We have officially passed our six-month mark here in Chiang Mai! The months seem to have flown by. They have been full of God refining and growing us, and deepening our faith.
At the end of January ZOE welcomed an amazing short term missionary team from the States. These brothers and sisters are so full of God’s love, we were blessed to have met them and to serve alongside them for the ten days they were here. One of the many highlights during their trip here was joining with ZOE’s prevention team on an outreach to a school in Mae Sot near the Burmese border. We travelled over six hours southwest of Chiang Mai in a caravan of ten plus vehicles to the border and participated in a God-inspired prevention and outreach campaign to over 600 students. These children are all considered Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)–they have crossed the border into Thailand with no paperwork or documentation and are at high risk of being trafficked. The purpose of this outreach was to bring education and awareness of Human Trafficking. The students played various games that also taught them the dangers of human trafficking, and how traffickers will trick children and parents. As the students went from booth to booth they learned what they can do to keep themselves, their family and their friends safe. We were also able to share the gospel message through drama, music and dance. After the outreach, we learned that there were ten “tips” from students reporting incidences of trafficking that we are now investigating. The photos below were taken at the prevention/outreach campaign (please note that ZOE never shows the faces of trafficked children).
Opening Ceremonies at the Outreach and gathering children for the day.
One of the many booths where students learned about the dangers of Human Trafficking.
This outdoor field game focused on helping the children avoid the “Trafficker.”
In last month’s update we mentioned children who were recently rescued…they all accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior just a couple of weeks ago! Praise God. God is at work and He continues to heal and restore these children. Thank you for our support and prayers. Thank you for being part of God’s work through ZOE. Please click on the link below to see all of what you helped God do through ZOE International in 2017.
ZOE International Year in Review 2017 – https://youtu.be/aUdf_Dpd-Zo
In May we will be back in Honolulu for three weeks. We would love to spend some time with you and catch up. Please contact us at your earliest convenience so we can set aside time to meet. Also, we would like to share what we do with others who haven’t heard about ZOE. Please let us know if God has put it on your heart to reach out to a pastor or small group so that we can share about our work with ZOE International.
We are so very blessed by you dear friends, and we look forward to seeing you in a few months!
