We’ve spent another week of hard work at our new office/home location—lots of maintenance and fix-up chores. Again on Saturday, several of our families came to spend the day helping us with many outdoor projects. It was hot-hard work, but it truly seemed like a large family gathering. We enjoyed a picnic lunch and (after mowing the grass) the boys had time to play soccer in the afternoon sun.

Pray that we never fall away from the love of Christ, which binds us together as a family.

Pray that we will be good stewards of all the blessings God provides for the children.

Pray for all of the children left behind in the mountain villages…there are so many who live in danger while they wait to be rescued.

May Jesus be your safe-shelter,

Dave & Shirley Callahan

This is our back-yard groundskeeper crew: L-R Ajan Yae, Timothy, Ajan Prajuab, and me. Nathan is in the lower left.

Some of the younger girls stayed indoors to play games and nap, while their house parents worked outside.

The gathering gave boys from a couple homes time to work and play together: here are Solomon and Timothy…such handsome boys!

All of the children are learning to be good workers…but every worker knows how to take a break from the heat. Here boys from Home of Comfort take a dip while working in the rice field.

Every Friday evening, the families come together for worship, Bible study, and snacks.

We couldn’t send you any note or photos last week because we were busy relocating our office/home and spent several days without phone or internet access. We moved into an older rented property that was once used as an orphan home. There is much clean-up and fix-up needed, but we are already looking forward to see what God may do with our new space – It has several classrooms and some extra bedrooms plus a large room for our office.

Pray that we will find the time, energy, and resources to do all the work needed.

Also, pray that we remain dedicated to seek God’s will and follow Him in every decision.

God bless you and keep you,

Dave & Shirley Callahan

Ajan Yae, house father at Home of Comfort, ties down a truckload of our bags and boxes. All of the families and children volunteered their time to help us get packed and moved during a two-day break in the rainy weather (thank you Lord). It was quite a large-scale operation with 5 pickup trucks making multiple trips between the old & new locations.

At the new house, the “kitchen” was just an empty room…not even a sink or counter top. We found a local man who would build a concrete & tile sink space for us.

The was a very large palm tree at the new home. The owner sold it (and several smaller palms) and here you can see the workers starting to dig-up the old tree.

Nearby the porch, one of our house parents parked and unloaded his truck in the shade from several palms that were also removed and sold by the owner.

God has been so good to us…our new home is quiet at night (no more Karoeke music) and the large yard has space for a garden and room for our orphans to come and play soccer and have team activities.

Early this week we visited our new Happy Hearts Dorm, a live-in Christian hostel for poor hill tribe children. It’s located in a beautiful area of northeast Thailand, not far from the border with Laos.

We did some training with the dorm house parents and spent time with the Mein hill tribe children.

Please remember to pray for our children as we try to teach them about God and Jesus and the way to eternal life.

Pray for Shirley and I as we begin the hard-work of moving our office/home to a new location over the next two-weeks…we’ll need strength and patience.

Grace and peace to you,

Dave & Shirley Callahan              more videos at:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/callahancorner/   and   http://www.blip.tv/search?q=faithfulheart/

This map shows where we traveled, from Chiang Mai to Chiang Klang (marked with red star). It’s about a 5-6 hour trip through beautiful mountains and valleys of rice-paddys.

At the dorm, Shirley and Mint (foreground) were reading stories for the children in both Thai and English.

We spent time teaching the house parents about our financial reporting and accountability rules. Shirley is teaching some computer stuff while the house mother, Nui, listens at the far right. Her daughter, Grace, is watching from Shirley’s lap. Standing at left is our friend and van-driver Adoon, and Mint, our social-work volunteer, has her back turned to the camera.

Many of our orphan boys joined with another orphan home to form a soccer team that played in a local tournament. I’ve tried to mark this team photo to show the boys from Faithful Heart homes.

The orphan girls at Home of Promise received a gift-donation of some pretty new outfits that they posed in for this photo. Back row l-r are: Paula, Hannah, and Sarah. Front l-r are: Gla-theh, and Laura.

This past week we were blessed to work with a mission team from Alabama. They went with us to work at the Christian hill tribe hostel in Mae Chaem. At the hostel, 26 poor village children live with Christian house parents and attend school. The mission team blessed the children with new bunk-beds and they also did some painting and light maintenance to the hostel building. In the evenings, the team and children enjoyed times for worship and VBS type activities. It was great time together serving God by caring for the children.

Pray that the Mae Chaem Hostel can continue to provide a safe Christian home where poor children can attend school and be introduced to Christ as their Lord and Savior.

Grace and peace to you,

Dave & Shirley Callahan

This is the rain-soaked valley of Mae Chaem where the Abundant Grace hill tribe hostel is located.

We helped the mission team paint walls, do some electrical repairs, and assemble new bunk-beds for the children. Here some of the hostel children get unto the fix-up work by cleaning the doors and windows of the hostel.

The mission team from Alabama donated bunk-beds for all of the children. For most of the children, this is their 1^st bed!

Back in Chiang Mai, the rice-farming work continued as the families used the planting machine to transplant the rice shoots. Here Prajuab removes the rice-sod pieces of new rice-shoots from the growing trays. The sod is then rolled and ready for transplant.

Next, the rice-sod pieces of rice-shoots are loaded into the planting machine. As they guide the machine along the Rice-paddy, the machine pulls individual plants from the rice-sod and plants the shoots into the mud in neat rows.  

Dear friends,

Today we want to show some of the work preparing to grow corn and rice crops. Home of Blessing has cleared a hillside field and planted corn near their home village. And several of our orphan homes are working together to plant several acres of rice in the paddy near their small homes. Both agriculture project are in the beginning stages and both have already required a lot of work.

Please pray with us that the work goes well; and that God will reward the effort in ways we cannot even dream of. He is our divine Creator, and all life (and crops) come from Him.

Grace and peace to you,

Dave & Shirley Callahan                     

In the high mountain village, friends and family helped to clear and prepare the field for planting corn.

Already there are sprouts in the rich soil, and the Home of Blessing children are eager to watch it grow.

At our rented land, we paid a man to prepare the muddy rice-paddy with his walk-behind tiller. We hope to purchase one like this, in the future, so we can prepare the fields ourselves and lower our crop cost.

Some boys from Home of Comfort and Home of Blessing helped place trays, holding the rice seedlings, into the paddy That has been mixed into a soupy-muddy base that will nurture the seedlings as they grow large enough to transplant.

After about three weeks in this muddy-watery ooze, the rice sprouts will be about 6-8 inches tall and ready to be transplanted Into the rice paddy. This year we will use a small machine to replant the sprouts. The machine will save time, labor, and expense.

We didn’t send a news letter last week because Shirley & I were traveling. Now we are back home in Chiang Mai, and we have some photos to share.

This shows the Mein children at Happy Hearts dorm. They were helping their house parents plant a vegetable garden. This ministry is located in the mountains northeast of us, near Chiang Klang.

This is an “able” businessman selling rice and bags of mushrooms. Actually it is Abel from Home of Comfort. He was helping to sell some of their project harvest in the roadside market.

At Home of Promise, the young hill tribe girls are learning about God and Jesus, and how to pray.

The family at Home of Blessing is planting corn in a large field in the mountain-slope near their home village. Here we see the boys trekking along the dirt road to reach the new cornfield.

At Home of Grace the boys have started taking weekly piano lessons at the church their family attends. After several lessons, they are very eager to learn and practice – Phillip is playing while Jason and John watch.

Please pray that God will bless and protect every child and each family.

Grace and peace to you,

Dave & Shirley Callahan

June - 2010

 Baht

 Dollar

Start balance on 05/31/2010

      411,972

 $     12,874

Income

      288,860

 $       9,027

Expense

      270,918

 $       8,466

End balance on 06/30/2010

      429,914

 $     13,435

This week we drove over the tallest mountain in Thailand (called Doi Inthanon) to visit the hill tribe hostel we support in Mae Chaem. Like all of our orphan homes, we are encouraging the house parents and leaders of this ministry to find ways to become more self-sufficient. We have helped them to setup a small pig-farm in one of the mountain villages, and we spent the day talking about how things are progressing, and we discussed how to track their project spending and (we pray) their future income from selling the pigs.

Pray that the house parents and the 26 children in this Christian hostel will have great success with this self-help project. And, pray that we all remember to give God our thanksgiving and praise, no matter what the outcome– We can thank God for all of life, and for all of our circumstances.

Philippians 4:5-7 “ The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

God bless you all,

Dave & Shirley Callahan

We stopped along the road to take this photo as we descended into the valley near Mae Chaem.

In the village, we had to cross this mountain stream to reach the secluded area where the pigs are kept.

Their small farm project includes several mature pigs, plus about 10 of these small piglets.

Prajeeb, the house father, is shown cleaning one of the pig pens. They used rough-cut lumber from the dense jungle.

Back at the children’s hostel, Shirley and Mint are shown reviewing the project expenses and a project reporting spreadsheet.

P.S.  To view a couple short videos of the pig farm, click on these links  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?=2UELzECCEqg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?=OW433uLzQJU

We want to share more recent photos…they’re a musical mix, but we always feel the photos are more important than the things I write about. All of the children in our homes are talented in art and music. At a recent gathering, each home presented some special Christian music and songs. We are sooo proud of them all!

“Sing to the Lord, all the earth; proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day.” 1 Chronicles 16:23

At one of our family gatherings, the boys at Home of Blessing entertained us with a song…they are handsome and talented!

On the same evening, all the girls at our new Home of Promise surprised us with a song they’d been practicing.

The boys at Home of Hope blessed us with a song, and a solo by little David (holding Microphone).

Joshua (left) and Timothy (right) are shown really concentrating on their music. They love to sing and it’s apparent in their music.

Please continue to pray for these sweet children and for their house parents.

Grace and peace to you,     

Dave & Shirley Callahan

May 2010

 Thai Baht

$ USD

Account Balance on 4/30/2010

547,997

$17,125

Income

225,506

$7047

Expenses

361,531

$11,298

Account Balance on 05/31/2010

411,972

$12,874

Note:  Exchange rate is $1=32.2  Thai baht