Could they really be facing so many massive problems? Surely tackling the challenge of hormones, education, and physical changes is enough already, right?

We just returned from a very short missions trip to Thailand with our cell group. The goal is to impact 13 and 14 year old boys and girls so that they won’t fall into the same pitfalls that teens have been falling into. Most from this school have been facing the challenge of very dysfunctional families – divorce, step-brothers, step-sisters, multiple remarriage (or no marriage in the first place), etc.

The teens traveled out to a rural camp for a quick two days. Together with Thailand missionaries we were hosting the culmination of a 10 week course on sexual education. And at 13 and 14 years old it was already a message too late for some of them.

In particular we wanted to show the students what a normal healthy marriage looked like! Also we wanted to show a version of healthy masculinity (Thailand has large numbers of transgender people).

What a fast trip! For our family it was a challenge to keep to long days and a busy schedule while still caring for our little girl. But it was a rewarding trip. We ended the camp with children proclaiming a pledge – either stating that they needed God’s help to follow it or not. Out of the 70 children there were 28 who said that YES they did need God’s help for this. A simple gospel message was given and some committed their lives to Jesus. Praise the Lord!