To Seek and Save the Lost...: Thailand Week 4

Teaching drums to the boys at Baan Nana

Our 4th week in Thailand, we spent a lot of time at a ministry called the Baan Nana Center. It's a safe home for Burmese kids to grow up and have a more positive childhood. Like I said in previous entries, all these kids have different stories, all of them laced with the tragedies of war, some of their stories infiltrated by them. For example, one of the boys at the home lost his father and was abandoned by his mother. He went to live with his uncle who had an opium addiction and forced him to go out and beg to earn money to feed his habit. If he didn't come home with enough money, his uncle would beat him. His aunt heard about the Baan Nana center and sent him there to free him from his uncle's abuse. It's located outside the city in the middle of nowhere and has a summer camp feel to it. We went there several times to play games with the kids and teach them skills like guitar and drums, bracelet making, and english. The kids there are all different ages ranging from 2-18 years old. One little girl, the youngest one there caught my heart so strongly that it hurt. She was breathtakingly beautiful and only about 2 years old. I am naturally drawn to people who are sad and hurting and I've never seen so much fear and sadness in a child's eyes. She'd seen things and been through things that no human should ever see let alone a 2 year old baby girl. I don't know her story, I don't know what she's seen or what she's been through, but I know by the look in her eyes that it must have been tragic. So young, so vulnerable, and so hurt yet she cannot even speak yet to talk about her pain. I only got to hold her once, and I immediately wanted to take her home with me. God has not forgotten her. He sees her and he knows her. He loves her and I have faith that He will use her in tremendous ways.