Hoay Maw

Day 1 - Learning - Mandarin video MP2 format - 164MB

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Day 2 - Living - Mandarin video MP2 format - 174MB

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Day 3 - Working - Mandarin video MP2 format - 173MB

Norwegian Vidoes

Day 1 - Learning - Norwegian video MP2 format - 160MB

Day 2 - Living - Norwegian video MP2 format - 170MB

Day 3 - Working - Norwegian video MP2 format - 170MB

DVD ISO Image - burn as DVD - 1120MB

Nation Shaker Videos

Day 1 - Learning - Nation Shaker video MP2 format - 160MB

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Day 2 - Living - Nation Shaker video MP2 format - 170MB

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Day 3 - Working - Nation Shaker video MP2 format - 170MB

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Combined Nation Shaker video MP2 format - 380MB

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DVD ISO Image - burn as DVD - 1.04GB

Translation of the Hoay Maw Videos into Norwegian The Hoay Maw videos are now being translated into Norwegian with the help of 10 yr old Adelaine. Adelaine and her family from Norway have been based in Chiang Mai for over 7 years. Adelaine attends the English speaking Grace International School for children of missionaries, aka MKs (Missionary Kids). It is important for Adelaine to keep up her Norwegian language skills and so this was an ideal project for her.

First of all, Adelaine translated each of the three Hoay Maw videos from English into Norwegian. Her Mum and Dad helped her check the script. Then we recorded the narration which Adelaine managed to do very efficiently and with excellent expression.

Adelaine's Family Introduced us to Hoay Maw

When we first visited Thailand on an Easter holiday 2005, it was Adelaine's parents who first introduced us to the Hoay Maw Children's Home where they had been involved for some time. That visit made a lasting impression on us and on our return to the UK, we felt moved to continue praying for Hoay Maw and to involve the children at our home church, Arun Community Church, to also pray and raise support to help them.

A leader who oversees mission advised us that it would be difficult to bring about long-term change without having someone "on the ground". We wondered who that "someone" might be!?

The following Easter (2006) we visited Thailand again and it was then that we felt God calling us to move out to help the children at Hoay Maw more effectively. At that time, Adelaine's family were about to return to Norway for one school year and so their furnished house would be available. In August 2006, our family came out to Thailand. We stayed in Adelaine's house and continued the role that her family had been playing at Hoay Maw. Our original intention had been to stay in Thailand for one school year but three years on we are still here!

After the first year, Adelaine's family returned and we rented another house. We continue to work closely together with Adelaine's parents.

Another important connection is with the Norwegian charity Open Hands who have been significant regular supporters of Hoay Maw.

The Norwegian version of the Hoay Maw videos soon be available and we hope this will help Open Hands promote their work with existing and new supporters.

For videos in Thai, please see here.
สำหรับวิดีโอในไทยโปรดดูที่นี่.

Spring Harvest April 2009: Day 1 - Learning

• High Resolution Video (50MB MP4)
• Low Resolution Video (11MB MP4)
• Full Resolution DVD Quality (152MB MPeg2)

Spring Harvest April 2009: Day 2 - Living

• High Resolution Video (53MB MP4)
• Low Resolution Video (11MB MP4)
• Full Resolution DVD Quality (158MB MPeg2)

Spring Harvest April 2009: Day 3 - Working

• High Resolution Video (54MB MP4)
• Low Resolution Video (11MB MP4)
• Full Resolution DVD Quality (163MB MPeg2)

Spring Harvest April 2009: DVD Image

Spring Harvest DVD Image (540MB DVD ISO)
(you can use most DVD image burners to generate the DVD - example, CDBurnerXP. This ISO is a DVD image)

For videos in English, please see here.
สำหรับวิดีโอที่เป็นภาษาอังกฤษกรุณาดูที่นี่.

Spring Harvest เมษายน 2009: วันที่ 1 - การเรียนรู้

• เต็มคุณภาพมติดีวีดี (Full Resolution DVD Quality) - 155MB MPeg2

Spring Harvest เมษายน 2009: วันที่ 2 - ใช้ชีวิต

• เต็มคุณภาพมติดีวีดี (Full Resolution DVD Quality) - 164MB MPeg2

Spring Harvest เมษายน 2009: วันที่ 3 - การทำงาน

• เต็มคุณภาพมติดีวีดี (Full Resolution DVD Quality) - 168MB MPeg2

Spring Harvest Proposal

In October, Nick Jackson of Powerpack encouraged us to propose the Hoay Maw children's home as the offering project for the children's groups at Spring Harvest 2009. We were excited by the idea and so we submitted a proposal and prayed.

Our proposal included a DVD containing testimonies of some of the children and some videos that we had already prepared:

• Hoay Maw Spring Harvest Proposal...
• Video shown at Powerpack at Kingdom Faith 2008 to raise money for school costs
• A day in the life at Hoay Maw

Powerpack's Heather Thompson in Thailand

After some busy months we were enjoying a visit from Heather Thompson of Powerpack. We had an amazing time doing children's ministry training and children's conferences. We saw God moving powerfully among leaders and children alike. See Powerpack diaries We had just taken Heather to visit Hoay Maw. Heather had remarked on the progress that had been made since her visit the previous year. We commented to Heather that what would really help, would be an injection of funds to help raise the standard of the quality of the home e.g. if Hoay Maw could be chosen as the Spring Harvest children's offering project! We sent up a silent prayer.

We drove back down the mountain to stay the night in Mae Sai and began preparing for the next day's training. We were all in a room practising drama and puppets when an email arrived from Nick with the good news that Hoay Maw had been selected as the Spring Harvest offering project.

We were overjoyed and praised God!

Our Friend Agnes

Then came the challenge of how to produce good quality video stories. We prayed about whom we might be able to ask for advice and help. When back in Chiang Mai, I emailed our good friend Agnes in Singapore. Agnes had been involved in media during her career. Agnes had recently visited us and helped us organise the Christmas "Blessings in a Bag for Hoay Maw. Agnes was quite busy but spoke to her friend, Vairam, a video professional, about the project. Vairam has his own business called MediaCom. We were totally amazed at God's provision when we received an email from Agnes saying that she would pay for Vairam's flight from Singapore to Chiang Mai, and Vairam would give his time and skills in exchange for "some food and a mat on the floor"!

Video Vairam

After a few skype calls with Vairam, the plans were set in place. Although we didn't know each other, it was truly amazing how we were able to quickly plan and work together. Vairam visited for 5 days. We had prepared a script to link in with the Spring Harvest daily themes. Our two boys, Tom and David, had school commitments and so they stayed in Chiang Mai with friends, whilst our daughter, Jessica, obtained permission to miss a day of school to join us and help narrate and present the videos.

Newcomers

When we arrived at Hoay Maw we found that two new children had arrived. They were a brother and sister aged 5 and 3. They looked nervous as we tried to make friends with them. You can see them feature in Spring Harvest videos. It was a blessing to see the children begin to relax and smile as other children from Hoay Maw befriended them and helped them begin to settle in.

Filming

At end of Thai school, we went over to the school to film the children there. After that, we filmed the children in Chinese school. In the evening we filmed the children in the Church and then doing homework.

We explained to the children about Spring Harvest and they were very interested and excited to help make the videos.

The next day was a full one, trying to make sure that we captured all of the filming that we needed. By getting up early, we managed to film quite a few sequences as the children were gathering wood, collecting eggs and working in the vegetable farm.

The filming for the "Living at Hoay Maw" story included sequences with Jessica presenting to camera with the girls in the bedroom, clothes area, and bathroom. Oranuk is the girl who Jessica asks to show her around. Although the two girls could not understand each other's language, they did a great job interacting together.

The children at Hoay Maw had a lot fun in the filming, especially as we shot sequences of them waving and sending greetings to Spring Harvest. We tried to make the filming as natural as possible and were able to get the majority of the filming as the children were genuinely involved in the various tasks.

Mission Accomplished

On Saturday evening, we set off back to Chiang Mai. Vairam stayed a further 3 days to help us begin putting the videos together. We know that we couldn't possibly have achieved such a good quality without Vairam's expertise and so we thank God for that gift and we thank Agnes and Vairam for their part.

Jenny and Adrian finished the editing including selecting music, recording Jessica's voice-over and mixing the sound.

We wanted to use the music "Call to Freedom" by Terl Bryant with Psalm Drummers. We were able to contact Terl and were delighted that he gave us permission to use the track. We love the heartbeat of the music.

Through working on the videos, it showed us how much the children and staff at Hoay Maw have achieved. When we first visited everything looked so poor and helpless. They were hopelessly under-resourced. The children had been eating only rice for months on end. We actually thought that maybe the best thing would have been to try and close the home. There have been many challenges and it was a long process to begin to encourage Hoay Maw to start to take responsibility for themselves and to be faithful stewards of the very little that they have. They have been faithful in the small, and now they are being blessed with more.

We actually felt that the children at Hoay Maw have a great deal to teach the children in the West - perhaps there is potential for a schools program!

We hope that the children at Spring Harvest will really enjoy getting to know the children at Hoay Maw and that they will realise that they can be Nation Shakers! That by praying and giving they can make a real difference in the lives of the children at Hoay Maw. Thank you Spring Harvest, God Bless you - Bye!

See the Spring Harvest Videos ...

Last week, our family attended Kingdom Faith, a Christian church conference, in Peterborough where we helped out with the Powerpack children groups.

Jenny, Adrian, Tom and Jessica (part time) helped with the 7 to 9 year olds in "Powerpack", while David helped with the 5 to 6 year olds in "Livewires".

This year's Powerpack mission focus was the orphanage in Hoay Maw - in particular, the educational needs of the 77 children.

During the week, Adrian and Jenny presented to the "Powerpack" group about the Hoay Maw children's home, with particular attention to the children's education, as we were wanting to raise money to help the orphans attend school.

• Monday - introduction to Hoay Maw
• Tuesday - about the facilities and where the children come from
• Wednesday - pigs and vegetables
• Thursday - schooling
• Friday - summary

At the end of the week, the children and their families raises £268.03, which will go towards the educational costs of the children. Exact details of how the money will be spend will be published later.

Thank you!

We are also starting up a sponsorship programme for the children of Hoay Maw to cover the ongoing costs of the children - more details to follow (to include sponsoring the cost of a child's toothpaste...)

Adrian

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

We had the privilege to stay at Hoay Maw for a 24 hour period where we were able to document a day in the life of the children of Hoay Maw.

Their schedule was as follows

• 5.30am wake up and get dressed
• 6:00am prayers and worship in church led by house-parents
• 6:15am Chores – sweeping, litter picking, make beds, tidy shoes
• 6:40am Breakfast of rice with some chillies and egg mixed in 7:00am Line up and walk to school – more chores at school
• 8:00am School starts
• 12noon Eat packed lunch at school (rice from breakfast)
• 3:30pm Home from school
• 4:00pm Chinese school for 2 hours
• 6:00pm Play and Meal
• 7:00pm Time in church
• 8:00pm Homework (or “family group” time on Fridays)
• 9-10pm Bed-time

The children have a very long hard day compared to that which most children are used to. It was
however a joy to capture fun moments as the children are developing relational and recreational skills
in their “family groups”.

You can download the video below:

• Full Resolution MP4 141MB (if your player does not play this, try using VLC which does)
• Low Resolution MP4 30MB (if your player does not play this, try using VLC which does)
• Full Resolution MP2 DVD Quality - VERY LARGE 574MB file

Piglets!

As you can see from the video above, these piglets have already studied the Bible stories about the Exodus and taking the Promised Land (flowing with milk, and honey?) - they have now moved on to re-enacting:

* 40 years wandering around aimlessly, bumping into each other
* Marching around the enemy to get them to collapse, before...
* ...ATTACK!!

A rare photo that includes...me

These 10 piglets were born to the smaller mother pig from the children's home in Hoay Maw.

The large mother pig is also heavily pregnant and is due to deliver within the next month.

The safe arrival of these piglets marks a significant milestone for the home. These, along with the big mother's piglets-to-be, should provide the home with a regular supply of fresh pork, and for the possibility to sell excess pigs to contribute towards income generation.

These piglets have been produced from mother pigs which have been purchased specifically for the children's home.

We were also delighted to see that they had planted a small crop of vegetable on the South-facing slope next to the boys dorm. This, along with a crop of mushrooms they have ordered, will provide a healthy supplement to their diet.