MONTHLY PROJECT REPORT: BURMA ORPHANS (July 2016)

​Giving Thanks

First of all, we give thanks to God, who has enabled us to run our ministry up this point through July. Humanly thinking, it is impossible to accomplish this ministry even in one month. Secondly, we express our sincere gratitude to Miss Nancy and Transparent Fish Fund for the monthly support of the orphans' nutrition. We rejoice for your partnership in prayer and finances. Now our orphans are very happy because of the school supplies, blankets, and other supplies you have provided. Now they also eat very good food because of your loving donation. They are all fine and able to attend school.

​Our Daily Struggle
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It is not easy for our cook to get up early every morning to prepare a breakfast of fried rice and tea for the orphans so that they can get ready for school in time. Normally the sun rises about 6 in the morning, but our cook has to get up before the sun rises. She makes a fire, cooks and fries rice for 11 orphans, and makes tea. When the orphans get up, she serves breakfast. They have breakfast and a short devotion and then get ready for the school day. 

Since we're in the rainy season now and most days are rainy, I drive them to school in my car. The school they attend is No.4 Ah Lah Kah, Kalaymyo, which is a 15-minute drive from the hostel. It is not possible for the orphans to come back for lunch, so my wife, or sometimes the warden, packs food in tiffin boxes and brings the orphans food at about 12 PM. They all have lunch together at school, and after lunch they continue their afternoon classes. Classes are dismissed at 3:30 PM. My wife or I pick them up every afternoon.

​School Registration

Since some of our orphans do not have a proper registration paper with a household member, the school did not want to accept them. We approached the authorities and were able to enroll two orphans as our household members, as if they were our adopted sons. Then the school finally admitted them.

Because of the orphans' background, their mental development has been lacking. They are also full of fear. Their teachers ask me and tell me about their capacity level. I beg them to understand and help them in any way. Somehow they are now improving more slowly than before.

Season of Sickness

In Myanmar the season from June to September is when sickness strikes people the most. The heavy rains cause flooding, landslides, cyclones, and road damage. Mosquitoes are also very dangerous, and the water is polluted. We are very careful, but our orphans keep getting sick again and again. At a given time, there were at least two or three who had fevers, stomach pain, malaria, and dengue. Thank God in June no one was sick, but in July they all got sick. Some even got sick two to three times in the month.

Because of our tight finances, we cannot go to a high level clinic for medication. When the orphans get sick, we just go to the pharmacy and consult the pharmacist. The pharmacist has been trained for a year, and he is knowledgeable about medicine. He gives us good medicine for a low price. We give the medicine to our orphans, and most of the time they recover. For dengue, however, we take them to a good doctor, usually at the Strait Memorial Clinic opened by the Baptists. After 5-7 days of treatment, the dengue is gone. We have been really busy and exhausted in the month of July because of the severe sickness. But we thank the Lord for His care and protection in the midst of it.

​Orphan Spotlight:

Thla HninThla Hnin is an 8-year-old boy from Hman Daw village. He is in third grade, but this child is very distinct from his peers. He cannot read and write at all. We wonder how he passed the earlier grades at his former school. We also suspect he has some mental challenges. We notice that the left part of his right eye has some problems. When he tries to study his books for any length of time, he says, "I cannot see." So we don't give him any pressure to study hard.

The teacher consulted with us and suggested we put him in second grade so he could learn those subjects first. Then next year we could put him in third grade. We agreed to this plan. Another challenge is language because Thla is from the Chin tribe and the teachers at the school are Burmese. When Thla is at the hostel and at school, he never communicates that he needs to relieve himself, he just goes without taking off his pants. He also has frequent nose bleeds. We don't know the cause or how to help him, but we show our love to him and encourage him to not give up and to not be discouraged. We ask the Lord for help every day, and we hope he will be good one day and succeed in his studies.

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