Faith Village Outeach

Faith Village was started about 20 years ago by a Christian couple, David and Paula. Paula is American and David is half Thai, half Burmese. David comes from a Burmese people group called the Shan and he had a heart and a calling to save more Shan people. Unfortunately the Shan people have been in a desperate situation for a long time and many of them were fleeing to Thailand to escape persecution. Thousands of children were being captured in Burma and forced to become child soldiers and David aimed to rescue them. It started with seven boys and has since grown into what we now call Faith Village, a home and church in Thaton, Thailand.

As a ministry we visit Faith Village (FV) every three weeks to spend time with the kids, teach the adults and pour ourselves into the people there. It has become something that I look forward to and every time I go, it feels a little more like home.

On December 10-11, the PMI team (myself, Aon, Ya, Paul and Donna) drove the 3 hours to Faith Village for our annual Christmas outreach, bringing with us an American team of 9 people. We also brought 500 pairs of Crocs and snacks to hand out to the children.

Our first outreach was to a brick village near FV. Years ago some Shan people escaped into Thailand but were not able to get jobs because they are illegal. So they started their own brick factory which has since grown and now provides jobs and housing for many refugees. We sang songs with the kids, shared the gospel and gave away the shoes and snacks to the kids. It was a lot of fun and I loved seeing how they made the bricks. I took some great photos but unfortunately all my photos were deleted when my computer crashed a few weeks ago. :(

Our second outreach was to a village in the midst of hundreds of orange groves. Most of the people had never heard about Jesus before and they had definitely never had any foreigners visit. There was a little building where we set up to share the gospel and give away the gifts. As soon as we showed up, we were mobbed by hundreds of people who were so excited that we were there. They filled the building, there were people hanging in the windows and there were tons sitting outside. It was crazy and chaotic but I couldn't stop smiling the whole time. It is so amazing to share the gospel with people for the very first time!

Our last outreach was back at FV where one more time we shared the gospel and gave out gifts. Overall it was a great weekend and God was moving! Here is a video of the weekend that the team took followed by a couple photos that Aon took:

Shoe drop from Sarah Dale Simpkins on Vimeo.