Kerry Decker, minister of Pathway Christian Church in Riverside, California writes:

What if you were born a girl with yellow skin and almond-shaped eyes in a Buddhist country where you were taught that your lot in life is due to karma? That’s why you are poor. That’s why you are hungry. That’s why you are female. How different would your life be? What hope would you have?

You would be among the very least—the ones to whom Jesus urges us to show compassion. Your only hope would be that someone would care enough to show you the same grace and mercy that he or she experienced at the cross of Christ. But in the meantime, you wait—in the cold and darkness of sin—until someone comes with the light and warmth of the gospel. This is why the Daughters of Ruth ministry exists in Thailand.

Daughters of Ruth is a safe-house for pre-teenage and teenage girls upon their release from jail or prison. Many of the girls are gang-affiliated. Most are drug-addicted. Some are homeless. And all are without God, without Christ, and without a hope in this world when they come to us. We provide a Christian environment complete with counseling, education, protection, and shelter.

Daughters of Ruth is located in Chiang Mai and receives girls from correctional facilities throughout northern Thailand. One great frustration is that the majority of these girls have no parole or probation guidelines. When they complete their incarceration, the guard opens the front gate and they step out onto the street—and back into their old lifestyles. Without options, they end up hustling or stealing in order to survive.

Like Ruth, they are living under a curse, but not one that God has placed on them. They come from dysfunctional homes, extreme poverty, and a culture of spiritual darkness. They want to go straight; in fact, it is all some of them can talk about. But they have no one to help them, nowhere to go. They feel they have no control or power over their lives, so they return to their former environments.

They want to step out of the curse and into the blessing, but they don’t know how. There is no avenue for gradual reintegration, no rehabilitation program, and very little supervision. They lack resources, self-esteem, and the skills to end this vicious cycle. But at the Daughters of Ruth home, bricks of character, integrity, and maturity are laid one by one.

Daughters of Ruth currently occupies a rented three-story townhouse. The first floor is a worship center where morning devotions are scheduled at 6:30 and again at noon for those who do not have to leave the home for school or work. A third devotion is conducted before bedtime. Special guests from the “outside” are invited to lead Sunday services.

The second floor is where director Boonlerd Chomphukeere and his family live. Boonlerd, his wife, and a host of Christian volunteers teach the girls cooking, handicrafts, needlework, pottery, and woodcarving. They also enroll the girls in government sponsored career training courses where they learn how to be computer programmers and beauticians.

The third floor can accommodate 13 girls. Though their rooms are crowded, the girls are grateful to be here. In this secure environment they are afforded every opportunity to become emotionally, mentally, physically, and spiritually adjusted so they can return to society. After leaving our home, volunteers follow up on them through letters, personal visits, and telephone calls.

The progress our girls have made speaks volumes about what could be accomplished if we had more room. The director of juvenile prisons for northern Thailand is willing to release more girls and transfer them to us providing we have capacity to care for them. We need to move out of our current facility and build a dormitory style house that will accommodate 48 to 50 girls.

Four acres of land have been purchased on the outskirts of Chiang Mai City. Richard Herring, a building engineer from LifeBridge Christian Church in Longmont, Colorado, has volunteered to oversee construction of the dormitory. We ask you to partner with us in prayer.

Daughters of Ruth range in age from eight to 18 and suffer from abuse, distrust, embarrassment, fear, and shame. They do not have family or friends to support them and no clue how to start over. They come to us from a life of corruption, exploitation, and prostitution—yet it is amazing to see the transformation Christ makes in their hearts and minds when they become Christians.

“Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these . . . you did it to me”
(Matthew 25:45, New King James Version). |L

Two Daughters of Ruth stand in front of their home.   Their father, a farmer, is serving a life sentence for drug trafficking and their mother deserted them.   One of the sisters said to our dorm parents, “I thought I would not make it. I thought you would never come.

For more information on Daughters of Ruth visit their Web site at www.daughtersofruth.org.

Joe Garman is president of ARM Prison Outreach International in Joplin, Missouri.

OTHER COLUMNS:
August 20, 2006 - A Peruvian champion spreads the gospel
September 30, 2005 - Our mighty God rules over shore and wave
September 30, 2005 - Joy at Rapha House