Cross-legged and with guitar in hand.
He plays well, beautifully,
With the experience of many years.
His voice lowers and lifts, ranging in tone
From singing to speaking to praying
And back again.
I may not understand his words,
But I hear his heart
And I understand his tears.
They flow freely at times, coursing down
The well-worn grooves in his cheeks,
The pools behind his eyes overflowing
With love, devotion, and gratitude
To his King and his Savior.
Alleluia is his heart-cry.
We have been working with Weelapong and his family of four for about 4 years now. When we first met Wee we asked him, “What has God called you to do that so passionately guides you to minister the youth everyday in your village?” We sat down and he started to share where he had come from: a life of alcohol, drugs and gangs. At first we found it strange because the people we had been working for for 6 years already are Karen Hill Tribal People — they live in the mountains and generally farm the mountains for their living. Well, it turns out that because of Thai laws you must send children 7 and older out of the village for education. The Thai government’s heart is to help and to see the Karen be educated, but what happens is the children go to live in or near big cities in crowded children’s homes and in a lot of cases separated from family. In an instant way their eyes are opened to what happens in the city life in Thailand. Weelapong, now 36, was one of those kids who was sent to the next major town to stay and learn as a young man, and entered into the same lifestyle and then quickly spiraled downward. He did graduate from school and when he did his lifestyle just grew into something more serious and dangerous for his life. So thinking he could change it himself, he joined the Thai military, saying “this would be the thing that can help me start to be better.” Needless to say, it grew worse. One day he went back to his family’s village where there happened to be a speaker from America who had come to share Jesus in his village. The speaker came over to him and started to Pray and prophecy over his life. Weelapong said he felt something that day that he had never felt before. The next day he was thinking a lot about what had happened when the same man pulled back up to his village with a team of ministers. He came to talk to Weelapong that day and, long story short, Wee accepted the Lord and was filled with the Spirit. That day things changed; he was able to walk with the Lord’s strength out of his bondages and into freedom with Christ. Soon afterward God gave Wee a wife named Nataphawn and two baby boys… those were dreams that Wee thought would never be possible. God gave Wee a vision also to see 20-30,000 Karen Hill Tribe youth coming together to worship God. Wee has been walking towards this vision for 7 years now, and what that looks like is: Youth evangelism in schools, villages, cities, and in the homes in which the children are sent when they need to go to school. Wee has put together many championship soccer teams and finds one of the best ways to disciple kids is to teach them how to play soccer for competitions. Wee has built amazing relationships with teachers, government officials and the police, and brought them to work together to provide better opportunities for the children’s future. Wee puts on sport camps, goes into all city schools, and provides his home as an alternative place for kids to come and live whose parents struggle financially to send their kids to the schools. This opens a great door for discipleship. Wee has recently opened a youth center and home in the same town, giving the kids a place to come to have fun and also be discipled. It is important to say that most of the funding in his ministry comes from him working, and is not enough to support the full vision or get his youth center fully functioning. Wee would also like to see more community sport camps be put together with the goal of helping kids meet Jesus and staying off the streets. If you feel called to help or serve Weelapong please let us know, as we walk towards this vision together to see 20-30,000 here come to worship The Lord. Thank you.
PO Box 31182
Kallispel, MT 59903
w/ sep note
The Wards
