Update on Save Asian Souls' Girls

Schools have closed in Laos, Nepal and Thailand so all of our girls are confined to the various safe house homes.   As far as we know, everyone is safe.

Workers are also restricted from travel and are working from home.   There are only a few cases of the coronavirus in Laos and Nepal.   There are more in Thailand but probably mostly in Bangkok, not in Mukdahan, where we now have 10 girls in a temporary safe house.    The new safe house under construction is up to the second floor now but they are restricting people from other areas to come into the city. That may affect some of the construction workers who come from another city unless they just stay in Mukdahan.   The nice mall that we enjoyed so much there has closed.  

We received these pictures from our workers in Luang Prabang, Laos.   The girls are taking precaution using masks whenever they are outside the house.

Girls studying at home until school opens again 

While we fret....

While we adults fret because of the tight restrictions to stay home during the coronavirus the children at Casa Esperanza of Angels are having a great time.    Gigi planned a summer of activities for the children but when the schools closed, she put the plan into action.   Each day during the week, the children have classes in various subjects, crafts and all kinds of activities. I've asked Gigi to write up a little about what they are doing when she has time and I will add that to my blog with greater details.  Gigi's teacher skills are proving very valuable!

The tent where the church services are held now is the location for their summer classes.   There is a good breeze through it and it is spacious to do the crafts and activities.    A computer system can be used for video lessons.    

Gigi said the children come too early as she is setting up and she has to send them back home for 15 minutes to allow her time to get things in order.   That is how excited the children are to come for the classes. 

A new boy (10 years old) came to live at Casa about a week ago.   For a few days, it was difficult for him but now he is fitting right in and having a wonderful time.  They hope to get permission to bring his sisters to live here soon.

The girls are living with different uncles but the government needs to locate their mother to get permission so the uncles will release the girls.   The little boy was in a government facility so it was easier to process him into the system to accept him at Casa Esperanza of Angels.   Things are going great and the children are very happy.    

Safe in the Philippines.

We continue to do well while we await the time when restrictions are lifted and we can return to the U.S.    No one has any idea when that will be.  The Philippines has continued to tighten the isolation through the 15th of April but it may be extended past that time if cases of the virus continue to erupt.

We are so blessed to have this nice home for the time we have tight restrictions.   We have the sitting room right off the bedroom at the upstairs windows/balcony you see in this picture.    We have a window air-conditioner in the bedroom to keep the two rooms comfortable.   It is in the 90's each day with a humidity of 65% or more so it feels very hot in the afternoons.   We have had very little rain since we arrived in the Philippines on March 11th.

 These are views from the front porch looking toward the street.  

We have been confined to the house for more than a week because everyone over 65 is supposed to stay home.   Beginning on April 3rd, the town will be isolated from other cities with routes to Dumaguete and other cities restricted.   For 14 days, everyone is supposed to stay home except for those who have to be out.   There are only small markets in this small town so some people will go out each day for items they can buy at these small stores.   The large grocery in Dumaguete will not be available for us so Ronald and Gigi have stocked up food for us and for the orphanage to last two weeks.    They went on Tuesday and found a long line waiting to get into the store early in the morning.   Only a few were allowed at a time to come in.   Starting April 3rd, only one member of a household can go to buy food.  

We are much safer here than in the U.S. with the rapid growth of hot spots in various cities.   We could do nothing but stay in the parked RV and just go for food and nothing else.   We hope the next two weeks will show a decline in the number of cases in the Philippines and in the U.S.  

Please, everyone stay home and abide by the restrictions so this will end soon.   We pray for everyone and hope we can see better days very soon.   We have no idea when we will get to return to the U.S. but we will keep posting our situation here as more things develop.    

SAS Newsletter, Feb. 2020

SAVE ASIAN SOULS

Tanjay, Philippines

February 2020

Our mission started in Nov. 2019.  We are amazed at the changes in our world since we arrived in Asia.  Our construction in Mukdahan has gone well and the new safe house should be completed by June 2020.  We actually hope to move some girls in as early as May.  Our visits to Laos and Nepal were successful and rewarding.  Many lives and souls are being saved.

Then, the Coronavirus started and our life has been difficult ever since this horrible virus started.  We arrived in Tanjay, Philippines March 11^th and planned to return to the USA on March 19^th.  We were dreaming because we now have no idea when we will be able to return to the USA.  The nearest airport to Tanjay is Dumaguete. We received notice Sunday that the airport will be closed for up to 30 days with no flights to Cebu.  From Cebu we had planned to fly to Japan and on to Houston.  We came to Asia through Hong Kong but we cannot go back through Hong Kong for obvious reasons. We have moved from the hotel to a house of a friend to reduce our cost for the balance of our time here.

Several Christians in the US have written and asked what they could do to help us during this crisis and the only thing we can suggest is pray for us.  We are making every effort to avoid the virus and we think we have enough funds to purchase food for a month.  We will let you know of any other needs.  Eventually, there will be a shortage of food here because all food comes by ferry.  The ferry is not permitted to operate now.  My son has a very good vegetable and fruit garden.  We hope this will help provide food for many people.  See photos.

CONSTRUCTION OF THE PHILIPPINE SAFE HOUSE

The photos below show the progress of the new safe house for the Philippines. The new safe house in the Philippines will be self-sustaining with a fish pond growing fish, vegetable gardens and fruit orchids (papaya, bananas, mango and other fruits.) The facilities will not be totally self-sustaining. 

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 for the girls in our care.  This is our basic plan for all areas but it has been slow in developing in Nepal.

We hope 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.

Each year, we visit with you or your congregation (our team members) and you give us a check to help save lives and souls of innocent Asian girls. Needless to say, we appreciate your support and prayers.  This year, if possible, we would like to ask you to mail the check now to Save Asian Souls, % Guaranty Bank, 3101 Wind River Ln., Denton, TX 76210. The funds will be deposited into Save Asian Souls account.  We, if we ever get a flight from the Philippines, will try to see you this summer.  We love and appreciate every member of our team.  You are important to reaching our goal.

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 (37 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.

We May Not Come Home!

Ron was really upset that we got trapped here in Tanjay, Negros Oriental, Philippines because he felt he needed to return to fund raising after being in Asia since the middle of November.  But, the more we learned of the spread of the virus in the U.S., the shut down of everything and the majority of the churches going to on-line services, we began to realize we could not do much there.

We were the only guests at the hotel the entire time we stayed in Melanie's Garden Hotel.  When we checked out they were closing the hotel to guests until further notice.

Staying in place here is just fine, especially since Gigi's family has come to our rescue.

Gigi's aunt, Anita, who has been my friend on Facebook, lives in CT.  She offered us  her house while we are here.   She also owns the restaurant where they gave us the surprise anniversary luncheon last week.   Gigi's sister manages that restaurant and one of the workers lives here in the house to keep it clean and care for the plants but it is a big house and we hardly see her.   She comes in after we go to bed and leaves each morning.    We have the upstairs master bedroom with two sitting rooms so it is like a suite in a five-star hotel.  Ron loves the small room with a couch where he can lean back and work on his computer without having any back pain.

There are window air conditioners so we can keep this small living area cool enough during the middle of the day when it is very hot.  It is in the 90's each afternoon with about 65% humidity so it does feel hot about 2 p.m.   We are staying very comfortable.   There are two balconies from our sitting rooms.  

  Beautiful tropical views of the plants and trees!

The stairs and upstairs floors are very beautiful wood floors.   The downstairs is very spacious with a large living room with beautiful white tile floors, two dining rooms, kitchen and a full bath.  I could not post all of the pictures to give a complete tour of this beautiful home.  

Ronald stayed here for a month before they married while they were planning the wedding.  That was seven years ago, last September.   The first time he came to meet Gigi, he stayed in the same hotel where we were staying before moving into the house.   All of this has a very special meaning to our families.   

One of Gigi's sisters got us an internet connection and the other sister presented Ron with a cheesecake with blueberry topping.   Ronald and Gigi stocked our fridge so we have everything we need.

Now, we are wondering if we will ever come home!    What do you think?  

We are very grateful for Gigi's aunt's generous offer to allow us to use her house while we are confined to the island.    When they closed the airport and ferry service to other islands, they said it would be for 30 days but I am sure that depends on how things proceed with virus outbreaks.   They have closed the mall, which housed the big, nice grocery store in Dumaguete, the larger town about 40 minutes away.   All public things have been cancelled and a curfew began yesterday from 8 p.m. until 5 a.m.    The local bus service has limited hours and accepts fewer passengers.  There is less traffic on the roads with fewer people taking pedicabs.  What a difference we see since we arrived March 11th.   

Ron went to a couple of small stores this morning to get a few things.  They are well-stocked and we see no hoarding or panicking.   The island is isolated from anything coming from other ports so food shortage could be a problem if this lockdown continues too long.

We are well-situated to ride out the storm of this virus wave so please do not worry about us.   We are not around other people very much so we are probably safer than we would be in the U.S.  

The best part of being here is the time we can spend with Ronald and Gigi and the children.   We will go there tomorrow morning for services in the tent.   The house father will present the sermon tomorrow morning and Ronald will conduct the service on Sunday night.   They accepted a new boy this week so we will get to meet him tomorrow.   Ron will preach next Sunday.  

We will continue to go out to the orphanage each day for awhile.  Ron is having a morning Bible study with Jessica, the social worker.   She is a very nice person.  She wants to help train these children to be responsible adults and give them a good life.   Along with the house parents, Ronald and Gigi, we are confident these children will be given a wonderful life.   

Schools are closed.  The children said they missed school so Gigi is starting their summer activities on Monday.   They have a complete schedule with Gigi, the house parents and the social worker, taking turns and conducting classes and activities.   They will be learning Bible stories, songs and verse memorization, coloring, crafts and classes on various subjects and things of interest to children.  I think the children will thoroughly enjoy the program and not miss school.   Gigi's experience of being a teacher for 21 years will pay off to provide the children with a better education than they would even get at school.

Anniversary Surprise

I knew it was on the schedule for all of us to go to Annie's Restaurant for lunch on Sunday.    Although it was our 62nd anniversary, I begged Ronald and Gigi to just take us to lunch and not plan anything special. I should have known better because Gigi loves to pamper us and she and her family enjoy parties.  We walked into Annie's Restaurant, managed by Gigi's sister and saw the beautifully decorated red and white tables.  The serving table was loaded with delicious trays of food and the dessert table had a stand with cupcakes, fruit and several other delicious desserts made by Gigi's sister who owns a bake shop.   Gigi made the beautiful Happy Anniversary over the dessert table.   It was too pretty to eat but we enjoyed all of it.

I was presented with a bouquet of red roses and each of the children came up to say Happy Anniversary and gave us a card that each of them had made.    Gigi's mom and aunt presented us with a necklace made of tiny seashells. 

After the first worship service in the tent structure, the luncheon topped off the wonderful day.   We enjoyed it so much and really appreciated the efforts of everyone that made it all possible.

Field Trip with the Children

On Saturday, the children were surprised to learn that we were taking a field trip to a small zoo.
The childern had never been to a zoo so they were fascinated to see the large albino python and quite a few other animals, including a large tiger.  A big white turkey followed us around trying to frighten us away and even walked all the way into the exit building as we were leaving clucking and flapping his wings to try to frighten us.  

We then had lunch at Joe's by the Seashore restaurant.   It is a very big and nice restaurant overlooking the ocean view toward the island of Cebu.   We had delicious BBQ roasted chicken on skewers, rice and cokes and the children thoroughly enjoyed the good lunch.   

We drove across the street up a hillside and toured a beautiful garden. The children got to run up and down the hills and enjoy the beautifully landscaped gardens with small buildings and a peaceful place to spend time in meditation and prayer.

Gigi took my picture with some of the beautiful trees and I had to stop to have my picture made with some ceramic monkeys in front of a building made entirely from bamboo!

A Tour of Casa Esperanza of Angels

We visited the orphanage the last week of January, 2019.   A lot has changed since that time.   The house being built for Save Asian Souls' girls is well underway.  It is on the left.

The first house for children has five children (including the house parents' boys) but more children are being processed into the system to come soon.   Permission from a mother who has deserted the children is needed by the government requirements even though the children are spread out in the homes of uncles.  

We arrived on Wednesday so the devotional for Wednesday night was held in the new tent constructed for worship services.    After the devotional, the children sang songs and recited Bible verses.   They behaved well and were all happy to meet us.

We took a walking tour of the grounds to see the beautiful banana plants loaded with bunches of bananas, papaya trees full of fruit and many other plants and trees that provide the tropic beauty to this once sugar cane field.    

Ronald and Gigi live in a one room cottage that will later be the laundry room with a commercial washer and dryer for large items, such as bedding.   Soon they will build the first two-bedroom guest cottage that they can use for themselves and the office as it will be years before funding can be secured for the administration building which will have an office for the director, assistant director and social workers.   

The permanent electrical poles outside the orphanage bring the lines along the wall around the property so there are no overhead power lines. View from inside the tent during the worship service.  

THE OPENING SERVICE OF THE CHURCH OF CHIRST ON THE ORPHANAGE GROUNDS - MARCH 15, 2020 

The beautiful tent will be used until someday when a permanent multi-purpose building can be constructed to the right of this tent.  

The first worship service for the church of Christ opened for the public was held on March 15.   The newly installed equipment worked well for the power point sermon delivered by Ron Brown.  There were 19 in attendance.   

The fruit orchard will be watered by an irrigation system designed for water from rain, runoff from houses, and overflow water from the septic tank.    Someday when funds permit, the administration building with apartment for the director will be built at the far end of the fruit orchard on the left. .  There will also be a fish pond at the end of the property on the right.   Roads and walkways will be constructed throughout the grounds.  There is a systematic plan for every phase of the work for future years.   

Staying in Paradise a While Longer!

We arrived in the Philippines from Thailand on March 11th and planned to return to the U.S. on the 19th.  Without prior notice, the airport in Dumaguete closed on Sunday and ferries going to Cebu were stopped.   No one can enter the island of Cebu.   We could not get there to take the fight to Narita, Japan to connect with American Airlines to fly to Dallas.

With so many things shutting down in the U.S., maybe it is just as well.   We are relatively safe here from the virus as only a few cases have been reported on the island.   One died yesterday but maybe the closing of ports and schools has prevented the spread of the coronavirus.   No one seems to be in panic mode.  

We will be checking out of our hotel to stay in a very beautiful house owned by Gigi's aunt who lives in Connecticut.   She messaged me on Facebook that we were welcome and the house is there for any family member to use and she considers us "family."  There is a lady who oversees the house, sleeps downstairs a few nights a week and keeps plants watered and the house clean.   We will use the upstairs but use the kitchen downstairs to keep Ronald and Gigi from having to prepare meals for us. They have been so good to treat us with delicious meals but we don't want to burden them for a longer period of time because they have very busy days.  

The airport may be closed for 30 days or more but whenever it opens again, we will book our flights to return home.    We have been away since the middle of November and are ready to come home.

Yesterday was a big day.   Be sure to read the rest of the short blogs about our visit here to see pictures of the orphanage and events.   .      

Next stop - Tanjay, Negros Oriental, Philippines

We are looking forward to our visit in the Philippines.     We will arrive there, the Lord willing, about 6:30 a.m. on March 10 or 11 (not sure of the date)  flying overnight from Bangkok, Thailand through Manila to Dumaguete, the city closest to Tanjay with an airport.     Ronald and Gigi are about 40 minutes away so they will meet us at the airport that morning.    I told them I will need breakfast and a bed after being awake all night.  It will be about like flying from the U.S. to Asia but the flying time is not as long.   We have layovers in the airports.   We will stay in the hotel owned by Gigi's aunt that lives in New York and operated by Gigi's sister, Cheryl.   It is only a short distance from the orphanage.  It is the hotel Ronald stayed in when he went to visit Gigi for the first time.   They had communicated by computer for about a year but he knew this was the girl for him and he took an engagement ring on that first trip.

We will have a little more than a week to visit them if we can get a flight back to the U.S. on March 20.   It is still doubtful that we can fly from South Korea due to the virus outbreak.   It is not happening in Seoul at this time but the flight may be cancelled because of a lack of passengers.  The option is still open to fly from Taipei, Taiwan at this time.   That is a much longer flight to Dallas  (16+ hours in the air).

Yesterday, they started installing the tent over the metal structure their welders had built some weeks ago.  It will have side coverings also.

 It will be ready for the first service of the church of Christ in this area on March 15th.   They intend to invite everyone they know but it is hard to know how many will come.  Ron will preach.  Gigi has asked him to teach about the two covenants because the Catholics still follow so much of the old law because of their priesthood.  It is not an easy lesson to teach, especially to people who may have a limited knowledge of the Bible.   I'm sure Ron will do a good job.

March 15th is our 62nd wedding anniversary so this will be a special day for several reasons.  I have asked them NOT to plan a party because we never do anything except go out to eat each year.   The Philippine people love parties so I don't know what Gigi will plan for that day.   Maybe it will be the first Sunday for the Lord's church and their first potluck meal too!

Ronald and Gigi have purchased a van for the children as they raised sufficient funds for it on their last trip to the U.S.   

The children they have at the orphanage now have adjusted well and seem to be happy.  They may have three more children to come soon.

This play area was from left over tile that was used to make a patio outside.   A plant that is a vine with small white flowers was planted to cover the frame to give shade.   It is a beautiful spot where they have many activities.

We will spend time with the children and house parents.  Ronald and Gigi want us to answer  questions they may have about parenting.    Parenting is an on-the-job training.  By the time we are grandparents,  we have a little more knowledge.   Our experience with the orphanage children in China has also given us a little more insight into raising children to become successful adults.

In a joint effort, they have constructed the second house for Save Asian Souls.   The roof has been installed this past week so the house will be ready for occupancy in a few months.

It is the same house as the first one but designed inside a little differently since it will only house teenage girls that would be at high risk for trafficking.     We hope it will house 24 girls and house parents.   There are government restrictions we will face that could change that slightly.    The homeless girls in the Philippines are promised jobs in Japan and then they are sold to the brothels instead.   We hope to provide hope for some girls that would otherwise become victims of this horrible crime.  

I will post pictures and events while we are in the Philippines.   Thank you again for following our travels and praying for us and the work in Asia.