Story of Kawee
- Tamara Jackson
- Sep 24, 2008
MEET KAWEE
Within the same year, Kawee and her two siblings' parents died. They were left alone without any family to raise them. Desperately in need of help, Kawee, only six years old at the time, and her brother and sister left the hill-side villages of the Karen people located on the Burmese side of the Thai-Burma border, and crossed over into Mae Sot, Thailand, seeking care from Pastor Winai at the Mae Sot Karen Baptist Convention. Pastor Winai, along with his wife Pranom, took all three of the orphaned children in, becoming, in the words of Kawee: “our new father.”
Now one of the oldest children in Pastor Winai’s care, Kawee has just begun her second year at University, loves math, and desires to serve God’s people by becoming an educator. The compassion that Pastor Winai has shown her throughout the years has instilled in her a huge capacity to love people, especially children, and she is now a caregiver to the young residents of the Agape Children’s Home, an orphanage that Pastor Winai built in 1995, inspired by his work with the children at the Mae Sot Karen Baptist Convention. At Agape, Kawee helps prepare meals, offers comfort to smaller children when they get upset, and helps with anything else that needs to be done. She truly has a servant’s heart.
Since adopting Kawee and building the Agape Children’s Home as a permanent refuge for abandoned and orphaned children, Pastor Winai has planted six churches, building an association of churches in Mae Sot called the Eternal Love Church Association.
It was Pastor Winai who first told Kawee about the merciful sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and because of his willingness to share the good news of the gift of His Grace, Kawee now lives to serve the Lord in all she does and to offer back to the youth in her community the same life-changing love she has received from her Heavenly (and adoptive) Father.
Her story is such a clear demonstration of how His love saves lives – both corporeal and eternal.