Blog

April Part 2: We definitely felt the tension of wanting to respond to needs well, yet still often feeling like it’s not enough. With changes and updates sometimes multiple times a day, it was a challenge to try to keep our team in a healthy place, united on our overall capacity and agreement on what our limit is. ALL of our programs seemed to be in constant transition:
OUTREACH switched to crisis relief, with care packages, and phone and video calls;
RECOVERY had switched to online classes, social worker and counseling sessions;
JOB TRAINING felt mostly switched off actually, while the café team re-grouped and tried to add more online presence to compete with the thousands of restaurants already in Bangkok.

Since the majority of the staff have motorbikes and can easily isolate between their home and office, we did have several of the staff continue working in the office, due to needing technology to function well. Overall, it was good to see the team feeling like we were doing the best we could and even enjoying reaching out to the needs around them. But, as many of you have experienced, the emotional exhaustion hit as the small routines sometimes tripled, such as washing clothes and showering as soon as you walk into your home; washing dishes by hand even more carefully, ordering food supplies, and cleaning our homes and office space much more than usual to be careful and protective of each other.

EASTER was a precious moment in the midst of this upside-down month. Staff had a nice lunch together on Good Friday and then used a video call to contact all the students. We worshiped together, and Chompuu told the story of Easter, and what it means when Christians talk about Jesus dying on the cross for us. “Hiw” was leaning forward in the tiny phone, listening to everything and asking good questions. “Chad,” who had recently turned 18, has already chosen Jesus and Chad even shared part of his experience with “Hiw”- all on a video call, all in front of the staff. “Hiw” was ready and prayed, opening wide their heart and life to Jesus. It was so simple, pure, beautiful. At the end of the prayer, our staff literally cheered.

Another really exciting moment during April was having the three new male students: Kick, Imm & Jaw join. One is from Laos and understands Thai pretty well; the other two are from Myanmar… so we need to find a good translator to help with classes and counseling. The multiple languages, individual needs and visa issues all raise more challenges for our team, but again, the team really views this as the ideal moment to welcome as many bar-workers as possible. Many are in such a desperate situation, feeling alone, far away from families, so many are considering selling sex in more online, risky scenarios. To be able to offer a safe place to study, heal, learn job skills, feel supported, etc has really been what these three guys need to survive this pandemic but also have hope for their future.