Step Ahead

Sprite and Kristen Chuenchum

Who we are:  

Sawasdee! We are Sprite and Kristen Chuenchum, a bi-cultural couple (Thai and American) loving and serving the poor in Thailand. Right now, we are working with a Christian NGO based in Bangkok, Thailand called Step Ahead who works towards a Thailand where all children grow up in a safe and nurturing family. From the Bangkok’s largest slums to Southern and Northeastern rural villages, Step Ahead’s teams serve to strengthen poor and at-risk families across the country. We work to build the capacity of adults to improve outcomes for children. Step Ahead’s work is wide-ranging and includes advocacy, providing services, building capacity and collaboration to achieve this grand vision of caring for children. Their programs range from writing policy that will protect children at the national level to mentoring families towards healthy practices that keep them together at the community level. Step Ahead has a Montessori-style early childhood development center that provide families a relief from care during the day and are also currently creating an innovative foster care program for children in need of a nurturing home.

Sprite and Kristen serve in various roles and capacities within Step Ahead, offering our years of experience working in poor communities in Bangkok to help advance Step Ahead’s vision for the holistic care of children all over Thailand. Together we are a coach, a teacher, mentors, pioneers, a writer, a musician, bi-lingual, life-long learners, a social worker, and lovers of Jesus.

Who we serve:  

Our hearts beat for poor and at-risk children living in Thailand to grow up in a safe and nurturing family - whether that be a child growing up in a Bangkok slum to refugee and asylum seekers, to orphans in need of a home.

How you can pray:  

• God has called His people to care for the widow and the orphan (James 1:27, Job 29:12, Exodus 22:22, Psalm 10:14, Psalm 82:3, just to name a few). Pray that through Step Ahead, we would do that well and be a light and example in Thailand for God who scripture calls a father to the fatherless.
• Families in poverty face all kinds of pressures and struggles. Raising children amidst those pressures can be extremely difficult. Pray that Step Ahead would come alongside families and empower them to be the best care takers they can be for their children. Pray for families to stay together. Pray that these families come to know the love of God the Father as their ultimate care-taker.
• Pray for Thailand to adopt policy and laws that advocate for the best care possible for at-risk and vulnerable children. Pray that these laws would be enforced and benefit the well-being and nurturing of children across the country.
• Pray for children in Thailand to be cared for, nurtured, loved, lifted up, advocated for, protected, and cherished no matter where they come from or what they face.