Full house

Ruth 2:11 And Boaz answered and said unto her, It hath fully been shewed me, all that thou hast done unto thy mother in law since the death of thine husband: and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother, and the land of thy nativity, and art come unto a people which thou knewest not heretofore.

Our whole family, plus our volunteer Rauel Reyna and a visiting missionary Amir Davis
From left to Right: Raquel Reyna (Voluteer helping us), Amir Davis (visiting missionary), Nut(15), Chitty(My wife, (25 lol)), Sam(13), Me, Preaw(17), Ice(18), Boot(16), Daonin(14)

Earlier today As I was driving my daughter to the hospital to get a rabies shot, this song popped up on my youtube feed.  As I listened I started to cry.  I was thinking about everything that I given and all the sacrifices I have made, I wondered about the things that I have done and how many people they have affected.  Then I looked in my rear view mirror to make sure that Preaw didn’t see me crying and I saw her and thought about how the sacrifices I have made have changed her life and I started crying more.  I thought about all of the people who sacrificed for me and thought that the sacrifices I have made are not enough.  Sure, in times past I have given everything I own, all of my money, my time, my comfort, my family, my effort and my love but that’s just not enough.  I think about all the friends and family that I have not been able to be there for, my closest friends and family who have died who I haven’t been able to see in their dying days, help them when they needed it or even be there for their funerals.  The pain is real!  It hurts and its hard.  But, Jesus gave up so much more.

Home school masonry class, Preaw and Ice

 

Philippians 2:6-8, ”Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

 

When I read this and think about everything, I want to give up so much more.  Not because I feel like God requires it, but because I want to.  When I look at all of the things God has done for me and all of the ways that God has loved me, provided for me and given me things that I never could have dreamed of, he gave me a new life that it so much better than anything I ever thought I wanted, its only makes sense to sacrifice more.  I want to give God so much more! I am crying right now, because I am blown away by the way that God has used me, how much God has provided for me, because I miss my family and friends, how much more important His mission is than my desires, how much He loves me and how many people He has chosen me to change peoples lives.  Being But a missionary is not easy but knowing that God loves you makes it so much easier.

 

Chinese class, Ice and Preaw

We have decided that we will sacrifice more! We are going to fill our house.  As the school year starts on May 16th we will have 5 teens in our house!

 

 

 

 

 

It is now 2 months since I typed the first few paragraphs and our house is full!  We have 5 teens starting from youngest to oldest, Samson(13), Daonin(14), Nut(15), Preaw(17) and Ice(18), .  We also have a volunteer who has come to help us, Raquel Reyna.  Our house is full to the brim with love!  It has been really awesome to have so many kids here with us, that the sacrifice hardly feels like a sacrifice.  It is amazing how sometimes the hard decisions we have to make feels like we have to sacrifice but in the end it is really just a blessing that you were hesitant to take.  We didn’t like the idea of giving up the freedom we had with only one 17 yr old child, it  seemed hard and didn’t really look like something we wanted to do.  Now, we surely don’t have freedom anymore but we have so much more.  It has been awesome for me to finally have some young men in the house that I can play sports and horse around with.  For my wife it has been nice to have so many girls that she can teach all kinds of things to.  We have had them all here for about a week  and have one more week until school starts and we will be homeschooling two and sending 3 to CAA for school.  We are very excited for school to start.

 

Raquel has been great!  She gives us some of the freedom we lost back but with her limited Thai we still don’t have much, lol.  We have Preaw teaching Raquel how to read and write Thai and they are quickly becoming great friends.  I understand her struggle of wanting to understand, talk, help and do more.  The longer she stays the more help she will be and we are excited to see what God does in her life while she is over here.

Amir teaching Nut how to play guitar

 

Daonin, Preaw and Ice stole the phone.

I want to thank everyone who has prayed for us, encouraged us, or donated to us!  Without all of our friends and brothers and sisters in Christ none of this would be possible!

 

We would also like to mention that we are praying about adopting 2 more girls!  God has put it on our heart to adopt 2 Hmong Thai girls.  Their father was caught with over 1 metric ton of Meth and the mother has decided to give them up.  We do not believe that the children should be punished for the sins of the parents and we are hoping to take them out of the orphanage later this week.  We have no more room in our house, so they would be moving into the dorms of CAA until next year.  Please pray for us!  This would be 8 kids that we are responsible for!  I still cannot believe we have 6 and 2 more seems like overkill!  But we have peace knowing that the Lord would not give us more than we could handle!

 

Also, please pray for the Atwells whose F5 Challenge Center will open on June 10th.  Anyone who has ever opened a business knows the stress that they are under!

 

 

 

If you would like to help support these kids click HERE! 

If you would like to help support our ministry please click HERE!

 

 

We are very grateful to have so many people who care about the education and future of these kids!  We praise God everyday His loving care!  He loves these kids more than we ever could!

One Comment

  • Jeanna Brower

    Praying for all of you but especially the new girls you are trying to get. I know the horrible home life meth creates from experience. Much love

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