The Akha Youth Development Centre is a youth hostel for Akha children. It is a place for kids who live too far away and have no way of getting into the city for school. A lot of them come from broken families, or drug addicted parents. This is a very healthy and safe enviroment for them to live as Akha's have less opportunity and rights than Thai citizens. If it weren't for this program many of them would get a very limited (if any) education, which could eventualy lead to the young girls ending up as prostitutes, or the boys growing and selling (as well as becoming addicted to) opium. It is a Christian Centre run by Luka and Ghan Chermui. Luka's parents were the first Akha people to become Christians as a result of a missionary named Jean Nightengale and her husband many years back. Luka was the first known baby to be dedicated to God. Jean Nightengale later wrote a book about it called "Without A Gate".
.... for the first 6 weeks of our outreach this is where we lived (AYDC). As you can see, it was an absolutely gorgeous place to wake up to every morning. Here we invested in the childrens lives, taught much english, became masters at mixing cement and paving roads, sang, spoke, gave testimonies, etc in church.
When the children went to school during the day we were either working on the road, teaching english in the local schools, teaching girls basic cooking/baking skills, and sometimes i was busy re-typing "Without A Gate" - a book about how the Akha hilltribe found Jesus.
Our evenings were spent eating with the kids and playing with them. We also learned had 2 lessons per week where we learned both the Thai and Akha language.
During our time at AYDC we also had a few interesting village trips and eating some very interesting dishes!
Our time at AYDC was memorable, and it was very hard for our team to leave. We built some really sweet relationships with the children and the leaders there. The story of the Akha people is incredible and one I will write more about as well. It's amazing to see what God is doing in these people, how he is redeeming their culture, freeing them from addiction and giving them more opportunities in a country where they are widely unaccepted. There were may tears when we left, and a few of our students were so moved, they are planning on going back at some point.
posted by Amanda @ 10:27 PM
1 Comments:
Amanda, I had no idea how beautiful Chaing Rai was, what a beautiful place to be in. I too have been moved by the things you have shared about Dao and her children. It was heart breaking to hear how these young girls and young women are enticed into prostitution, I am thankful that their are people like yourself willing to share the love of Jesus with these women that need Jesus so much.
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