Top sitting with his mother, Virai, and breathing with the help of supplemental oxygen
Sadly, sin has consequences that often can’t be reversed. At least, not until heaven.
Virai spent her younger years selling her body in Thailand’s sex-tourism industry to make money for her parents and younger siblings. She eventually married, however, and gave birth to a son, but found herself a widow not long afterwards. Left alone, Virai and her son, whom she named Top, struggled to get by year after year. Virai returned to her former profession to make ends meet. Things began to change for her in 2004, however, when she gave her heart to the Lord and began living for Him. She even opened her home to take in women who needed shelter.
By then, however, having had no good or godly influence in his life, Top was hanging out with the wrong crowd, and by age 16 he was sniffing glue and living promiscuously. By the time he reached his 20th birthday, he had spent two years in jail. During those dark years, Top reaped the full consequences of his choices, contracting sexually-transmitted diseases, as well as tuberculosis and hepatitis. Top hit bottom.
Hard times sometimes soften hearts, and it was in 2011 that Top finally surrendered to the Lord. His mother’s prayers for his salvation were answered, and Jesus transformed him. His physical infirmities, however, remained. Almost 23 now, Top takes daily medicine, and he must breathe supplemental oxygen because he suffers from congestive heart failure.
Top now rides to the doctor in much greater safety, left, and Virai (standing on right), with some of the other widows she helps, ready to take their dried foods to the market
Because of his health issues, Virai must take Top across town for regular medical treatment on her motor scooter. Because Top’s arms are too weak to hold himself safely on the scooter’s seat, she has had to use a belt to strap him securely to herself. Negotiating the busy streets was already dangerous enough without a limp weight tied to her body.Seeing an opportunity to serve, Heaven’s Family’s Christians with Disabilities Fund provided $800 for a special sidecar to be built and attached to Virai’s scooter. Now she can safely transport Top and his medical supplies to and from the hospital. And as an additional blessing, Virai uses the sidecar to transport other widows—former bar girls like herself whom she also cares for in her home—to the marketplace where they sell dried fruit and other products to earn income that helps them provide for their own needs. The sidecar has become a double blessing…one that won’t be needed, however, in heaven!
