Im Jai House

At the opposite end of the spectrum from Nana orphanage is Im Jai house, an orphanage in Chiang Mai. (Im jai, roughly translated, means "full heart.") This facility was founded by a member of Immanuel Church. She sent to Pastor Winit about twelve years ago and said she felt led to start an orphanage. Ah Jan Winit went to the church board and they prayed about it. Shortly later, he presented this lady with 50,000 bahts and said, "I don't know how we do this, but go ahead. This is a good thing."

After several years in a donated building, the orphanage was forced to look for a new location. A local missionary sent word back to the US to everyone she knew and shortly, they had nearly fifty million bahts (over a million dollars U.S.) Today, they operate in this wonderful new facility.

Im Jai house currently serves a little over forty children from five or six years old through high school. Most are the children of AIDS victims. All (or almost all) are Thai, unlike at Nana. Still, the fact remains that, although their housing is much nicer, they are orphans and have profound hurts and many issues to work through.

We met with the children Wednesday evening and Ah Jan Winit gave a brief talk about Jesus telling the disciples to throw their net on the other side of the boat, and the huge catch of fish. Each team member told some story about fishing. I told about a time when a friend and I went fishing on the Grand River and sank our boat in the middle of the night.

Im Jai house has gone through some difficulties over the past couple of years and has lost a lot of financial support. Although they have wonderful facilities, they are struggling to meet their ongoing expenses. Immanuel church has stepped up its support substantially to help stand in the gap for them.