Abby's Own Words - Summer 2024 Trip to Hot Springs

Just a quick rewind to last summer for a second.  

In an over-the-top Missionary-Gramma experience for me, Abby and I were able to visit Hot Springs together from July 23 to August 6.  I've asked her to share her own reflections, and some pictures, here. 

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Hi everyone, it’s Abby! 

As I’m sure you all know, this July I had the privilege of getting to accompany my Gramma on a missions trip to Thailand. Now that I’ve returned home and have had a chance to organize myself, I am so excited to share a little bit about that trip with you all!

If I were to describe this trip in one word, it would be “incredible!” 

After so many years of hearing about Thailand, seeing others go on missions trips of their own, and dreaming up plans with my Gramma, being able to finally get to go myself felt truly unreal. I had so many wonderful experiences which I know I will treasure forever, and it was such an honour for me to work with God in this way.

Another word that comes to mind when I think about my trip would be “family.” 

The biggest highlight of my time in Thailand was, without a doubt, the time I spent with the children. Even though I was only there for a short two weeks, during that period I was able to forge a strong and meaningful connection with many of the kids and in many ways felt as though I could fill in the role of a big sister. Overall, there was such a wonderful atmosphere of welcoming and love and I was so glad to be a part of that and foster that on behalf of our church.

One of my favourite moments was when we took the kids out to the nearby Hot Springs water attraction for a swim and ice cream. Even though it was a smaller outing, they were beyond excited. The girls even got all dressed up and did their hair and makeup! To see them carry such a bright joy with them as they went about jumping in and out of the pool, going down the small water slide, and splashing around together, was so, so heartwarming.

Another favourite memory of mine was getting to spend time with the kids in simpler,
unstructured ways; doing board games or puzzles together, making bracelets, or playing jump rope and other outdoor games for example. These moments were special to me because they were not times that the children were expected to spend with me, but rather times that they chose to spend with me. To me, this was an indication that they felt secure with me and that they truly enjoyed my presence.

All in all, this is only a short summary of my trip, but I hope that it helps to give you a clearer picture of my time spent in Thailand! I am so grateful for all of the support I received as I embarked on this incredible adventure. Not only has it meant so much to me, but it also enabled me to strengthen the relationship between our church and our partner church in Hot Springs, and to remind the children that they have a deeply caring community to support them by providing them with a physical presence.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy the pictures I have included - they are some of my favourites!

Treasures for Treasures

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2024

8:00 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Highview Community Church

295 Highview Drive, KIT ON N2N 2K7

You just never know what you're going to find at a Garage Sale.

That's a big part of the shopping adventure.  Because it's so true, that old adage, "One man's trash is another man's treasure."

It seems like smart and ethical shopping too, in these economic and environmental times.  Honestly, our annual Garage Sale at Highview has always received some high quality, in great condition items that just might make for a good birthday gift, or...if you are already getting started on this...Christmas present.

Yes, you just might find a treasure.

The other cool thing about it is, this is all about another kind of treasure - young women who are working hard to complete a post-secondary education in a place where such an opportunity can't be taken for granted.

Da is studying to be a nurse.

Tae is studying horticulture and business in hopes of being an independent businesswoman.

Wara is completing her internship and trusting God for a future as a pastor.

These young women are treasures of God's grace for New Family Foundation.  We exist to help provide at-risk and orphan children in Northern Thailand a safe place to grow and thrive, offering opportunities to become all they were meant to be.  

So whether you come to find a treasure or support a treasure, we'll be glad to see you!

Garage Sale September 28

 

You know it's fall when....

New Family Foundation's Students Fundraiser!

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28

295 Highview Drive KIT ON N2N 2K7

8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Ways you can participate:

• Gather gently used, already priced items
• Bring them to the church during the week of September 21 to 27 (hours to be posted)
• Donate baked goods for our Treats Table (drop off hours to be posted)
• Volunteer for prep and set up Friday, September 27 at the church any time between 9:30 to 2:00
• Volunteer for set up and sales Saturday, September 28 any time between 7 and 2 p.m.
• Volunteer with your vehicle/van to help pack up and donate what's left by 12:30 on Saturday
• Come to the sale to see if there are treasures there for you!

All proceeds go towards sending our university students 

to continue their education past high school.

For more information about how you might help make a difference, please contact me at rabreithaupt@hcckw.ca.

Tea Party Grand Total Thank You!!!

 

We are thrilled to report that our first ever 

Make Believe Tea Party 

raised a grand total of 

$3,390.00!!

This exceeds our goal of $2,000!

Thank you to all who participated.

These additional funds to our general operation budget 

helps ensure our children's needs are met 

in all the behind-the-scenes, 

regular and routine kinds of ways

that are so important to their general well-being.

It is also such a huge encouragement to our hearts!

You have no idea.

Rev. Ruth Anne Breithaupt, MDiv.

Missionary in Residence/Canadian Representative

Highview Community Church/New Family Foundation

The mission of New Family Foundation is to provide a loving home

 for at-risk and orphaned children in Northern Thailand

 to help them achieve their best potential in education, vocation and service to society.

Make Believe Tea Party Ends This Week

Throughout the month of August we have been having a different sort of fundraiser.

You don't have to get up and go anywhere. You don't have to gather anything. You don't have to sell anything.

You just have to brew yourself a nice cup of tea, and send in a donation to New Family Foundation towards our general operations budget.

Of course many of you, being on our mailing list, would have received a bag of tea in the mail, along with a return envelope and a response card indicating how you'd like to make your donation.

The response has been amazing so far, and I can't wait to post the final results next week! Thank you to everyone who has sent in something. I hope you enjoyed your cup of tea, or are saving it for one of those chilly mornings coming up in the fall.

Today I thought I'd just post a reminder to those of you, like me, who sometimes put something on a mental list but then lose the list. We have until August 31st to participate in the Make Believe Tea Party.

If you would like to participate, even without having a tea bag delivered to you, you can still do so via e-transfer to donations@hcckw.ca (use password Thai Tea). And thank you so much.

Now, all of this has been in honour of Yupa, the Mom of right now 24 children who would otherwise be at-risk or orphaned, with no real opportunities in front of them.

It's fitting that we do this in August for two reasons.

One is that August 12 is Mother's Day in Thailand.

The other is that August 31st bears a particular weight for Yupa. It marks the day her son Bee died in a tragic motorcycle accident at the age of 20. Then, seven years later she would lose her father to leukemia on the very same day.

Tea or no tea, we would all appreciate your prayers of comfort during this week.

Blessings, and thanks again to everyone who has made this first ever effort a success!

Back in Business

Pardon the Absence

After almost three months of online silence following an 'automatic' upgrade somewhere in the cyber universe, I am finally only now able to access our Highview to Thailand blog!!!  (I'll leave my Boomer rant about technology for another day.  Sigh.)

A LOT has happened while we've been away!

This Summer's Visit

From July 23 to August 6,  Abby and I visited Hot Springs for what was a short but definitely sweet time together with the kids.  Traveling with my own granddaughter and introducing her to our Thai family and them to her has been a long time desire of my heart.  So to see how easily and beautifully she adapted and blended into life there was more that spectacular.  I have rarely traveled with someone who did not seem to have any culture shock whatsoever for a first time experience, myself included.  I'll let her tell her own stories in her own way in her own time, but don't be surprised if some of her reflections get published here very soon.

Make Believe Tea Party

In August we've been running our first ever Make Believe Tea Party fundraiser, in honour of Yupa, our leader-mom at Hot Springs, and Mother's Day in Thailand, August 12.  I will have some exciting updates and new about that for you next week, so stay tuned!  Thank you to everyone who has contributed so far!!

November Visit

From October 30 to November 20, plans are in place for another Team to visit.  This will include three of our Sponsors, Norma, Cheryl and Evangeline who will have the opportunity to spend time with the child they have been paired with.  It's all part of our very personal and connected approach to our sponsorship program, and while we understand not every Sponsor can do so, we are delighted when  Sponsors make the trip.  Our focus for the November Team will be on our English learning initiatives, prompted by Cheryl's presence and her life time of experience teaching children to read.

January Visit Possible

And not to start rumours or anything, but there is a whiff of a plan to have another Team spend some of January in a carpentry-focused visit, helping to bring some badly needed upgrades to our children's bedrooms by building replacement wardrobes.  More on all of that later.

On a Personal Note

Personally, the summer has been one of upheaval, both planned and unplanned.  In the midst of a downsizing move between the home we've lived at for the past 36 years in Waterloo and a new, yet to be completed Granny Flat in Kitchener, I had a medical emergency when my appendix ruptured June 27.  The good news is that everything was taken care of beautifully, and I can't say enough about the care I received every step of the way at Grand River Hospital.  Amazing.  The difficult part was that it all happened right when we were clearing out the house, and packing up boxes I was not allowed to lift.  Ken took the brunt, but we are also truly grateful for the help received on so many levels!  At this point I am almost fully recovered, but still finding I need to be careful not to push myself physically.  I honestly didn't know before this how much I need my abdominal muscles for so many ordinary functions of life!!  Not getting out in the kayak has been my most distressing concern...so all things considered, I'm doing very well.

Staying Connected

All of this many of you already know because you're on the mailing list for my regular email updates and/or you follow things with me on Facebook and my own personal blog Bread and Honey  I'll provide the blog link here.  But also, if you would like to be put on the email update mailing list, or even if you want to connect with me through Facebook, please let me know by emailing me at rabreithaupt@hcckw.ca.  

It's great to be back.

I'm looking forward to connecting more regularly again!!!!!!!!

The mission of New Family Foundation is to provide a loving home

 for at-risk and orphaned children in Northern Thailand

 to help them achieve their best potential in education, vocation and service to society.

 

Rev. Ruth Anne Breithaupt, MDiv

Canadian Representative

The Sponsorship Experience

Wara

It's not the same for everyone, this sponsorship thing.

But I'll get to that in a minute.

There are twenty-five right now.

Twenty-five at risk and orphan children who are no longer either of those things, and who no longer need be defined in such a way...

Thim

because of Sponsors.

From the beginning of our connection with Pastors Suradet and Yupa and the then eleven children they so courageously welcomed into their home in and about 2007, the Sponsors have been "our part" of what makes it happen.  

Suradet and Yupa and the staff at New Family Foundation carry the weight and joy of the every day.  They are caring for the needs of eighteen on-site kids, plus six older students studying at university or specialized prep schools.  That's feeding, clothing, nurturing, parent-teachering, and loving, all with the logistics of twenty-five sets of needs.  Yes, that's the much bigger thing.

And the Sponsors come alongside, love and befriend, and support financially and relationally, their one child.  It's a very personalized deal.  All Sponsors send over packets filled with tangible evidence of their care.  Some Sponsors actually are able to go and visit and meet their child in person.  All the children know their Sponsors by name, and pray for us every single day.  

And we get to see them grow and graduate and launch into their adult lives, just like we hoped would happen when they first came to us.

Entorn is working of a Masters of Theology.

Miki has her engineering degree and is now married with a baby girl.

Somechai has his own small engine repair business and is now married with a son.

Two is now a mahoot (elephant trainer) at a rescue camp, married with a baby girl.

Wara is just graduating from Bible school and will be looking for a church to pastor.

Eak is pressing into his last years at a prep school that will bridge him into a university degree in architecture.

Thim is now a teacher in a remote mountain village school, providing the kind of education that was not available to her when she was growing up.

Eak then

None of these children would have had these opportunities without their Sponsors.  And we are so proud of all of them.

That's what we live for!

Sometimes it hurts though.

Love like you won't get hurt, but you do.

Because we are not legal guardians of these children, but rather custodians whose living relatives have entrusted their children into our care.  Rightly so, Thai law gives final say to the legal guardians and parents of all children.  This is especially necessary in a country where many organizations such as ours undertake the mission to help break the cycle of life crushing poverty.  

So parents sometimes call their children back.

Lots of reasons.

Sometimes, and this is great, a parent's life situation changes and they are now able to provide for their own child's well-being and education.  We rejoice, even if we're sad when we say good-bye.

Eak now

One time, during COVID, a grandmother who was the legal guardian, firmly believed the the virus would not reach them up in the mountain, and was terrified to allow her grandson to return to begin the new school year, living so close to Chiang Mai.  

Sometimes, often enough to make it so hard on all of us, parents or family members of girls do not feel it is necessary for them to continue their education past grade 8 or even grade 6.  We don't agree.  But we have no legal recourse.  

In every case, especially when the Sponsor has done the investment emotionally, we grieve.

But it's still worth it.

And I describe this as honestly as I can because right now we have had no less than eight new children join our family.

Four of them have Sponsors already.  Thank you!

Four do not.

And I resist here the temptation to post their pictures and names, even though I'm pretty sure I think I may have done so in the past.  But by now the last thing I want to do is to randomize a Sponsor-Child pairing process that has become so much more prayerful and spiritual as we have grown as an organization over the years.

I let you know here so you can know, and respond if that's where this is leading you.

And if you're interested please contact me at rabreithaupt@hcckw.ca.

I can send along all the information and expectations.

And some pictures :).

Sponsors, past and present.

We are so deeply grateful for all you have given to us from your hearts!!!!