“Can’t you take any more?” the prison official looked hopeful, if a little embarrassed. In his Buddhist context, it may have been awkward to openly acknowledge that it was the Christians that were doing the best work among the juvenile inmates.
“Absolutely,” came the confident response of Siriwan Trakunhan, one of Multiply’s key national partners in Thailand. Yet even as she answered, she sent up a silent prayer. How would they fit more girls in? Please, Lord, she prayed, Naomi House needs more room!
Naomi House is a discipleship center and social enterprise in Chiang Mai, Thailand, providing discipleship, leadership coaching, vocational training and sustainable employment to the marginalized. Along with refugee women seeking asylum from religious persecution, they receive abused and abandoned wives from northern tribes and young women released from a local juvenile detention center.
“We began with only five,” shared Multiply’s Carmen Owen, who partners with Siriwan in this ministry. “Now there are twelve. But prison authorities are seeing how effective our program is at rehabilitating young offenders and want us to take more. They wonder what we are doing that is so different from other programs. We just tell them, ‘It’s Jesus.’”
The ministry is not without challenges. Even while they enjoy growing favor with prison guards, social workers and court officials, other government officials in the community are constantly pressuring the women to stop their “noisy” worship gatherings, or else face dire consequences.
“It’s unsettling,” Carmen confessed. “We know of refugee women that have been harassed and beaten on the floors of their own churches, and others that have been thrown into prison and abused. To me, they are heroes in the faith!”
Despite opposition, and the need to secure a safe and more spacious venue for the ministry, the women of Naomi House press on. They are bold in proclaiming their faith. In January of 2023, Siriwan had the opportunity to join a large online gathering of prison officials and police, being hosted in Bangkok. She was asked what she did to bring about such successful rehabilitation in the lives of ex-convicts. The officials kept asking, “No, really – what is your method?” and Siriwan kept answering them, saying, “It is the love of God!”
“Police and prison officials alike just shook their heads,” Carmen related. Then they said, ‘Well, that is some big love!’ And they are right.”
