Since 2020, Amy, Kristy, and the Outpour team in Thailand have been working faithfully to purchase land to build a safe home for abandoned babies with no traceable next of kin. Their big-picture mission is to place those children legally in forever homes.
“Prepare to receive babies and children,” the Lord said to their team years ago. They have been beautifully faithful in walking out that calling, all while living right next to a war zone where trafficking of all kinds is a heartbreaking reality.
We recently received the exciting news that the Outpour team has secured the paperwork they need to start building!! They’ve begun meeting with a contractor, talking through measurements, and staking out the first building.
Their journey has been one of unwavering perseverance and dependence on God’s faithfulness. They have faced challenges head-on, and through it all, we’ve been privileged to stand by their side, providing guidance, strategic advice, administration, prayers, and a listening ear. It’s been a long walk of obedience and we’re deeply honored to be by their side.
Continue reading to learn more about this incredible cause and please pray with us over this land, the babies who will find refuge there, and the Outpour team.
Tell us about an event that has led to breaking ground on the safe home land.
A few of the big events that have led to us breaking ground have been finding a contractor, waiting for final foundation paperwork to be signed, and an unexpected airport meeting. After finally purchasing our land in June 2021, we were excited to move forward on all the next steps for building safe homes, but our plans quickly came to a halt as the paperwork we’d already been waiting on for 1.5 years was restarted, putting our building plans on hold. We were back to waiting for a final signature so we could build.
In the waiting, the Lord prompted us to take the next steps to prepare to build. So we started sketching things on paper and dreaming about what these future spaces could be. Not long after we got some things down on paper, the Lord led us to a meeting with a contractor and his team. This man’s willingness to understand us in our broken Thai and his gentleness, sense of humor, and father-like attributes left us feeling like he and his team were the right ones for us. He even managed to create a building design from our feeble attempts to put measurements on paper with our sketched out designs. Since then, we have been working on finalizing our blueprints.
A couple of months ago, we were invited to the airport to welcome someone to Mae Sot from Bangkok. Unbeknownst to us, we ended up welcoming the head of the department of social welfare and human security for all of Thailand and other key members of government. Each of them has authority in decisions being made on behalf of child welfare, adoption, foster care, and more. While the meeting was geared toward partnering with our foundation for a training event through our cafe, the Lord also used it as an opportunity for us to get connected to people seated in high places—people who can truly affect change in the direction we’re moving with this Safe Home Land.
One month after this event, we unexpectedly received our foundation’s signed paperwork from the governor’s office! With that paper in hand, we are now able to move forward with breaking ground on the land.
How has The Cause shown up for you in this process?
The Cause has been some of our biggest cheerleaders. Through strategic calls during our initial land purchase campaigns to fighting for us through prayer for our needed breakthrough, each one of them has been a breath of fresh air—a deep encouragement in the waiting. They have been there to remind us of the bigger picture and the far-reaching plans that the Lord has for this land.
What has surprised you most about this process?
There’ve been so many surprises along the way. It’s surprised us how long everything has taken. We didn’t expect to wait for over 3 years for the paperwork we needed and to have to restart that paperwork multiple times. We didn’t expect a global pandemic to breakout just weeks after we signed a contract to purchase our land. And we certainly didn’t expect that we’d see nearly half a million dollars raised over those first 11 months of the global pandemic. But God!
Most of all, we’ve just been surprised again and again by God’s faithfulness and kindness as we’ve stepped—oftentimes
rather timidly—into the places He’s asked us to step. When He told us to take a minute to rest and care for ourselves in the midst of fundraising, we did it and then He brought in the funds we were needing while we rested. Only God can get the glory for that. And because this journey is one that can only be described as “look what God has done,” the connection of our supporters to this project runs deep. This isn’t about what Outpour is doing or has done, it’s all been about what God is doing and people have just been drawn to being a part of that! For that, we are both humbled and thankful.
What advice would you give someone who is entering a similar season as you?
It will often feel like a lot, and it’s okay to acknowledge that it feels like that. But…the Lord doesn’t call us into places that He doesn’t believe we can be, so let it be a season of digging deep faith. If He said it, He will do it. That doesn’t mean it will come together as we expect or even in the timeline that we have laid out—or maybe that others have laid out for us, but God. That’s been one of our biggest takeaways. But God…always comes through, is always trustworthy, and He’s always doing more than we can see and setting things up far better than we ever could. So lean in. Take every step in faith that He calls you to take, and leave the results up to Him. He is for you!
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