Discontinuing Ministry with Dune
We have decided to discontinue regular ministry with Dune and her family. There are a couple of reasons for this. The primary reason is that she lives far outside our team's target area (approximately 1 hour drive from our house, 1.5 hours from our teammates) and it has become clear over time that being meaningfully involved is impractical.
A second reason is that, frankly, we don't know how to help her. She is addicted to Meth and has a long history of trauma. She needs medical and psychiatric help and these are not things that we can help her with and she appears unwilling to seek help. There have been some good signs and some encouraging visits but it appears to us and to Pastor Celebrate, who has been our Thai partner in this work, that she is not ready to make changes in her life. This is very sad and it continues to have drastic consequences for her two children but that is the current reality.
The impact on the kids, Film and Sophia, has been our major concern. They live in a violent household and the necessities of life are not being provided by the adults in the home. Simply put, in an American context they are kids who would be immediately put into child protective services. I did ask Pastor Celebrate if it is possible to inform the authorities about the situation to see if they can help the kids but he said that is not possible and they wouldn't do anything. I am still considering if this is a step that we need to take apart from him. Please pray for this.
In the meantime, one of the ways that we have tried to help Film and Sophia has been to bring them to Pastor Celebrate's church on Sunday mornings. Over the years the church has done a lot to teach, encourage and love on the kids. Some months ago I stepped in to help in this regard also by picking them up on the way to church. This was a big encouragement to Pastor Celebrate who was usually the one picking them up in the early morning before church. I did this for about six weeks. During this period, however, Film stopped coming to church and only Sophia would come. And this unfortunately became an issue because I just cannot be alone in a car with a child. Fortunately, Pastor Celebrate understood this and released me from this responsibility.
With that mode of involvement gone it has become clear that this is not a ministry that we can further participate in. We will continue praying for them, however.
