An amazing rescue!

Malachi rushed as fast as he could up a steep mountain in Omkoi District, Thailand. He knew he had to move quickly; a baby’s life was at stake. One of the mothers near his home had died while giving birth to this child. Local customs demanded that the baby be buried alive with the mother’s body. A villager that knew the deceased mother had called Malachi and begged him to come.

“The woman who called me was a Christian,” said Malachi. “She said that the father wanted to put the baby under her mother’s body until she stopped breathing.”

Malachi arrived just in time to rescue the child, and with the father’s consent, he brought her home to his wife. They adopted the baby girl and named her Mook, which means, “Pearl.”

“Mook really is like a pearl,” said Malachi’s wife, Sopa. “I was orphaned when I was a child, and I knew she really was a precious gift to our family.”

Mook, who is now 2-years-old, is just one of 20 orphaned and vulnerable children that the couple has taken in. For years, Malachi grew rice on a borrowed field to support them all. Then, without warning, the owner of the field reposed it. Malachi felt his only option was to shut down the children’s’ home.

“The thought of sending the children away made me feel terrible. I didn’t know what to do,” Malachi told us. “We needed help.”

So Malachi and his wife, Sopa gathered all the children together and they prayed. When CBN met the couple who opened their home to so many children, we offered to help. First, we gave them enough rice, noodles, eggs, and fish to feed everyone for a month. Then we built them a new kitchen where they could properly prepare food for all the children. Finally, we wanted to help Malachi and Sopa to be able to keep the children’s home open, so we provided them with everything they needed to start two small businesses, a weaving business and a fish farm.

“I am so grateful for CBN’s help,” said Malachi. “You showed mercy to our children. There is no way we could have made it through this crisis without you.”