Creative Life @communicatewithcreativelife - Tumblr Blog

Restore

Restore is a project under Creative Life Foundation (Word Made Flesh Thailand). For the last seven years, our team has built relationships with children and youth who sell flowers, gum or shine shoes in Bangkok's notorious red light districts. Creative Life Foundation has responded primarily through education. The education program meets the children's physical and emotional needs by creating a safe learning environment and opportunities to grow into their full potential through extra curricular activities such as soccer, ballet, jujitsu and swimming.

During the early years of focusing only on relationship-building and learning more about issues relating to migration, the CLF team knew that in order to meet the child's needs fully, they would need to meet the parents needs as well. We learned that most of the fathers of the children selling were staying home, drinking and gambling and not working, but thankfully not all. Some were actually good fathers who loved their children but had never been to school themselves. They felt they couldn't provide for their family other than sending children out to beg for money.

In 2013, our friend Kim let us know that her father Bob Meeker would be visiting Bangkok. He had 30+ years of experience teaching wood workshop and thought he could be of use to Kim's network of friends as she was connected to several non-profit organizations in Thailand. The CLF team thought this was a great opportunity for the fathers we knew. Bob prepared a two-day lesson focusing on basic carpentry skills and tool maintenance. Chris Coon, another Bangkok friend had carpentry experience and agreed to help.

Tim, CLF's co-founder, contacted a few dads who were looking for opportunities to make extra income. The day of the workshop arrived and everyone was excited. All the prep was finished, and on the morning of the workshop, everything was ready except -- we had no students! The fathers contacted Tim the morning of and all had excuses for why they couldn't come.

It was now 9:00am. Creative Life's education program was starting and two dads had just arrived, dropping their kids off. One of the fathers sells balloons near a mall on the outskirts of Bangkok. The other father wasn’t working and was living off the stipend he received for sending his children to CLF's education program. Tim asked if they would join, and they gladly agreed. Bob and Chris are incredible teachers and did an amazing job! When the workshop ended the next day, not only did they complete 2 beautifully crafted tables, they had created something much more. That workshop was the beginning of confidence, which lead to an interruption in one of the dad’s self-worth. Low confidence was replaced by pride. I know this sounds cheesy, but it's true. The dad came up to me and said, "Wow, I can do something!" This small moment sparked hope. Hope was possible by a father taking a risk – a risk to possibly fail. But hope takes risks.

Chris committed to teaching and working side by side one of the dads for nearly 2 years. He created a work area at CLF and donated some tools. Piap, the father who took a risk, learned a new craft and has sold many furniture pieces over the years. The space itself has become a training center for others interested in learning a skill; one man from a nearby community has started his own small business after receiving training through Restore. Restore continues to give men opportunities to take risks and learn a skill while also bringing in extra income. Visit and LIKE our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/restorebangkok

#restore wordmadeflesh thailand creativelifefoundation

The streets have changed but my heart has not

This reflection was formed over several weeks between the hours of 10:30pm and 1:00am which is when our team meets with a few girls who are eager to learn how to read and write Thai. Our "school" meets at a 24-hour McDonalds

"The streets have changed, they're not the same" I have recently found myself saying this more and more as I walk up and down the length of the Redlight district. When I say "the streets have changed" I'm not talking about the sights of women for sale because that hasn't... much. If you look closely there ARE signs of hope, one of them being a newly renovated coffee shop that offers an alternative to women who take customers. But, still, I walk past the same bars, the same glowing neon lights , the same guys who are asking "how much" to the women who stand on the curb -unfortunately this part hasn't changed.

As I continue to walk the memories surface: faces, conversations, I pass the sidewalks where I once sat meeting kids and moms for the first time, the corner store we used to buy instant noodles from, children's facial expressions when they learned how to write their names for the first time. I remember the clusters of children as we sat on the curb working on math problems.

I used to sit with a mom. She would normally sit on the sidewalk in front of a noisy bar. Her two little boys under the age of 4 ran back and forth in front of her, both barefoot waiving their paper cups trying to get change from passing tourists. Her 3 older daughters would be nearby selling roses to the men who walk up and down the street looking for a good time. The mom recently told me that she can't come anymore because the police have been making it too difficult. She now has her younger children sell flowers in a safer environment closer to home.

I spoke with another mother recently. She could barely look me in the eyes, but when she did, her eyes spoke of sadness and shame. She decided to send her daughter back to Cambodia. Now, the mother stands on the sidewalk alone trying to support her family. She told me she was sad and misses her daughter very much. This was clear as her eyes filled with tears. The shame I mentioned earlier spoke for itself, as she stood awkwardly dressed to please a potential customer. Her story mirrors other moms we know. I miss spending time with another family- a single mom and her four children. Unfortunately she has been in jail for the last two years while her three daughters, all under the age of 8, are without family in a children's home. Her older son is back in Cambodia. We don't know how he is doing. We have since made a few visits to the children's home making sure the girls know they are not forgotten.

As I walk the streets, which holds loss of relationships I'm reminded of why we continue to visit. I don't know what the future holds for these kids but each one, here or there, has left a significant mark on my heart and after all these years I have a feeling of responsibility in making sure these kids get access to opportunities that allows them to live into their full potential. Yes, the street have changed but my heart has not. It's good that less kids are present in the Redlight districts of Bangkok but getting kids out of sight is NOT the answer and a better solution is STILL needed. The kids are just as vulnerable in a world that preys on the uneducated and poor.

No matter how busy my week I always look forward to Wednesday nights when I can visit our friends. We spend 2 hours around a table covered with french fries, ketchup,chili sauce and an occasional burger, teaching. The girls are currently between 13-15 years old. I've known some of them since they were 9.

Two years ago our team responded to this issue by establishing an education program. Creative Life Education's vision is to see a safe space that fosters holistic learning opportunities through the use of innovative and unconventional practices for the poor, marginalized and displaced people of Thailand. We are currently looking to add three more students to our program. If you are interested in adopting a child's education or would like to receive more information please email me: [email protected]

If there is no friendship with them and no sharing of life of the poor, then there is no authentic commitment to liberation, because love exists only among equals -Gustavo Gutierrez

80 Partners

Becoming one of our 80 partners will enable our education program to continue to bring the gift of holistic education to the streets and to the minds who truly are the future of this world. It will enable our counseling work to continue to accompany women who have suffered violence and exploitation to find a new path to wholeness and healing. It will enable our small business to grow and multiply, giving not only jobs but a sense of efficacy in the world that so many miss out on. Join Word Made Flesh Thailand and be one of the 80 partners who keeps this work growing and thriving and directly touching those who most need it.

How can you become one of our 80 partners? It’s simple. Follow the link below and sign up to give $100/month to help us sustain and expand this work throughout 2015. Can’t give $100? Don’t worry! Each monthly gift, no matter the amount, will work together to help us to serve our friends this year.

http://wordmadeflesh.org/support/give/ (Remember to designate the Thailand field.)

a reflection on war and precious humanity

Something that happens when I know someone’s name, face and a little about their life. It feels like a universe opens and I get the privilege to peer inside. What was at one point a one dimensional encounter takes on depth, meaning and so much potential. In my work in Bangkok as a therapist this goes deeper, suddenly these person have opened my eyes freshly to the wars and abuses perpetrated over the past 40 years. They are no longer the historical backdrop to my life but very real events with very real hurting survivors that still cry in silence, still wait for justice.

In 1991 Civil War broke out in Somalia, I remember hearing about ‘the collapsed state’, I knew something of Somalian refugee’s but honestly have not thought about them or their country since. Then this month I was given the opportunity to lead a therapy group for Somolian girls (yes girls, unaccompanied minors). And now their eyes, their stories, their names pull at my heart, they are human individuals and treating them as such is the antidote.

From 1996 to 2006 civil war ruled Nepal. A friend of mine, remembers schools being blown up in villages. The Maoist closing her school and then the government forcing the children to go, fearing this to would ending in an explosion. Unfortunately for many Nepali women a childhood laced with fear is only the beginning. Spousal abandonment, inter-caste conflict, poverty, joblessness, debt, alcohol and drug abuse, sexual exploitation, labor trafficking; all in one persons life. In therapy we call this complex trauma, in my brain I call this insane. As I’ve worked here I have often wondered how is it possible that a single life lives through every single form of exploitation possible and then washes up in another country as a shunned asylum seeking minority. What’s amazing to me, is my friend, she keeps walking and healing others! What’s deeply unsettling is, from the just looking you would never know. This universe that is a single soul is deep and invisible from the outside.

1975, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia murdering a quarter of the population in just 4 years, 2 million persons …souls. In 1980 the conflict technically ended, that was the year my friend Baan* and I were born. From 1980 the fighting continued until 1996, a Jesuit priest I spoke with remembers arriving that year everyone was still in black, fear still potent that maybe the Khmer Rouge would take power again. I remember that year starting high school, I don’t remember being taught about any of this. By then Baw had lived as an orphan, neglected for 16 years. She got married in a church, had children and then was kicked out of home by her husband who took a new wife. I met her shortly after she began a life of begging in the street. Some conflicts don’t end they just take on a new face and rage in the hearts of those who survived, the hard work of peace making in these places must continue for a long time after.

I was looking up information about Uganda and realized one can actually ask regarding some countries which genocide, we live in time when that is a pertinent question. Ugandan ethnic minorities have actually suffered multiple. Ugandan women were among my first international women to meet in Bangkok. Seeing the act of prostitution through the eyes of someone who has survived murder and rape has forever changed me, there are no simple easy solutions.

And so I sit here shoulder to shoulder with the forgotten survivors of some of the worst the world has to offer. Its overwhelming, surreal, amazing, deeply awe inspiring and simply hard. People sometimes say they are not strong like me, they could never do this work. But its not true. I/we don’t do this because we are strong. Its because we are sensitive and our hearts cannot close to the pain. We hear the voices calling to us and are compelled to respond. This is why it is hard. We don’t have thick skins and we bleed with them.

The summer of 2014 was like an onslaught of violence and human suffering. Unaccompanied migrant children sitting in detention center, women being held captive and raped with their children, children dying in the deserts as they flee conflict. Ebola. In the US the reminder that rape and police brutality are occupational hazard of being women or black. Pain and Suffering here and now in 2014 but we haven’t caught up yet. Who will heal these fresh wounds? How will we keep up when many of us our stuck picking up the pieces for 1975, 1991, 1996... Will those who suffer now also have to wait 20 or 30 years for a drink of water. I hope not.

*name change

a note on the picture : This image comes from enough project, and while I find it so incredible offensive to use human bodies like this, so isn’t what I’m writing about, I think perhaps that’s the point. www.enoughproject.org

help our SOUL help those who most need it

Let me tell you a little about Soul.

This is the counseling project that I, Amy, run under the Creative Life Foundation, Word Made Fleshes project in Thailand. My goal is to bring a healing space to those who most need it (can't afford),trafficked, displaced, migrant and other marginalized persons. Those who almost never receive this type of care. Also my years in Bangkok have shown me we,those doing the work, need spaces of deeper learning. Too often, the under-trained and under-supported head out to serve and care for the most severely wounded. You need to kind of think, pre-med student in charge of trauma-surgery room in a major hospital. And I’m not over-exaggerating. I do this via my training as a therapist using a pyschodynamic arts therapy approach integrated with contemplative psychology. What all that really means is I create a space where the soul is deeply accepted.

Deeply loved.

Seen and heard.

And I can tell you from my deepest heart, in 6 years of doing this, what happens when this space is created is nothing short of miraculous. Here is how you can help.

I’m going to be honest and direct, we are super-under funded. Everything we are doing is working and working beautifully but in the beginning it takes funding to get off the ground. Fortunately I can turn my training to a funding tool for our programs. But….. I don’t want to, what I want and I think some of you do, is to keep this precious gift of space in the hands of those who need it, hurting persons who can’t afford quality trained care and those trying to do care with no training.

So this is what I need from you…. We have begun campaigning for 80 new partners giving 100$/month (we’ve signed up 8 so far) to help develop our program to a place of self sustainability. I need 10 people who care deeply about therapeutic work getting to those who most need it, to join in and sign up for 100$/month. This covers the 10 sessions hours that I might need to allocate to paying clients, and instead I give the time to the women’s shelter for trafficked women and to the refugee services. And we need these pledges, NOW so by September 25th! Please go to this link, indicate your gift is monthly and for the Thailand filed account. https://wordmadeflesh.webconnex.com/give

Thank you for helping us to keep doing this meaningful work that transforms individuals and communities! Please message me personally at [email protected] and let me know you are signed up to be one of our 10 helping to keep these services where they are most needed!

with love Amy

Last Chance before we head back to Bangkok!

This Saturday following our Annual Golf Marathon we will be meeting at Grace Community Church for our last speaking engagement of the summer before heading back to Thailand.

Come and hangout! We will be providing finger foods, beverages, raffles and giveaways! Hear more about our projects and how you can get involved!

We hope to see you there!

When: This Saturday Where: Grace Community Church 275 Billerica Road, Chelmsford MA Time: 4:00-6:00 *Please confirm that you will be coming by Phone call or Text 978-505-4864

*Last minute Sign Up* if you would like to play in our annual event 100Holes|1Day|GreatCause you still can! Just show up on Saturday at the Chelmsford Country Club, Chelmsford MA. Registration and Coffee will be 7:00-7:30AM. The course is rented out for our group until 3:30PM. Cost: $250 - All money raised help fund Word Made Flesh Thailand’s Creative Life Foundation

I'd like to tell you a Story...

Once upon a time…

There were these idealistic people, these people went out into an empty barren field saddened by such waste and neglect of so much potential they felt they saw what could be and began the hard work of transforming that soil. They could almost hear the whisper of the field calling to them. They sent messages back to dear friends and family asking to send food and tools and they soon came. And they continued the work. For years they worked this way digging long hard hours into the hard soil and receiving help from friends and family who believe in them and their vision for this wasteland.

To all of you, our dear friends and our family who believed in us when we dreamed; allowed about what could possibly be…deep, deep thanks!

It came time to plant the seeds that would hopefully grow, lots were separated out according to the vision for the plot and the needs to the specific soil. These precious seeds were cared for, watered, sung over, whispered to and nourished by what had been dug into the soil…and they grew.

To all of you who believed, cared, watered, and sang with us, whispering the truth of life and freedom- thank-you.

Now with acres full of lush growing plants there was much work to do and much needed to care properly for what has grown. But there were also new visions. New knowing. Knowing that these first fruits will in time with a little help give seed to plant for years to come, that this orchard dependent now for its first harvest will in time thrive on its own.

Join us as we are here in this final stage caring for what has grown and bringing this work to where it needs to be.

_________________________________________________________________

MINAS, Creative Life Education, Soul, Restore and Phalang Jai are all thriving. As Word Made Flesh Thailand via Creative Life Foundation, we are living out our dreams of freedom, of deep and meaningful change going to the root, the core of precious people and through that change making ripples of transformation into marginalized and broken communities.

We are in a place of need, to push through and see that what we have begun is healthy and self-sufficient. We need partners to help invest in this work.

Please consider being one of our new investing partners.

The Thailand Field Fund - urgently needs 80 partners committed to donation of $100/monthly. If you think this is you visit this link and drop us a note so we can celebrate together you joining into the family of friends bringing this amazing work of freedom to life.

The Hupe’s need 20 new partners to commit to $100/month to sustain their family’s presence here and allow them to facilitate the care of this work. Visit this link and indicate the support is for the Hupe’s. And also please drop them a line so that we can celebrate you joining them!

__________________________________________________________________

What you get!!!

(Until supplies run out, so be quick!)

-A Free Freedom T-shirt (only unisex mediums left and female small)

-One pound of coffee- let us know in your email and we will get it to you!

-Monthly update on the stories of hope and freedom being lived out in our community!

-Bragging rights that you were on the team that helped build the Creative Life Foundation!

-Our enduring gratitude for helping us to see children and women live lives of freedom rather than exploitation.

Many Thanks

Over the past five years, many of you have walked with Mina and have been part of the amazing journey God is leading her and her family on. Some of you know just a little about her passions but are interested in what your friend is doing. Others of you are meeting her for the first time here. Whoever you are, please take a moment read this letter and ask how you can be a part of a beautiful calling that is unfolding in the life of Mina Thapa. Word Made Flesh (WMF) Thailand has always had at our visionary core not only helping with physical, practical needs, but also going deeper helping to emerge that which wants to emerge vocationally from the heart and soul of those we are in relationship with. The Creative Life Foundation (CLF), which is the main part of our Thailand identity, seeks to provide transformative holistic care. This commitment includes standing with the dream and vision within the hearts of local people and doing everything we can to help their visions for how to help people become realities. This year Mina Thapa -- WMF staff member and CLF project leader -- has responded to that call, that little voice in her heart saying ‘this you must do.’ Mina must go back to Nepal – a place that just a few years before she swore she would never return. A place where families live in slum communities, needs are overwhelming and memories are potent. A place her heart has begun to love again, but also break for the destructive parts of culture that she knows too well. The call is simple – go and share. She wants to love her family, particularly the women in her family whose identities have been dragged down an abusive and destructive path. She wants to speak truth of their value and their freedom. Mina is not sure when this shift in her heart began. It’s possible it began earlier this year when our team was given the opportunity to care for and help with the repatriation of fourteen trafficked Nepali people. We shared our home while Mina translated their stories, cared for them, cried with them and felt deeply as wounds tend to understand wounds. As her director, I can say I’ve seldom met a person as innately compassionate, as naturally gifted to serve, as loving and humble and as caring. Mina has worked alongside our team for years; she helped house victims of trafficking and interns. She served as we started a school. She helped welcome anyone visiting our Foundation space. She easily crosses between cultures, which for us it has meant Cambodian, Central Asian, African, North American, European and Thai. Joining and supporting this summer mission trip is different than supporting a US-based missionary. Mina is Nepali and will be ministering to her own family, her own community in her own language. This trip is also the next step for Mina in the direction of gifted and compassionate woman and cross-cultural worker. Mina needs to raise $2,500 for this. The goals of the trip are: Follow up with all 14 repatriated Nepalis. Reach out and serve the church and slum community where her family lives. Visit her home village to share her story. Vocational discovery for Mina’s role with our team as cross-cultural worker. Mina has given so much to every person who has visited our home, and chances are you may be one of them. Now it is Mina’s turn to take a step in faith to find her calling, to follow what God has for her as a servant leader. Your support is crucial to getting her there and helping her feel loved and supported. If you would like to support Mina’s trip please make donations to http://www.wordmadeflesh.org/support/give/ and indicate that they are for Mina Thapa support Thanks so Much!

It’s not the special sparkling outfits or the satin shoes and beautiful flowing skirts, though they are so special. It’s not the the hair and make-up. It’s not really even the dance though so beautiful. It’s the space.

Not the fancy auditorium in a university or the twinkle lights covering the stage. The space I’m talking about is a soul space.

The silence, the breath taking, focused precise knowing, centered soul space.

As a care-givers our true work is this, the thing we really do beyond the tangible physical needs. The real work is soul work. Calling to and standing with who is seeking to have life.

For 3 of our students ballet has been a fun way of learning and developing; focus, attention, confidence, body awareness etc.

But one of our students I've watched her for months in class, with tears in my eyes, like a flower turning to the sun and opening. My heart full of emotion, watching a part of her receive life. I know her heart, her longings and her situation. For her Ballet, dance, silent centered being is cool refreshing water and she is thriving!

My hope for her for all our students and for all who do this work, let’s help to find the water the soul needs and stand with as she drinks!

WE ARE COMING TO YOU THIS SUMMER

BOSTON. NYC. WASHINGTON DC. PHILADELPHIA. PITTSBURGH. OMAHA. COLORADO SPRINGS. LOS ANGELES. FLAGSTAFF. DALLAS. AUSTIN. ORLANDO. YOUNGSTOWN NY. (See Below for tentative Dates)

OUR GOAL this summer is to CREATIVELY invite donors and investors to support and invest in: Creative Life Education, Soul and MINAS! As you know our projects are unique and effective, they offer holistic trans-formative care to migrant and marginalized persons. Our goal is to expand the invitation of partnership giving us the access to the initial investment that will move our projects along our road-map to in 5 years self-support locally.

We will do this by DRIVING across the US to connect with new support networks and reconnect with YOU- our dedicated friends who have been part of this from the beginning, where oceans and time separate us from fully communicating what all your generous support is allowing to happen in precious lives!

WHAT YOU CAN DO-

-Boston people we are looking for shared work-space (social minded org hub style work space etc) where we can set some work hours in the month of June)

-We need on the ground facilitators in each city as we look to share stories from the work that is being done through the Creative Life Foundation. Email [email protected] or [email protected]

-Venues

- Live Entertainment

- Local Connections

- Attendance!!!

-SPONSOR PARTS OF OUR JOURNEY WITH (gas cards, starbucks cards, restaurants, air-miles for flight legs, rental car connections or a super cool RV loan!!)

WHAT YOU CAN LOOK FORWARD TO FROM US-

A barrage of communication, sharing the amazing stories of the last 2 years. Look forward to hearing from us via:

STAY CONNECTED & FOLLOW US ON-

TWITTER: CreativeLifeBKK

FACEBOOK: CreativeLifeFoundation

WEBSITE: Coming Soon...

----------

TENTATIVE TRAVEL DATES:

JUNE

Boston

Youngstown NY

Washington DC

Orlando

JULY

Philadelphia

Pittsburgh

Chicago

Omaha

Colorado Springs

AUGUST

Los Angeles

Flagstaff

Austin

NYC

See you Soon!

Amy and Tim

Directors @ Word Made Flesh Thailand Co-Founders of Creative Life Foundation

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

Creative Life