Chala's story

Chala, at the age of 42, has faced a life that not many people can ever imagine. Born into a hilltribe in the north of Thailand, Chala didn't attend many years of school and later on got involved in drugs. In his late 20's Chala was given a life sentence in prison for dealing drugs.

In prison, far away from his home province, Chala started serving his time. During the time that Chala was in prison, he met a group of Christians who introduced him to Jesus. Chala spent time with them and decided that he too wanted to know this Jesus.

After a few years, Chala's sentence was drastically reduced from life, to just 25 years. Later the 25 years was again reduced by a royal pardon to only 12 years. However, Chala had since lost the only family that he had, and had nobody on the outside of the prison walls to go back to once he was released.

The day that Chala was released from the prison, he had no idea where he would go. While he was sitting outside, waiting for his papers to be finalized  he met the YWAM Ratchaburi team that happened to be ministering in the prison that day. One of the YWAM Ratchaburi team, Mongkhon, was released from the prison last year and was one of Chala's friends from inside the prison. The YWAM Ratchaburi team decided to take Chala along with them when they left the prison, and give him a place to stay and pray with him to see where God was leading him.

Mongkhon will be leaving Ratchaburi to study his Discipleship Training School (DTS) with YWAM in the north east of Thailand on Monday the 4th of March, and as the YWAM Ratchaburi team prayed with Chala, they felt moved to challenge Chala to attend his DTS along with Mongkhon.

Chala and Mongkhon will be leaving together, brothers in the Lord who have already endured so much together. Now they go forth to discover the great and wonderful plans that the Father has for them. Chala may not have any family, but he certainly is not alone in the body of Christ. He is loved, and his gentle nature and joyful disposition seem to draw others to him. We are excited about what God is going to do in his life!

Chala will need to pay the school fees for his DTS. He doesn't have any money, and left prison with only the clothes that he was wearing. He owns nothing else in the world, but the hope that he has in Christ Jesus surpasses all of that. Would you like to be a part of this amazing journey that Chala is on? He needs people to partner with him in prayer, and he will need people to financially support him to complete his DTS. Would you like to be one of those people? 

You can send a contribution towards Chala's DTS here. Please mention that the contribution should be specifically for "Chala's DTS."

Mongkhon, Noiy (YWAM Ratchaburi director) and Chala