Angela and Jiap went around to talk with the adults. There is a team coming in July that may do some building projects and they went around to see what the needs are in the slums. Angela told us about a conversation that she had with Cream's mother and grandmother. Cream is a teen who comes to the kids' club. Her grandmother is sick and is having eye surgery. Cream's mom and grandmother told Angela how Cream tells them about God and how that has made them think about God. They told her how Cream is so excited about following Jesus and wants to be his servant for the rest of her life. She gets excited about going to church and asks them to go every week. It's so exciting to hear how PSM is having an impact on these kids and how the kids are influencing their families. These kids have to take on the burdens of their families and may come from homes where they don't receive love from their families. They have many barriers to knowing God's love and that he does provide for them. Pray with me that these kids know Christ's love despite the difficulties in their lives and that they get excited about knowing Jesus and following him, like Cream has.
Every Thursday, the PSM staff has lunch with the jewelry artisans and then they do a worship time and Bible study together. There are currently 5 women working with the jewelry project, Bam, Nida, Nood, Nok, and Sid. I met Bam and Nida last year. Bam recently did a Discipleship Training School with YWAM and is now back in Pattaya making jewelry with PSM and working with the Tamar Center, another YWAM organization in Pattaya reaching out to the prostitutes in the city. Nida is in her 60s and just about the cutest lady you will ever meet. She came to Christ last year while my Elmbrook team and I were here. Nood is a Cambodian woman who has one daughter named Keo (which means green!). Nood and Keo live in the Thursday slum, and PSM helped Nood get the proper papers, which would allow her to make jewelry. I haven’t learned yet how Nok and Sid came to PSM. Yesterday, I got to eat lunch with these beautiful ladies and witness them worship God, read the Bible, and learn about God through Jiap’s teaching. Tonight, we are going to be having a family fun night with these ladies and their families.
On Thursday afternoon, we went to the slum. This slum is the largest of the 3 that PSM visits, and it includes a Cambodian refugee camp. There were about 40 kids there yesterday. Again, I remembered some kids from last year, but there were a lot of new ones. I had fun playing soccer for a while with a little girl named Mai Phon. I also got to talk for a little bit with a 14-year-old girl named Manao. While we were there, I saw Bo, one of my favorite girls who I met last year. Bo is 14 and she hasn’t been going to school for a while. She was walking around but wasn’t really joining in with the activities. I asked her to come sit with me, and she did and stayed for the rest of the time. Pray for Bo to go back to school and to stay away from the pressures that come with being a teenager in Pattaya (getting a boyfriend, becoming a prostitute, etc.)
Also while we were there, we heard some screaming from a woman inside one of the houses. She was yelling at someone, and it sounded like she was hitting them. Later, I found out that this was Nan’s mother. Nan is a teen who I met last year and I really enjoyed her. I learned that Nan dropped out of school again and has been running away from home. She has a 20-year-old boyfriend who she is living with. She hasn’t been coming to PSM activities, and her mother thinks that PSM led her astray. Her mom hits Nan and her younger brother often. This made me really sad when I heard about this. I don’t really know what else to do but pray. Please join me in praying for Nan and her family.
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