Blessing Home Children’s Shelter: A Ministry of Hope in Pattaya, Thailand
News from the Thailand Mission Initiative

Pattaya, Thailand is a city of contrasts. On the outside it looks like a beautiful vacationland, but in reality, it is a place that is the center of the sex tourist trade in Southeast Asia. In the midst of tall buildings, massage parlors, and beer bars are women and children who are being trafficked. This has caused an epidemic of AIDS/HIV which has devastated families in Thailand and left thousands of children in Pattaya orphaned, abandoned, or neglected.

Benz (5 year old girl on the left) and her younger sister live with this woman who is not related to them but has shown compassion to them after they were abandoned. Both girls receive daily care at Blessing Home.

The people of Life Center UMC in Pattaya have hearts of mercy to these children and to the senior women who take care of them. Many times, these seniors are not related to the children, but have chosen to provide care for them. But these seniors usually cannot adequately feed or clothe the children or provide the funds needed for them to go to school. Most of the time, these young children, ages 2 to 10, must go with them into the streets during the blistering heat of the day to rummage through trash barrels for recyclables to sell for food. They work like this for 10 to 12 hours per day without having much to eat or drink.

Blessing Home is a ministry of Life Center UMC to these children. At this time, 35 children receive daily care, food, clothes, medicine, biblical teaching, and Christian love. Emergency shelter is also provided to any child in need. At this time, there is a very long waiting list of orphans and abandoned children, but there are not enough funds to hire child care workers and to provide food and other necessities.

Some of the children do not have birth certificates, and are not legally able to obtain them. Without a birth certificate, these children cannot attend school and when they become adults, they will not be able to have a national ID card which would permit them to work. Leaders of this ministry are currently seeking legal means for obtaining documents for these children so they can have good opportunities for their future.

Pastor Banya of Life Center UMC in Pattaya and Missionaries Mike and Sherri Morrissey, visit the “home” of Benz, a 5 year old girl and her young sister abandoned by their mother. The tin shack they were living in collapsed. The Christians of Life Center UMC helped to repair their home.:

Support for the orphans and abandoned children at Blessing Home can be given through Advance #00403A, Thailand Mission Initiative. Advance Gifts can be given to your local UMC treasurer or online at http://www.givetomission.org/.