Hey guys!! Wanted to take some time and write to you all about what I am doing this month in Thailand. My team is in Chiang Mai where we are working with a sex-trafficking prevention organization called “Remember Nhu.” If you remember from a previous blog way back in Bolivia, I had met Peter who worked for Remember Nhu in Thailand and was just starting a new chapter in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. So it’s cool that after first hearing about the organization back in March, I am now where Peter once was and doing the same work that he did.
As I said before, “Remember Nhu” is an organization that takes kids from high-risk environments for sex-trafficking and places them into their children’s homes to raise them in a safer environment. Thailand is one of the most well known places in the world for sex-trafficking and it’s pretty sickening to hear all the stories that go on around here. Sex-trafficking has been an injustice that I’ve been pretty passionate about fighting against for awhile, so it’s cool to actually be partnering with an organization that does that.
Overall, the month feels like a typical month that I’ve normally had on the Race. For most of the day we are doing some type of manual labor whether that be gardening or hacking down some jungle with machetes. Then, after sweating through all our clothes (the humidity is ridiculous here), we go home for a couple hours before heading to one of the children’s homes for dinner/playing with the kids. But it feels different at the same time because the purpose for these homes is different than what I’ve experienced in other months.
I’ve loved the ministry here so far!! Every month I’m figuring out more and more that I enjoy interacting with kids and just hanging out with them. The kids here are absolutely beautiful and they are so nice to us as the culture values respect a lot. “Remember Nhu” has 4 different locations (2 girl’s homes and 2 boy’s homes) that we split our days between and I’ve gotten to establish some close relationships with kids at each of the places. At the boy’s homes, we play soccer and other sport-like activities and at the girl’s homes we play guitar/piano and card games more. We also get a chance to help them with their homework, which is pretty fun. The other day I helped one of the older girls with a computer programming assignment which brought back a lot of memories from my college days (that makes it sound forever ago…it hasn’t even been a year yet). Needless to say, it’s been a pretty awesome month and I could definitely see myself coming back here in the future (Lord willing).
This month is also the first month with a new team! After a month of MANistry the teams for the most part got shuffled around for the remaining 3 months. I lost 4 people from Team Sozo that I had done the whole Race with up to this point. It’s taken a little while to get used to, but I’m really excited for my new team and I think we will really challenge each other. I still have 3 people from Team Sozo on my team (Chelsea, Eric, and Katrina) and we added Cherissa James and Sarah Workman to the mix. I’m excited to dive into these next couple months with them and I pray God will keep us centered on Him.
Well that’s what my September is looking like. Keep “Remember Nhu” in your prayers and continue to pray for my team. Thanks for all your prayers and support. Love you all and God bless!
