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PICTURE GALLERY - TRIP TO THAILAND |
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 Grand Palace Complex -- Bangkok, Thailand
Bangkok is a city of great beauty once you look beyond all of the traffic, pollution, and humidity! Douglas Henry and Todd Engelsen, PEER Servants volunteers, visited our Thai partner in October, 2004 to encourage them, see recent growth in the areas in which they operate, discuss strategic planning for 2005, and network another PEER Servants partner in the region with them. |
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 Grand Palace Complex -- Bangkok, Thailand
Thailand is steeped in Buddhism. Our Thai partners, Peace MED (PMED) Program, have found micro-enterprise to be a relatively effective means of building relationships with micro-entrepreneurs. In time, the opportunity surfaces to not only show them but tell them about the love of Christ and the opportunity to follow Him. |
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 Tour Guide -- Perm Sup Community, Bangkok
This young man greets Kaew, the PMED Loan officer, as she makes her periodic visits to encourage the aspiring entrepreneurs. |
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 Bible Study Group -- Bangkok
We started our few days with our PMED partners by studying and encouraging each other from Psalm 19. This Bible study group includes not only PMED staff and board members, but entrepreneurs and neighbors as well! |
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 Roadside Restaurant Worker -- Bangkok
We joined Kaew (foreground, in blue) on her rounds visiting some of the PMED entrepreneurs. The woman in the background is a Christian who assists in making some delicious culinary delights and is preparing for the noon lunch rush. |
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 Roadside Restaurant Owner -- Bangkok
This entrepreneur runs quite a business and the food is delicious! We ate here for an early lunch. PMED is just expanding into this area of Bangkok, an area with quite a night life and significant prostitution activity. Even while we were visiting, a beautiful young woman who was a prostitute came to see us -- her name meant "loneliness", she said, but she wanted to know more about Jesus. |
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 Mobile Restaurant Owner -- Perm Sup Community, Bangkok
This entrepreneur is back from her day of business selling various Thai cuisine from her pots that she carries over her shoulder. She is one of many in the Perm Sup community that have benefited from a PMED loan. |
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 Mobile Broom Seller -- Perm Sup Community, Bangkok
This entrepreneur and her husband (not shown) accessed loan capital from PMED to start a mobile broom business. They make the brooms and sell them from a mobile cart. They have now received five PMED loans and expanded their business to nine mobile carts, where they now manage the production and hire others to do the deliveries. They have also added mops and other cleaning tools to their product line up. |
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 Bus Driver -- Perm Sup Community, Bangkok
This entrepreneur and his wife (both in picture) now have this beautiful green bus that they operate as a result of their becoming PMED entrepreneurs. Perm Sup, while still a very poor region of Bangkok, has been tremendously blessed, both materially and spiritually, through the faithful outreach of the PMED staff and board members. |
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 Strategic Planning and Networking in PMED Office -- Bangkapi
The rounds with the entrepreneurs completed, we returned to the office to address some strategic planning for 2005 and discuss how we could improve processes to lead to more efficient growth that will allow PMED, in time, to become an operationally and financially sustainable MED program. |
