Dear family and friends,

The women and children living on our property are all well, as we continue on the journey of life together we find our days delightfully full. We are so grateful to God for His protection, for life and so many opportunities to share our lives with others.

Our 2 fundraising goals at present are:
1. To complete our hospice by end of 2010, we could have used this building several times this year, the need is great….. so we want to finish it soon if we can.

2. We are saving to a trip to the beach again, it is almost 2 years since we’ve taken the ‘family/kids’ away for a holiday, our goal is to go to the beach again next April/May, 2011.

We are excited that our community work is developing more and more. We have staff now going several times a week, into our local hospitals as well as visiting people affected by HIV in our area. Some highlights for us in our community work are taking food to people affected by HIV who are in great need in nearby villages and visiting and praying for the sick in our local hospitals.

Our visit to Mai’s grandparents

Also we’ve been asked to do English classes with medical staff at Chiang Rai’s main government hospital, we are excited to fulfil this a wonderful opportunity.

Last but not least…. we need to communicate this news about our tax deductibility status, please read the following carefully!

First, we would like to thank you all for your continued support.  Home of the Open Heart could not continue to make a difference in the lives of those who are affected by HIV in Northern Thailand without your support.  We are all deeply grateful for each and every one of our supporters and sponsors!

We would like to inform you of some changes to our financial status.  Starting the first of August 2010, Home of the Open Heart/Baan Nam Jai will no longer be eligible for tax deductibility in Australia.  Australia has strict guidelines to what is considered a tax deductible project.  In order to qualify for tax deductibility, a project must not offer welfare but instead offer ways for communities to assist themselves without the need of welfare.  Home of the Open Heart concentrates on the most vulnerable members of society, not just the orphan and the widow, but the orphan and widow who are affected by HIV.  This cross section of society has no community to assist them and therefore need welfare projects.  We are honored to be the project that assist those members of society.  For the communities that we can empower, we do so with our community team.  However, our community work is just one component of our overall objectives.  Therefore, not wanting to shift focuses we have decided to no longer seek tax deductibility.

For those who wish to continue support Home of the Open Heart/Baan Nam Jai, the change will not be significant.  ARMS will still administrate funds for us, so those Australian supporters will not have to pay any international fees.  Funds can be sent to ARMS like usual and ARMS will send a receipt.  However, you will no longer get a tax deductible receipt.  For those supporters outside of Australia, this change will not effect you at all.

We hope we can continue to count on your support of all of our projects.  If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us.  General inquires about this change can be directed to office@baannamjai.org.  I am sorry for any inconvenience this change may cause you.

Bless you,

Penny

School Holidays and Songkran:  The beginning of May is upon us and the past few months have come and gone.  The children are all on school holidays as it is the end of the school year here in Thailand.  A few weeks back we had the Songkran holiday which is the water festival in Thailand.  During this time we gave the Thai Staff a week off.  The children enjoyed a week away from the routine at Baan Nam Jai staying with the rest of the international staff.  Wonderful times were had by everyone with water fights, outings to the pool, movies and meals together.

During the holidays the staff and children also had a day out to ‘Chiang Rai Beach’, the local river.  We swam together and played in the sand.  We all got excited when we found a baby turtle on the river bank.  We ended our lovely time by sharing a meal under the shade, laughing and talking together.

The children will be on holidays until around the middle of May and so we are preparing for that transition once again.  We have all been extra busy helping support the children and each other over these school holidays.

Hospice News and Amsterdam team: We would like to inform you that for many reasons we will now be calling the hospice the ‘medical facility’.

After Songkran we had a team from YWAM Amsterdam come to help us paint inside our medical facility along with a few other jobs.  They were a great help and encouragement to us.  While they were here we joined with them in a time of prayer.  We dedicated the building to God’s purposes, believing that at the right time God will bring those along to us who need help.  We also prayed that God would keep showing us how He wants us to bring hope in our community, in the surrounding villages and for the women who will come to live here.  Our desire is that this facility would be a place of hope and peace. We pray that God’s love would be tangible in this place.

So it is with hope in our hearts that we press on and wait for the final completion of this medical facility. It is very exciting for us to see the building so close to completion, as this project has been many years coming. The upper level is completed apart from adding a kitchenette , but it is tiled, power in, plumbing is done. now we just need to do the same in the downstairs rooms.
God is a Father to the fatherless, a defender of widows… God sets the lonely in families…  Psalm 68:5-6

We cannot do without your partnership! Some of our Thai staff (who work so hard and play key roles in helping us function) have had supporters ‘drop off’ in recent months, for various reasons these supporters are no longer able to send monthly support amounts. If you are able to give $35 per month to one of our Thai staff please write to me at penny@baannamjai.org and I can introduce you to the easiest way for you to support one of our staff so they can continue to be a part of our team. Gifts can be tax deductible.

Our website has been updated recently, so if you haven’t looked for a while, please take a moment to go to www.baannamjai.org
As you stand with us in support and prayer…. you encourage us! Thank you!

We are so grateful for your partnership and your prayers, thanks for believing in what we do and for sharing our passion for those affected by HIV/AIDS in Thailand.

God bless you!
Love from us all here at Home of the Open Heart/Baan Nam Jai

We have two really exciting pieces of news to share with you.

We have welcomed new baby Alex to our family this past month.

Photo of Alex 9 days old

Alex’s mum came to live with us from Pattaya, needing help to escape the lure of the sex industry three months ago. Our prayer is that she will settle here and love being part of our family, as she mothers her baby boy, Alex and that she will be content to leave her past life behind to start afresh. We need wisdom as we seek to help her with this adjustment.

Other exciting news is the progress that has been made in the past month on our hospice. With a team of workers from Adelaide, Australia we made huge progress, I will let the photo’s tell the story.

Our goal is to have the roof completed by end of November with the help of some Thai labourers. Then we need an electrician, plumber and tiler to help in the new year. It’s exciting seeing this project of many years coming near to completion. I personally would love to see the facility operational by this time next year. It’s a shame we need it but sadly it is true that many people in our area are dying of AIDS each day. We want to offer a place of peace and hope for people in their final stages of AIDS.

Our 2010 calendar is back from the printers, if you’d like one we’d be glad to supply that, as we’d love to sell all our calendars, they make a great Christmas gift at $10. Let us know if you’d like one, click reply on this email and order one or more, we will add postage cost and let you know how to pay, depending on which country you are from.

I also want to include a poem written by a nurse on our staff, for Mai, one of our little HIV+ girls.

Deep Eyes

Deep Eyes. They tell a story.
A past no longer talked about
Of sickness, of abuse, of desperate searching for more,
Of hunger, of pain.
Deep eyes. They tell a story
The disease has its grip. A curse, a sin
Passed down from generation and held within.
At times it lies dormant but always shows its power,
The control it has on an unwilling body.
Deep eyes. They tell a story.
Lost within, the hurt, the pain, the confusion.
Yet helpless? …..NEVER!
To give up would be the end
There must be more…….
Deep eyes.
They tell a story.
Holding onto hope. Hope of a body made new.
No more pain. No wore suffering. No more tears.
Where does this hope come from?
Something much bigger.
Deep eyes. They tell a story
Look up! Where doe your help come from?
Your help comes form the Lord!
The Maker of heaven and earth!
For Mai Girl
By Crystal Sutton

Photo of Mai taken by Crystal

Bernie’s Bike Ride…. A fundraiser worth supporting. An Aussie guy named Bernie is in USA right now riding his bicycle from New York through to San Francisco on America’s “northern discovery trail” (google it, if your interested to know more). It is a 8,000 km ride which he will complete over the next 4 months. His purpose is to raise awareness of and raise funds for two projects;  one in Cambodia and the other, our own project in Chiang Rai. If you want more info please e-mail office@baannamjai,org. I have an electronic brochure I can send you. Will you partner with Bernie, to encourage him on by sponsoring his ride? His goal is to get 1000 people to pledge $100!   He also thought that if just 100 people would commit to getting 10 others (colleagues, friends, relatives, whoever) to commit to give $100 for his ride, his ride would be more than worth it. Will you be one of these people? You can help!

Here’s how. You can email me (penny@baannamjai.org) and let me know you’ll be one of the 100 who will commit to finding 10 others to give the $100. OR you can just go online now and be one of the 1000 people who give $100.

So here’s how to give… go to Australian Relief and Mercy Services (ARMS) website
www.arms.org.au on the left hand side, green menu bar, find where it says “Donations”, click on that. On the next page find small yellow letters ’secure site’, click on that. Fill in your details, then at donation information, select “International Projects” then “Bernie’s Bike Ride HOOH” then you’re all finished! Thank you very much for supporting us and for encouraging Bernie! Your gift in this way is tax-deductible.

Please can you also email Bernie and let him know you’ve given or just to encourage him on his ride. He will check his emails some nights at the end of his day of riding and be encouraged to continue on if he knows the pledges/funds are flooding in. bkscan24@yahoo.com.au

We are going to use the funds to complete our medical assisted facility/hospice which is currently about half finished and a team from Adelaide are coming in Sept/Oct this year to volunteer their time and expertise to complete the job. These photo’s are of the progress so far. It is very exciting for me to see this project of many years coming near completion. Better still will be when I see it serving people in need.

Penny for all the team here at Baan Nam Jai.

The school year in Thailand is from May through March. This week, all our children are completing their end of year exams and will be on their long ‘hot season/summer’ break for 2 months from this weekend.

We are planning lots of fun activities for the children’s school break. Last year we went to the beach, do you remember? Many of you gave so generously so we could go on that special trip! We had so much fun, the kids still talk about it. This year we are staying around Chiang Rai but don’t feel sorry for us…….we are going to have fun at home, plus visiting the local swimming pool some days, as well as doing a couple of ‘day trips’ here & there. The kids are looking forward to a trip to the zoo in Chiang Mai. Maybe next year we’ll look forward to the beach again.

Mai’s depleted immune system has caused her to struggle health-wise of late and she has not managed to keep the ‘bugs’ away. She had a short stay in hospital with pneumonia one month ago and is currently ‘fighting’ a bout of bronchitis. Please pray for her health. She still manages a smile, isn’t she gorgeous! In fact, many of our children and staff have struggled somewhat with their health of late, so we need extra prayer in that area.

Our mums have begun making crocheted handbags and purses to sell (their latest income generation project), so if you are interested in purchasing one, they are taking orders. You can ’special order’ the size, colour and shape (either oval/round or square). Email your order to: quan@baannamjai.org  we will need to add a small amount for postage, depending on where you live but the handbags are very cheap. Quan will let you know the cost when you order, as it depends on size.

Thanks for remembering us, we hope you enjoy the photos in our newsletter. Please do keep remembering to pray for Penny’s health, that her cancer would go away for good! Plus if you could pray for the new mums and children that will join our family this year, as now that we have completed more buildings, we are ready to take in more mums and children.

Blessings to you all and thanks for your prayers,
Penny and all the team here at Baan Nam Jai

We’ve had such a great year! The children have grown so well and so strongly, many of them have started school and done so well. We are so thankful to God for their lives and their health. The mums in our care are growing stronger too and it has been a joy to develop more of a program for them, as they have become even more apart of our big family! We’ve seen miracles happen regularly and we are so blessed to be serving here in our community as we find needs that we are able to assist with.

We so appreciate your love, your support and the different ways so many of you partner with us for the people of Northern Thailand affected by HIV/AIDS. With the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day only a week away at December 1st, we wanted to thank you for your partnership in our efforts to assist families affected by HIV in our home here as well as in our wider community.

In 1988, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the first World AIDS Day in an effort to raise public awareness about HIV/AIDS issues, including the need for support and understanding for people living with HIV/AIDS. The day is also an opportunity to highlight the need for continued development of education and prevention initiatives.

Over the past 20 years, World AIDS Day has been established as one of the world’s most successful commemorative days. It is now recognized and observed by millions of people in more than 190 countries around the globe.

With Christmas just around the corner we are aware that many people like to give, so we have prepared a Reverse Christmas Gift Certificate, with which you can bless our project in place of a normal Christmas gift to a friend or relative. If you would like to have some of these sent by post to you please email and let us know; we need your postal address and to know how many you would like.

We also have calendars for sale at $10 each, please let us know if you’d like to order one or more and we’ll post them to you.

Thank you for your support, encouragement and ways you partner with us, we appreciate your care for people living with HIV/AIDS.

Thanking you,
Penny and all the team at Baan Nam Jai

Our second baby home is very close to being finished! We are all pretty excited as this home has been a 2 year + project in the making.

With almost two homes completed we have decided to have a boys and girls home, so we expect to be able to move the boys out of their rooms in about one month and into our new house which we are believeing will be done by then. Aphae one of longer term Thai staff has risen to the challenge of being house manager to the boys home! Please will you pray for her, she is a courageous, humble and teachable woman.

Can you please remember Susie also, and the girls who get to stay behind in the other house. Our goal is that with two established homes of children, it will be easier to add more young children in need to that more stable environment.

Final bit of good news is that one of our mums was able to leave us this past week to return to live with her family. As you know part of our mandate is to keep families together wherever possible and her family had come to the point where they have become much more accepting as they’ve been educated about HIV/AIDS and felt they no longer needed to be scared of having her and her baby daughter live with them.  We applaud their decision and although we really miss baby Bendra and her mum, we are so glad for her that her family no longer ostracize her because of her health. That was awesome news for all but didn’t stop the tears flowing the morning she left.

Thank you for your concern and prayers for Josiah. The news is good! He had surgery and got 5 stitches around his little index finger. He has been on IV antibiotics since his surgery and has been very brave. The doctors said that he will be fine and will be able to keep his finger. Also, he is healing/recovering so quickly that the doctors said he can come home today.

Thanks again to everybody, and keep your eyes peeled for a general Baan Nam Jai (Home of the Open Heart) update coming very soon!

Luke (on behalf of everyone at Baan Nam Jai)

This is very quick email going out to all of you to ask you to pray for Josiah, our youngest. He was just hurt in an accident playing and jammed his index finger in a door very badly, resulting in a part of the finger being severed off.
He is at the hospital now and we are trying to get the best possible care for him and hoping that he will be able to keep his finger intact and whole. This is obviously very distressing for the little guy and also for all the rest of us here. We really want for him to get great care and have the best chance of keeping his finger. Please pray for him and the doctors, etc.
We will keep you updated as details become available.

Thank you.
Luke (on behalf of Home of the Open Heart)

The way we structured the trip was to send the kids down in two groups, as 11 littlies going all at once is harder to organise logistically. So the first group of 6 kids, which included Belle, Bom, Foon, Bam, Mae and Jonathon went first, much to the dismay of the second group of Garin, Hope, Nui, Mai and Josiah, because they had to wait. A hard thing to do for a 6 year old, especially when a trip to the beach is involved!

The trip down…

The flight from Chiang Rai to Bangkok was the first time most of the kids had been on an airplane and it was certainly looked forward to with incredible anticipation. Highlights from the flight included a huge fascination with the safety instruction leaflets, watching all the other huge planes out the window, and Jonathon making friends with the airline hostess and then asking her if she wanted to be his girlfriend. She politely declined, but not without giving all the kids a free snack first! What a charmer Jo is. Next was a 4 hour drive to the ferry which would take us all across to the island, called Ko Chang, where we were staying.

Sun and sand…
Each group of kids went for a week and had a blast swimming, building sandcastles, collecting shells and eating lots of yummy food! Each one of the kids grew more confident in the water as the week went on, and a few gained enough confidence to swim unassisted for the first time ever!! They all loved spotting fish and many hours were spent looking for weird and wonderful sea creatures. It was really lovely to see each child have so much fun in this new and exciting environment. A friend of ours from Chiang Rai lent us an inflatable rubber boat and the kids had a great time in that playing “speedboats”, which involved getting pulled around as fast as possible in the shallow water by Paul, Dave or Luke. For some reason the boat was always getting attacked by “sharks”, but don’t worry, the sharks at Ko Chang only tickle kids and roar a bit, they don’t bite, so no one lost any limbs

Thank you so much to everyone who was involved in making this happen, and for the generosity of those that gave money for the kids airfares and accommodation expenses. Everyone had such a great time and I know every one of the children will remember this trip for years to come. Hopefully it won’t be too long before they can go again. It is so nice that they can have amazing holidays and fun trips like this one and we really value having such a great support crew (that’s you!) around us.

Until next time,
Luke Wilcox
(on behalf of everyone here at Baan Nam Jai)