(dramatic music) 00:00:01.06\00:00:03.87 - Hello, and welcome to "Jesus for Asia Now". 00:00:22.08\00:00:24.52 I'm Natalie Wood and today I have Joshua Bauder with me 00:00:24.52\00:00:27.62 and he's here to share with us some of the stories 00:00:27.62\00:00:29.86 of what God's doing in the lives of children 00:00:29.86\00:00:32.36 there in Thailand that come from difficult circumstances. 00:00:32.36\00:00:36.03 Welcome to the show, Joshua. 00:00:36.03\00:00:37.50 - It's awesome to be here, thank you, Natalie. 00:00:37.50\00:00:39.10 - So glad we can have this opportunity. 00:00:39.10\00:00:40.84 - Me too. - To share 00:00:40.84\00:00:41.97 some of the stories. 00:00:41.97\00:00:43.84 Now, we've had you on our show before 00:00:43.84\00:00:45.81 so people might remember some of the stories 00:00:45.81\00:00:47.78 of what you're doing. 00:00:47.78\00:00:49.04 But can you share with us briefly 00:00:49.04\00:00:51.78 a little bit of your conversion story? 00:00:51.78\00:00:53.48 Because I know it's an amazing testimony of what God can do. 00:00:53.48\00:00:57.59 - Well, I was a drug dealer in Spokane, Washington 00:00:57.59\00:01:00.19 for about 10 years and then I started reading my Bible 00:01:00.19\00:01:03.59 and got convicted of the things 00:01:03.59\00:01:06.83 that I was doing wrong or wasn't doing. 00:01:06.83\00:01:09.16 And after that I started going to church 00:01:10.17\00:01:13.50 and I became a Bible worker in Hayden, Idaho. 00:01:13.50\00:01:17.91 And I felt the conviction to go to overseas missions 00:01:17.91\00:01:20.91 and God just took off from there. 00:01:20.91\00:01:23.04 - Wow, so then you ended up in Thailand. 00:01:23.04\00:01:25.78 And you were single at the time though. 00:01:26.92\00:01:29.85 - I was. 00:01:29.85\00:01:31.25 - So what happened, 'cause now I know you're married. 00:01:31.25\00:01:34.29 How did God bring that about? 00:01:34.29\00:01:35.92 - Well, I got married. 00:01:35.92\00:01:37.23 - Okay. (Joshua laughing) 00:01:37.23\00:01:39.46 No, um, so, I met my wife and here's a picture of her, 00:01:39.46\00:01:43.80 this is the first time she ever ate a burrito 00:01:43.80\00:01:46.40 and I met her and I made a deal with God before, 00:01:46.40\00:01:51.37 I'd been celibate, stayed away from all women 00:01:54.41\00:01:58.08 for about five years and I made a deal with God 00:01:58.08\00:02:00.65 that the next woman that I meet, the next woman, 00:02:00.65\00:02:03.15 not the next woman I meet, but the next woman I date 00:02:03.15\00:02:05.82 will be the woman that I marry. 00:02:05.82\00:02:08.06 So, keep all these women out of my life 00:02:08.06\00:02:10.53 that you don't want me to be with 00:02:10.53\00:02:11.83 and He brought my beautiful wife into the picture 00:02:11.83\00:02:14.73 and after seeing each other for little bit, 00:02:14.73\00:02:17.13 we decided to fast and pray and see 00:02:17.13\00:02:19.43 if that was what God really wanted for us. 00:02:19.43\00:02:21.97 And so we fasted from each other and we fasted, 00:02:21.97\00:02:25.47 we did a Daniel fast for two weeks 00:02:25.47\00:02:28.18 where we fasted and prayed, 00:02:28.18\00:02:30.35 and it was the two hardest weeks of my life, 00:02:30.35\00:02:32.78 and so we said that we would show up at a certain spot 00:02:32.78\00:02:37.85 at 10 o'clock on this day and we only had a 10 minute window 00:02:39.25\00:02:42.59 so if we weren't there in that 10 minute window, 00:02:42.59\00:02:45.29 then it was very obvious that God didn't want us together 00:02:45.29\00:02:47.83 and we were both there and the rest is history. 00:02:47.83\00:02:51.43 - Wow, wow, so when you got together, 00:02:51.43\00:02:55.47 then you started working in the slum 00:02:55.47\00:02:57.61 and we've seen a little bit of that on the show before. 00:02:57.61\00:03:01.64 So, can you share with us a little bit 00:03:01.64\00:03:03.78 of how God worked you into this mystery? 00:03:03.78\00:03:06.31 - So we were struggling to find a church 00:03:07.98\00:03:09.78 where we felt like we fit in. 00:03:09.78\00:03:11.49 And we had been hearing about the slum church 00:03:11.49\00:03:14.02 for quite a few months and we really wanted to go, 00:03:14.02\00:03:17.83 but we couldn't find time to get there. 00:03:17.83\00:03:19.39 And when we finally got there, 00:03:19.39\00:03:21.76 we realized that this is where God wanted us to be. 00:03:21.76\00:03:23.93 It was very focused on outreach 00:03:23.93\00:03:25.93 and there was a ton of kids there 00:03:25.93\00:03:27.80 and we just, we just fit in. 00:03:27.80\00:03:29.54 - [Natalie] And this picture that we have? 00:03:29.54\00:03:32.57 - Yeah, this was when we started our after school, 00:03:32.57\00:03:36.18 you know, weekend program. 00:03:36.18\00:03:38.05 This is where we teach English and we teach ukulele 00:03:38.05\00:03:41.18 and we help them with their homework 00:03:41.18\00:03:43.12 and we have a little snack in between, 00:03:43.12\00:03:45.62 we're eating some guava, anona, and rambutan. 00:03:45.62\00:03:49.89 - So you mentioned teaching English 00:03:49.89\00:03:51.36 and teaching them to play ukulele, 00:03:51.36\00:03:53.63 how did the children respond to this kind of interaction 00:03:53.63\00:03:57.77 and this kind of ministry that you were into? 00:03:57.77\00:04:01.00 - They loved it. 00:04:01.00\00:04:02.14 Kids wanna go somewhere where they can have fun 00:04:02.14\00:04:05.11 and they can learn new things 00:04:05.11\00:04:06.51 and there's really no opportunity to do that 00:04:06.51\00:04:08.81 in the slum and so when we started offering 00:04:08.81\00:04:12.61 stuff for them to do, the kids were always there. 00:04:12.61\00:04:15.85 - So did you see any changes in attitudes 00:04:15.85\00:04:18.45 or ways of interacting in the young people 00:04:18.45\00:04:20.79 that you were working with? 00:04:20.79\00:04:21.89 - We saw a lot of changes in the kids. 00:04:21.89\00:04:24.26 We noticed big changes in the way that they think, 00:04:24.26\00:04:27.56 in the way that they act, in the fighting that was going on. 00:04:27.56\00:04:30.87 When we first got there, they were fighting all the time. 00:04:30.87\00:04:33.44 They wouldn't listen to anyone 00:04:33.44\00:04:35.27 and little by little, and I mean little by little, 00:04:35.27\00:04:38.84 they would listen more and more 00:04:38.84\00:04:40.48 and they got to the point where they really started 00:04:40.48\00:04:42.64 to respect us and we had a program set up 00:04:42.64\00:04:46.48 where they would get rewards and things like that 00:04:46.48\00:04:48.82 that they really loved so they started to listen 00:04:48.82\00:04:51.05 and they started to change and memorizing verses 00:04:51.05\00:04:53.89 and singing songs really helped. 00:04:53.89\00:04:55.82 - Wow, I know that's really neat to hear the changes 00:04:55.82\00:04:59.66 were coming because these kids come 00:04:59.66\00:05:02.20 from really difficult circumstances. 00:05:02.20\00:05:04.30 So I know that this picture, this next picture, 00:05:04.30\00:05:06.57 shows around their houses. 00:05:06.57\00:05:08.10 Kind of a physical environment 00:05:08.10\00:05:10.41 and there's a lot of trash in the water, 00:05:10.41\00:05:12.27 there's a lot of water, and a lot of trash in the water. 00:05:12.27\00:05:15.71 - Yeah it's really dirty there. 00:05:15.71\00:05:17.31 It's really, really dirty there. 00:05:17.31\00:05:19.01 There's dog poop on the walkways everywhere 00:05:19.01\00:05:21.58 from all the wild dogs. 00:05:21.58\00:05:23.52 I mean, you can see the pollution of the water 00:05:23.52\00:05:27.99 and this water they swam in, they catch fish in, 00:05:27.99\00:05:30.83 they eat out of this. 00:05:30.83\00:05:32.59 These kids were just surrounded by dirtiness. 00:05:32.59\00:05:37.10 - Right, and it wasn't just physically dirty. 00:05:37.10\00:05:40.10 There's drugs in the slum, there's other illegal 00:05:40.10\00:05:45.17 activities. - Everything that you can think of. 00:05:46.31\00:05:48.11 Thailand is a place where anything is available 00:05:48.11\00:05:50.38 to you and the problems that are in the slum 00:05:50.38\00:05:53.28 are horrible anywhere you are in the world. 00:05:53.28\00:05:56.82 Just seeing the depravity they go through every day, 00:05:56.82\00:06:00.76 it's just really hard to see. 00:06:00.76\00:06:02.52 - Yeah, so the physical abuse, maybe? 00:06:02.52\00:06:05.29 - Physical, mental, sexual, everything you can think 00:06:05.29\00:06:08.96 of happens there. 00:06:08.96\00:06:10.80 - Wow so these kids have history and background. 00:06:10.80\00:06:14.94 - Yeah they all have sad stories, they all have sob 00:06:14.94\00:06:18.21 stories, and you think you have a sad story yourself 00:06:18.21\00:06:22.38 until you go there and meet these kids 00:06:22.38\00:06:25.35 who don't even know that they have a sad story. 00:06:25.35\00:06:28.82 - Because it's normal. 00:06:28.82\00:06:30.49 - Because it's normal for them, yeah. 00:06:30.49\00:06:31.92 - [Natalie] Wow, so then this next picture. 00:06:31.92\00:06:34.56 - Yes, so these were our first two kids. 00:06:34.56\00:06:36.52 Nut is the boy and he was 13. 00:06:36.52\00:06:39.96 The girl is Preaw and she was 16 at the time. 00:06:39.96\00:06:42.96 We were super proud of them. 00:06:42.96\00:06:44.07 We were super happy to send them up there 00:06:44.07\00:06:45.20 and they were our first two students 00:06:45.20\00:06:46.60 and we thought everything was just gonna turn around 00:06:46.60\00:06:49.50 for them and changing the environment 00:06:49.50\00:06:51.54 was just gonna be the best thing that ever happened to them. 00:06:51.54\00:06:54.24 - Changing the environment. 00:06:54.24\00:06:56.64 - Yeah, we didn't realize the problems that they had 00:06:56.64\00:06:59.45 because some of the problems were too deep 00:06:59.45\00:07:02.68 and too hard to talk about so we didn't understand 00:07:02.68\00:07:05.75 everything that they were running away from 00:07:05.75\00:07:08.42 or everything that we were getting into 00:07:08.42\00:07:10.33 when we sent them up there 00:07:10.33\00:07:11.86 and about six months into their schooling, 00:07:11.86\00:07:14.46 living in the dorms and everything, 00:07:14.46\00:07:16.93 Preaw was just having too many problems 00:07:16.93\00:07:19.70 with the problems that she had before, 00:07:19.70\00:07:21.77 caused her pain inside of her, caused her physical pain, 00:07:21.77\00:07:26.84 and she decided that she would be better off dead. 00:07:28.21\00:07:30.55 - So she tried to commit suicide? 00:07:32.45\00:07:34.15 - Yeah. 00:07:34.15\00:07:34.95 - And you got a phone call. 00:07:34.95\00:07:36.79 - We were at church on Sabbath and we got a phone call 00:07:36.79\00:07:40.02 saying that we needed to go up there 00:07:40.02\00:07:42.39 and so we got on the bus and we got up there 00:07:42.39\00:07:45.73 as quick as we could and this is how we found her. 00:07:45.73\00:07:48.96 With IVs and everything in her 00:07:48.96\00:07:52.33 and so many questions of what happened 00:07:52.33\00:07:55.44 and what was going on and why. 00:07:55.44\00:07:57.17 Why was the biggest one. 00:07:57.17\00:07:59.37 And the pain that she had just been going through 00:07:59.37\00:08:02.51 from leaving everything and not dealing with the problems 00:08:02.51\00:08:06.88 and all those things just kind of eating at her. 00:08:06.88\00:08:09.98 She just decided it would be better if she wasn't alive 00:08:09.98\00:08:12.29 and so she tried to kill herself 00:08:12.29\00:08:14.66 and we looked for a plan trying to find a plan somewhere 00:08:14.66\00:08:18.73 but we couldn't find one. 00:08:18.73\00:08:20.40 So we started praying. 00:08:20.40\00:08:22.40 My wife and I, we prayed for three or four days 00:08:22.40\00:08:25.37 while she was in the hospital. 00:08:25.37\00:08:26.74 We didn't have a lot of time to dedicate this in prayer 00:08:26.74\00:08:29.54 and we prayed as much as we could and we said, 00:08:29.54\00:08:32.21 "God, what should we do?", 00:08:32.21\00:08:34.11 and God kept putting the parable 00:08:34.11\00:08:35.71 of the lost sheep on my mind. 00:08:35.71\00:08:37.81 And because we had our ministry in the slum going, 00:08:37.81\00:08:40.48 you know, the 99, and I guess she would be the 100, 00:08:40.48\00:08:44.79 that we sent to Chiang Mai and we just felt 00:08:44.79\00:08:49.56 like God was calling us to leave the 99 00:08:49.56\00:08:52.23 and come and take care of the one sheep. 00:08:52.23\00:08:54.36 - Wow, I bet that was a hard decision. 00:08:55.43\00:08:56.90 - It was very hard, it's very hard to leave a ministry 00:08:56.90\00:09:01.17 that you love and even when God is calling you away from it 00:09:01.17\00:09:06.24 and you know you're doing the right thing 00:09:07.34\00:09:08.74 and you know you're going where God wants you to be, 00:09:08.74\00:09:10.51 it still makes it very hard to leave something like that. 00:09:10.51\00:09:14.62 - To leave the known and to leave not knowing 00:09:14.62\00:09:17.82 if someone would take up the work you were leaving? 00:09:17.82\00:09:20.86 - Exactly and especially when we see the, you know, 00:09:20.86\00:09:23.93 we see the pain that the kids are going through every day 00:09:23.93\00:09:26.29 and the one outlet that they have, 00:09:26.29\00:09:28.76 it's very hard just to leave that. 00:09:28.76\00:09:30.73 - Yeah, so you were moving from Bangkok, 00:09:30.73\00:09:34.50 which is a big city, 00:09:34.50\00:09:37.01 to Chiang Mai which is out in the country. 00:09:37.01\00:09:38.94 Chiang Mai Academy, anyway, is out in the country. 00:09:38.94\00:09:41.78 And so this brought up some questions besides 00:09:41.78\00:09:44.48 just physically should we move or should we not. 00:09:44.48\00:09:48.22 There were transportation issues, I mean in Bangkok, 00:09:48.22\00:09:51.32 how were you getting around? 00:09:51.32\00:09:52.92 - We were riding around on a motorcycle 00:09:52.92\00:09:55.22 and we just had a motorcycle accident 00:09:55.22\00:09:57.19 that put the fear of God into my wife, 00:09:57.19\00:09:58.93 where she didn't want to get on the back of a motorcycle 00:09:58.93\00:10:01.16 again and now we had three people instead of two people 00:10:01.16\00:10:05.90 and you can't really take three people as big as we are 00:10:05.90\00:10:08.97 on a motorcycle and so we started praying 00:10:08.97\00:10:12.21 and John happened to be there and he said, 00:10:12.21\00:10:14.81 "You guys can't ride a motorcycle, 00:10:14.81\00:10:16.38 "you need to get a car." 00:10:16.38\00:10:19.35 and me looking at all these other projects going on, 00:10:19.35\00:10:24.25 the bible workers in India and all these people 00:10:24.25\00:10:26.69 doing these great things, 00:10:26.69\00:10:28.39 it was hard for me to imagine that God would 00:10:28.39\00:10:30.73 want us to have a car. 00:10:30.73\00:10:32.83 The way that God worked it out was so amazing 00:10:32.83\00:10:35.20 because the day that we got her 00:10:35.20\00:10:37.77 and moved up there was the day 00:10:37.77\00:10:39.80 that we were able to get a car. 00:10:39.80\00:10:41.40 It was really amazing and the way that God worked it out 00:10:42.84\00:10:45.74 we knew that God wanted us to have a car 00:10:45.74\00:10:48.81 and He wanted us to have a daughter as well. 00:10:48.81\00:10:51.21 - And then the question was, also, 00:10:52.35\00:10:53.98 where are you going to live? 00:10:53.98\00:10:55.25 - Yeah and we had no idea. 00:10:55.25\00:10:58.05 I called John actually, and said, 00:11:00.29\00:11:01.66 "John, we don't have a place to live, 00:11:01.66\00:11:02.82 "do you know anybody up there?" 00:11:02.82\00:11:04.13 'cause we didn't know anyone up there 00:11:04.13\00:11:06.63 and the Love4Asia office is right up by the school 00:11:06.63\00:11:09.86 and so I called John and asked him 00:11:09.86\00:11:11.37 if he knew anyone up there 00:11:11.37\00:11:13.03 and he said, "Oh, well we have this house" 00:11:13.03\00:11:17.67 and we went and we stayed in it thinking 00:11:17.67\00:11:21.51 we were just gonna stay there for a week or two 00:11:21.51\00:11:23.98 and now it's our home base. 00:11:23.98\00:11:26.95 - Wow, yeah, because this lady approached John 00:11:26.95\00:11:30.49 and said, "I wanna do this for God" 00:11:30.49\00:11:32.69 and so she offered it to us at a huge discount 00:11:32.69\00:11:35.39 from the sale price she was asking before 00:11:35.39\00:11:38.23 and then John said, 00:11:38.23\00:11:39.83 "I had to, I felt like I had to honor her faith" 00:11:39.83\00:11:43.90 and then you needed it right after that. 00:11:43.90\00:11:46.87 - And it's just amazing how God has a plan 00:11:46.87\00:11:49.90 that we don't know about 00:11:49.90\00:11:51.41 and as much as we think that we know, we don't know. 00:11:51.41\00:11:56.14 John did something that he had no idea what he was doing. 00:11:56.14\00:11:59.71 We did something and we had no idea what we were doing 00:11:59.71\00:12:02.62 and God just brang them both together 00:12:02.62\00:12:04.32 and He put is in that house and now we have a house 00:12:04.32\00:12:07.46 that's just barely big enough for everybody 00:12:07.46\00:12:10.86 that we have in it (laughs). 00:12:10.86\00:12:12.66 - So you were trying to show her you loved her 00:12:12.66\00:12:14.83 and trying to have a stable home life. 00:12:14.83\00:12:17.43 Is there a story that goes with this picture? 00:12:17.43\00:12:20.10 - Yeah, well this is just a regular everyday picture, 00:12:20.10\00:12:23.34 but this is the kinda stuff that we were doing with her. 00:12:23.34\00:12:25.91 Just helping her with her homework, 00:12:25.91\00:12:28.01 teaching her how to make stuff. 00:12:28.01\00:12:29.64 Right here we're making a cake. 00:12:29.64\00:12:31.41 I think it's for my wife's birthday 00:12:31.41\00:12:32.78 but it might have just been for us to eat 00:12:32.78\00:12:35.45 because I really like cake 00:12:35.45\00:12:36.79 and so we just do stuff with her, and just hang out with her 00:12:36.79\00:12:41.49 and just show her how much we love her. 00:12:41.49\00:12:43.53 We tried to give her confidence. 00:12:43.53\00:12:47.13 I got all the verses I could think of 00:12:47.13\00:12:48.93 in the bible that talk about having confidence in God 00:12:48.93\00:12:51.97 and that God will take care of you, 00:12:51.97\00:12:53.77 He'll mount you up on eagles' wings 00:12:53.77\00:12:55.30 and give her that confidence that she could be good 00:12:55.30\00:12:57.77 at whatever she did. 00:12:57.77\00:13:00.18 There was a call porter program for the kids 00:13:00.18\00:13:03.04 that we'd go on during their break 00:13:03.04\00:13:04.95 and Preaw wanted to do it but she wasn't sure 00:13:04.95\00:13:06.92 that she would be good at it 00:13:06.92\00:13:08.52 and I said, "You're gonna be number one. 00:13:08.52\00:13:10.29 "You're gonna sell the most books out of anybody". 00:13:10.29\00:13:13.56 We gave her a plan and we taught her how to pray. 00:13:13.56\00:13:15.82 We taught her how to pray to sell the books 00:13:15.82\00:13:19.46 and just how to have confidence 00:13:19.46\00:13:21.56 when you're going to sell them 00:13:21.56\00:13:23.03 and not confidence in yourself 00:13:23.03\00:13:24.40 but confidence that God is gonna take care of you. 00:13:24.40\00:13:26.74 - To help you. 00:13:26.74\00:13:27.77 - Yeah, He's gonna bring you to the people 00:13:27.77\00:13:29.84 that He wants to have these books. 00:13:29.84\00:13:34.54 She didn't really believe it. 00:13:34.54\00:13:36.38 I don't think she believed it, she said okay, 00:13:36.38\00:13:38.98 but I don't really think she believed it 00:13:38.98\00:13:40.52 until she went and sold the books and she was better 00:13:40.52\00:13:44.55 than everybody and she sold about double the books 00:13:44.55\00:13:48.32 as the next person sold. 00:13:48.32\00:13:51.36 So this picture here is her getting an award 00:13:51.36\00:13:53.70 for being the number one book seller 00:13:53.70\00:13:56.43 and after that her confidence just took off. 00:13:56.43\00:13:59.73 After she realized that she was good at something, 00:13:59.73\00:14:02.37 because in the slum, nobody tells you 00:14:02.37\00:14:04.37 that you'll be good at anything. 00:14:04.37\00:14:05.97 They tell you all the bad things about you 00:14:05.97\00:14:07.88 and they try to plan your future in the worst way 00:14:07.88\00:14:11.11 and so when she got confidence in that it just took off. 00:14:11.11\00:14:15.42 She saw God's love, she could feel God's love. 00:14:15.42\00:14:18.32 She could feel that we loved her 00:14:18.32\00:14:20.29 and that just made her so much stronger 00:14:20.29\00:14:21.96 to do all these other things and you know, 00:14:21.96\00:14:24.19 when you feel the love of God for the first time 00:14:24.19\00:14:26.56 you wanna share it with everyone 00:14:26.56\00:14:28.50 and that's what she started doing. 00:14:28.50\00:14:29.83 This picture right here she's getting the kids 00:14:29.83\00:14:32.23 from our neighborhood and she's reading "My Bible Friends" 00:14:32.23\00:14:34.94 to them and explaining the bible 00:14:34.94\00:14:36.30 and she, everyday after school, 00:14:36.30\00:14:38.67 she'll get all the kids to come 00:14:38.67\00:14:41.11 and she'll set it up like she's the teacher 00:14:41.11\00:14:43.41 with rewards and with tests and everything like that, 00:14:43.41\00:14:48.18 and she teaches the kids ukulele songs 00:14:48.18\00:14:51.09 and bible verses and bible stories. 00:14:51.09\00:14:54.76 Her confidence is just getting higher and higher 00:14:54.76\00:14:57.36 and she's realizing that she's good at a lot of things 00:14:57.36\00:15:00.43 and all she has to do is have confidence in God 00:15:00.43\00:15:03.43 that she can do it and she'll be able to do anything. 00:15:03.43\00:15:06.60 - Wow, well praise the Lord that that's not just affecting 00:15:06.60\00:15:10.11 her it's affecting her willingness 00:15:10.11\00:15:12.01 to share with others as well. 00:15:12.01\00:15:13.81 So Preaw is not your only child. 00:15:13.81\00:15:16.11 You sent Nut also to Chiang Mai Adventist Academy 00:15:16.11\00:15:21.02 at the beginning so we wanna go back to his story 00:15:21.02\00:15:24.42 a little bit here at this point. 00:15:24.42\00:15:25.95 These are pictures of him. 00:15:25.95\00:15:27.39 - Well, when we sent Nut, you see in the first picture, 00:15:28.72\00:15:31.99 he's a little boy in there 00:15:31.99\00:15:33.76 and now he's starting to look like a grown man. 00:15:33.76\00:15:35.90 He's about as tall as I am now. 00:15:35.90\00:15:38.37 The first year that they were up there he started getting 00:15:38.37\00:15:41.20 involved with the wrong crowd 00:15:41.20\00:15:43.17 and in the dorm, just like any dorm, 00:15:43.17\00:15:46.11 when you get 18 year old boys together 00:15:46.11\00:15:50.11 there's gonna be drugs and alcohol and things like that 00:15:50.11\00:15:52.88 and he was hanging out with those kids 00:15:52.88\00:15:54.88 and all of them got kicked out but him. 00:15:54.88\00:15:57.55 I just thought he was really good at hiding it, you know. 00:15:57.55\00:16:00.89 He started to come live with us at the beginning 00:16:02.02\00:16:04.83 of this school year and it's been awesome having him there. 00:16:04.83\00:16:08.96 He is so responsible, he is one of the smartest kids, 00:16:08.96\00:16:13.60 he is the smartest kid that we have actually. 00:16:13.60\00:16:16.67 He really loves being there and we love having him there. 00:16:16.67\00:16:19.61 - Wow, praise the Lord. 00:16:19.61\00:16:20.41 - Yeah it's really been awesome. 00:16:20.41\00:16:21.08 - That's really great. 00:16:21.08\00:16:22.94 Okay, so you have more children. 00:16:22.94\00:16:24.58 The next one is Ice, is her name. 00:16:24.58\00:16:28.18 - Yeah, so Ice is my wife's niece, 00:16:28.18\00:16:30.95 and she decided about three years ago 00:16:30.95\00:16:33.32 that she wanted to be a Christian 00:16:33.32\00:16:35.32 and it's really hard where they live to be a Christian. 00:16:35.32\00:16:38.63 Especially working on a farm and everything. 00:16:38.63\00:16:41.53 It's hard to find time to really set aside to be-- 00:16:41.53\00:16:46.60 - To have a devotional life that's needed? 00:16:47.70\00:16:49.87 - Yeah and to go to church, 00:16:49.87\00:16:51.34 because there's so much work 00:16:51.34\00:16:52.94 that needs to be done on a farm. 00:16:52.94\00:16:55.34 So up there she couldn't get that break and her parents, 00:16:55.34\00:16:59.21 they kinda flirted with Christianity and still are, 00:16:59.21\00:17:02.45 but really haven't made a decision 00:17:02.45\00:17:03.99 so it's been really hard for her 00:17:03.99\00:17:06.05 when she already made the decision 00:17:06.05\00:17:08.22 and so she decided to come to live with us 00:17:08.22\00:17:10.69 and she wants to learn how to be a Christian 00:17:10.69\00:17:12.99 and she wants to learn English before she goes to University 00:17:12.99\00:17:16.03 because she's already graduated high school 00:17:16.03\00:17:18.17 so she's taking a year off to really learn 00:17:18.17\00:17:20.24 how to be a Christian. 00:17:20.24\00:17:22.27 We've been doing bible studies, 00:17:22.27\00:17:24.37 she's been homeschooling with us, 00:17:24.37\00:17:26.41 her and Preaw both have been home schooling with us. 00:17:26.41\00:17:28.94 In bible class we're going through baptismal studies 00:17:28.94\00:17:32.18 and so hopefully not soon after I get back to Thailand 00:17:32.18\00:17:37.25 they'll both be getting baptized. 00:17:38.35\00:17:39.69 - Wow, praise the Lord. 00:17:39.69\00:17:40.99 So Ice didn't come from the slum in Bangkok? 00:17:40.99\00:17:43.66 - No. 00:17:43.66\00:17:44.89 - She came from a different area of Thailand. 00:17:44.89\00:17:46.93 - When Preaw actually tried to kill herself, 00:17:46.93\00:17:49.86 everyone from the slum heard about it 00:17:50.97\00:17:53.50 and we had five kids who were going to come this year 00:17:53.50\00:17:57.07 but their parents all said no. 00:17:57.07\00:18:00.38 They said, "If she tried to kill herself up there, 00:18:00.38\00:18:03.41 "I don't want to send my kids to come 00:18:03.41\00:18:05.98 "because then they'll wanna kill themselves" 00:18:05.98\00:18:08.35 and all the doors that we had worked so hard to get open, 00:18:08.35\00:18:13.19 they just got shut right in our face. 00:18:15.49\00:18:17.93 We're hoping when they go back 00:18:17.93\00:18:20.13 and when people see the change that those doors will reopen 00:18:20.13\00:18:23.63 but since they weren't open we had to reach out 00:18:23.63\00:18:26.37 to other areas and we have two kids from Khon Kaen, 00:18:26.37\00:18:31.01 two kids from Sa Kaeo, and two kids from Bangkok now. 00:18:31.01\00:18:36.01 And so Ice is from Khon Kaen, 00:18:36.01\00:18:39.31 and then Daonin and Sam, they're from Sa Kaeo. 00:18:39.31\00:18:43.65 They're brother and sister, 13 and 14 years old. 00:18:43.65\00:18:47.29 They're really awesome kids 00:18:48.09\00:18:50.56 and before they came up to live with us, 00:18:50.56\00:18:53.83 Daonin was praying that God would take 00:18:53.83\00:18:57.13 her out of the Buddhist school, 00:18:57.13\00:18:58.17 because all Thai schools are Buddhist. 00:18:58.17\00:19:00.30 He would take her out of the Buddhist school 00:19:00.30\00:19:01.40 and He would put her in a Christian school 00:19:01.40\00:19:02.80 and she'd been praying for about six months 00:19:02.80\00:19:05.04 and when we showed up at their door 00:19:05.04\00:19:06.71 and she knew that we were gonna send her. 00:19:06.71\00:19:10.65 We just showed up to interview her and talk to her 00:19:10.65\00:19:12.98 and she knew that she was gonna go 00:19:12.98\00:19:14.92 because she'd been praying for so long 00:19:14.92\00:19:17.09 and the mom said, "But if you send her, 00:19:17.09\00:19:18.92 "could you really send her brother too?" 00:19:18.92\00:19:21.46 and at the time all he did was sit around 00:19:21.46\00:19:25.03 and play video games. 00:19:25.03\00:19:26.43 He would sit on his phone from three o'clock 00:19:26.43\00:19:28.50 after he got outta school 00:19:28.50\00:19:30.50 until three o'clock in the morning. 00:19:30.50\00:19:32.40 He didn't do his homework, didn't do anything, didn't care. 00:19:32.40\00:19:35.37 He was a trouble maker and when he showed up 00:19:35.37\00:19:39.27 at our house I couldn't see all the stuff 00:19:39.27\00:19:42.68 that they were saying around him, 00:19:42.68\00:19:44.08 all the people around the area were saying he was a bad kid, 00:19:44.08\00:19:47.45 he was lazy, and all these other things 00:19:47.45\00:19:49.18 and he shows up at our house and he's just an awesome kid. 00:19:49.18\00:19:52.52 He's one of the most creative kids. 00:19:52.52\00:19:54.52 He's helpful, he's just a really fun kid to be around 00:19:54.52\00:19:58.79 and I really enjoy these two. 00:19:59.86\00:20:01.36 They're loud, they're rambunctious, 00:20:01.36\00:20:05.07 they're annoying at times but it's really awesome 00:20:05.07\00:20:08.60 and I'm really glad that they're in our house. 00:20:08.60\00:20:10.77 - Wow, well praise the Lord. 00:20:10.77\00:20:12.67 So you have one more girl at this point. 00:20:12.67\00:20:14.61 - I call her Beat, or Beatsa Beatsa, 00:20:14.61\00:20:17.01 I have all kids of nicknames for her. 00:20:17.01\00:20:19.48 She's from Khon Kaen as well as Ice. 00:20:19.48\00:20:22.55 She had a much harder life than Ice though. 00:20:22.55\00:20:25.45 She comes from kind of a bad area in Khon Kaen 00:20:25.45\00:20:28.42 and her mom is a construction worker 00:20:28.42\00:20:30.63 which is the lowest rung of society in Thailand. 00:20:30.63\00:20:34.83 She is married to a man, and this man is a very bad man, 00:20:34.83\00:20:39.80 in my opinion, and he as soon as Boot started to develop 00:20:41.24\00:20:45.04 and become a woman he started inviting her out, 00:20:45.04\00:20:50.01 making her come out, not inviting her. 00:20:51.21\00:20:52.71 Making her come out to drink with her and his friends 00:20:52.71\00:20:55.58 because one of his friends had a thing for her 00:20:55.58\00:20:58.79 and, you know, these are 30 year old men, 00:20:58.79\00:21:00.56 30, 40 year old men, 00:21:00.56\00:21:02.46 and he's bringing his 13 year old daughter out 00:21:02.46\00:21:05.03 to come and sit with them while they drink 00:21:05.03\00:21:06.93 and this guy would show up at her window at night 00:21:06.93\00:21:11.40 and things like that and when her dad would get drunk 00:21:11.40\00:21:14.57 he would try to drag her into his room. 00:21:14.57\00:21:17.64 It was just really sad to hear these things 00:21:17.64\00:21:20.54 and we didn't even know these things 00:21:20.54\00:21:22.21 until we got close to her 00:21:22.21\00:21:26.92 and she was opening up more and more. 00:21:26.92\00:21:29.52 Her mom tried to kill herself in front of her 00:21:29.52\00:21:31.95 when she was about 10 years old so there's 00:21:31.95\00:21:35.42 a lot of hurt and there's a lot of pain 00:21:35.42\00:21:37.29 but Boot is so happy and being here with us she's so happy. 00:21:37.29\00:21:42.33 - [Natalie] So this is a picture? 00:21:43.53\00:21:45.00 - Yes, so this is a picture of all six of our kids 00:21:45.00\00:21:47.84 and only one of them really, 00:21:49.14\00:21:51.07 two of them capture the personalities, 00:21:51.07\00:21:53.04 the other ones are just pictures. 00:21:53.04\00:21:55.64 Daonin and Sam, that's really their personalities 00:21:55.64\00:21:59.21 and it's makes me sad to see it 00:22:00.42\00:22:01.48 because I really miss them right now. 00:22:01.48\00:22:03.59 - Yeah, makes you homesick. 00:22:03.59\00:22:05.19 - Yeah, definitely, and these are all our girls together. 00:22:05.19\00:22:09.19 You can't get a picture of the boys together really 00:22:09.19\00:22:11.36 because they don't wanna take pictures 00:22:11.36\00:22:13.19 but all the girls love to take pictures 00:22:13.19\00:22:16.50 so this is all four of them there. 00:22:16.50\00:22:18.67 Ice is 18, Preaw is 17, Boot is 15, and Daonin is 14. 00:22:18.67\00:22:23.74 And they're just like a group of loud, loud sisters. 00:22:25.77\00:22:30.05 - So the volunteer, is she one of your relatives, 00:22:31.61\00:22:34.55 is she somebody from Thailand? 00:22:34.55\00:22:36.18 - We got a volunteer from America 00:22:36.18\00:22:38.02 and her name is Raquel Reyna 00:22:38.02\00:22:40.52 and she has really taken on that grandma role. 00:22:40.52\00:22:44.73 It's really nice to have, but she's only gonna be with us 00:22:44.73\00:22:48.13 for another five to six months, 00:22:48.13\00:22:50.53 and we're really looking for a grandmother 00:22:50.53\00:22:54.70 who wants to do some mission work in a low risk environment. 00:22:54.70\00:22:59.67 Low risk, high reward environment, 00:23:00.78\00:23:02.78 where you just get to be around the kids 00:23:02.78\00:23:05.65 and hang out and watch them when we need a break. 00:23:05.65\00:23:08.85 - And connect with them. 00:23:10.09\00:23:12.02 - Connect with them, you make friends for a lifetime 00:23:12.02\00:23:15.36 doing this and you make kids for a lifetime 00:23:16.42\00:23:18.76 and you can make grandkids for a lifetime. 00:23:18.76\00:23:21.00 - That's true, that's true. 00:23:21.00\00:23:22.96 Well it's amazing to see how God has led, 00:23:22.96\00:23:25.50 through all these changes in your lives 00:23:25.50\00:23:27.94 and it's so wonderful to see how He's providing 00:23:27.94\00:23:31.64 just what you need at the right time 00:23:31.64\00:23:33.58 and the love for these kids 00:23:35.04\00:23:36.18 and the wisdom I'm sure that sometimes is like, 00:23:36.18\00:23:38.91 "Lord what do we do now?" 00:23:38.91\00:23:40.98 - It's been an amazing journey 00:23:40.98\00:23:43.72 and yeah, the wisdom, the what do we do now, 00:23:43.72\00:23:47.96 it's everyday for us but God takes care of us 00:23:47.96\00:23:50.83 and He provides everything that we need 00:23:50.83\00:23:52.76 and it's been really awesome just to see God work 00:23:52.76\00:23:55.60 through us and for us and with us. 00:23:55.60\00:23:59.23 It's been awesome. 00:23:59.23\00:24:00.64 - Wow, so speaking of you and Chitlada needing a break, 00:24:00.64\00:24:05.21 sometimes and the volunteer you have now having to leave 00:24:05.21\00:24:10.28 in five or six months, you really do need somebody to come. 00:24:11.58\00:24:14.62 - Yeah we're looking for an older woman 00:24:14.62\00:24:17.42 who has the desire to be a missionary 00:24:17.42\00:24:20.56 and has the courage to go where God wants her to go 00:24:20.56\00:24:24.19 alone and come to a place where she can't speak 00:24:24.19\00:24:27.76 the same language and take care of kids 00:24:27.76\00:24:31.80 who won't understand what she's saying all the time. 00:24:31.80\00:24:34.90 Someone who really feels like God has called them 00:24:34.90\00:24:37.31 to be here because we need a grandmother type role 00:24:37.31\00:24:42.21 to be filled for the days when we need a break 00:24:42.21\00:24:44.98 or we need to get away or we have to go do something else 00:24:44.98\00:24:48.25 around Thailand. 00:24:48.25\00:24:49.62 Someone who can be there and take care of the kids. 00:24:49.62\00:24:52.59 Someone who wants some new grandkids 00:24:52.59\00:24:55.82 and someone who really wants to get involved 00:24:55.82\00:24:58.43 in the kids' lives and teach English 00:24:58.43\00:25:00.76 and just have fun with the kids. 00:25:00.76\00:25:03.60 - So okay, sponsoring the kids. 00:25:03.60\00:25:05.77 We wanna talk about that briefly at least. 00:25:05.77\00:25:08.27 Sponsoring them, are they fully paid, fully funded, 00:25:08.27\00:25:11.34 or how does that work? 00:25:11.34\00:25:13.27 - Well right now we have one child 00:25:13.27\00:25:15.48 that's fully sponsored but we have five other ones 00:25:15.48\00:25:20.55 and soon we'll have seven other ones, or six other ones, 00:25:21.88\00:25:25.15 that aren't sponsored. 00:25:25.15\00:25:27.42 So right now we have six kids and we only have one 00:25:27.42\00:25:31.13 that is sponsored to go to school. 00:25:31.13\00:25:33.83 So we're looking for people that have a heart 00:25:33.83\00:25:36.26 to help kids get education. 00:25:36.26\00:25:38.70 People who prayed about it and they've given it to God 00:25:38.70\00:25:41.34 and really feel like God is really put it 00:25:41.34\00:25:43.30 on their hearts to help 00:25:43.30\00:25:44.61 because sending a kid to Chiang Mai Adventist Academy, 00:25:44.61\00:25:48.61 if they're in the dorms, like we have two, 00:25:48.61\00:25:51.01 it costs about $1500 a year for just tuition 00:25:51.01\00:25:55.58 and room and board and a little bit of food. 00:25:55.58\00:25:57.89 That's not for all the costs that come up 00:25:57.89\00:26:00.22 with medical and all the other stuff that they have to buy. 00:26:00.22\00:26:04.79 But it's about $1500 a year. 00:26:04.79\00:26:07.13 Then we have the kids that are at our house. 00:26:07.13\00:26:10.03 Which it costs about $600 a year just for them 00:26:10.03\00:26:13.34 to go to school, not food, or fun, or travel, 00:26:13.34\00:26:17.07 or anything like that medical, dental, any of that stuff. 00:26:17.07\00:26:20.54 Just for the school. 00:26:20.54\00:26:21.64 And so we're looking for people who would like 00:26:21.64\00:26:23.98 to sponsor one of these kids. 00:26:23.98\00:26:25.41 Who would like to get to know them, 00:26:25.41\00:26:27.22 maybe even possibly come over and visit them, 00:26:27.22\00:26:29.92 because everything I've learned that having six kids 00:26:31.25\00:26:35.79 is really expensive and we didn't realize how much 00:26:37.16\00:26:41.20 it was going to be. 00:26:41.20\00:26:43.37 They have counseling, they have school, 00:26:43.37\00:26:46.43 they have clothes, they have fun sometimes. 00:26:46.43\00:26:50.24 Just everything that comes along with it and all the, 00:26:50.24\00:26:52.71 I didn't realize how much teenagers 00:26:52.71\00:26:55.94 hurt themselves either and how many things that they didn't 00:26:55.94\00:27:00.12 take care of in the past that need to be taken care of now. 00:27:00.12\00:27:03.99 It seems like every week we're surprised by a new bill, 00:27:03.99\00:27:07.96 a new surprise and so we need sponsorship for these kids. 00:27:09.32\00:27:14.00 If you've prayed about it 00:27:15.26\00:27:17.00 and you've really given it to God please contact us. 00:27:17.00\00:27:20.57 - Thank you so much for joining us today, Josh, 00:27:21.70\00:27:23.47 and for sharing the lives of these young people 00:27:23.47\00:27:26.44 and the blessing that they are to you, 00:27:26.44\00:27:28.94 and the challenges, yes of course, 00:27:28.94\00:27:31.05 but seeing what God's doing in their lives, it's awesome. 00:27:31.05\00:27:35.92 - It's really awesome to be able to share their stories 00:27:35.92\00:27:37.32 and I praise God that He's given me this opportunity. 00:27:37.32\00:27:40.19 - I would like to invite you, 00:27:41.72\00:27:43.09 if you would like to be involved in this project, 00:27:43.09\00:27:45.19 you can contact us at Jesus for Asia, 00:27:45.19\00:27:48.30 P.O. Box 1221, Collegedale, Tennessee, 37315. 00:27:48.30\00:27:53.37 Call us at 423-413-7321, 00:27:54.04\00:27:57.87 or visit our website at Jesus4Asia.org. 00:27:57.87\00:28:01.41 May God richly bless you until we see you next time, 00:28:01.41\00:28:05.55 on "Jesus for Asia Now". 00:28:05.55\00:28:07.55 (gentle music) 00:28:07.55\00:28:10.29