BATEHAVEN’S Eileen Thompson has just returned from a three-month mission trip to Thailand aimed at giving Thai children a better start in life.
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Mrs Thompson, 71, a parishioner at Moruya’s Southern Life church, taught English to children four to 12 years old every morning at a school-camp in the village of Sundart in northern Thailand, set up and run by friends Joey and Narlin Dela Paz, who she met on one of her previous four mission trips to Thailand.
“It’s like a school, but the kids stay there all day and get fed, and it is also a Christian outreach,” she said.
Learning English is an enormous advantage for children’s future prospects in Thailand, and is one of the strategies used by missionary and charity organisations to combat issues such as trafficking of women and children.
It was all on a volunteer basis, but just because she wasn’t being paid didn’t mean the work wasn’t hard.
“It was the hardest mission work I had done, especially with the four-to-six-year-olds,” she said.
“They had no idea of sitting in a classroom and listening.
“Sometimes kids from the preschool class would come in and join mine.”
However, as she explains, something changed.
“We got a new director (like a principal) and they settled down,” she said.
They also learnt to appreciate their teacher.
“They would charge down the driveway saying ‘teacher Eileen!’ even if they had been in the middle of cleaning their teeth,” Mrs Thompson said.
Mrs Thompson was the first native English teacher the school had had, although an English-speaking Thai interpreter she had helped greatly.
“She would translate for me which made things so much easier,” she said.
“The kids gave me a beautiful bunch flowers on the day I left.”
Mrs Thompson got to enjoy a Christian outreach event on Christmas Day.
“The kids did a Nativity play and we distributed some Samaritan’s Purse shoeboxes (full of essential goodies) to the kids,” she said.
The trip was a positive experience for Mrs Thompson.
“I had fun, made many friends, and people appreciate what you do,” he said.
She is not ruling out a return to Thailand.
“God has said to me ‘many places’ but I don’t know whether he meant many places in Thailand,” she said.
