Thailand is a special country for Elijah Foundation because this is the place where it all began for us. One former student of Pastor Danny happened to stumble across Khaodee Orphanage during her 2001 visit to Thailand and when she came back to USA, she promptly contacted Pastor Danny because she knew of his passion for orphans. That same year, God opened doors for Pastor Danny to take a team of high school students to Thailand and to visit Khaodee. While at Khaodee, God confirmed His call for Pastor Danny to make a difference for God's Kingdom through orphans. As Khaodee was in desperate need and was about to be evicted for not being able to pay rent, Pastor Danny raised funding to buy the land where Khaodee resides today. This was the beginning of Elijah Foundation.

Since 2001, Elijah Foundation has been supporting Khaodee’s overall general needs by providing food, shelter, and education for the entire 100 children. In June, 2011, members of re:ACTS Ministries and Pastor Danny of EF met to discuss our common heart and love for Khaodee. It was during this meeting that God formed a partnership between re:ACTS Ministries and EF to support Khaodee TOGETHER.

In our new partnership, EF will shift our focus to fully funding Khaodee’s college ministry to help disciple and mentor the smaller group of older children of Khaodee. re:ACTS Ministries will now focus on providing for the food, shelter, and education cost of the rest of the 80+ children at Khaodee. We are excited to see how God will use this partnership for His glory!

About re:ACTS Ministry: this group has fallen in love with Khaodee since their first visit in 2006 and have been a constant presence at Khaodee ever since. They have organized as a 501 C 3 non-profit organization in 2011 and are based in San Francisco, USA. For more information about re:ACTS ministry and to support Khaodee’s general operation, please visit: www.reactsministries.org.

About Khaodee Orphanage:

The orphanage and church are located in the middle of mountain valleys about 20 miles north of Chiang Rai. Khaodee Orphanage was founded by a native pastor named Simoon Chaiwangyen in 1998. In 2001, Khaodee was in the verge of closing due to lack of support and land lease that expired. Elijah Foundation visited Khaodee in 2001 and God immediately connected us together. Elijah Foundation purchased the land for Khaodee and have provided on-going support to operate the orphanage and staff. Currently, there are 100 children who live at Khaodee Orphanage. Many of these children are orphans, abandoned, or so poor and destitute that we accept them into our orphanage. Almost all of the children are from nearby hill tribes (including Akha Tribe, Karen Tribe, Mong Tribe etc.), and most of them are not considered to be Thai citizens. These children are vulnerable to many kinds of exploitation including sexual prostitution and other forms of human slavery.

College ministry has been a special part of Elijah Foundation and since 2011 it has become the central focus of EF’s ministry in Thailand. All our children at Khaodee are given the opportunity to attend technical college or to a university if they so desire. It has been a great program in which we saw students graduating and becoming part of the professional world as teachers and skilled workers. To be closer to the colleges, we have established a dorm in the city of Chiang Rai and they are housed there on school days. On weekends and holidays, our college students come back to Khaodee Campus and partake in the community and for further training. One of our staff, Yui, serves as the overseer of the college ministry and and lives with them in the Chaing Rai dorm.

For the new academic year that started on June, 2011, we are sending 13 students to college or to technical college. This is the most college students we ever had at one time and management has been overwhelming. We have found additional housing in Chiang Rai to support all 13 students and 1 staff. Please consider partnering with us to send our students to college. For housing, food, tuition etc., we need to raise $500 per semester (per student) or $1,000 for the full year. Please prayerfully consider supporting our students in this special way! To donate for this special cause, please CLICK HERE.

Staff at Khaodee:

Pastor Simoon (Pastor/Head of Orphanage) along with 12 other staff and few widows live in the orphanage and care for all the children. They provide physical and spiritual care and leads them in a very loving and disciplined manner. It is a delight to see the staff interact with the children because it almost seems like a parent/child relationship. Staff are in need of prayer as they go through emotional ups and downs of raising 100 children.