Updates on the construction and our travels

Ron is never quite happy with the construction because he finds something not right every day when he goes to the jobsite.    Some items have been critical mistakes, some engineering mistakes are also involved but unskilled workers also have bad workmanship sometimes. The progress is good and they continue to remain on the schedule set at the beginning of the job. The weather has been dry the entire time but we have had a few cold spells to allow workers to have some good days to work.

The block machine makes concrete block smaller than the regular blocks we are used to seeing.  But, the thinner blocks are not as strong.   Instead of putting mortar between them as they are stacked, they are pouring buckets of concrete down inside to bond the blocks together and provide strength for the wall. The wall looks much neater this way so they do not even plan to paint the outside at this time.

I hope, as a non-construction person, I am describing all of this correctly.    I don't understand a lot of things Ron says about the work but I am doing my best to ask questions so I can understand and post it correctly.

The building will be a two-story U shaped building with dorm rooms on the top floor.  The small section you see in the photo above is the center portion of the U.   The first floor will be the kitchen, living area, classrooms, laundry room and restrooms.    A room with bath will be on the second floor for the house parents and one for guests.   Walls are going up for the first floor as you can see.


Ron purchased the steel for the roofing today.   He is helping the superintendent select and buy as much as they can before we leave here.

King, the young man from China, that has been working with us to teach English to the small group of girls we have in Mukdahan, had to return to China to renew his VISA.    The attorney working on his permanent VISA has not yet secured it for King so he is working on a temporary VISA that requires that he leave the country and re-apply.    He just sent us a message from China that he will receive his VISA on Wednesday and will leave on Friday, arriving here on Sunday. .

King and Ron in Bangkok in 2019.    King will take over the petty cash for the jobsite when we leave and handle the purchasing of materials for the jobsite until it is finished.   We trust him with the card to withdraw needed funds from the ATM for the work.   He will be sure to have receipts for everything.  This is very important that it be handled correctly so we are placing a big responsibility on King for the next several months.   We anticipate the building to be completed by summer.

Not only for the sake of the work here but on a personal note, we are thrilled that King will get back to spend one week with us before we leave.  We enjoyed a month with him before he had to leave.

We went through a lot of red-tape and trips to Mukdahan Immigration just to get our VISA extended.  We are leaving Mukdahan on Sunday, March 8th to go to Chiang Mai for just an overnight stay with the minister of the church in this northern Thailand city.   Ron will discuss the possibility of them working with us to locate needy girls to live in the Mukdahan safe house.     We will return to Bangkok and fly to the Philippines on March 11.    We will be with Ronald and Gigi at Casa Esperanza of Angels orphanage in Tanjay, Philippines until March 19.  

We are a little concerned about getting an American Airline flight to the U.S.    We hope to go to South Korea on the 19th and get a seat on AA on March 20 to Dallas.    There is a large outbreak of the coronavirus in South Korea but it is confined to one large city south of Seoul at this time.    We hope it will not spread to prevent the flight from leaving for the U.S.    We flew to Asia via Hong Kong but that flight is not operating now.

There have been a few cases of the virus in Thailand and in the Philippines but it has not been wide-spread.     We will wear masks in the airports and on the flights but do not feel we are at great risk.  They check everyone's temperature before flights and coming into airports but from what I read, there are not always symptoms even when a person is infected.

We would appreciate your prayers for safe travels and good health.     We need to arrive home safe and healthy to continue our next phase of the work for 2020.    God be with you.

Valentine's Day is a Day of Love for Family

Today is Valentine's Day so I can't help but focus on my family that means so much to us.   Our daughter, Leigh Ann Dotson and granddaughter, Tatum Dotson, pictured here, moved to the Port Richey/Clearwater, FL area at the end of 2019.  They both seem very happy to be away from the Georgia winter weather in January and February.    They are both happy the move is over and they are settled into their homes.

Tatum is working with Spearhead Investigators, LLC and they are opening an office in Florida.  She was transferred to head up that office.  Leigh Ann wanted to be close to Tatum so she moved to Florida for that reason.    I have always been close to Leigh Ann and I have treasured that relationship so much and want her to enjoy the same thing with Tatum.

Leigh Ann and Tatum lived in Ronald's house in Woodstock, GA.  We have agreed to move our stored furniture into the house in Woodstock this summer and make it our base home for both us and for Ronald and Gigi.  They return to the U.S. at least once a year to report to their supporters and need a place when they arrive to recover from the long, tiring trip.   We will both continue to share the RV and travel a lot in the U.S. to fund raise for both of our mission works.  

Our son and daughter-in-law, Ronald and Gigi Brown, live in the Philippines.  They are the founders and directors of Casa Esperanza of Angels (Philippine Mission) in Tanjay, Negros Oriental, Philippines.   We visited them in the Philippines in late January, 2019 and plan to spend the last week of March, 2020 there before we return to the U.S. about April 1, 2020, the Lord willing.   They took a five-acre plot of land in the middle of a sugar cane field and have the most lovely orphanage I have ever seen.   They began admitting children to the first house last fall.    They are constructing the second house just for Save Asian Souls to house teenage girls that are at high risk for traffickers.

 

Our family is small but very close.   We are so very thankful for technology so we have a chance to talk almost on a daily basis no matter where we are located.  We all work together with goals to help others in every way we can.   Life is short but our family's loving relationships with each other will never die. Nor will our desire to help children, and others who need our help  

Ron and I had a Valentine's lunch at a Japanese restaurant in Mukdahan, Thailand today with a chocolate treat for dessert at Swenson's, a famous ice cream restaurant.   Truly a celebration of love and thankfulness that everyone is healthy and doing well as God continues to bless us richly.    

We Are Safe - Mentally Ill Everywhere

NAKHON RATCHASIMA, Thailand — A soldier with a grudge gunned down 26 people and wounded 57 in Thailand's worst shooting spree before he was fatally shot inside a mall in the country's northeast on Sunday, officials said.   Officials said the soldier was angry over a financial dispute, first killing two people on a military base and then went on a far bloodier rampage Saturday, shooting as he drove to the mall where shoppers fled in terror.   It took police sharpshooters 16 hours to end the crisis.

Save Asian Souls Newsletter, January, 2020

Mukdahan, Thailand

January 2020

We have been in Mukdahan since Nov. 15, 2019.  We hope to depart for the USA about the first week of April 2020.  From Thailand we have visited some of our safe houses in Nepal (14) and Laos (5).  Our girls at these locations are very happy to be in our safe houses.  They are learning God’s word and safe from the potential trafficking world of evil (sex slavery).  They have a good life and love their house parents. They have a great appreciation for their sponsors in the USA.  Over one hundred have become Christians and are active in the local congregations.

CONSTRUCTION OF A NEW SAFE HOUSE IN MUKDAHAN, THAILAND

Thailand is the center of all trafficking from Southeast Asia. An estimated five million pass through Thailand to other nations and are sold to be sex slaves each year.  They have no idea that they will be sold into slavery.  They believe they will have jobs and a good life because of the lies of the trafficking recruiters. The average age of these girls is 12 to 14 years old.  They are innocent victims of evil trafficking criminals.  Women are often used in trafficking because the girls will more easily trust women than men. 

Our new safe house shown in the photos is under construction and will house 60 vulnerable girls when completed.  We hope to complete the construction by May.  Girls in our temporary house in Mukdahan will be relocated to the new safe house.

The new safe house in Mukdahan will be self-sustaining with a fish pond growing fish, vegetable garden and fruit orchid (papaya, bananas, mango and other fruits.)  Since rice is grown in the local area it will be purchased directly from the farmers at reduced cost.  A program will be established with local retail stores whereby they will provide day old bread and bakery items free of charge to the safe house.

According to the Thailand Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, numbers of foreign children being trafficked to Thailand for sexual exploitation is on the increase. They are trafficked from neighboring countries such as Cambodia, China (Yunnan Province), Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam while Thai children are trafficked into sex businesses abroad, such as in Japan and Australia via Malaysia and Hong Kong. For internal trafficking, the majority of the trafficked victims are hill tribe girls aged around 12 to 16 years old from the north and northeastern part of Thailand. They are usually sent to closed brothels, which operate under prison-like conditions. (Coalition against Trafficking in Women Asia Pacific. Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific cited in Fact book – Thailand.)

GOVERNMENT PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS IN LAOS

On our visit to Laos we visited seven congregations of the Lord’s church along the Mekong River near Luang Prabang, Laos.  We gave aid to 56 families of Christians.  Much more needs to be done to help these poor Christians who have a very difficult life.  The government of Laos hates these Christians because they fought against the communist takeover of Laos many years ago. The government uses many means to persecute our brothers and sisters of Laos.  We have several plans to help these poor Christians have a better life.  We will share these plans with you as we develop more details.

FOURTEEN SAFE HOUSES IN NEPAL

Nepal is one of the poorest nations in the world and yet we have Christians who are very dedicated to our Lord.  We always enjoy our fellowship with these poor brothers and sisters in Christ.  Poverty does not prevent them from serving the Lord.

Nepal is known to be one of the most beautiful countries in the world. However, the fact that Nepal is a poor country stands true. The question of why is Nepal a poor country has emerged over the minds of many. Those who look at the living style of Kathmandu are amazed to know that more than 25.2 percent of Nepal’s population lives below the poverty line.

The employed population of Nepal (almost 12.5%) earns below 1.90 US dollars per day. Out of every 1000 babies born in Nepal, 29 die before their first birthday solely due to poverty.  The following are reasons for the Nepal poverty: political instability, corrupt government, lack of industry, one-fourth of the people live below the poverty line, migration of youth to foreign nations for employment, bad neighbors (China and India), natural disasters and outdated farming practices.

By converting the people to Christianity a great deal of the poverty would be corrected.  Christians always make a better nation of people.  This is a proven fact.  The Lord’s church is growing in Nepal and SAS is saving many lives which would be destroyed in the brothels of India and Arab nations.  Twenty thousand girls are sold into sex slavery from Nepal each year.  Seven thousand girls are sold to the brothels of India each year according to the Nepal government. We have a great opportunity to save the lives and souls of these girls.

NEW SAFE HOUSE UNDER CONSTRUCTION IN THE PHILIPPINES

See the attached photos of our safe house under construction in the Philippines.  Another poor nation which ranks number 68 in the list of poor nations.  Nepal is number 30.   Our Philippine safe house will house 24 girls and we will need much more capacity to stop the flow of girls to Japan brothels.  In the Philippines, prostitution is illegal, but the Philippine sex industry makes $6 billion a year — placing it 9th on the list of the top spenders on prostitution. (Ahead of it is China [$73 billion], Spain [$26.5 billion], Japan [$24 billion], and the United States [US$14.6 billion].)  Filipino girls are purchased by the Japan Mafia at under US$100 each in many cases.  These girls are destroyed by the Mafia.  We must do everything possible to save their lives and souls.  Our new building is a beginning point to save lives and souls of Filipino girls.

BECOME A MEMBER OF OUR TEAM TODAY

If you are not a member of our team, please contact me and enroll in the saving of lives and souls of young innocent girls of Asia.  No, we cannot save all the girls around the world (36 million sex slaves in 2020) but we can save many from death and hell with your help.  Please let us know today that you want to be a part of this good work for the Lord.

In His service,

Ron & Pat Brown with over two hundred team members making a life for poor Asian girls and giving them hope of eternal life.

Back at "home" in Mukdahan, Thailand

We made the return trip to Mukdahan on Wednesday without any problems.    I will post a few pictures of the Himalayan Mountains and the cities as we were leaving Katmandu and landing in Narayangarh.    We were on a small twin engine Yeti Airlines plane on the way to Narayangarh.

Katmandu is a large area situated between mountain ranges.   They are in the distance as you travel through the congested city.   Shops and small homes are packed in tightly.    Many tourists come here for tours to see the mountains.  We saw groups from China and Japan and many individual European or American tourists in the airports and hotels.  There are flights into the mountain regions and helicopter trips as well.   There are always clouds and fog so the chances are great that you won't get as good a view as you were hoping for

Arriving in Narayangarh, you immediately see a difference in the housing.    Most buildings are 2 or 3 stories.   Our workers may rent an entire floor of a building for their housing.   Many families will live in the same building.   Some are very beautiful buildings; others are run-down and need a lot of repair.   They all have nice tile floors inside.  Mountains also surround Narayangarh so there is always early morning fog.  It never gets below freezing for any length of time but it does get cold in these winter months.    Many trees were flowering and flowers blooming everywhere, including a bush of double poinsettias at the small guest house where we stayed.  

From the airplane window, the clouds and mountains almost blend but what you see in the distance is the ridge of mountains.  

On the entire trip, we only observed two people coughing.    Many were wearing masks in fear of the virus because at least one case has been reported in Nepal.    The airport in Katmandu and Bangkok were checking everyone's temperatures and upon arrival they point a thermometer toward your forehead to check for a fever.

Waiting in the Narayangarh airport to return home.

We are settled in our room again and Ron is going to the jobsite each day for part of the day to be sure things are going well.    They are now laying blocks for the walls as the foundation is completed.  They cannot make blocks as fast as the workers are laying them because the blocks have to "cure" three days before they can be used.    Ron's biggest problem now is keeping enough money on hand for purchasing materials and paying the labor workers.    He also groans about the petty cash reports keeping receipts for everything and identifying everything properly for accounting purposes.

Our days will be routine until the middle or last of March when we leave for a week in the Philippines and then a return to the U.S.   The picture above is the new house at the Casa Esperanza of Angels orphanage in Tanjay, Philippines.     It should have the roof on and more progress made by the time we get there to see it.    It is designed to house 24 girls.

Short visit to Nepal

If you read this blog before I get back to Mukdahan, some pictures will not appear because I forgot to bring the cable to download my camera pictures.   The picture that are posted were taken by others.   

I will add my pictures in a few days if you want to go back and look at the rest of the pictures.


Our travels to Nepal took three days.   We did not make the connection on the 2nd day so we had to stay overnight in Katmandu and not arrive until Saturday.    We were flying Thai Lion airline and when coming into Katmandu, it seemed the plane was coming in too fast and at the last minute the pilot pulled up and climbed to a high altitude and made the approach again.    Once we were up, he announced it was an "unstable landing" so they decided to make the approach again.    We are glad he did because we had a safe landing on the second try.   We were an hour late landing and as we were on the bus heading to the terminal, our plane heading to Narayangarh was on the runway ready to take off.    After we went through immigration, we walked to the domestic terminal to change our flight for the next day.

Ron had searched for a hotel on-line and saw they had one Holiday Inn so he asked a taxi driver to take us there.   After a bit of discussion with other taxi drivers and pulling it up on his GPS, he said OK and we took off.   Last year, we stayed in a hotel near the airport but it was even below Ron's standard and he didn't want to stay there this time.   It was rush hour traffic at 5 p.m. so we got right in the middle of traffic and bad driving that would take your breath away.    I literally closed my eyes a couple of time because I believed we would crash.   Motor scooters and all types of vehicles were everywhere merging in and out with inches to spare.   We went through the downtown area and through market areas and alleyways and it did not appear that we were anywhere near a hotel district.  Ron and I looked at each other with a worried look.   The GPS had the driver turn down an alley and said our destination would be on the right.   (The GPS language was in English and our driver spoke very good English, to our surprise).   We were in an alley too small for the van to drive down and above a door way in that alley was a sign that said "Holiday Inn."    They probably did have rooms in that building but it was not an area of town where we felt safe.  They had only copied the name "Holiday Inn."

The driver said "This is not the Holiday Inn you thought it would be?"  We said "NO."   He said he would take us to a good hotel not far away so we ended up at a Marriott and had a really beautiful room with a senior discount.    Ron is still groaning about the price but we had all free rooms here, a free guest house room in Bangkok and I told him one night was not going to make that much difference in the expenses.

We had to be at the airport by 8 a.m. for our 9 a.m. flight the next morning..   We didn't know how the traffic would be early morning but it was not bad at all and we were there too early.   We got a muffin and coffee and waited for our flight in a very cold airport that is much like a warehouse with no heat.  The plane was delayed due to fog in Narayangarh so it could not take off until 10:30.     We flew Yeti Airlines with a very young Nepalese female pilot.   It was a small plane with about 14 seats.   I did get a few pictures of the mountains in the far distance.  


When we landed, our workers were there to meet us with a taxi for us.   When we arrived at the Himalayan School of Preaching which is next to the small guest house where we stay,  we were greeted by the staff of the school and our girls that live in this location.  It is traditional to give flowers and drape scarves around the neck of visitors to welcome them.  

You'll see from the pictures that we received a royal welcome.

The little girl in the pink coat has a tumor in her throat (maybe on the thyroid gland) and one doctor has taken a biopsy and said it is cancer    We have given advise to get a second opinion and then give us the results and we will try to work things out with Christians in Bangkok to help and get her treatment there    If it is cancer, she needs to get there soon.   She has been in one of our safe houses for a year.  The minister who oversees her brought her to meet Ron in hopes of finding medical care for her.   Her father is dead and her mother said she had never had a problem before.    She is 14 and in the 7th grade.  Her name is Sonu Rumba.   We would appreciate prayers for her.   

Our girls had to return to school so the welcoming party did not last long.   We unloaded our bags and our workers took us to the market to get things we wanted for three days (breakfast items, things for sandwiches, some soup mixes, drinks and fruit).

Saturday night we went to Ranjit's house (he is one of our workers) for his nine-year-old daughter's birthday party.   A lot of people were there so we had good fellowship with them.   They were happy to see us again this year and had many questions about our health and life.

Early Sunday morning our workers had a power point video to show us about our girls in the various locations since we were not able to travel to visit them this year.    We got a very good overview of the work and how things are going.

The church services began at 12:00.   Ron preached and Sagar, the director of the preaching school, translated.    A few of our girls skipped class and came to attend the worship.   We had the afternoon free to rest and then had dinner at Sagar's house on Sunday night.

Monday morning, we went over things with our workers.   In the afternoon, we spent some time with the NGO members (Non-Government Organization) that is registered to keep us legally working in Nepal.  All of the board members are symbolic leaders.   They are mostly from the staff at the preaching school or wives of the staff members.  

Some of our girls came by to visit with us.   Two of our girls have lumps (one in the breast and one under her arm) that I looked at and we have explained to our worker that each girl must get a needle biopsy to be sure its not cancer.   They are sisters and their names are Menuka and Kalpana Sunar.

It has been cold to Ron and me.   A small heater in the house has kept the temperature inside about 65 degrees.   The morning low is about 48 degrees and the sun brings the temperature up to about 70 outside about mid-afternoon.    They love the weather even though they have no heat in their homes

We will leave tomorrow about 11 a.m. and hope the morning fog has lifted by that time so we can make the connection in Katmandu to arrive in Bangkok about 7:45 p.m. tomorrow night.    We will stay overnight at the airport hotel because we have an early flight the next morning.   We will take the Air Asia van back to Mukdahan by the end of the day on Wednesday.