“In my family, is my grandpa, my grandma, me and my brother,” fifteen-year-old Mona said. We were paired off with students at the English class we have been teaching in partnership with the leaders of the House of Prayer, talking with each other about our families. When I (Amy) asked about her parents, Mona shared that her parents were divorced. Her dad had remarried and a had a four-year-old son together with his new wife. Mona hadn’t seen her dad in years, even though she lived with his parents. When I asked about her mom, she said she didn’t know where she was or even if she was still alive. I asked what she and her family did together in their free time, and she said they didn’t really do anything together. After school, she usually would just go to the mall or spend time with her friends. Mona wiped a few tears from her eyes as she talked about her family. It made me sad that her family was so disconnected.
Recently, our church had a special baptismal service on a Saturday. Since “T”, one of our neighbor girls, loves coming with us to church, we invited her to come with us. During the service, T was intrigued, as she had never seen anyone get baptized before. She curiously asked about what the people were doing and Matt and the Thais who were around her explained that they were making a commitment to follow Jesus.
Over the past couple of weeks our little neighbors have continued to build relationships with us. We are encouraged to see how love is making a difference. Non, for example, has been asking for hugs from Matt when he comes to our house. This isn’t typical for Thais, who generally speaking, are hesitant to give or receive physical affection.
In the last month, we have been praying for God to open up doors in our neighborhood for us to share the Gospel. Though we had been having one of the neighborhood children come to our house often prior to praying for an open door, since then we’ve been having seven kids come to our house on a regular basis, which is a little stressful some days, but is an amazing opportunity to love. We really believe God is entrusting us with this as we didn’t go seeking these kids out- rather they came to our door and we welcomed them in. 
At the beginning of the month of May, I (Amy) recently had an opportunity to meet up with one of the ladyboys I had mentored when I had lived in Pattaya in 2010. May is now living in Cambodia, his home country, so it truly was an unexpected treat when he reached out to let me know he was in Bangkok and would love to meet up. 
Baldwin Family 