Tha Cung Bik, his wife Sui Tha, and a few of the children of Zion’s Children’s Home outside their new home
I thought we would melt as we climbed out of our air-conditioned van. The heat and humidity were oppressive. Little did we know that the worst was yet to come as we made our way towards a little bamboo shack. Barely bigger than a one-car garage, that shack was home to twenty orphans plus Tha Cung Bik and his wife, Sui Tha, the directors of Zion Children’s Home. The year was 2008, and Cyclone Nargis had devastated this part of Myanmar a few months earlier. Zion’s tiny shack had been completely flattened by the storm’s fury, and though Tha Cung Bik had propped it back up, it leaned noticeably.
We all managed to squeeze inside, where we roasted for the next several minutes. Sui Tha waved a small hand fan over us, vainly trying to keep us cool. I couldn’t imagine living every day, as they did, in that bamboo oven! I was so glad to know that their plight would soon be relieved…
A few months earlier, Heaven’s Family had been granted some funding to construct new buildings for several orphanages that had been affected by Cyclone Nargis. Zion Children’s Home was selected to be one of those that we would help.
Thankful to escape the sauna, we climbed back into our van and drove a short way to see the land where Zion’s new building would soon be erected. Tha Cung and Sui Tha were beaming with excitement. Although modest by Western standards, their new home would be far beyond anything they ever could have imagined for themselves.
One year later, our team visited again to see Zion’s completed building. It could not even be compared to the bamboo “oven”—and the children were delighted with their new home. Because it was made of brick and had high ceilings, it was much cooler inside than the shack where we had baked the year before. Today, Zion has a flourishing vegetable garden, a thriving poultry farm, and the beginnings of a small shop by the road—all thanks to gifts to the Orphan’s Tear Special Gifts Fund—that have helped make Zion Children’s Home more self-sufficient.
Tha Cung Bik and Sui Tha, left; and some happy orphans, right
Beyond those blessings, twelve children at Zion have been “adopted” by monthly sponsors who are laying up treasure in heaven while they serve the “least of these”—precious children who live in one of the world’s poorest places.
