Reflections of a Trip to Pua
During the last trip to Pua from 29 May to 2 June, the team’s spirit was fuelled by the unusually kind weather and their souls nourished by God’s work at Kathy’s Home and among the team.
When we landed at Nan airport we immediately sniffed the air for signs of the rain-weather that the meteorological station had promised. “Look out for the cold draft,” said Kim Song in his gravelly voice with an air of wisdom. “If you can feel it, you’ll know it’s definitely going to rain.”
We had prayed for soothing weather. Memories of the brutally hot and muggy afternoons when we were here two summers ago were still fresh in our minds. We remembered seeking commiseration in each other, and, when the going got really tough, the Collins showed the way by going off-script and shooing the children into playing games.
We soon drew up at Oopkaew Resort in Pua. Oopkaew was again tranquil this time of the year. The silence was profound and it saturated the place. We appeared to be the only guests.
We quickly spread ourselves generously around the familiar and expansively woody dining hall, and Beh dispensed his first briefing of the trip. It was hard holding our attention and keeping our eyes focused on the proceeding when the lush and sweeping greenery beyond the hall was so bewitching. Billowing low and thick clouds swirled across the mountains in the distance in a display of magnificence that even the prophet Moses would be proud of, fuelling our spirits and nourishing our souls. On a good day, paragliders would appear teasingly from behind the clouds, adding to the charm of this place which would be just reward for anyone who come this far.
Agnes watching the low clouds weaving poetry in the mountains from the dining hall in September 2023.
Just as we were sorting our lesson plans for photocopying, rain started pelting down, bringing the cool relief that we had all hoped for, and the unmistakable rising scent of the good earth. “This land is just so fertile,” Beh quipped. By then, the incessant whine of the cicadas was starting to make their presence felt, much to the annoyance of Meei Fang.
L-R: Siew Kim, Kim Song, Mak, Rebecca, Noel, Narola, Meei Fang and Beh headed to a lush valley in the outskirts of Pua for lunch on their first day.
Rebecca had arrived almost a week earlier and opted to live innominately with the missionaries Mak, Narola and Noel at Kathy’s Home before the start of the English camp. She always has a good heart for mission works, and is learning Thai just so that she can be effectual if she gets to work among the native speakers one day.
She shared her experience: “Spending time at Kathy’s Home gave me a glimpse of the children's daily lives. It allowed me to understand better the challenges the staff team face as they disciple and discipline the children. It was a privilege to join and be a part of them, and see their sacrificial love for the children. It felt like a signboard pointing to the depth of Jesus' sacrificial love for us even when we stubbornly chose to go our own way.”
The nine newbies! Praying that they will adapt well and stay long enough to find God.
We finally got to meet the children in the evening for our first session – thirty-two of them in five groups of different sizes, from Grade 4 to 12 including nine newbies. It was an opportune time to warm them up by asking about their family, friends, school life, what they did during their long school break, and, for the older children, their career dreams. One of the older ones disclosed that she worked in a farm for 300 to 400 bahts (about $15) a day during her summer holiday.
Memories of Agnes’s time with them in 2015 came to mind. Like Rebecca, she lived at Kathy’s Home but for a considerably longer period of more than two months. “The children come with many packages, their own stories and struggles to tell of,” she wrote of her experience. “Many of them face discrimination from their peers in school simply because they are of Hmong descent; some face family problems and persecution from unbelieving parents and relatives, and some had to deal with the sudden passing of loved ones.”
“As they slowly warmed up to me and shared about their struggles, I realised that maybe God didn’t want me here to teach them or help them in their academics after all. He wanted me to just be present in their lives, to ‘rejoice with those who rejoice, and mourn with those who mourn’ (Romans 12:15). I learnt what it meant to laugh and celebrate with the children, and also to cry and pray with them when they were hurting.”
By the time we finished our first session, nightfall was already upon us like a curtain. We could not wait for it to come sooner. Not only did it bring down the temperature, but our growling stomachs needed filling too. Just thinking about it made us smile. We clambered happily onto the back of the songthaew, thrilled to be tossed about when on the road and with Mak at the wheel. The cool wind that blew into our faces was always going to be blustery, but it was pleasurable no less. We tittered non-stop like kids.
We ate at our favourite eatery but this time we discovered an insanely delicious braised pork leg dish which was so good that we went back for it again the next evening. We always develop a compulsive eating disorder when in Pua.
We got back to a very quiet Oopkaew soon after to settle down for the night. A passing shower had left a watery sheen on the tarmac which gleamed delightfully under the lights. The cicadas were already in full chorus. Lizards slithered across the walls in the dining hall, waiting to make a meal of the swarm of flies. A tokay gecko called out loudly, protesting our invasion into their space. By the sound of it, it must had been a big one. Time to bed down and listen to the whirl of the air-conditioner in our rooms in the still of the night. Time to wait upon the morning birds, and dream about the morning coffee.
We rose very early the next morning and Siew Kim shared a devotional message from Psalm 120 on the challenges of dealing with competing realities in our lives – the laments and the hopes, the sadness and the call to rest on God’s promises. Meei Fang shared from 2 Timothy 4:7-8 during the second devotional morning – questioning whether she has done enough mission-wise to qualify as having fought the good fight and therefore finishing the race well. “We tend to stop at our nearest and dearest – our family members. But have I done enough beyond that?” she asked.
Rebecca reminisced after the trip: “I was very encouraged by the honesty and candidness of the team’s sharing during the daily devotionals. As the older members spoke about times of doubt, and how God was merciful in pulling them back to Him, I could really see God's faithfulness over the years. It will encourage me in my own seasons of dryness to trust God's faithfulness even more.”
“It was also very uplifting to hear about how many of the members were spurred on in urgency after reading Revelation. And seeing them come to Pua intentionally to live out the great commission in this small way was a reminder of the power of God’s word to renew and spur us on,” she added.
Kim Song’s Sunday worship message to the children was about talents and gifts and was taken from 1 Kings 3:5-15. He asked: “Can you ask God for gifts? Of course, you can. He will give you the gifts which He thinks you need at one point of your life. Just remember that gifts given by God are not for yourself alone. You have to use these gifts to help others in their walk with God. God has given each of you a gift from His great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.”
“Talents come from inside us. Gifts come from outside us. Although talents and gifts come from different sources, yet if you look at the bigger picture, both talents and gifts come from the same source. Who made us? God made us. God is our Creator. God created the talents in us; and who gives us the gifts? God gives us the gifts,” he said in his concluding remarks.
Finally it was time to say goodbye. It was all over so quickly. Another spiritual experience baked into our memories. God was good to us throughout the trip. The unusually kind weather was a prayer answered. The children were as endearing as ever. We departed with the joyful sounds of the children at study and at play, and of cicadas ringing in our ears. We were smitten. And surely God would have been pleased with all that we had accomplished in His Name.
The dates for the upcoming trips to Pua for 2025/26 are:
21–25 August 2025
20–24 November 2025
5–9 February 2026
If you are interested in joining, please speak to Beh (9788 6171) or Siew Kim (9752 5589). You can visit the Facebook page of Kathy's Home for more photos and updates!
