Street Kids of Surin

// you’re reading...

« A bridge of hope

Living fields again »

Poverty

Posted by Justin Long ⋅ July 2, 2006 ⋅

Email This Post ⋅

Print This Post ⋅ View comments

A little over a year ago, a Thai lady pastor visited a Cambodian border market at Chong Chom, Surin. As she was window-shopping a young lad snatched her handbag and ran. Being street-wise of the alleys and hiding places, he was lost to sight in no time at all. Frustrated, angry and feeling helpless she vowed never to come back again to this border of thieves!

Later she was told by reliable sources that the children resorted to thieving because they had no money for food and were hungry. She found that 100 or so children from nearby border villages cross the border to umbrella-shade Thai gamblers as they travel to 2 casinos at the Cambodian side of the border. Casinos are forbidden in Thailand and this has cause a steady stream of avid gamblers practicing their vice across the border. Some of the children are orphans and some live with grandparents, with parents working elsewhere. They earn about 5 baht a time shading the gamblers across. Upon hearing this, the Lord touched the Thai lady pastor’s heart causing her to break her vow and avowed again to bring the Gospel to these “precious” little ones and their families. So her ministry started with permission to use an unused immigration building for lunches & teaching to the children. Over the year or so now the Gospel has reached these precious little unreached ones.

Due to poverty & for the past year, the children had been coming to the border everyday to earn some money umbrella-shading Thai gamblers from the Thai border to the 2 casinos on the Laos border. A few “bad hats” disguised themselves as Christians & crossed the border to scratch cars, steal belongings inside cars, break windows, and puncture tires. The Thai immigration has reacted by barring the Khmer kids from plying their border trade, making living more difficult for their families. These children have been given the Gospel and many of them have received Christ as their personal Saviour. With the Thai border barring them, the children have stayed put at a few villages near the border, deprived of the meager income they used to make before. The children in the first village have a meal a day and the Thai pastor brings lunch for them on Tuesdays, Thursday & Saturdays, where they would be privileged to eat 2 meals a day. Children’s Ministry is taught each time when they go to the villages, usually 1 or 2 villages on each excursion inside. Medicine has also been taken in to treat the wounded, the sick, the skin diseases, head lice, deworming, pains & aches. There are no doctors at close call & urgent medical care can only be sought at town centers, quite a long distance away. During each excursion in, a good supply of medicine is dispensed to them.

One little lad has been punched by the border guards, mistakenly thought to be the bad group of thugs, just because he was within the vicinity of the disturbance. He has since been unable to open his jaw wide! We only found out when the dentist could get him to widen his jaw for an extraction. Many are today turning to gather orchids and wild mushrooms from the forests to sell. As lower orchid plants are been exhausted, the gatherers have to reach higher for them. Another youth had his feet pierced through whilst falling down from a tree where he was gathering orchids to sell. The regular story of no medical treatment was true for him & his foot was turning septic when he came for treatment. His sister had insisted he came for the Thai ministry for medical help rather than accompanying her home for the Cambodian New Year. This is certainly God’s appointment! Having assessed his dilemma & urgent medical need, we sent him to the Thai border hospital where he had a proper cleansing and treatment. He came back a happy young man, for his sore foot was not so sore & healing was taking place already. That timely action & God’s perfect timing negated another foot amputee!

The lady pastor has 2 ladies helping her as they all speak Cambodian. They ministered in songs & bible stories. There has been no foreign aid to her ministry to these umbrella-shading Khmer kids. The kids had been given permission before to congregate at the Thai border building with the help of the Thai pastor’s husband, who incidentally works in government service. A medical doctor cum dental team came and gave these underprivileged ones some much needed medical treatment last year.

Our vision is to not only reach the Khmer children with the Gospel but also the adults and youth there too, by creating a central place of meeting where the children & adults can meet for ministry and worship and training and mentoring local leaders to run their own indigenous church, in time.

by a field worker who wishes to remain anonymous for security reasons.