More Than a Statistic

There are two students at our school, a brother and sister, who I have known are on a pretty big scholarship. Big deal. Most of the students at our school are on a scholarship of one kind or another. Today I found out why these two are able to come to school paying only a fraction of the actual cost. Their only mode of transportation is also their business. Their dad is a song taw driver. He makes between 300 and 400 baht per day. Which is about $12. However, gas costs about 200 baht per day, meaning that the total income is about $6. A family of four survives off of roughly $180 per month.

(Song taw)

Now transition with me...

It is estimated that the number of prostitutes in Thailand ranges from 800,000 to 2 million.

Rhode Island's population: 1,053,209. There are more prostitutes in Thailand than there are people in the state of Rhode Island.

Approximately 20% of these prostitutes are 18 years old or younger

Thailand is currently called the Disneyland of Pedophiles.

There are up to 600,000 cases of AIDS.

There are 1,300,000 Orphans in Thailand

Sex work has been become "normalized" in Thailand

Thai women believe that prostitution reduces cases of rape.

Back now to my student: my bright, beautiful, friendly little first grade girl. What does her future entail? When do her parents get tired of barely making ends meet and decide they need her to help make a little extra money? At what point does that become a decision a parent, a Buddhist parent with no hope, would make?

And then I think about the over one hundred children I have met face to face, who I've laughed with and talked with who have been rescued from this life of hopelessness and cruelty. Each child with an unimaginable past. One, a girl who at 5 years old was nursing her mom as she died of AIDS. Who after her mom passed away, was passed around her village, with no one taking her in, caring for, or loving her. Another a girl whose father was killed in an opium deal gone wrong, and whose mom now works in Bangkok as a prostitute. A third, a boy with scars on his face from his battered childhood and hidden scars from sexual abuse by foreign men. I then I think of the millions more who will never be rescued, and it breaks my heart.

Odds are stacked against them. Odds are stacked us as we try to fight for their freedom. However, the Lord has put on our hearts the desire to join these precious children in this battle. Our weapon of choice...education. "Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army." Edward Everett. However, the ultimate battle is for their souls and is won only by the power of the love of Christ which we seek to impart as we teach each day.

Please pray that The School of Promise will be a safeguard of liberty, educating children so as to break the cycles of poverty and oppression that hold so many. Pray that The School of Promise would bring hope into the lives of our students as well as their parents through the truths of the gospel. Pray that the girls who attend our school will see their value before God. Pray that the boys at our school would grow into men of God who treat women with respect and lead their families in paths of righteousness. Pray that each child will come to know Christ and walk in a manner worthy of the gospel.