The land, The rice paddy and the hillsides make up about 15 acres
The hill where we will plant coffee
The house we will renovate for a temporary home until we can build the children's home.
Our car, it has been a good car, but it won't survive mountain life. We need to replace it with a truck.
Moving to the Jungle!
We have held on to this news as long as we could because we wanted to be sure. Glowing Hearts is heading to the jungle! After months of praying and investigating, we have decided to make a permanent base for our ministry at Pong Klang Nam. This is the village where Anchalee was born and we are moving there to take over the family farm.
This move has several advantages; most importantly, it puts us years ahead in our vision. There is about 15 acres of land that can be used to help support the home, and there is a house we can transform into a four bedroom home. This will be our temporary residence until we can build the actual children’s home. The best part is that is we do not have to pay anything, we can just start renovating. The land is ours to use.
You may be wondering why we hadn’t made this decision before. Well the truth is that we had thought of it many times, but both of us thought the other wanted to be closer to town. Does that make sense? I felt that Anchalee was done with village life and did not wish to return. Anchalee thought that I couldn’t handle village life and when the discussion came up it was generally laughed off as an option. But during the two years that we looked for land it became more and more obvious that the land we were looking for was exactly like the land her family owns already. So recently we decided to take this option seriously.
We understand that there is going to be some sacrifices to living in the village. The biggest thing is the isolation. This place is two hours from the nearest city, and 45 minutes from the highway on a winding mountain road. Thailand is a developing nation but the villages are very poor and village culture can be rough. I guess I will have to learn a lot, including picking up a third language, but I am excited that we are on the verge of a new adventure.
Already we have some things underway. Last week Anchalee and I got 1200 coffee plants prepared for planting. We are also looking into macadamia nuts, wild boars, frogs of course, and a bunch of other agricultural projects. This summer and fall we will be altering the house and we hope to move in by March.
Last year we raised money to buy land, and we saved up money on our own. But now instead of spending that money on land, we are using it to rebuild the house, for farming, and to help us move. So we are excited that the money we had is going towards our immediate future. However, we do have a new problem that we need to get worked out.
We Really Need a Truck!!!
Yes we really need a truck. We have been getting along pretty well with our 92 Hyundai Excel, but next year that car will be 20 years old and you can only expect so much out of a car. If we were staying in the city it wouldn’t be so bad, but up in the mountains with a bunch of kids, we really need something tough and dependable. Also there are the building materials we will need to haul up there. A truck is about the only way to get that done.
So as of now, our biggest need in the ministry is to get a truck. We don’t have to get a new one, but we would like one newer than 10 years. So if you were wondering how you could help us out, this is a big one for us, any help will be appreciated.
God bless you all, and thank you for getting us to this step.
Kim, Anchalee, Genesis, Gideon, and Shiloh