called you to do that so passionately guides you to minister the youth everyday
in your village?” He shared where he had come
from: a life of alcohol, drugs and gangs. Because of Thai laws you must send children 7 (years) 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.
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. 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. 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.
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.
He has built amazing relationships with teachers, government
officials and the police, bringing 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.
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.
