In 1998, Eagles Communications partnered the Churches of Christ Thailand and the Thai Lahu Christian Church to help some students in Chiang Rai, Thailand, move from their hostel of crammed thatch huts to a proper home with dormitories, a dining hall, a chapel and other facilities.

Blessing Home has since become a viable ministry jointly funded by Eagles and the local Lahu community. It is a home away from home for students who come from villages often too far away from their schools. They can now gain better access to education opportunities with promises of a better future for them and their families.

Currently, the hostel houses 22 girls and 22 boys aged seven to 23. Two Lahu families take care of the children. Pastor Silat and his family are guardians to the children, and manage the premises and their meals. Pastor Volavud and his wife conduct Sunday worship and Bible studies, and oversee the children's social and educational development.

Since 2008, Eagles has commissioned Joseph Woo as a full-time missionary based at the hostel to teach the children English. In the day, Joseph teaches in a local school; in the evening, he runs night classes at Blessing Home. The Eagles also organizes mission trips to the hostel every December

MEET THE TEAM

• Joseph Woo (gallery)
  In 2000, I visited a plot of land outside Chiang Rai City with the leaders of Eagles Communications, the Churches of Christ Thailand and the Thai Lahu Christian Church to dedicate the building of a hostel for the Lahu children. This hostel was named Blessing Home. During subsequent mission trips to the hostel, a desire to help the children improve their English was planted in my heart.
  
  In 2002, at the ripe age of 50, I returned to school to pursue a degree in English and Literature from the Open University of the United Kingdom. After graduating in 2006, I obtained a certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages at the Regional English Language Centre to further equip myself. In October 2007, I resigned from my job with a multinational company, and left for Blessing Home in Chiang Rai as a missionary from the Eagles. You could say that it took me seven years to fulfill my calling.

• Pastor Silat
  Being a Lahu himself, Pastor Silat is like a foster father to the children at Blessing Home. He was their first Pastor and caretaker when BH was started 12 year ago in some wooden huts on the outskirts of Chiang Rai. Since then, he has seen batches of young people through and feels fulfilled in his ministry of providing an opportunity for them to be educated, so that they can hopefully provide better for themselves and their loved ones. Besides the children, Pastor Silat also takes care of the food, the pigs and poultry, fish pond and general upkeep of the place. It is also interesting to know that his extended family lives around BH.

• Pastor Voravud
  Pasor Voravud, also a Lahu, is theologically trained at the Phayao Bible Seminary. He joined Blessing Home in August 2008 as youth pastor, taking care of the spiritual, social and recreational aspects of the children. He lives at BH with his wife and his baby daughter Choonpu. He is a skillfull handiman, a sportsman and keen footballer, and plays the guitar. Besides preaching and teaching Bible, and giving devotions to the children, he also teaches them Thai and Lahu Christian songs.

Besides respecting the two pastors as guardians while they are staying at Blessing Home, the children affectionately address Pastor Silat's wife as "big (first) mother" and Pastor Voravud's wife as "small (second) mother", demonstrating their deference to the pastors and their families.