You are looking at something that shouldn't have been possible.
This is the brand new home of Crew (Teacher) Thim, a young single woman making a difference as an elementary school teacher in a remote Karen village quite some distance from Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Teacher Thim with some of her students.
Thim herself was born in a similar kind of village, not that far away, to a Mom who could not care for her after her father left the family. There was no formal schooling in Thim's village, and also finances were tight for her, her mother and an older sister, making it hard to even get enough food.
Through connections so improbable we often think of them as 'providential,' Thim's mother heard about a young Christian family, a pastor and his wife with two children of their own, who were willing to take children in need and provide a stable home and education. It was far away, close to Chiang Mai. But the situation was getting desperate. Her mother made the very difficult decision to let her go.
She came to Hot Springs.
Thim in the middle with white shirt and braids.
Laundry day!
This was 2007, before Pastors Suradet and Yupa had any idea where the money would come from for this wild idea they had to shelter at-risk and orphan children in the extra rooms they had in the building that had just been built for their new church plant.
Thim was among the first of the children to be welcomed. And while she missed her Mother and her Sister, she did well. There were other girls her age and they all became fast friends.
Girls' Room at Hot Springs 2008
I fist met Thim several months later in February of 2008. I was embarking on my first ever cross-cultural experience, and it was as disorienting and reorienting and awful and absolutely what defined everything that came after. (But that's another story and it's still being written.)
Thim was there when the Team from Highview did our Children's presentation at Asia's Hope, standing to the side afterwards when Suradet and I had our very first ever translated conversation. She was there a few days later when the Team went out to visit the new church plant property to meet the children properly and see where they were staying.
In fact, Thim was the one I personally chose to sponsor, before we took all the pictures and names and stories back to Canada for others to see and choose. But not until after we had written a letter to Suradet and Yupa, asking if they would accept us as ministry partners in this astonishing thing they were doing. They said yes!
And Thim was there every time I visited again, beginning in October of that same year when I did my first and defining solo visit to actually stay with them, up until the day she left to go to university to become a teacher. That was her dream.
Graduation Day
We all assumed, maybe so did she, that this would be a dream that would take her to a modern city school. Village life can be difficult. Remote. Far from hospitals and schools and other amenities most Westerners take for granted. Most anybody to leave the village for a better life doesn't return. The idea is to move up and out.
But something called Thim back. Something not set on personal success and comfort, but on providing opportunities she herself did not have.
School Trip to See the Sea
Thim's own words about a recent trip she was able to arrange for her class:
"This picture shows the children on their field trip to the beach.
They are very excited because it's their first time seeing the sea.
However, they are very unfortunate; they are from a poor family."
These are the children she's committing to. Enough to save for and arrange finances for and design and build this small house for herself so she can keep being their teacher. She's turned it all around. And I couldn't be more proud.
In this partnership thing we do at New Family Foundation, we make investments without knowing the outcomes. It's like that when we come alongside vulnerable at-risk and orphan children. We offer them opportunities, but we don't make decisions for them. All we can do is provide and nurture, then launch them into their own adult lives. And then, if they let us, we can journey with them along the paths they choose for themselves.
Thim's house shouldn't be possible. A little girl born into poverty with no school available, should not grow up to finish university, return to village life, and be able to independently finance her own home.
But it was possible. And while it it certainly very satisfying and delightful to have been part of it, this one's all on Thim.
With cheers and encouragement to all our other story-makers and their Sponors!!!!
Rev. Ruth Anne Breithaupt, MDiv.
Canadian Representative/Missionary in Residence
New Family Foundation/Highview Community Church
The mission of New Family Foundation is to
provide a loving home for at-risk and
orphaned children in Northern Thailand to
help them achieve their best potential in
education, vocation and service to society.
