By Doug in Thailand — This is the story of a 13-year old girl named Nina*.

Several years ago, Nina and her family made the long trip through the mountains to northern Thailand, looking for a way out of poverty. Nina’s family settled into a community where our SEND workers live and love the Shan people.

Nina’s older step-brother found some work in construction at a community center built to serve the Shan people. Curious, Nina began to visit the center, too, joining other teens in making crafts to sell in the market. Before long, Nina also began to hear stories of the Creator God of the Bible.

Nina could only speak Shan, but moving to Thailand gave her the opportunity to attend a local Thai elementary school where she learned to read, write, and speak Thai. This opened many new doors of opportunity for Nina.

Some of the other Shan teens were attending a Bible study together. She joined this study and a whole new world opened for her as she began to read the Bible in Thai herself.

Despite the Buddhist worldview that Nina had known all her life, Nina trusted in the Jesus of the Bible as her Lord and Savior. She soon became the proud owner of her own Thai Bible, which she brought each week to her small group discipleship.

Every week in this small group, the teens were given an opportunity to share how they are giving witness to Christ in their school and homes. Nina expressed a desire to share her love for Jesus with her own family, and invited the SEND workers to visit her home.

SEND workers began regular visits to this Shan home, and before long had an open invitation to begin Bible story-telling every Friday night. Story-telling with picture books is essential, since most Shan adults in the village cannot read or write. But on that first meeting in her home, Nina shared her new-found faith in Christ with her parents and siblings. Since then, each Friday Nina reads the story from her Thai Bible before SEND workers share it conversationally using picture illustrations.

I had the great privilege of joining our SEND workers in Nina’s home, where Nina’s stepdad told me that though they are committed Buddhists, they are considering the Jesus that their daughter has come to love.

Nina is one of 15 Shan teens who have decided to follow Christ. Shan families cannot afford to send their teens to high school and most girls at this age are sent to the big cities in the south to become prostitutes. The families see this as their primary path out of poverty. SEND offers a sponsorship program to send these girls to school, breaking the cycle of poverty and lack of education that leads to work in the sex industry. If you would like to contribute to a young woman’s education, please email info@send.org.

*Not her real name