Sumitra (“Faa”) Choemue is a 27 year old woman who was born into a destitute family of twelve children on the mountains of northern Thailand. Five of her siblings died before Faa was even born. Faa is from the Akha tribe and like many other minorities in Thailand, she belongs to a class that is despised and rejected by the majority population. Humanly speaking, Faa was destined to a life of crawling, craving and crying with no possibility of redemption.
Faa escaped being sold as a sex slave several times. On one occasion, when she was about 5, she remembers her dad crouching on the dirt floor, completely drunk, holding a bottle in one hand and a cigarette in the other while talking to a stranger. Though she didn’t fully understand it at the time, it turns out the man was offering her father the equivalent of ten dollars to buy her. By God’s grace, even in his drunken stupor, her dad refused.
Faa’s Mom died before she turned 13 and her father became so abusive that one time his beatings landed her in the hospital. A friend intervened and that’s how Faa found herself in a Christian home for children at risk in Chiang Rai. It was there that Faa found Jesus and it was there that she learned for the first time what it means to be part of a real family. To this day Faa still considers the Christian home her real home and two years ago, while visiting the U.S. for the first time, she was able to locate and spend a week with the family from Virginia who sponsored her while she lived in that home.
With God’s help Faa graduated from High School and then went on, with great sacrifice, to complete a university degree in Marketing. But through all of this, she never lost her faith in God and kept praying that God would help her and use her for His glory. Well, God did.
During her fourth year at the university Faa was finally able to get a full time job. But that didn’t last very long because at her job she heard about street children who sold flowers to tourist on the streets of Chiang Mai and were at risk of becoming sex slaves. Faa says, “The Children touched me and broke my heart and God gave me a supernatural love for them, so I left my job to work full time with them.”
Faa worked for several years with an organization in Chiang Mai called “Garden of Hope.” Their mission is to go into the most dangerous areas of the city and seek to rescue children who have already fallen into the net of unscrupulous thugs who sell them for sexual pleasure. Faa’s dedication became obvious to everyone. Her love for the children is unparalleled. Her faith in God is remarkable.
Though Faa appreciates the impact that a Christian Home with a rather large number of children had in her life, her vision is to start multiple small family units segregated by gender, where 5-7 boys or girls would live with Christian “parents” who would lead them to Christ and guide them in life.
Faa and her sister have started “Grace Refuge Outreach Worldwide” (G.R.O.W.) and they have a prototype of such a home in Chiang Mai. They have 5 children living with them. These children have all experienced severe abuse but they are now safe and are slowly being transformed by the love of Christ exemplified by Faa and her sister. Their needs, however, are still great, including the need for food, clothing and education, as Faa and her sister have no outside support to care for these children.
Faa’s love for God is infectious and everyone she meets is immediately impacted by the supernatural elements of her story. She is a natural missionary to her own people, as she already knows the language, the culture and is very passionate about this work. Faa is an example of an emerging group of missionaries who are coming out of the two-thirds world. She is worthy of our prayers and financial support.
If you want to have more information about Faa and her ministry, please contact Pastor Ivanildo Trindade (ivanildo@blackberry.vzw.net or 330-466-8055).
To send a contribution write a check to GROW and mail it to P.O. Box 1862. Wooster, OH 44691. Please notice that at this time your gift is not yet tax deductible. We're still in the process of incorporating GROW in the U.S. However, you will get an acknowledgement of your gift as well as periodical reports about how the funds are being used.
To contact Faa directly, please e-mail sumitrafaa@gmail.com or growworldwide@gmail.com. Regular mail: P.O. BOX 254. Muang Chiang Mai. 50000 Thailand.
We are initially looking for 100 contributors who will give $35 per month to allow us to fully fund our first home in Thailand. Would you consider being one of them?
