All our Work is done by Volunteers
There are some people who assume we benefit from doing this work. To us it is sort of funny to even hear such things and we laugh about it. If those people just knew …how we started and how we took one step at a time to go forward. It was lots of learning and lots of frustration to learn how to run Non-Profit organization.
Truth is that we are all working as volunteers, so …we are not paid. We do this work on our spare time, and we do it because we care. Most of these Blogs are written late in the evening or in the middle of the night. We simply believe this is what God wants us to do and that is why we do this work.
We ask your prayers for Persecuted Christian families in Thailand. They have prayed million prayers for a better future, and they still keep praying. How can we leave them in their despair and simply walk away ?
Our founder was himself a Refugee in Thailand for 6 years. He suffered greatly and one day in the midst of his own personal struggle and despair he said to the Lord:
“If I ever get out of here – I will do everything in my power to help others “
After he came to Canada, those words came back to haunt him. He was struggling greatly in Canada for many reasons, but his heart was challenged by God and the Promise he had made to Him. He told us many stories of his time in Thailand. I wrote them down and kept asking more questions and soon we all got a very clear picture. We soon understood what kind of life Persecuted Christians have in Thailand. I wrote down his life story and studied online night and day about Refugee issues across the world. It became crystal clear that Christian Refugees were living in the midst of a real nightmare. Most of the time the children are too young to understand the seriousness of their situation, but the parents knew well what the risks were. But it won’t take too long before the children realize the reality they are facing as a family.
As we continued to discuss these issues -we came to the conclusion, that we must do something, and we started Hearts and Hands for Refugees Canada with $ 50.00 in our pocket. That was our beginning. We learned as we went along, and we had to learn fast.
I had never been computer savvy, and I had to take care of Media. Our Founder dealt with our first family in Thailand. He knows the Culture, he understands the struggles, language etc. That was definitely his category, and he was good at it. Nobody could fool him, he knew too much, and he was good. And he was tough. He demanded honesty from everyone and confronted lies. Pretty soon, the word went around that it is no use to try to fool him, he simply won’t fall for it. Our first family is still with us, and we love them. They are the most special family in our hearts.
I learned to create postcards and posters -which I had never even thought about -in my entire life. But by golly, I sure learned fast. Most of it came with many tears and frustration. It was hard, but I learned, and I made beautiful postcards 🙂 Sleepless nights paid off and we rejoiced. We went to Mission Central and showcased our work in Chilliwack and it was a wonderful time to share what God had done but also to fellowship with other believers. And yes…we gave out hundreds of postcards created in the middle of the night…. 🙂
Our Founder had by now – more than our first family to deal with. We had soon several families. We learned the good, bad and sad about this work. We learned that some people are not honest. Some lie to us. Some were leaning towards all kinds of things we could not support, and we took a stand. We only support people who TRULY need help and have no one else to help them. We only support people who are honest and speak openly from their heart. When we felt they deceived us -we spoke up. There were many hard things to learn. Many tears and prayers and concerns.
Like any Non-Profit -we learned by doing and dealing with many unusual situations. The good about it all was that we LOVED every minute of it. We prayed day and night for our families and we loved each family we sponsored. They became our family. Their sorrows we carried close to our hearts and their happy messages brought joy to us.
Meanwhile, our Founder struggled settling to Canada and finding a good steady job and survive here and yet in spite of it all – we rejoiced that God was blessing our work and the people in Thailand were encouraged in faith and rejoicing for answered prayers.
We are proud to tell anyone; we do not take one penny -from this work -into our pocket. It all goes to our families, and we love the fact that God allowed us to do this work.
We underline the word: God ALLOWED us to do this work. It is God who opens the Doors. It is God who gives us Strength. It is God who gives us JOY. We are simply servants.
Our families have prayed for years and years for answers to their prayers. We are simply answer to those Prayers and their mothers’ prayers. Persecuted Christians live a very hard life. They cannot even put into words the years of anxiety they have carried silently inside. The concern for their children’s future and trying to be strong while their own hearts are heavy with concern.
By the way, our Founder is a very good speaker. You should invite him to your Church to share his testimony.
He can tell you, some of what he went through and how GOD delivered him from danger many times over. He carries many scars from his years in Thailand. We know that our God is Good. He heals the hearts that are committed to Him and His Purposes. We give thanks to the Lord for what He has done and what He will do in the future. We trust Him to help our families and bring them to Canada.
The Lord is Good and His Mercy Endures forever. Amen.
