2016 was a beautiful, yet stretching year for us here! It was definitely a year of change; sometimes things happening way too fast, while other events did not occur at the time or way we had hoped. I’m sure you can relate? A theme for the year developed from a popular worship song: “Seasons change; His love remains.”
A few changes: We’ve been in our building since October of 2009 and desperately needed to repair major leaks and other external damage. Due to some generous end of year gifts in 2015 and a church in Del City, Oklahoma raising funds, we were able to hire a professional team to scrub the mold off all the exterior and interior walls; paint the exterior walls; and enclose our 5th floor roof to become an area for a worship & garden space. The construction crew also repaired the ceilings and walls on all four floors of our space, helping the entire building continue to be a safe place for our students’ recovery journeys and for the onsite job-training program to function more smoothly.
Another positive is the owner of the building continues to sign 3-year contracts with us to lease his building and keeps the rent affordable. Our neighbors pay much more; at least triple what we pay for the same size building. It continues to be a great space and location.
The hard things: In early 2016, two students left the program unexpectedly. One sadly relapsed during the holiday break after so much positive growth; and the other found work at a shop closer to his mother, wanting to care for her more consistently. This impacted our café crew the most, becoming under-staffed again, especially with another café employee being out for pregnancy leave. Our cafe manager, S, did a great job leading the café crew during this frugal and tight season.
There’s also good: In June, tuition money was raised quickly for “Fort” to start at a new university, entering as a junior. We did a private fund-raiser with previous volunteers and staff that knew him personally and it was a big success! He was overwhelmed to know how many people cared and gave to help his future. “Bank” also continued interning and was finally hired at the fancy culinary school, receiving a solid salary. There are incredible learning opportunities assisting the chefs and he has done amazingly well. We celebrated his “graduation” from DN, when he received his first pay-check from the culinary school.
Our team also continues to grow and the majority signed more than a year contract, which naturally brings more stability, role clarification and forward movement as a united group. I’m so thankful for our team!
If you are interested in volunteering with us here in Bangkok, please fill out volunteer forms on our website.
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