The Personal Story of Tutu
Posted on Feb 27 2006 | Tagged as: faith in action, thailand project
Tutu is the woman who runs the orphanage home that Steve and I visited near Chiang Mai. She is native to Thailand and an amazing example of servant leadership. Below are her own words describing her story.
My name is Tutu. Before I was born, a Christian Missionary trekked all the way to my village by foot to tell my village about Jesus Christ. We were very fortunate to have a missionary come. I am so thankful to God for bringing that missionary to our village. Because of him we can know Jesus Christ and tell others about Him.
When I was young, my family never had very much money, so we would eat food from the jungle such as fruit, vegetable, crabs and fish. Every Saturday we would trek all day through the jungle to gather vegetables. I had a basket on my back and we would go up and down the mountain. I have very fond memories of those days. We would gather these vegetables for worship on Sundays.
We lived in a village that was very far from the city. When I was six years old I would walk to school every day all by myself. The journey was about one hour each way. I had to wake up at 6am to get to school on time. I would eat breakfast and go to school all day long without any food and return at 6pm. My parents had no money to pay for my schooling so my dad would do work around the school, like cut the grass to pay my schooling. All of my teachers were from the Karen village.
When I was in fourth grade, I prayed that God would provide a husband for me that would serve the Lord. From grades four to nine I received a scholarship from Compassion International and was able to go to school. During 7th grade, my teacher asked my parents if I would marry him. I did not like my teacher and said that I would not marry him. My parents were upset with me because they thought it would be a life for me. It made me sad that they were so disappointed with me. English was my favorite subject to study. I had a big desire to learn English, but I had no book. During my free time, I would write the alphabet on the dirt road to practice. When I finished grade nine, I really wanted to come to the city to study, but my parents had no money to send me there. Finally I asked a lady in Chiang Mai to do housework for her and study English with her on Sundays. I worked all day long and cleaned the house and took care of her daughter all week and then she would teach me on Sundays.
I started gong to church in Chiang Mai and after one month I met my husband Luke. Luke invited me to English class and it was for free. Shortly after that he asked my uncle if he could marry me. I made a decision to marry Luke and we had the wedding in Chiang Mai. I was so scared that night that I slept with my mother. Luke still teases me about it today. At that time I was nearly 17 years old.
After three months of marriage, I became pregnant with my first son, Zechariah. When I was pregnant with him I prayed that he would serve the Lord. I wanted to give him to the Lord. After he was one year old I went to adult high school every Saturday and Sunday. I finished high school after two years. After that I was pregnant with my second son Daniel. When Daniel was two and a half years old I went to Bible school. During my third year of Bible school I became pregnant with David. Every day I would ride my motorbike to Bible school. When I graduated in March, my 3rd son David was born.
For many years I have had a passion in my heart for the hill tribe girls. I have always wanted to do ministry with orphan girls and poor girls. I prayed every day that God would open up the doors for me to do that. I knew that many of the hill tribe girls wanted to study but had no chance. I remembered two of my girlfriends that hung themselves from a tree because they were so hopeless and wanted a better life. This grieves me deeply and gives me such a burden for these people.
Another thing that drove me was the problem with prostitution. Three of my cousins went to a Buddhist monk school and were raped by the monks. Other friends of mine were taken into prostitution and the police would not close down the brothel because they were bribed. This has been something on my heart for many years and I would pray every day, all the time that God would open up the doors for a ministry.
After David was born I would serve the Lord with Luke full-time and go to many villages. I loved to evangelize the people in the hill tribes. We taught Bible school and discipled many. We opened up a church in Chiang Mai in about 1998. Soon after that we had to move the church outside of the city to cut down on costs. After much prayer and consideration, God opened up the doors for Luke and I to run a home for hill tribe girls. We now have 26 orphan girls that are learning about Christ and His wonderful love and are being given the opportunity to study. I am so thankful to God for His faithfulness!
