Occasionally, we have events sponsored by donors visiting Bangkok or finding a unique, one time opportunity to support the people of Klong Toei. These events usually don’t require volunteer help and are often organized last minute
Presentation Sisters of Western Australia treated us all with a delicious dinner at Cuppa, Soi 16.
There were great meats, veggies, cake and wine and talk of Sister Joan, her Mission and our current work. Sister Cecilia brought everyone a box of delicious Christmas cookies too.
Another year is ending and it was a great one, truly a year to remember: the 30th year of Milk Run, the 20th year of Rice Run. Here is too many more to come!…
We had a very casual Holiday dinner 2021 with 8 of the active volunteers that happened to be available. It started as a drink invitation but appetites rose and we spent hours talking, eating and sipping red.
It was great to raise a toast to Sister Joan and her Mission and missed all the volunteers current and past that couldn’t be there… Happy Holidays everyone! ✨🎄❤️
This week saw the Rice Run, Milk Run and the School Run participants all come together to the same event. I don’t think this has ever happened in almost 30 years since Sister Joan Mission was started and what a great time we had.
Best, our Thai volunteer suggested that we offer a lunch to all of our registered recipients and she, her husband Pum and a group of their Thai friends and family members raised money for 200+ large packages of lunch, additional cans of sardines, snacks and sanitizing alcohol. They delivered everything at 9:30 as planned and we were able to quickly set up and start at 10am.
Our Rice Run and Milk Run volunteers raised 23000 baht this week to support the effort. Shannon and Paul used some of that money yesterday to get 130 large bags of white rice from Makro and deliver it this morning. We also brought out all the adult and baby items (about 20 boxes) that have been donated to Sister Joan Mission since Covid pandemic started and we had plenty of hands to distribute it all.
Five of our School Run project students shower up to help pack the food items for everyone before they too received their share. The sun was brutal, we were all rushing to finish and by 11:30 we served a total of 115 people and their families and everyone was quickly gone after we got this great group shot taken.
Thank you Shannon, Paul, Helen, Grace, Susan and Janna for coming to help and represent our group. It was a great effort and I really hope we can add more of these.
Here are more photos from this morning:
This May 3rd is Sister Joan’s 88th. We were lucky to talk on the phone thanks to Sister Nora and Sister Lucy who take such an amazing care of our Joan. She was in good spirits, just came out of the noon mass and was very happy to hear me on the phone.
She knew it was her birthday and we spoke about the state of her projects and about the life in the slum for about 20 minutes. She recognized my voice and was happy to hear that the Milk Run and Rice Run are going well and that volunteers keep coming to help. She was happy about the School Run too, excited that more young people from Klong Toei will get a chance to finish University and have a better life then their parents. She thank me and others for the work and asked that we continue it.
Then, at the end of the call, she said: “… what is your name?”
Siters Lucy and Sister Kathleen of the Presentation Sisters of Western Australia came from Perth to visit the three projects that are ongoing in Thailand. One is in Isan, one in Ratchaburi and the third one is Sister Joan Evans Mission project in Klong Toei. Sister Lucy asked if the volunteers that are helping the Sister Joan Evans Mission project could come together so she can meet and thank them for their effort and 16 of us came.
We all had a great dinner and a unique chance to meet and talk without anything else to do. Sister Cecilia joined us too to make it a very memorable evening and we had a chance to thank her and to thank the Presentation Sisters for making our work possible and taking such great care of Sister Joan in Perth.
A group of 13 Americans came to Bangkok at the end of October and oach wanted to make a gift worth $50 to a new mom in Klong Toei. We scheduled 13 new moms to come on Nov 2nd to receive a package consisting of a plastic wash tub, baby bottle, two sets of clothes, a towel and a blanket, a nail clipper and a pack of pampers.
As always, there was not a single baby crying. We visited the house Sister used to live in and had a long conversation about empathy, kindness and unconditional helping. We also found out that the small dog so dear to Sister Joan and to SJ has passed away in Jun this year.
