Newsletter, Vol. 3, No. 4

Dear Brothers & Sisters,

Laurie and I hope this newsletter finds all of you in good health and cheer for the upcoming holidays. We have already celebrated a major portion of our Christmas joy, as this letter will detail.

Remember Nhu’s First Children’s Home

Remember Nhu (R-Nhu) is turning the corner from being an organization that supports other ministries and helps them expand what they are doing to becoming an organization with homes of its own. We hope to open three or more homes in 2007.

Our first children’s home to keep children out of the sx trade should open during the first few months of 2007. During our last trip to Cambodia, we started the process to open a children’s home.

In Cambodia we met with Theresa, a lady who will be overseeing R-Nhu’s children’s home and teaching English. Theresa speaks three languages and has taught language to several international Christian workers. You may remember from our last newsletter that in September Nhu, whom R-Nhu is named after, became our first employee. Nhu will teach nails, hair styling, and personal hygiene to the children. She also met with our team while we were there – and we met with Pastors, teachers, and directors. Our team discussed and brainstormed ideas for the home such as possible teachers, possible students, and finances.

It has been determined that this specific children’s home ministry will be called HELP Cambodia, and the HELP stands for Helping Employees Learn Profitability. The children’s home will be called Haven of Hope, and will be a Safe Home for Girls.
On Monday, November 27, we interviewed 22 children who were at risk to determine if we could take them into Haven of Hope. These children have educations ranging from first to sixth grade. Their parents are telling them they need to earn income to help support the family. Most of them have the option of collecting trash for the recyclables earning $10 - $20 (USD?) per month or being sold into the sx trade. We were able to offer all 22 of the girls scholarships to HELP Cambodia. During their time with us, the children will learn life and vocational skills. After they complete our program, we hope to offer the children positions in businesses that HELP Cambodia sets up.

The idea behind HELP Cambodia is to help children learn how to make a profit in business to provide a long term solution for these children and their families.

Theresa and Mr. Huy visit Grace Ministry

We thought it is good for Theresa and Mr. Huy (Theresa’s husband) go to Grace Ministries to witness how a successful children’s home is ran. Charles Harvey (a R-Nhu Advisory Board member) and Yoke Fong Harvey are the directors, and they welcomed us to Buriram, Thailand for a few days [after we left Cambodia] to live at Bethel House, a girls’ home. This was great experience as Theresa had said prior to this visit, she did not have a picture in her mind of how the home should run. Theresa took many notes and jotted down a lot of ideas: the games the girls played, how they did their chores, and how Grace Ministries keeps their books.

Partnership - Westside Christian High School (Oregon, USA) and Grace Ministries

The partnership between Westside and Grace Ministries is flourishing – and mutually beneficial to both cohorts. With the help of Westside – through R-Nhu – Grace Ministries has begun building Shalom House, a home on the Grace Ministries property to keep boys out of the sx trade and give them an opportunity for a bright future.

Through this partnership, the students at Westside are being challenged to grow spiritually and to look at the world in a much different light. During the summer they will take a several week trip to build relationships with the people at Grace Ministries.

A  Potential Upcoming Partnership with “the Grace Place”

Three of the Tigard First Baptist Church’s members have been on vision trips. In October, Laurie and I visited the Grace Place and spoke to the members about the problem and a potential partnership to open a children’s home.  The church is planning on sending a few leaders for a vision trip, to explore the possibilities of starting a children's home, developing businesses, and planting churches.  Please pray that the Lord would lead them through this process. 

Christmas in Cambodia

While in Cambodia, Laurie and I got had the opportunity to, for the first time, spend a significant amount of time with Nhu and begin to develop a relationship with her. The first day I shared my testimony of how I believed Jesus spoke to my heart to, “Remember Nhu.” I told her that Laurie and I had been praying for her so intensely for the past three years that we felt like she had become our adopted daughter. We then learned that her mom had little contact with her.

Laurie and I told Nhu that we had a daughter in the States (which is true) and we asked Nhu if she would take us shopping and help us buy gifts for “our daughter.” She was glad to help. So, on Saturday, November 25, we spent four hours having Nhu pick out stylish clothes, shoes, and jewelry [We learned later that Nhu asked Theresa, “Why do they buy so much for their daughter? They must love her a lot.”] At the end of the shopping trip, we asked Nhu to pick out one pair of jeans for herself because she helped us. Nhu wanted a pair of jeans like the first pair she picked out for our daughter. So we asked Nhu to pick out another pair for our daughter as most girls did not want to wear the same clothes as others. She had a hard time understanding this until I explained that one of the worst things to happen to a girl in the U.S. was to show up at a dance only to find another girl wearing the same dress.

On the way home I realized we should have counted the gifts because we had wanted to give Nhu 18 gifts, one for each of her Christmases. That night when our team wrapped all of the gifts, we realized there were exactly 18 ! We placed them on the table under a small Christmas tree.

The next morning was Sunday, November 26. Nhu and Theresa arrived at 9:00 a.m. We explained to Nhu that we had a tradition that each year we give our daughter one major gift at Christmas and that way we can keep the focus on Jesus. We explained that since we missed Nhu’s first 17 Christmases, we were going to celebrate them today and that she had 18 gifts to open!

I wish everyone who has prayed for Nhu could have seen her face when she opened the first gift, a pair of gray dress slacks. Nhu looked at the pants and realized that when she had taken us shopping for “our daughter” that we meant her, our Asian daughter! Nhu’s face lit up like a child’s face the first Christmas when they are old enough to understand the holiday. I don’t think there were any dry eyes !

Nhu opened the first 14 packages guessing what most of them were until she got to the green pair of sneakers… those stumped her. After she opened them she said, “We did not buy these yesterday!” In Cambodia, they negotiate the prices even in the malls and Nhu was not able to get the clerk down to a price she was willing for us to pay, so Nhu had left the shoes. Knowing that she wanted them, I’d had someone go back to the store and buy the shoes – and the next three gifts that she had liked but wasn’t willing for us to pay the requested price!

After opening all of her gifts, Nhu tearfully told Theresa that no one had ever done anything like that for her. It was a joy to see someone enjoying opening gifts the way Nhu did that day!

Meeting Nhu’s Grandmother and Visiting Nhu’s Home

We thought we should offer to go and visit Nhu’s grandmother. She accepted our offer so that Sunday evening after church we went to where Nhu has lived since she was a year old.

At around 7 p.m., we traveled to a very poor part of the city. Nhu’s grandmother met us at the door and invited us in. The home consisted of wood planks with many gaps, a roof made of green tarp, and a floor of dirt and a little vinyl. There were two rooms of about 7’ by 10’, with a total of about 100 square foot of living space for Nhu, her grandmother, her two uncles, and her aunt. They all slept in one of the 7’ x 10’ rooms.

Seeing where Nhu has spent the last 17 years gave me great respect for her and our Lord that Nhu could accept Jesus as her Savior and stand up to what surrounded her. We truly can do all things through Jesus.

One of Our Favorite Hugs

During the four days Laurie and I were blessed with the opportunity to talk, eat, shop, brainstorm, laugh, and cry with Nhu. Normally, one of my favorite moments in Cambodia is the feeling of the jet wheels lifting off the ground to take me home! There has never been a time when I was not anxious to leave. Well, on this Tuesday, November 28, as we finished checking in, it was a different story: we all realized it was time to say goodbye to Nhu. Each person took their turn and then it was Laurie’s turn. Laurie asked Theresa to ask Nhu if she could give Nhu a hug and Nhu said yes. Nhu put her head on Laurie’s shoulder with both of her arms around Laurie, Nhu gave her long goodbye hug.

I pray that you are able to see a glimpse of the love that Jesus has for us in this story. The Lord uses our life experiences and even our weaknesses to show His strength and to bless His children. After so many of us have cried out to Jesus and given and served and fought for our sister during the last three years, I feel that Jesus made it all worthwhile in a simple hug.

That moment I experienced what I think agape love feels like. May our Lord Jesus Christ receive all of the honor, power, glory, and praise!

Agape,
Carl Ralston