June 2020
Kim Brown, a long-time missionary serving in Chiang Mai, Thailand, ministers to the educational and health needs of migrants and tribal people. She works with a team of indigenous people to manage a multi-faceted response to the needs of tribal peoples. Kim's service to others includes HIV/AIDS prevention education, care for those who are HIV+ (including the "House of Love" for women and children affected by AIDS), ministry to people with disabilities, youth and educational ministries, and economic development work among migrants in locations spanning from traditional villages to urban slums. Kim carries out her ministry in relationship with the Thailand Karen Baptist Convention.
She writes: "I wanted to share some bright news. We have two new university graduates from our House of Blessing (HOB) daycare center. We are over the top rejoicing in God’s faithfulness with Teera, who has graduated with a degree in engineering and a minor in English, and Kunsuda, who has graduated with a BS in Law. Besides the hard work of these students, we also praise God for our House of Blessing teachers, who have kept in touch to encouraged Teera and Kunsuda, and to provide scholarships when necessary.
When we started the House of Blessing in 2001, we did not have the goal of our pre-schoolers graduating from college. Instead, we simply wanted to have a safe place for them while their parents worked. Our teachers have done an amazing job over the years, providing not only academic skills to help each student succeed (and about 94% of our students continue in school after graduating from the HOB), but also providing a safe environment with Christian values that have shaped each young student. We have had the chance to influence the lives of parents too, teaching them about health issues like HIV/AIDS, and also teaching them about children’s rights, and how to have a good strong family. In our years of serving the slum communities of Chiang Mai, God has blessed so many people.
Please continue to pray for all our House of Blessing students. All of our students live in densely populated slums with little hope of being able to socially distance or self-quarantine themselves, putting them at high risk of getting the COVID-19. We are also working to make sure that our families have rice and other foods, because the parents are unable to work right now.