Missions Blog

Faith House:  Rescuing Girls from Refugee Camps

Yesterday, the TBC team traveled with Maria, Grace, Gigi, and Isabelle to refugee camps along the border in Thailand, where families have fled from the risks of civil war in Myanmar to challenging living conditions with little hope. The photographs directly below (taken with permission) are examples of God’s children still living in the refugee camps. These living conditions are similar to the prior living conditions for the girls that have been rescued to Faith House. Praise God that they now have new certainty for food, shelter, and public education surrounded in a loving Christian environment, along with the additional opportunity for technical school, college, or university education after high school! Perhaps the girls below will be the next children to be rescued out of the refugee camps to Faith House!

In addition to serving the girls at Faith House, Maria and her colleagues also maintain friendships and minister to these refugee camps. On Saturdays, Maria and Faith House serve and encourage these refugees.  On Sundays, they use their trucks to bring children from these camps to Faith House for worship. Through these tangible examples, the girls at Faith House are not only receiving Christian love and outreach but also sharing Christ’s love and encouragement with others; the girls at Faith House are experiencing how to serve their communities and change the world!

Today, Ron started us off with a devotion including John 15:15, which states, “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends.” What a loving Savior we have to not only be our Lord but to also share our master’s business with us and call us friends! Thank you to all of you who share our master’s business and support our trip, Reach 2023, and BBright through your prayers and financial support!

This morning, Greg taught the girls at Faith House on Esther, and the girls showed their creative skills by acting it out! In the afternoon, Kathleen enjoyed sharing her testimony with the girls about her taking off the backpack of lies and filling her heart with the truth of God’s love. The girls have already experienced a lifetime of challenges prior to living at Faith House. What a blessing for them to experience the truth of God’s love and the significance of each of them in God’s eyes!

Tomorrow on Wednesday, Ron and Greg will travel to Chiang Mai. After continuing to teach the girls at Faith House for the next two days, the rest of the team will join them in Chiang Mai on Friday. Please continue to pray and thank God for the staff and girls at Faith House, and ask God to bless their lives and their future.

Today was our first full day of teaching and activities.  We kicked things off with Dee Johnson teaching through Esther 2 and having the girls practice a little Bible study methods on that chapter. 

We rounded out the morning taking advantage of the many men on this trip to talk about what to look for in a Godly Man. Many of these girls are reaching dating age, and it is crucial for them to understand God's plan for marriage and dating. These guys did a fabulous job speaking just as a father would to his daughter.

After lunch, Glenn Delich spoke on a chapter in our book that we are teaching through called Known. That chapter was called Beloved and really dove into how loved and special we are.

Dee gave the girls a wonderful art lesson this afternoon, teaching them how to paint peonies in a vase. We have some very talented ladies in this group, and it was fun to watch them explore painting.

After dinner tonight, Bill Harms spoke to the girls about safe social media. Many of them have social media accounts, and he stressed the need for awareness and prudence in this area.  

These girls are very attentive during our lessons and participate when asked questions and have questions they ask about our topics. We really enjoy teaching them and being the hands and feet of Jesus!

Sunday Services, Crowning Princesses, A Family Dinner, and Swimming in the Pool!

It's our first full day of spending time with all of the great ladies of Faith Haus. Our team made it to the school, on time for Sunday Service. Why service at the school, you ask?  Well, during COVID, all of the local Christian churches closed. So what does the team there do? Plant a new church and invite the local community!  These ladies and young girls are creative and very adaptive. Throughout their life, they have had to rely upon God in so many ways. Their trust in Him is inspiring. 

It was beautiful to hear everyone sing praise and worship in Thai. Next up, Pastor Ron Moore gave a sermon on SSAFE. In Christ, we are: Significant, Secure, Accepted, Forgiven, and Empowered. It was a great sermon and well received by everyone there. 

If you would like to watch the sermon, please click here. Next, we had a meal with the girls and staff, saw the rooms (very, very, clean), and toured the facility. There is a single two-story dorm building for the girls, typically four girls in a room. However, sometimes they will go up to six with two girls sleeping on mats. My personal favorite is how the girls painted the outside of their rooms and some of the buildings. There's love and hope here. 

It's truly eye-opening how much can be done with so little. Contrasting the size of the traditional American home, to what the girls have, we are so very lucky. 

The plan for today is to provide a retreat for the young ladies and staff, so we are off to a local hotel where the girls can enjoy the pool, some great spiritual and life teaching, and a feast worthy of what Ester gave the king! I was lucky enough to crown six of the princesses, those smiles were bigger and brighter than the stars.

Next, the girls hopped back into the truck, and we headed out to dinner.  I'll tell you, these princesses can EAT! From fried snapper to spicy Asian noodle salads, rice, seafood soups, and Greg's favorite, chicken knuckles! 

These girls don't have a lot of frills in life. Going out to eat, and being able to swim in the pool, is a tremendous treat, like going to Disney.  After what they have been through and how hard they work in their studies, I wish we could give them more.

After we returned from the restaurant, the girls asked to go for a night swim, and with a simple head nod, there was thunderous applause!!  Personally, I thought it was louder than the Steelers pulling off a pick-six at Heinz field.

A spectacular day, looking forward to tomorrow. 

As always, many blessings to you, and thank you for your prayers and support.  

Greetings from Thailand!  We arrived to Faith House this afternoon after flying over 10,000 miles over 4 days with 14 pieces of checked luggage and 8 pieces of carry-on luggage.  As you can see by the pictures below there are big smiles on the team's faces and the girls' as they say Hello - some for the very first time.

In the short time we have been here this afternoon we have learned about the war raging in Myanmar and how it is impacting the girls at Faith House.  Maria has received 10 new girls in the recent months and 6 are from the war zone area.  Thankfully, Gigi has a counseling degree now and is working with these traumatized girls to help them deal with so much emotion.  Many have family in Myanmar and they are fearful for them but can't go back to see them.

We are looking forward to being the hands and feet of Jesus here this week.  Tomorrow, Ron will preach at the Worship service that Faith House holds in their compound.  Afterward, we will take the girls for a special trip to a nearby resort to begin our lessons through the book of Esther and continued study about the names God has called them. Oh, yes and swim in the pool which will be a wonderful treat for these young ladies.  Right now it is so hot here it feels like you do when you stand in front of an open oven door.  HOT!!!

In the Spring of 2019, The Bible Chapel sent a mission team to Thailand that changed my life. Through that trip, I became aware of human trafficking happening in our world today. Gary Haugen, founder of International Justice Mission that rescues victims of human trafficking, has said there are 40,000,000 human trafficked victims in our world today.

I am so excited!! Because we get to go again- for our third time! The Bible Chapel is set to return to Faith House April 19^th- May 1st. Our team is led by Glenn Delich and Brenda Tenison. Joining our team is Pastor Ron Moore, Greg Devore, Gary Gould, Bill Harms, Kathleen Belack, and myself (Dee Johnson).

We are going to lead the girls through the book of Esther- our precious princess warriors will understand Queen Esther and how God can also use them at “such a time as this.” These princess warriors are going to change the world!!

We will, also, teach some identity in Christ chapters from Aubrey Sampson’s book Known. It’s my new favorite! I will lead them in acrylic painting of some Bold Blooms (please pray for that!), and we will do some sewing and other activities leading to a banquet to help them personalize the teachings of Esther.

We cannot rescue 40,000,000 people, but we can participate in bringing the healing teachings of Christ to these 35 rescued souls at Faith House; the girls are ages 9-26. I wish you could join us in the amazing worship with these girls. Their sweet singing takes us right to the throne of God.

Please pray for our mission trip to Faith House in Maesot, Thailand, and that God will enable the girls to understand the teaching of Esther and His vision to use them to reach the world for Christ. Thank you for your partnership and prayer as we bring the gospel and Jesus to these precious girls. Your faithfulness and generosity mean so much.