Each Quarter we will feature information on one of the variuos local and international missions we at Southside support.  Our First mission organization is Dton Namm based in Bankok, Thailand. Below is thier November 2011 newsletter:

 As many of you are bundling up in sweaters and crunching on caramel apples, we are still sweating here in Bangkok!  We hope that as you watch the leaves changing colors around you, you will be reminded of the beauty of God’s creation and the changes each season of life brings.  We’ve had several changes here at Dton Naam since the summer, and are grateful for the experiences and the new opportunites to learn and grow.
Introducing…Cee!
We were overjoyed when Cee came to join our program.  Celeste met Cee in the fall of 2009, and visited him almost weekly for about a year while he was working as a waiter in one of the most popular ladyboy bars located in the Nana red-light district.  At the time he wasn’t too feminine looking, but as the year progressed he gradually took on more feminine qualities.  Celeste spent a lot of time with Cee this past year and on one of his free days, Cee took Celeste and two volunteers to visit his hometown.  When Celeste told Cee of the opportunity to come work at Dton Naam, he seemed really open and interested but felt stuck in the bar because he lacked the confidence to pursue other jobs. Over the next year, Cee often asked about coming to work in the coffee shop because he didn’t like working in the bars but wouldn’t make the actual step to quit.  When the team from KY came this summer,  a group of the girls went with Celeste to the red-light district and ran into Cee.  After a quick conversation with Celeste that night, he officially quit the bar-life and came to work at Dton Naam.  When he arrived for the initial interview, he was really nervous about meeting Golf because most of his experiences with Thai men had not been positive ones.  At the end of the interview, however, he was very excited about joining us, saying that he knew Celeste and Golf would be patient with him and sensed that ”this is a family, not a business.”

Cee started on August 1st and has been a diligent worker and quick learner. Cee almost always wears a smile, and keeps all of us laughing with his silly antics and easy-going sense of humor. Cee has a sensitive spirit, and is very touched by spiritual things. He often has positive reactions to our worship sessions, and is attentive in times of Bible study. We are still praying that Cee would open his heart up to be transformed by the Lord. He’s really opening his heart to God, and believes Jesus loves him like no one else does.  He is slowly starting to grasp the concepts of unconditional love and grace.  Cee would like to be a fashion designer or interior decorator; he has an artistic flair, and has been helping design cushions for the café. Cee’s

family is from a province that was severely affected by the flooding.  This has been an area of stress and worry for Cee lately, but we are hoping and praying that he sees the Lord working in this hard situation, and that he will continue to entrust his cares and worries to Him.

Flood Crisis

Thailand is currently in a huge flood crisis. Cee is from a small city about 1.5 hours north of Bangkok. That city has been under water for at least 4 weeks now with little water receding. His relatives’ house is still okay but the neighborhood is surrounded by water so finding food and supplies has been difficult. The factories where Cee’s relatives work are flooded and shut down, not expecting to re-open for at least six months. Ayu (the fifteen year old) and his family’s house, on the outskirts of Bangkok, was flooded the last week of October.

The flood seems to have been caused by two huge problems. First, Thailand has received much more heavy rain than expected during this past rainy season. In the four years of living here, Celeste has never seen it rain as much as it did this year. The second major issue was the decision of the irrigation teams to keep a certain amount of water in reservoirs & dams. They had no idea how much rain was coming this year and were trying to save enough water for crops, etc. Unfortunately, rain caused floods, mudslides and destruction of villages and crops in the north of Thailand. A Thai lady that helps us one day a week with accounting is from the north and her mother’s home and crops were damaged. Her father died a few months back too so this family has been through so much in the last few months. The rainwater has swept south, causing breaks in dams, overflowing of canals, the flooding in Cee’s city and the current crisis in parts of Bangkok as the water is trying to be directed to the ocean. Cee’s city was about 80% under water at one point and the water was one to three meters high in sections.

We are in the central part of Bangkok and none of our students or staff currently live on the ground level. We are safe and do not believe the flood will come to our area. Of course, the threat is still possible due to all the canals and dams in Bangkok holding fast, the pumps pumping water to the south functioning properly, low tides, good weather, etc. We need your prayers but we believe this is an important time to be here helping Thai people in anyway possible. You can follow the flood news & relief efforts through CNN or Bangkok Post online. The nasty part is that water isn’t receding quickly so the water just stays stuck, rotting. There are many alligators that have escaped from the alligator farms floating around, snakes, water monitors, leeches… It’s a huge mess and we need your prayers!

Again, We are all safe and I would never intentionally jeopardize our staff/students physical safety, but I feel strongly about them taking this opportunity to reach out and love our neighbors well. If you are interested in helping with flood relief efforts, please contact Kenna, our book-keeper at Kgathright@marykay.com

At the end of August we had a new staff member, Bethany, join us.  Bethany is from KY, where she graduated from Asbury University with a degree in Social Work.  She lived in Bangkok for 3 months last year, during which time she met Celeste and was led to work full-time with Dton Naam.  After spending some time back in the States fund-raising, Bethany has returned to serve for one year with Dton Naam as an administrative assistant.  Along with studying Thai each day, Bethany’s main tasks are helping Celeste with emails, writing blogs, newsletters & updates for the ministry, filing receipts and doing weekly outreaches with Golf.