House of Blessing

(Thailand post continued...)

Remember Michael?  The missionary Steve Allen's son?  Here he is helping a local Thai boy with a little yard work.  You know, just a bit of tree trimming.  He looks like he might have done this before, doesn't he?

Hey Michael, how'd you get way up there?  Michael?  Can you hear me?  Michael was actually born in Thailand, and spent most of his life there.  Apparently tree climbing is one of the many skills he has learned while in the country.  (Remember, his dad was on the trip.  Brandon usually doesn't make youth group kids with knives climb really tall trees.  Only when they're making fun of his haircut or extensive t-shirt collection.)
During the second half of the trip, the group traveled to Chang Rai in the northern part of Thailand, where Brandon preached at a church that was affiliated with House of Blessing.  Check out how little the podium looks.  I'm thinking most Thai people are a bit smaller than Brandon.  It looks like he's preaching behind a nightstand.  

Brandon said that shoes are not typically worn indoors in the places that they visited.  

God is bigger than that little part of me that lives in terror of exotic foot fungi.

In the north part of the country, many people belong to different non-ethnic tribes with their own set of cultures and customs.  The children from House of Blessing preformed different tribal dances while the group was visiting.  

Here are the children of House of Blessing.  The group spend several days there, playing with the kids, helping out the staff, and teaching English.  

Brandon was very impressed with this place.  42 kids are cared for by only 3 adults, and the place runs like a well-oiled machine.  Every morning the kids do 30 minutes of chores before breakfast, and every night brings another 30 minutes of chores before bed.  The kids know how to do everything from cleaning their room to helping in the kitchen and even yard work.  Brandon said there was a kid slightly bigger than Dane operating the weedeater one morning.  (Okay, the kid was like 9, just very small for his age.) 

We have instituted a 15 minute chore time before bed here at our house since Brandon got back.  The kiddos have been cleaning up all their toys and picking up their room much better than they had before.  

Now if we could just teach Aidan to use the weedeater...