Kit works in a wide variety of ways with ethnic minorities from the hill tribes of northern Thailand. Kit's primary ministry involvement is with the New Life Center, in Chiang Mai. The New Life Center works with tribal minority girls who have come out of exploitative labor situations or are at risk for becoming victims of labor exploitation. Her work there includes teaching residents Bible and personal budgeting classes, directing the handicraft program and providing pastoral care and leadership development for New Life Center staff. She also leads therapeutic art classes and does clinical consultation with victims of human trafficking.

Kit writes: Recently, at the dedication of our new facilities, former residents came and shared about how their lives had been changed because of the opportunities they received at the New Life Center.

I was deeply moved to hear how these women and others like them had gone on to become leaders and business owners in their communities, honoring God through their accomplishments. … The whole evening was a beautiful celebration of the rich past of the New Life Center. In fact, when I go to work each day, I am often deeply aware of that amazing past. I feel like I am walking in some very big footsteps of the spiritual giants who have gone before me. It is a piece of Christ's ministry in which I am proud to participate.

The following day about 120 of us hiked up through the forest to the 5th level of the falls. There we had a lovely worship service and baptism. Staff led us in some hearty singing. Then the whole group went down into the river. … The gathered group had to sing loudly to be heard over the thunder of the falls. Then together, Lauran Bethell and I baptized 24 girls who had decided to give their lives to Jesus Christ! After the baptisms, we celebrated the Lord's Supper together and then had lunch. … What a joy and a privilege to be a part of what God is doing in the lives of these young people. As I looked at them, I thought to myself - these young people are our future. They have all kinds of hopes and dreams, with their whole lives ahead to accomplish them. And even when they will leave us in the coming months and years, I pray that they will still carry a small piece of the love they experienced at the New Life Center in their hearts. We will always claim them as ours. Their successes are in some small way, also ours. And the lives they touch are the legacy we pass on to the next generation.

• *Pray for our missionaries at the New Life Center, Kit Ripley and Karen Smith, the director.
• *Pray for the staff members who help the women of the Center to find new life and to receive the love of Jesus.
• *Pray for the new believers, that they may be established and grow in the Lord Jesus.