We are wildly honored to partner with Sprite and Kristen Chuenchum. They are helping to reimagine the orphan and foster care system in the country of Thailand. It’s a big deal!
They work with an organization called Step Ahead to advocate with the Thai government for policies that will prioritize and support family-based care for children instead of institutional care. Their work with Step Ahead is effecting sweeping change on an entire nation.
Over the last few years, we have watched Sprite and Kristen approach every situation they have faced with faith, grace, and tenacity. They bring excellence to everything that they touch and we are thankful to share their story and connect you to their ministry.
Tell us about yourselves! What is your favorite day of the week?
We are Kristen & Sprite Chuenchum. I, Kristen, am an American but have been living in Thailand for 9 years now. Sprite is Thai, from a small village called Kamphaengphet. We think our favorite day of the week is Thursday because we think there is less traffic on that day (we have no way of proving this. It’s just a feeling.) Bangkok is a big city and there is always traffic!
What is your ministry with A Step Ahead and what do you both do for them?
Step Ahead works to strengthen families across Thailand. We provide direct services to strengthen vulnerable families, train others in how to do that, and advocate for laws and policies to reflect the importance of family-based care.
In Thailand there are over 585 private children’s homes but around 90% of the children in these homes have families or relatives who could care for them in their own communities. What most often causes children to be placed in these children’s homes is poverty. We want to see all children in Thailand growing up in a safe, warm family.
Kristen’s role at Step Ahead is as the “Family Preservation Specialist”. She works on creating and updating training curriculum, does coaching and training, and is currently working on a manual on how to support families in crisis.
Sprite’s role at Step Ahead is as our Monitoring, Evaluation & Development Officer. Sprite has created a system to track Step Ahead’s impact according to our vision and goals. He collects all of the data of the work the entire Step Ahead team does and condenses it for reports. He also does internal organizational audits and development. And he’s our team’s spiritual leader – he leads us in contemplative prayer practices each week.
We love that the work you are doing is addressing systemic change for children in Thailand, can you quickly explain what this change would look like and why it’s so important?
The current system for caring for vulnerable children in Thailand right now is overly reliant on orphanages, residential care facilities, and shelters. If a family has trouble or is too poor or experiences some kind of crisis, usually the child is taken from the family and placed in a children’s home. We believe if a child can’t be with their own biological family or relative, it is best that they are placed in some kind of family setting.
Step Ahead works to address this systemic problem by advocating with the Thai government for policies that will prioritize and support family-based care for children instead of institutional care. And we have seen success!
Seeing the importance of family-based care, the Thai government formed a task force to write policy and standards for the country’s Foster Care System. Step Ahead sits on this task force. So far, this new Foster Care System is being piloted in a handful of provinces through the government children’s homes all over the country. So staff that are used to running a children’s home are now being trained in how to find children foster families to stay with within the community.
This task force is also writing the Standards of Foster Care that we hope will eventually turn into policy and law for the whole country. And if the government and the law give preference to family-based care, the number of children that would begin receiving family-based care in times of need would be huge!
Tell us a little bit of your story as a couple?
We met 9 years ago when I (Kristen) came to Thailand as an intern. We worked together at a small organization doing community development work in the slums in Bangkok. Sprite ran a scholarship program and coached soccer for kids in the slums. I helped him while I learned Thai and learned about the needs of the community.
We grew really close as we worked together in ministry. We started dating after 1 year of friendship. Eventually, I had to return home to the US to fundraise but Sprite miraculously got a visa and came and visited. He stayed with me and my family for 3 months – and won over all of their hearts. At the end of the 3 months, he proposed! We were married on the island of Koh Chang in Thailand in 2016.
We just celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary. We’ve always done ministry together and love having similar passions of working to make life better for families and children who are poor and vulnerable.
What does a day in the life of Sprite and Kristen look like?
Well because of Covid, we’ve moved so much of our life and work to home. We’ve made one of the rooms in our small two-bedroom apartment into a home office and we work most of the day from there now. Typically, we’d go to work at the Step Ahead office near the Khlong Toey slum where we have a KFT (Keeping Families Together) program.
Each Monday morning, Sprite leads our team of 16 people
(mostly Thai and a couple of Americans) in a contemplative prayer practice like Lectio Devina or Centering Prayer. And the rest of our week’s time depends on the season. Sometimes we’re preparing to put on a training. We put on a KFT training every 2 months for churches, denominations, NGOs, and social workers who want to start doing their own KFT program in their contexts.
Some weeks we’re writing curriculum. Some weeks we’re meeting with government officials or with other networks to discuss needs and how to meet those needs. Some weeks we’re doing coaching with our KFT teammates or with others who have received our family strengthening training. We do a lot of writing and translating (we’re both bilingual in Thai and English).
Each Friday Sprite collects data from the team on the work they completed and the impact they had that week. We meet weekly with our supervisors to get guidance and help and support. In the evenings we’ll visit the local market and buy street food for dinner or cook at home. Sprite almost always plays court soccer in the evenings at a local park. We’re part of a Thai church here as well as Bible studies. So we stay busy!
Tell us about a personal experience with your ministry that has stuck with you?
For about 4 years out of the 6 years that we were doing grassroots ministry in the slums, we actually lived in the slum we served. The name of the slum was Samakki Pattana – and that place holds so many memories for both Sprite and me.
It was where I learned to speak Thai and became immersed in Thai culture. It was where Sprite started and ran his scholarship and soccer programs. But I think more than any other experience, being neighbors to the poor taught us of their strength, their resilience, their love for their family, and of the really difficult lives they must lead because of things like systemic injustices and social stigma.
Any issue we talk about now as we advocate with the government or other NGOs has a story and a relationship from our time in Samakki. When we talk about kinship care – or how family members can take in their relatives if mom and dad are struggling – we think of Ma Jaew who cared for her own grandkids. When we talk about the threat of trafficking, we think of the conversations we’ve had with teenagers about how to be safe in their interactions with strangers online (a tactic for grooming that many traffickers use). When we talk about increasing the poor’s income – we think of all of the moms and dads we knew who worked 12 hour days to put food on the table for their kids. All these issues are personal to us because we lived it for so many years.
What is your hope for the children that will be helped by the work you’re doing?
Our hope is that children in Thailand will not only be able to stay with their family and be raised by either their mom, dad, or close relative – but that their caregivers would have the tools they need to create a life that is stable and sustainable and full of love and care for their children.
How have you seen yourself change and grow while working in Thailand?
Oh my yes! Both of us! We used to work on the ground doing grassroots community development. In the past 2 years, we’ve re-focused to more macro-level work. While the grassroots work is so important we feel like we can now equip and empower more people to have a positive impact on poor communities, families, and children in Thailand.
We’ve also grown a lot as a couple working in ministry together over the years. Ministry can be really difficult. And walking through hard things ourselves has only grown us in our capacity to walk with others who face difficulties. I think we’ve learned a lot about the poor and the capacity of poor families and kids. The families we work with are truly amazing and full of so much resilience, grit, and love. They inspire us daily.
How can we pray for you both?
- Please pray for Thailand – that all children in Thailand will
grow up in a warm, caring family. - Pray for the systems in government to allow for family support to become the norm.
- Pray for the foster care system to be one of safety and respite for children in need.
- Pray that children currently in orphanages, who have families, would be strengthened and reunited.
- Pray for the Church – we believe around 70% of the private orphanages in Thailand are run by Christians. We pray our brothers and sisters in Christ would begin to see the benefits a child receives when they stay with their own family, and see how the Church can come alongside entire families to take care of the kids.
How can someone support what you are doing?
God continues to affirm His calling on our lives to Thailand. We both started out right out of school and went into ministry. Neither of us thought this would become our career. Yet, that is what we’re looking at. We have needs right now for things like retirement, savings, and hopefully buying a home here in Thailand that will help sustain us in this work for the long haul. We are in need of 20 new supporters to begin giving $100 a month by the end of 2021. You can support us through our Cause website HERE.
How has The Cause helped you in your ministry?
Oh my, where to begin! We met The Cause when we were transitioning out of that grassroots slum ministry we had been working in for almost 7 years. At that point, we wondered if we had reached the end of our time serving as missionaries in Thailand. Team conflicts had left us feeling defeated and burnt out. And so as we were on the brink of deciding to quit, a friend recommended that we talk to The Cause.
We met with Morgan within the week. And their model of being a community of Kingdom leaders was exactly what we needed if we were to keep serving in Thailand. We prayed about it and asked God to lead if this was where He wanted us to be. We made one announcement to our supporters that we’d be leaving our old organization and joining The Cause. I think our supporters transferred from our old organization to The Cause within a few short months. And many increased their giving! It was a miracle! And so we knew then that God wanted us to stay in Thailand – He wasn’t done working through us yet!
Once we were all set up with The Cause, we told friends we were staying in Thailand but not yet sure where we’d serve or what we’d do. It just so happens that one of the friends there that night had an opening at Step Ahead and was actively looking for a Thai Christian to bring on. Step Ahead has been an organization Sprite and I have always admired and wanted to work for. We met with her the following week about job positions/roles for both Sprite and I and decided the next month to join Step Ahead.
Truly, if we hadn’t gotten connected to The Cause when we did, Sprite and I would not be doing any of the work we’re doing now. We would not be part of changing the system of care for Thai children. We would not be advocating for laws and policies like we are now. We would not be raising others up and equipping them to do the hard work of strengthening poor families all over this country. We went from serving a handful of small slum communities to now serving communities and families all over the country! It’s kind of amazing! And we are deeply grateful to The Cause and for all who support them for that.
