Another Farewell

Right after SongKran, we lost one of our most important volunteers: Charles. He started working with us in January 2013, just after Christmas. He just walked in off the street one day during Loy Kratong and applied to work with us. Of course, we were a little apprehensive because of the type of men who usually frequent the red light district, but we checked his references and everyone said he was such an amazing man of God. He helped us set up our new building and was amazing with all the repairs and installations on top of taking on teaching the oldest English class.

In October of 2013, he suffered a heart attack, his 3rd, and he returned to the US for surgery. He had multiple surgeries to finally install an internal defibrillator. He rushed back to Thailand in January because he missed it so much, but the dramatic difference in climate caused his body to go into shock. He ended up spending much of the next month in and out of the hospital and eventually decided to return to the US for further treatment, against recommendations of the doctors here. He arrived in Korea for a layover and suffered a pulmonary embolism so was rushed to the hospital from the airport. After three weeks in the ICU, he succumbed to the weakness of his heart and passed away on April 11, 2014.

He was buried in Korea and we had a memorial service on April 28. It was a nice service at the beautiful Doi Suthep overlooking the city.