Diary : 4 July 2011

Didn't really know how to react.

After we've received news of Kuak's disappearance, I felt terribly let down.
You see, Kuak is not amongst the brightest of children. In fact, he's so poor academically that he can't even read a single thai alphabet. The teachers in the public school gave up hope after some time and decided to just push him up the levels; they thought that if they can't help him, maybe a primary 6 certificate will at least get him though some doors.

He promised so many times to put in effort in his studies, but simply looses interest. It reached a point whereby i have to make a very difficult decision for a young 13 year old boy. To send him back home or to send him back to primary 1 so he can try again.

Sending him back, his life will just end right there. Sending him back to school, it will just do him no good because he can't even read.

So we decided to do something incredibly crazy. We've decided to home school him, till he is able to read and write and send him for vocational training.

You see, home schooling and vocational training is a significant investment into this kid's life. But i felt that since he wanted a shot in life, lets give him the best chance.

But after less then 3 months, he ran away from the home. Put yourself in my shoes. After the runaway case of Kig & Kua. The kids are just trying to follow their footsteps, give up on their future and have their way with their lives.

For me, I've to make every effort to keep them on track and focused about not giving up. My staff struggles every day to help these problem kids, but little is appreciated.

After Kuak ran away, all that went through my mind was how to stop running away from becoming a trend. I thought to myself, once he comes back maybe I'll give him corporal punishments, or maybe i should expel Kuak as a clear sign or maybe i should just send him to a boy's home. I thought of everything to keep things in order at the STREETKIDS home and preserve my staff morale.

But when the call came in this morning about kuak coming back. None of these went through my mind, instead i felt a sense of relieve that he is safe. One part i feel like expelling him, but again, he's a streetkid; he already had nowhere else to go, thats why he is here in the first place. The other part, i feel like giving that boy a another chance, and possibly cause more staff attrition.

But after much consideration, i reminded that the very reason why RADION exist is to let people understand the love of Christ- the stubborn love of Christ for His people. And despite how much we do in our daily lives that hurt God, He still loves us the same.

I guess now i'm starting to understand the long-suffering love, the heart wrenching love of God.

Diary : 3 July 2011

The first part of today was filled with fun, bringing the kids from STK home in Phetchabun for a trip to the waterfalls. The cool-refreshing water was definately a good break away from the mundane work at my desk.

But the good news ends here.

Just 30mins ago, we received a call from the Chiang Mai centre. One kid ran away. Kuak. This morning Kuak was just acting up and refused to participate in any activities, claiming that he was tired. So the staff allowed him to his room to rest. But only to find Kuak climbing up and down the wall for fun.

So the staff called his bluff and got him to help out with some gardening chores. He was not happy and started to spew vulgarities at the other kids. He was duly reprimanded by the staff and soon he just broke down crying.

Without saying a word, he went into his room, packed his belongings and disappeared out of the door.

As of right now, the Chiang Mai staff are still combing the area for that kid. We're concerned that this naive child may fall into the hands of child traffickers.

Child trafficking is on the rise and the kids are usually kidnapped for their organs. Lets just keep this kid in prayers.

Diary : 2 July 2011 (Mass Food Distribution)

Apologies for the long lapse, I've been down with a bad cold coupled with the worst cough. Wasn't able to sleep very much for the past 3 nights and have just started to slowly recover.

Much of yesterday was spend resting and recuperating and today i managed to pull myself out of bed to attend to the mass food distribution. I'm surprised by the turn out; combining children and adults we're probably looking at 120pax, the biggest turn out to date.

The sermon i preached was about God's authority over spirits. As some of you may already know, the villagers are terrified by this news that a truckload of evil spirits were coming to the village. Villagers quickly went to the witch doctors to quickly get a talisman which is made of bamboo before sticking it on the front door. According to them, this is the way to ward off evil spirits.

So i decided to preach about God's authority and how when we have Christ in our lives, we need not be afraid of the evil spirits.

Though the sermon was one of the shortest i've preached, but this round saw the biggest response for salvation call. More than 20 people came forward to receive Christ in their lives.

What a joy !