Outpour | Kristy Mikel
Mae Sot, Thailand
I am a woman who is passionate about seeing people, especially women, empowered. I am passionate about seeing freedom realized and families restored and thriving. I am passionate about loving precious little ones and caring for those who others discard and forget about.
Prior to living in Mae Sot, Thailand, I spent a lot of years traveling the world, discovering new passions, new cultures, and having my heart break again and again for the people and places I often encountered. Those experiences have helped shape what I’m passionate about today. While my first several years with Outpour were focused on the ministry of Braverly (a sewing center and cafe empowering women with skills and providing a safe, fair paying job while building community together), my focus has now shifted into another one of our ministry projects: Outpour Safe Home Land.
I have been serving in Thailand, on the Thai-Myanmar border, with Outpour since 2016. I, along with my team, have been working towards building relationships with the local government authorities and social welfare department to build programs and ministry projects that can best help come alongside families—men, women, and children—along this border. We are passionately pursuing seeing children restored to families and families restored to children, seeing youth educated and equipped with new skills and greater confidence to step into their God-given dreams, and seeing the kingdom of Heaven advanced among these two nations!
Outpour serves the people on the Thai/Myanmar border through educational trainings, social enterprise, community outreach, and restoring children and families. Since 2008, Outpour has committed to developing Kingdom-centered ministries and programs geared toward community development for people groups affected by war, poverty, and spiritual oppression.
We seek to empower individuals and families to find belonging and restoration in Christ while creating eternal impact. Our ministry serves through three main projects: Braverly, Safe Home Land, and Community Outreach.
For information about the ministry of Outpour, you can visit the website at www.outpourfamily.org.
- Pray for wisdom & discernment. That we will continue to step where the Lord calls us to step and stay out of the things He’s not calling us to step into.
- Pray for favor as we build these relationships with the local government authorities and for Spirit-led connections. We desire to see laws and policies change on behalf of children and families and are trusting the Lord to lead us in the impossible!
- Pray for the advance of the gospel. Pray for Thailand and Myanmar–we long to see Jesus lifted high in these nations, to see injustices righted, families restored, and people walking in their rightful place as sons and daughters of the Father.
- Pray for continued support (prayer and financial) for my teammates and myself. It is those very things that allow us to be here doing what the Lord has called us to do!
“Prepare to receive babies and children,” the Lord said to our team years ago. Not knowing the extent of what God meant, we have been preparing ever since—learning more about the need in our border town where trafficking of all kinds happens behind closed doors. We believe God is using us to help pave the way for future children to be rescued from the harsh reality of abandonment and the risks that coincide with it.
In February 2020, we located the right piece of land, signed a contract, and placed a down payment. Then, as we began fundraising, Covid hit the world. Yet in the midst of a global pandemic, we saw over $450,000 come in and officially paid for the land in full in June 2021! Only God!
Our land will be a safe space that legally and lovingly protects and advocates for the best interests of vulnerable and at-risk children (0-18), especially those who are stateless. Providing loving foster families, education, training, legal identification, as well as physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual support, the end goal is to see these children reunited with or legally placed in their forever families.
We want to see these children restored to family and family restored to them. We want to see them obtain proper legal identification that will allow them a better and brighter future. And we want to work alongside the governing authorities and court systems of Thailand to eventually see a reversal to the laws set in place. We long to see a nation transformed and see statelessness eradicated!
“That they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that He may be glorified. And they shall rebuild the old ruins. They shall raise up the former desolations. And they shall repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations.”
-Isaiah 61:3-4
Our Refuge Youth Home is not just a family-style home that has taken in a handful of youth from across our border to create a safe space for them to come and receive an education and set themselves up well for the future. It’s a FAMILY in every sense of the word, and the youth who are there have been each other’s family for most of their adolescent years.
PlahSoe loved his family, and he had so many dreams for each of them. Before his passing, he was just a few months away from graduating high school and was excited to get a full-time job where he could earn more
money to help support the dreams of his siblings. His heart for them was HUGE and he wanted every opportunity for them that they could possibly have. He longed for them to get their identification so they could freely travel outside of Mae Sot like he could. He longed for them to be able to continue their education at University if they desired to keep studying.
He had already personally begun saving for all of these things for them—committed to sowing into the futures of his brothers and sisters. And our desire is to continue carrying that dream.
This legacy fund—set up in PlahSoe’s honor—will help provide continued education opportunities for the rest of the youth and kids at Refuge Youth Home, as well as help them toward getting their identification. It will help set them up well for the future and allow each one to continue pursuing the dreams the Lord has placed on their hearts.
If you would like to give toward this fund, you may do so using this link.
