We welcome our daughter Toviah Rintahn Hauptman, born April 1, 2018.

You can read about her birth here: Toviah Rintahn Baby Announcement

We celebrate your birth Toviah!

We welcome our daughter Tirzah Rueng Hauptman, born July 24, 2016 at 5:12pm.

You can read about her birth here: Tirzah Rueng Baby Announcement

We celebrate your birth little Tirzah!

Our Son Rinnan Samut Hauptman was born on 22 January 2015. You can read about the birth and see some great pictures by clicking HERE, or on the image below:

One of the core ministries our team engages in is a weekly late-night outreach to young men involved in freelance male prostitution. That is, Thai guys who wait on the side of the street at night for customers to come and “pick them up” in order to engage in sexual activities in exchange for money. Many of the men that we meet communicate a nonchalance about what they do. Very few would say they enjoy it, but (at least at face value) many communicate that they are willing to trade the money they receive for the personal toll it takes on them to do their work. This last Friday evening, just the day after an unusual gift from a US based church was passed on to us, we approached a young man at about midnight, offered him a homemade cookie, and said hello. “Tan”, who was visibly agitated, opened up immediately telling us that he hates this, he doesn’t want to be selling on the streets, but he needs the money because he lives with his sick grandmother and two siblings and they need money to buy food, to make rent, and pay for grandmother’s medicine. A few more questions revealed that at 17, “Tan” had already dropped out of school, and didn’t really know what to do with himself other than try to help his grandmother by being out on these streets at night. In more than 6 years of street outreach to this community we think this was the first time a young man was asking us for direct and immediate help to take care of family obligations so that he wouldn’t have to be involved in sex-work. So we made an appointment to meet “Tan” near his home the next morning, and gave him bus-fare home. At 7:30am “Tan” called us to confirm that he really did want help and could we please come meet his grandmother as discussed the night before. So several of the adults and all of the kids on our team made a trek to the end of the bus line where they live in order to see how we might serve this family.

Playing at the end of the bus line.

Meeting with them near their home, hearing more of “Tan” and his grandmother’s story (the kids were orphaned when both parents died in an automobile accident), and seeing that he really did need some help, we felt led to give this family what they were asking for – some money to pay for medicine, rent, food, and a small investment towards re-starting their normal work of selling second-hand goods. Through the extended Christian community here in Bangkok we also set up a job-interview with a partner ministry for “Tan” (that he very expectedly has not followed-up on yet) and made some connections between this family and a trusted Thai church within a kilometer of their home. We don’t have any illusions – the money we shared with this family hasn’t solved their deeper challenges – especially the grandmother’s failing health – but we do know that we received an unexpected gift, the day before we discovered an unexpected need, affording us the freedom to respond in an unexpected way – through sharing enough cash with a family to get them through a crisis and have some options on the other side. As a general rule, our ministry doesn’t tend to give money to individuals who ask us, but as we prayed through this situation it seemed like the most honoring and helpful response we could provide.

Two weeks ago our teammates Sam and Pat hosted a party at their house attended by more than 50 deaf individuals, living both on and off the streets, many of whom were unfamiliar with the story of Jesus and Christmas. Everyone had a lovely time, and many had the chance to “hear” about Jesus for the first time! Please join us in continuing to thank God for his movement among these neighbors, and for Ajarn Yoon, the Thai Pastor whom the Lord is so actively using to touch so many lives.

Our daughter Izayla has gone back and forth about how involved she enjoys being in street ministry. However, lately she is quick to jump into somewhat forceful self-care conversations with neighbors who seem to be making especially poor choices from her perspective, which she can get away with since she is half their height. Her Thai preschool life is helping empower her to talk to neighbors directly now, without needing us to translate. Izayla seems especially distressed by one man in particular, who our team feels consistently led to pray for and believe a breakthrough for. He exemplifies a modern-day image of the demoniac Jesus heals in Mark 5 – he has crazily unkempt hair, is often barely clothed, only eats food off of the sidewalk and is often seen shouting and slapping himself. One of his favorite hangout spots is the stoop of the building we will soon be moving into. Rather than shrinking back, our children seem drawn to him, and we watch with interest as they lead out in a one-way conversation over and over. “Hey, big brother, you shouldn’t eat rice off the ground. It will make your tummy feel sick. Why do you eat rice of the ground? I am afraid you will get sick!” On the walk home from the bus stop from school recently, Izayla took it upon herself to approach every one of close to a dozen people sleeping on the ledge of a canal that cuts through our neighborhood and declare confidently in Thai, “Big brother, you shouldn’t sleep here! It isn’t safe! I am afraid if you sleep here you will fall into the water!” Her genuine care and innocence makes her completely inoffensive and, I believe, sometimes able to speak words of love that grown-ups never could.