Dear Friends,

At times, work at the New Life Center can feel overwhelming. Entrenched societal problems (poverty and corruption) coupled with cultural barriers (the attitudes and assumptions we bring to our work) make the "progress" here seem slow at best.

However, this past month has been full of gifts- gracious, sweet gifts from God- and I'd like to share one of them with you.

AhMae is an Akha girl from a remote village area called "Huay Nam Khun". (It takes a few hours in a four wheel drive truck to swath through the mountains to get there.) AhMae attended a village school through the fourth grade, and after that worked for her parents in the fields planting rice, cultivating vegetables.

AhMae's father was an opium addict. When she was about 14, her father became disabled due to excessive opium use. His speech was garbled and as they express it in the Akha language "…his brain is not full". At this time, AhMae was sent into the city of Chiang Rai to find work to support her family. She worked in a local market for two years, earning about 800 baht (USD $20) per month.

AhMae came to the NLC at the age of 18 and in four years, she was able to graduate from high school through the accelerated adult program. After graduation, she applied for a special NLC scholarship to study beauty salon/ hairdressing skills in a private school. Now 24, and upon her graduation from this school, AhMae opened her own beauty salon. She earns about $200 USD per month, which covers all of her expenses and also generates a profit.

I was delighted to attend the recent opening ceremony of AhMae's beauty salon' a joyful worship service, celebrating God's gifts to us and to AhMae. It's because of the work of the New Life Center (and your support of us here) that gave AhMae the chance to attend a vocational training program. The training gave her marketable skills which allowed her to secure employment. And she is one of the first New Life Center graduates to open their own business!

Please join me in celebrating the gift of AhMae's employment success- quite an achievement for a girl who left school at nine to support her family.

With gratitude,

Karen, for AhMae and all the other staff of the New Life Center