Thank You God...

Being at home now for about a day, I've gotten a chance to try and sort through alot of what went on, on this past trip. And I have this overwhelming sense of thankfulness to God. And its for alot of things...His sovereignty, His provision, for teaching me how small my faith is when challenged.

When Kit's accident happened, I prayed that it would be just a minor concussion. When we found out it was actually worse, I prayed that the swelling and bleeding in his brain would stop. But it got worse. As we stayed with Kit and Catherine that first night, I remember lying there awake trying not to ask God, why? Why would He not answer my prayers. I prayed sooo hard. Where was He? I thought to myself, I should not be thinking these things. It's wrong to question...so I tried to push the thoughts out of my head.

Over the next couple of days, Benson and I took turns breaking down. Just trying to explain to someone else what happened, would cause me to weep. I felt really helpless and powerless. I remember thinking...there's absolutely nothing i can do to help Kit. All we could do was pray.

Then it happened. I really believe it to be a miracle. He started to improve. and not just slightly. He started his rapid recovery. First, he would'nt need surgery. Then the doctor told him he wouldn't be able to fly home till Sept. 10th. And yet, we are all home on time as scheduled. He was able to go to Khaodee for the last week to spend with the kids. Unbelievable.

I get goosebumps still just thinking about it. God is good. And as Catherine said after all this...He is the Great Healer. God had a plan. Not one that coincided with mine. One much better and that would give Him more glory. Will all accidents turn out this way? No, but in this case God chose to heal and through this all glory belongs to Him.

I realized how impatient I was with God. I felt as though He was coming through for me...but He was really saying...Just wait. Just watch what I'm going to do. Thank You God for Your love, Your grace, and teaching me about faith.

CJ

Back Home...

Kit's latest entry...

I'm back Wow

Able 2 walk out of SFO airport on my own 2 legs.
The Team n their families were still there to make sure I returned in
one piece. It felt more like a warm Welcome Home n Glad U made it. His
provisions/care provided me the strength to pass on a wheel-chair at
Thailand, Sigapore, Hong Kong, and San Francisco. Through insurance,
their was
"Nurse Karen" to check on my vitals as well as on the ready for what
might happen with cabin pressure n my head. Yes I was scared to fly,
relieved to b able to come home before Sept 10th which my Dr in
Thailand originally had said because of the trams n bleeding. Thank
you 4 all your prayers of healing, when he saw me the afternoon of the
day I got out of the ICU, he found me @ the nurse's station talking n
folding. 3 rabbits, 2 butterflyies, 2 frogs n an elephant. He said
they could take out/stop my IV drip. God is gracious ! !
Rambling on n on.

Kit


Also, I will be updating the blog with the last couple days of our trip, but wanted to post what God has taught me on this trip while it is still fresh in my head. Thanks for the prayers and support!

CJ

Update from Kit!

WOW back home
Last night was my 1st nite back @ KHAODEE all the kids n staff saying
"hello n welcome back".
Praise God I've made it to Wed, last night we had a great dinner, the
evening program was very enthusiastic, the kids had a great time. This
morning we woke up to a beautiful rain fall, God has really provided
the best type of weather for a tenderfoot such as myself.
A while after breakfast we ( Benson, Catherine, Cliffton, Kim, Gai )
went down the road to a local school and gave an English lesson.
Introductury sentances, Days of the week, n Modes of Transportation.
The kids had a great time n the teacher enjoyed the assistance. I
noticed in the next class over the kids were loud n w/o a teacher, I
asked one group of students from the class what were they there for ?
They didn't seem to know. After awhile a teacher returned and noticed
my " magizine rabbit" ( reusing the paper from a magizine off the
airplane) n asked me to teach her students how 2 fold rabbits. We had
an impromptu English-folding lesson. Yes when the kids want to learn
how to fold an object, you can fold in an object lesson. While folding
the teacher handed me a marker for the board n I was all over that
fun ! New words : Rectangle 1/2 half Triangle Square then from
Triangle we saw the thai to Tricycle. After all that fun w/the
students the staff even invited us to lunch, bountiful blessings.


Kit Venable

Teaching English and Chicken n Waffles!

Hey guys!

Quick update for yalls! Kit has come home to Khaodee and is resting and recovering. He will go back to the hospital on saturday to see when he can fly home.

Meanwhile the rest of the team has been quite busy. We have been teaching english at 2 different local public schools everyday in the mornings. And we also cooked chicken and waffles for the kids on of the nights.

Keep praying for us as the next thing we have is the carnival which is one Saturday. This will be a great reach out opportunity for the kids to share and invite their friends who don't know Christ to come and hear the gospel!

CJ

Praise God!

Hi everyone!

I'm sure there are alot of questions going on regarding Kit's health, and we werent in a position to share them as things were happening. But after talking to Kit and Catherine, here are some details as to what has gone on the past few days.

Last thursday, it was raining very hard here in Chiang Rai. And while Kit was walking, he slipped and hit is head on the cement. I found him probably 5 seconds after he fell, and we got him to the hospital within 5 minutes. We all prayed it was just a concussion, as Kit even tried to get up himself. After a CAT scan, the doctors let us know he actually had a brain hemmorage and there was a little bleeding. Benson and I stayed with Kit and Catherine in the hospital room that night. He was in a tremendous amount of pain and was in and out of sleep all night.

He got another CAT Scan the following day. If the swelling had stablized or shrunk, then he wouldnt need surgery. If it got worse then surgery would probably be needed. We got word later that day that the swelling had actually gotten worse. Not alot worse, but the swelling and bleeding had increased. The immediately sent him to ICU for 24 hour monitoring.

I won't even try and go through the emotions of everybody here, but needless to say things were very difficult. Because of the pain, Kit wanted to go into surgery, but the doctor convinced them to wait another 6 hours and get 1 final CAT scan.

Praise the Lord! This final Cat Scan showed the swelling had stopped and he was starting to stablize. That was Sunday, and today is Tuesday. And since then, Kit was been proggressing rapidly. Our God is good. Our God is sovereign. Please continue to pray for Kit's recovery so that he can fly back home ASAP.

Below are two little blurbs Kit wrote. 1 at the beginning of this, and 1 from yesterday.

CJ



Kit 1:

Weee, slip

It was raining 2 day n I took a spill. I guess 1 visit 2 the hospital
wasn't enough 4 me. This wasn't the way I planned it, we're hare 2
help others, not here 4 others 2 b focused on us but 2 focus on Jesus.
Please pray 4 me, they did a Cat-scan n found I have a brain hemmorage
(bleeding in my brain ) the right side of my head is swollen n is
throbing in pain.
Please pray 4 the kids @ Khaodee

In His care
Kit V


Sent from Kit Venable of
S.F.Solar

Kit #2

PRAISE GOD
"Because He lives I can face 2morrow, because He lives all fear is
gone." n so is the pain. Only out of the ICU this morning n already an
improvement, my Dr. even said it was ok for the nurse to stop my I.V.
Praise God Im alive.
Thank u all 4 your prayers of healing, I'll be out of the hospital
maybe this time 2morrow.. Have 2 come back Sat for follow-up
appointment n see when I might b able to fly again. Just yesterday I
had to ring a bell for someone to help me to go to... (not getting out
of bed to use the restroom), yes ringing a bell was even hard.
Praise God, I was even able to fold my Dr. an elephant. That was the
second elephant I folded 2day, the first one was for the nurses on
this floor w/ 3 jumping frogs, a few rabbits a butterfly and a dress-
shirt. I was able to borrow their tape to make a Thank you card for
the kids @ Khaodee. I wrote Thank you, Your prayers, n I miss you in
Thai.
Praise God Im talking w/nite staff at this Christian hospital n found
out the nurse Im talking w/is Budist. I asked her if she had Prou-Ong
( Jesus ) in her heart no Im Budist. So Im starting w/ Jn 3:16 then
Romans 10:9+10 and asking her co-workers if they know these verses.
Praise God allow Him to use us where ever we are.
In His care
Kit V

Pray for Kit

Yesterday, Kit had an accident and hit his head. He is currently staying at the hospital for further observation. Benson and Clifton will be staying with Catherine. Please pray for Kit's speedy recovery.

Brian

August team arrives safely!!!

So when we arrived in Bangkok, our connecting flight was in 1.5 hours...but we had to get our luggage, go outside, check the luggage back in and get to the gate...now I know what it feels like to be on the Amazing Race. So tired! but we made it!





We got to Chiang Rai around 1pm. The to Khaodee around 4pm. We tried to get some rest as we were going to the Hospital the next day to visit with the sick children there.

As we got to the Hospital, we split up into 3 teams. One team went around and encouraged and prayed for some of the adult patients, while the other 2 teams did a craft and prayed over the sick children.

Even though our thai is not that good, our God is. To be able to talk about God and pray for these kids who don't know Him, was just simply amazing. I CANNOT wait for what God has in store for us! Keep Praying!





CJ

Up up and away!

I can't believe we r on our way, Clifton n Benson r old pro's @ this.
What a day, this morning I was weighed down w/lots of things too do,
then I ran into Francis Chan. Yes, a real down 2 earth type of guy. It
wasn't Jesus, but it lifted my spirt just the same.
How about those testimonies from the few getting baptized, Praise the
Lord !
5am, almost half wai 2 Taiwan
B4 getting picked up 2 go to the airport, I was worried, tired, n
anxious for everything.
The Lord ( our Lord ) took all those worries n anxieties and wrapped
them up into a little sweeeek. Pooof all gone as our brothers n
sisters prayed in the airport. Praise God ! He can lighten our burdens
n stress n all we have 2 do is "Give them all, give them all to Jesus"

Keep praying 4 us
Thank you
In His care
Kit V

Blog 12 Knots and Blocks

Sunday night was game night. We played Human Knot and Human Blockus with the kids. In the Human Knot game, the kids had to get in groups of 20, and stand in a close circle. They would have to reach across to another person in their group and hold hands. When everyone had a hand they were holding, they had to untangle themselves to make a regular circle again.

In the second game, we played Human Blockus. For those who have never played it before, the object of the game is to get rid of all your pieces. All pieces are shaped differently and some pieces are more unique than others. Each kid had to replicate the piece on their paper with their body on the tile floor, which was the game board.

For our followup lesson, we wanted the kids to understand that we are all part of the body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 talks about how we are all different parts of the body of Christ. Like parts of the human body, each part has its own function and is useful to the body as a whole. Whether big or small in stature or function, is just as important than the other for the body to function correctly.

Blog 11 Sunday Service

For Sunday school, we started out with the game “Red Light, Green Light Partners.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS_TCs4ATPs

The kids had a lot of fun. We taught on the topic of “Readiness.” In the game, the kids had to be ready to listen and be ready to move. If they were not ready to move, they would be too slow and if they were too fast, they might go when they were suppose to stop. There were 2 types of readiness that we focused on during the lesson time. The first type of readiness comes from Luke 12:35-40 and John 14:1-4 saying that we need to be ready for Jesus’ second coming. The second readiness that we need to have comes from 1 Peter 3:15-17 about being ready to give an answer for our faith.

Blog 10 Saturday Night Worship

Saturday night worship is one of my favorite activities at Khaodee. The kids praise and worship God at the top of their lungs it’s amazing. Praise God!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRFQGtdt8xw

Blog 9 Blackout

On Wednesday, I experienced my first blackout at Khaodee. The high schoolers were studying for their exams for the next day so it was especially difficult for them to focus so we gave the high schoolers our head flashlights to help them study.

The kids got together in their multi-purpose room and started to pray, Suthep (age 16), one of the high school boys led the group in prayer and after 10 minutes of continual prayer, when Suthep said Amen, the lights went back on. Praise the Lord! After the lights went on, Porntip, Pattarawadee and Saruda performed a hula dance that they learned from a Hawaii team that visits them every October.

Blog 8- Art Project Continued

Here are some updated pictures of the pillow making art project.

Blog 7 Working Side-by-Side and oh so tired and dirty! What a reward!

Today our family watched and pitched in with some of the cement work that was done in front of the new guest dorms. The floor in front of the guest dorms Pi Charan pulled out the big cement mixer and everyone got to work. Brian was able to do 1 full mix round of pouring concrete buckets into the placement area and after 10 minutes his lower back was sore and arms were hurting. Vicky helped Manee and Mo (2 Khaodee girls) with the shoveling of the dirt for the cement making and the Cammy and Chloe helped out with the passing of the pails and all of us were tired, but the Khaodee kids were totally okay. These kids completely amaze us because they do this all the time and are totally fine. Despite the weariness of the work and weather, it’s always great to work with the kids side-by-side. Its awesome how we can joke and laugh with them. What a reward and blessing it is to be here and work with these children. The longer that we’re here the more we love them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsfqCrL-moA

Blog 6- Keeping the Lord's Day

After 4 straight days of physical labor, we’re taking God’s law of the Sabbath seriously. My body was so sore, that I could barely turn my neck this morning. I’m thankful that I’m just sore and not hurt. Today, We were able to help teach Sunday School to 60 kids, grades 7^th – college. Since Pastor Seemoon was going to preach on hypocrisy of the Pharisees, we wanted to teach something on that subject as well but from a different angle. We started with a game of “Simon Says” since we wanted to focus our attention to following rules. Ploy, one of the college girls helped us lead the game and changed it to “Ploy says.” After the game, we started to teach on the good traits of what a Pharisee should have been and the way God intended them to serve the people and we used Nicodemus as our example. We had two essential themes in our lesson. The first was about how rules are setup for our good, our protection and well-being. The second was about good and bad questioning.

The Pharisees were suppose to guide the people to obey the law in love, but chose to do so in fear to increase their power over the people. The rules (10 commandments) are setup to guide us to love God (first four commandments) and love people (last six). These commandments help us love in a harmonious community filled with love and respect for each other, but many of us see rules as something that takes away our fun, our freedom and our rights. God intends just the opposite.

John 3:1-21 is when Nicodemus questions Jesus about eternal life because he wants to know more. This was a good example of questioning. Matthew 16:14 is when the Pharisees question Jesus to perform a miracle in front of them, but Jesus saw that their hearts were already wicked and hardened to want to believe even if they saw something. This was a bad example of questioning because they were trying to test Jesus without even being open minded to what he was going to say or do.

We continue to thank God for His goodness and opportunities for us to interact with the kids whether it’s teaching or working side by side.

Blog 5

Blog 5 - Chicken Coop Updates

We moved the 200 little chicks into the chicken coop area.

Here is a picture of the kids working on the new roof extension

Here are some updates of our progress with the chicken coops.

Chickens in the house!....almost!

Experience is the greatest thing when coming to building things. Last year when we made chicken coops, we planned our ideas based on American standards and way of life. Last year’s chicken coops were like 5 star hotels for a chicken. A little overkill for chickens. This year, we’re using 10cm plywood instead of 15cm. and creating 2 story living space for the chickens. Here are some pictures of the area that chickens will be laying their eggs.

After the Khaodee kids come home from school. They are so eager to help out. Without saying anything, 4 of the MS/HS boys come over to where I was working and picked up some tools and asked me what to do. Here’s a video of 14 year old Pongsatuorn (nickname Yaelum) helping me drill a hole through cement so that we could anchor 2x3 wood to support the 2^nd story chicken coop.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngQ_nLa7yn8

Most of all the chicken farms in Thailand are not free-range chicken farms. They are all caged in a 12”x6” cage where only their heads are able to stick out and eat food. They can only poop and lay their eggs where they stand. It was a quite sad seeing these chickens like that. At Khaodee, as you can see from the last blog video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNMOCnKDSo0) they didn’t want anything to do with that kind of chicken raising. Free-range all the way!!!

B. Louie

Pillow Making!

It has been really good getting the opportunity to reunite with the kids and staff. I got the chance to meet with the 10 high school girls all together for the first time the other night to discuss and work on their first art project – pillow making! Woohoo! The girls had a good time picking out their fabric for their pillows and will be working on this project together for the next 2-3 meetings. The theme lesson that I have been planning on talking to the girls about is about “resting in Jesus” so I told them that they need to design and decorate the outside of their pillows with this theme in mind.

God’s Simple Reminder to me.

Yesterday seem to be one of the hottest days ever at Khaodee although everyday seems just as hot. As I was rocking Chloe to bed I started singing one of Cammy and Chloe’s favorite bedtime songs, “Amazing Grace”. As I finished this song, Wanna (high school girl) came out and said, “P' Vicky, What is that song that you just sang? I really like it.” I respond, “Amazing Grace”! With this moment I felt like God was reminding me so much about the simple moments that open doors for witnessing.

Wanna liked it so much that she asked me to write the words of that song out and Brian had the opportunity last night to teach that song to some of them. Today as I was meeting the girls for crafts again they started singing Amazing Grace. My prayer tonight is that the girls can truly embrace what God’s grace is. How it is sufficient enough for us and that they can fully understand what God’s grace means. “Amazing grace how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found was blind but now I see….”

Vicky