the area a couple days before we continue our travels in SE Asia and Marco decided to stay another week here in Udon Thani. We plan on going to the orphanage again today with Amy after going to her church. We will play with the kids and pass out some more photos. It's hard to say good-bye to the girls that we have grown to love, especially when you see the tears in their eyes.
Jeff

Last day at Udon Thani Home for Girls

Well here we are, the final day of our team's interaction with the wonderful girls at the orphanage. It's close to noon and I would guess it's around 90F and sunny today. We love the girls here each personality is unique and beautiful. As we play with them we do our best to love them with hugs, smiles and laughter. Anna and I passed out a few photo books to the girls and they loved them. One girl, Jane, was sad because she knows we are leaving soon and she will miss us as she misses others from past Eastlake teams. As a team we've bonded well and are pretty exhausted from the high energy output and colds over the past week. Please keep these girls in prayer and pray for a safe return of the team over the next few days.
Jeff Chachka

A little more on GLH

The smaller orphanage is fairly self sufficient for the majority of the year. They have a pond where they grow and catch fish for dinner, a frog farm, rice fields that they harvest and it supplies them for about 10 months. There a several very talented young boys (13 to 15 years of age) that teach the younger ones how to play musical instruments and how to become mechanics. Dang, who is 13, is building scooters and dirt bikes from spare parts and sells them to help support the orphanage. truly amazing. This experience has been such an eye opener to all that we have in the US - how little it takes to truly survive and thrive. As Pastor Ryan said, all should do a mission trip of some sort to realize what we have and what others don't. Love and hugs to all - miss you very much!

XOXOXO
Janet

GLH Orphanage - Good Life Home

It's Wednesday and we visited a small privately run orphanage today - it has about 20 children with both boys and girls. It is Christian based and the director and his wife are teaching these children life skills so they will have an occupation once they graduate school. They are well educated and very loved.

Here is a picture of some of them. The two small girls in yellow shirts are extremely cute. The girl on the right, Carrot - was being sold by her parents and was rescued. I cried as she reached out to all of us with a warm heart. Please pray for continued support and love for the children here.

Janet

Our Teachers....

Jim's Teacher

Our Teachers....

Janet's Teacher - Joy

An Eventful Day in Udon Thani

Well, it was an eventful morning. We had one of our teammates fall sick and had to be taken to the hospital. Thank the Lord that we had Paul and P'Nam (spelling may be off sorry) assist him with the language barrier. After fluids and meds he is doing great. Many prayers to help him stay healthy would be appreciated.

After spending our first day with little toys, the team went shopping last night and bought all sorts of toys and fun filled activity games for the children. We will be disbursing them a little each day.

The one thing we have noticed is that the children are eager to learn English but they are also very interested in teaching us Thai. A few of the girls (Joy, Ploy and Beam) were fantastic teachers and we have encouraged them to attend the local University and become teachers. We have learned many Thai phrases - it was truly inspirational.

I'll look to get a photo of the three of them tomorrow. Much love and hugs to all of our friends and family - please continue to pray for the team especially Marco. XOXOXVW
Janet Briggs

The Van was swarmed by children

the first day at the orphanage was amazing. We drove up and the kids are waiting for us. We could barely get out of the van before they were taking our hands and clinging to us. The love they show us is incredibly amazing. They have been so loved starved from parents that all they want is your undivided attention. It's hard to not want to take several of them home. The Orphanage is quite nice; they have a good roof over the heads, great food (we do eat with them) and showers - the most important thing they miss is the love of a family. The staff is great and show them what they can but there are 300 children here. Boys are allowed up until the age of 5 or 6 and then they must leave for a boys orphanage. Please continue to keep these children in your thoughts and prayers - they truly deserve it.

Janet Briggs

picture at Amy's Baptism

here is the gang with Amy in the far back right corner.

Amy's baptism

On Saturday, the team (Paul, Jeff, Anna, Bank, Tim, Leanne, Marco, Jim and Janet) traveled up to a small lake resort to witness Amy and six others commit their life to the Lord. It was an incredible experience watching everyone recognize the love thata the Lord has for them.

It was a great bonding experience and a beautiful way to see the country side up by the Laos border. The food they served was delicious. We visit the orphanage on Sunday. We'll post pictures of the baptism and our first day soon. Thanks again for all of your prayers.

Janet Briggs

Visiting the Orphanage

The entire team met today in Udon Thani. We had a great couple of days together to re-group since some of us were traveling before the mission trip. We are very excited to start working and nervous at the same time. Please continue to pray for us that we would show these children the love they deserve. Thank you for your many kind thoughts and prayers and as a great "mama" used to say....many love and hugs to all my friends and family.

Janet Briggs

Thai massage

Anna, Leanne, Janet, Jim, Tim, Marco and myself are in Ko Samed, an island 3 hours south of Bangkok. Everyone is currently getting 1 hour Thai massages for $7... not a bad deal! We enjoyed our first night on the island and had a great thai dinner and took in a fireshow on the beach. We will post some pictures of it soon:)
Jeff

The Eastlake Thailand Team has landed!

The team of 8 people from Eastlake Community Church (Bothel, WA) are now all in Thailand. 7 of us will go to Ko Samed today, 3 hours South of Bangkok, for 3 days of working off the jet lag and cultural adjustment while accomplishing some team bonding. We will meet up with Paul in Udon Thani on Oct 15th. Joining our team will be Bank from Bangkok and Amy from Udon Thani. Amy has been a key support to Eastlake teams over the past few years and Bank was a great help to the last team that was here in April.
Once we settle in we'll start updating the blog with photos:)
Jeff Chachka