Our 118 children have just completed the three-week October school break. Nearly all of them returned to their villages for the holiday, but eight spent the break at Grace because it was not suitable for them to return to their homes. One precious girl has never known her father and was abandoned by her mother. Two young girls did not return to the slum where they live because their mother, a laborer in another province, could not afford to return home. One of our boys has no family at all and has become a member of our family here at Grace. It was unsafe for two of our little girls to return to their homes. Our staff poured their love into these precious children, and they enjoyed the personal attention, the rest from their studies, and the visits to the local city.
Most of our children live 13-18 hours distance from Grace Ministries here in Buriram, which means they only return to their homes twice a year, in October and at the end of the school year in March-May. It is a happy time for many of them and a challenging and difficult time for others. Our staff, under Yao’s leadership, spend time with each one when they return to help them process their experiences while they have been away.
Our five senior college students have begun their internships, the final stage of their education before they graduate in March 2025. Seven of our seniors are looking forward to going to college on graduating from high school, also in March. This will mean we will have 16 college students for the first time! Thanks to our generous friends, we are planning to provide 20 new education scholarships to children from the poorest of the poor backgrounds next April.
Senior members of our staff have very much enjoyed our conversations on Zoom with many of our sponsors in the US in October. We are looking forward to doing the same with our sponsors in Malaysia in November. All of our precious children have sponsors now, and we send our heartfelt thanks to all of our wonderful sponsors for making this possible. It is a huge help to us as we seek to provide Thai children with a future and a hope.
All of our staff enjoyed our recent retreat in a nearby city, followed by a vacation week with their families. We are all refreshed and prepared for the new school term. Yao and Charles remotely joined our Portland Board in discussing all aspects of our ministry, and also made plans for the immediate and distant future. How blessed and privileged we are to have such excellent and gifted board members as part of our team.
We have had the joy of purchasing a rice harvester recently. Witoon and Thaa are learning how to drive and maintain it. It is empowering us to offer a quality service to the farmers in our area, helping us to become more self-sufficient, which has been a long-term goal of ours. Heartfelt thanks to the family who made its purchase possible.
Our Grace family is safely back together for the second semester of school, and we are so very grateful to God for the children whom we have the privilege of sheltering, loving, and teaching and for the sponsors and supporters throughout the world who are giving hard-earned finances to make it possible. How good is the God we adore!
Yao, Ewe, Charles, and all of us at Grace Ministries
Thank you for keeping us updated on how Our Good Father is blessing you and the Grace Ministries family. Reading about the progress of those little ones becoming young men and women with education really uplifts our hearts and gives us purpose in giving.