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Wildflower Home Newsletter • March 2013 • wildflowerhome.net

Dear Friends of Wildflower Home, We have been in Thailand over nine years and have led Wildflower Home from its con-ception in 2005. Our children were ages 2, 6 and 8 when we arrived. Andrew, now age 18, graduates from Chiang Mai International School and we will be moving back to the United States in June of this year. After several months of taking applications and interviews, the Board of Directors has decided to hand the project over to the most qualified candidate. The Good Shepherd Sisters have been operating in Thailand for over 25 years and have six strong programs for women and children in six different provinces. Sr. Supapawn Choti-phon, now working in NongKhai and Sr. Siriporn Suwannachairop in Chiang Rai, will arrive in early April. On June 8 Wildflower Home will host a party and ceremony to

officially welcome the Good Shepherd Sis-ters as the new leadership for Wildflower Home. Everyone is invited to attend. We are grateful for the support of so many people over these past nine years. We know that without you Wildflower Home would not have been possible and we would not have had this wonderful opportunity. Sincerely Grateful, Elizabeth and Michael Thaibinh

Wildflower Home Women: “Sharing What They Have in Common”

Living among women, children and refugees who have seen a lot of suffering does not leave me lacking for images relating to the suffer-ing and resurrection of Jesus as we celebrate Easter and the days leading up to it. The early Christian community was transformed by these mysteries, which led them to live differently than before: “sharing what they had in common…there was no needy person among them.” (Acts 4:32,34) Wildflower Home is not a distinctively Christian community. What I mean by that is we welcome women of all faith traditions. But in so many ways, the women at Wildflower Home live out Christian values of care and concern for each person in the community, which helps transform the lives of the women and children who live here. Every woman, when they arrive, can be labeled as needy. They are coming from very poor family circumstances, have been abandoned or beaten by their

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husbands, or are outcasts from their communities because of pregnancy out of wedlock. The young mothers may be refugees in Thailand, trafficked, or are often from hill tribes and have faced a lot of discrimination. Under ordi-nary circumstances, Asian families stick together and help their members, so when young women come to Wildflower Home, it is usually as a last resort. Wildflower Home is a ref-uge for these women. They are welcomed into a circle of peers where eve-ryone is equal. The moth-ers have created a com-munity where they share in daily tasks such as cooking, cleaning, feeding the pigs, gardening, caring for each other’s children, etc. They work with a uni-ty of purpose and action. Ultimately that purpose is to help each other suc-ceed.

Once the new woman and her child or children arrive to Wildflower Home, their neediness diminishes. They have good meals, safe shelter, counseling, access to donated cloth-ing, etc. More importantly though, they have each other and caring staff. The women set goals for them-selves and often are help-ing each other meet those goals. The goals can be as simple as learning to ride a bike for the first time, or more complicated such as

learning to read Thai, speak English, use a com-puter or get a job. The same passage in Acts about the community of believers living together speaks about how they bore witness to the Resur-rection, to new life. These young mothers, coming from such desperate situa-tions, with such heavy crosses to bear, also bear witness to the resurrection by the new lives they are able to live. Their lives are a living witness of hope. By the care and love that they receive at Wildflower Home, they experience new life and offer this op-portunity to each other.

march 2013 www.wildflowerhome.net

PaNong encourages Lisi to learn to drive a truck, but puts on a motorcycle helmet just in case something goes wrong.

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Living With Abuse

March 2013 www.wildflowerhome.net

Staff and residents of Wild-flower Home are happy to have a new facility in which to study, meet, cook, eat, work, take care of their babies, etc. We are now com-pletely settled into this new building, which is now full of life daily. Great care and love has gone into the design

and finishing touches of the building, which has made the building not just functional, but a place of healing and beauty. Many natural el-ements, such as bamboo, rocks and outdoor

spaces have been uti-lized in the design to give the building a warm feeling and make it a pleasing environ-ment in which to work. Currently the workers are putting in a new fence around the day-care. All major renova-tions should be com-pleted by June.

Building Update

Abuse within the home is a reality in multiple homes throughout the world. It crosses all economic, ethnic, and social boundaries. From rich families in the United States or England to poor families in remote villages of Thailand and Africa, abuse affects millions of individu-als. Wildflower Home is a safe haven in Northern Thailand for many women and children who experience abuse. Da, (whose name has been changed) is a tribal woman age 19 currently residing at Wildflower Home with her baby. She agreed to share a little of her story. Da’s life circumstances were stacked against her from a young age. Her father was jailed for drug abuse when she was less than a year

old. Her mother, living in a patriarchal society, found it difficult to raise Da alone and chose to remarry. In their culture, this meant going to live in another village with the new husband’s family. Though Da was allowed to join her mother, she was not well accepted in the new family. It was obvious to her that her mother’s new husband didn’t want her in the house, and she suffered mental and physical abuse on account of it. He would sometimes slap her across the face or use his knuckles to beat her on the head. His mother used an electrical wire to beat her, and his sister pinched her until she bruised. She doesn’t remember her mother’s three new children from this husband receiving the same poor treatment. These three children were clearly more loved than she was.

Double the Trouble, Double the Joy We have recently welcomed into our community Na and Ja, healthy twin boys born February 21. Now over a month old, their mother helps in Wildflower Home’s new baby nursery while caring for her own children and the children of other women. It is quite the adventure for the new mother as she finds it diffi-cult to decide who to feed first when they are both screaming. Fortunately she has much needed support from the other mothers and vol-unteers to help her care for her twins.

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Please Consider Making a Donation As we change directors, we expect Wildflower Home’s programs to grow and more women and children to be served. This can’t happen without increased financial support. We hope you will consider supporting Wildflower Home by:

Or donate through PayPal on our website www.wildflowerhome.net

Donating through our bank account: Bangkok Bank, Borsang Branch Name: Wildflower Home Foundation Account Number: 532-0-25140-7 Swift Code: BKKBTHBK

March 2013 www.wildflowerhome.net

Making a US tax deductible donation by sending a check payable to: San Se, Inc. P.O Box 842650 Houston, Texas 77284 USA

Da was allowed to go to school while she was a child, but school was not always a friendly place for her either. Da grew up with a learning disability and very poor memory. She was always sur-rounded by students who could learn faster than she could. She received ridicule from both teachers and stu-dents who didn’t understand her. Da first got married at age 17. She feels like part of the rea-son the family arranged the marriage was to get the dow-ry. However, the marriage didn’t last long, and soon she was back living with her mother. As Da’s situation grew worse, she shared her story one day with a bus driver. This driver had a good heart and began looking into how to help her. He knew of a government-supported foundation where she could go to be safe and learn vocational training skills. Soon she was living in a facili-ty with other young women

and was learning to sew, cook and cut hair. After about seven months, Da’s father had completed his jail sentence and was re-leased. Da went to live with her father, as she was his only child. That summer she worked in the fields and was able to earn some money. With the money she earned she bought a cell phone. A new relationship developed via the phone. A young man began calling her often, and she enjoyed the attention. It wasn’t long before she was pregnant through her new ac-quaintance. However, she also learned that the same man had girlfriends in many villag-es, and she could never ex-pect to be “special” in his eyes as she longed to be. After finding out she was pregnant, she tried calling his number one last time to inform him, but when his mother picked up the phone, she was scared, hung up and never called him again. To this day she doesn’t know if he is aware that she

ever became pregnant or gave birth. She doesn’t feel it is worth her energy to tell him. Da came to live at Wildflower Home at the advice of a neighbor. She says she is happy at Wildflower Home be-cause she has many friends here. She appreciates having a safe place to live, plenty of food to eat and a place to give birth as a single mother. Da has continued to practice her sewing skills since she has been here. Even with her learning disability she has continued learning to read and write Thai at her own pace without pressure from others, and has been excited to begin learning computer. She is an excellent mother to her child and hopes that he will be able to grow up in the safe, happy environment that she had longed for as a child. She looks forward to getting a job one day, maybe as a seam-stress, and supporting her son through school. Despite her difficult childhood, Da has a bright future ahead of her!