The Faith Garden Journey

Faith GardenWe have been involved in mercy works with some Karen people   living in Chiangmai  for since 2005. In short, the Karen people  are a minor ethnic group in Myanmar and Thailand. They are a marginalized lot in the society, with the Burmese Karen people especially being persecuted by the Burmese authorities to this day. In April 2009, fuelled by a strong desire for better education and conducive living conditions with a good Christian environment, our Karen missionary  partners – Phii Chaai and Phii Tamara, have built a hostel in the peripherals  of Chiangmai city(an hour’s drive away), with the   financial support of us and some other friends from a church. The simple hostel, now called Faith Garden, is built near a high school to make it easy for students to commute and houses 24 Karen high school students then (age 13 - 18), manned by Phii Chaai and Phii Tamara.

Faith GardenSince then, we have been trying to sustain Faith Garden and helping the students through a sponsorship system which helps to pay for the maintenance of the hostel and the school fees for the financially less able students. The sponsorship system works like this:

• Any of our friends who are interested in supporting the cause of Faith Garden pledges a sum of money at a fixed interval, for a fixed period of time they wish to commit. Typically, sponsors give a sum of about S$50/mth which they pledge for a year (i.e. S$600/yr). Some friends who are unable to commit for a fixed interval gave us a one-off lump sum donation. Either way, all these details are captured in a form for account tracking and acknowledgement by the hostel.

• The sponsor can sponsor in 2 different schemes. The first is to give money for direct sponsorship of a student, in which the sponsor can choose to relate directly with the student being sponsored. The second is to give money for the general maintenance of the hostel. In both cases, the money will eventually go into a common fund to pay for maintenance of the hostel/school fees and expenses for the students.

Faith GardenSince Faith Garden was built in April 2009, we have been making several mission trips up with sponsors to help with its development and relate to the students. Praise God that despite a very difficult first year, the hostel is now expanding to accommodate 24 high school students, some of whom are from the other minority hill tribes. Phii Chaai and Phii Tamara are hoping that the hostel can sustain and even expand in the long run, to bless more people in their community.

Our belief is that if the above makes an impression on you, there is always a way in which you can help in the sustenance of Faith Garden and the development of its students, and we would be more than glad to explore the options with you. You are also highly welcome to see for yourself the works done in the Faith Garden, by joining us on one of our mission trips.

Faith GardenFaith Garden is linked to 2 children’s hostels

Nong Tao in the Mae Win province

Ban Rai in the Mae Sariang province

All of the sponsors and people who gone up with us on our trips have been to Nong Tao which is an hour’s drive from Faith Garden.

Ban Rai is located near the Thai-Burma border near the refugee camps. It’s a 4-5 hour drive away. One of the teams went to visit the refugee camp in 2010. It’s not a trip for the faint hearted.

Some of the children from Faith Garden graduated from these 2 hostels.

NONG TAO

Ban Rai Hostel

Karen refugees

In the year 2010, 600 karen villagers in burma were forced to leave their homes by the Burmese military. As a result, they needed urgent aid in terms of blankets, mosquito net and warm clothes.

By God’s grace, we’ve somehow managed to raise 12K for them to purchase all the aid items for them

Flow, the man giving out the blankets is our friend working in the refugee camps and burma. We pray that we’ll be able to do our part in supporting and helping them through the work of our hostel.