Since returning to Thailand we have hosted a few visitors including our International Directors, a new servant team that will be with us for 4 months, and now my little brother!
Things have been really exciting since returning; Namfon (Thai part time staff) continued making street visits to the kids while we were away and began to include 3 young Thai college students, who now come out with us weekly. We have reconnected with all the families we know and are continuing to try to delve deeper into those relationships relationship.
One way we are doing this is with a partner organization we began the art and learning center we told many of you about this summer. One of the greatest joys of this time has been focusing on a Thai boy from the red-light district who dances as a girl outside bars for money. Our team has been able to really intensely focus on showing him love and giving him a place to be a kid, to sleep, to eat and just be cared for as a boy.
We have also had some sadness. Many of our friends continue to be picked up, detained or deported. And we are hearing more and more from people we talk to about children being abducted while their parent is asleep. One grandmother who begs with her 4-year-old granddaughter woke up to find her gone; we are trying to locate her. But with no picture and little information it feels a little hopeless. We are even more committed to figuring out ways to intervene for these at risk kids! Keep praying!
Continue to love mercy and seek justice!
-amy hupe