The beginning of our journey: Jessi's story

In 2008, I fell in love with a country I had never wanted to see and its people whom I had never wanted to meet. I was sitting on the ground outside of an HIV-positive orphanage in Khon Kaen, Thailand when a little girl claimed me as her buddy for that day. She sat in my lap and started coloring with the crayons in front of us. She wrote her name, Nok, in chalk on the sidewalk so that I would understand. She fixed my hair when it fell out of the ponytail, got me a glass of water from the kitchen, and showed me, in her own way, that she is a warrior. Nok was just one of the many Thai people I met on that trip who changed my heart forever.

Nok is one of the lucky ones, raised in an environment of love and compassion with people who would care for her basic needs. Unfortunately, this is not true of the whole of the Thai culture, as many of these children will, at some point, be raped or sold for sex to brothels. Most of these children come from poor households and are sold to the pimps by their own parents, desperate for a little money. Lack of education and opportunity drive children into becoming sex workers; once they have lost their virginity, it becomes easier and easier for their parents to sell them again and again to be raped over and over.
I fell in love with Thailand. It is a beautiful country full of beautiful, friendly people who celebrate a rich and interesting culture. When I started learning about its dark side of sex-trafficking, my heart broke for all the children who would be forced into a life of complacency, pain, despair, hopelessness, and violation. A presentation at church about Remember Nhu hit my mom very hard and she shared her hurt with me and I realized I couldn't just sit idly by doing nothing. I contacted the organization's founder, Carl Ralston, to see if there was any opportunity within their organization, or simply if there was anything I could do to help. At the time, there wasn't and as time continued to rush by, I forgot about this inquiry and forgot, as we are like to do in our land of plenty, about the cries of the children of Thailand.

In 2015, I decided to drive cross country to Portland, Oregon. Shortly after I arrived there, I received an email from Carl. It seems that there had been some others that were interested in working with Remember Nhu and because of the combined interest, Carl decided to organize a Vision Trip to learn in a more hands on way about the Remember Nhu organization. Carl was in Portland and so was I. We met and talked about the idea and encouraged each other in it. Since then it has been a whirlwind production; dates were set, commitments were made, and the trip emerged into reality. 

My mom is my confidante and knows my heart the best of anyone. I know her heart too and asked her to be my partner in this adventure. She has a gentle spirit that aches for these people without meeting them, or seeing them. Blessed are those who believe and have not seen. All we know is that there are too many broken hearts in the Land of Smiles.

We want to make ourselves into vessels of God's love to these people. When two come together, God will deliver and answer.