April-17-153Y

GOD ’S GRACE f or BODY,
SOUL & RELATIONSHIPS
icture a solitary boy sitting at
home making little clay figures -
his only playmates. Fractured family
dynamics meant he was cut off
from his half-siblings and starved
of a father’s care. His mother,
having lost one child to drowning,
was afraid to let him have
normal kids’ play outside; the
village thought he was a crazy
kid. Today Daeng remembers
the drunken landlord who
stole the clay figures and
took away his “family”. At
an early age he felt life was
stacked against him. His mother’s
family went to church, but seldom did Daeng
feel it a welcoming environment; his childhood was
often shaped by poverty, broken promises and lack
of opportunity, despite him showing early signs of
academic and leadership ability.
Ann’s parents were Buddhist. She was an only
Daeng as a child
P
child but compared herself poorly to cousins who
were the favourites in the extended family. As she grew up
believing that she had no value, that nobody loved her, she
went looking for love with boys, but they never met her
need for love and broke her trust. Ann decided then that
she could trust no one, and angrily determined to look
after herself and never think of the needs of others.
When at age 30 Ann started to learn about Jesus
she was still suspicious of other people’s motives. Instead
Project Radical Grace
is based in Chiang Mai,
Thailand, modeling
a wholistic gospel to
those on the margins
living with poverty, dysfunctional
relationships
and many living with
HIV. Daeng and Ann
Dechaboon are such
a good fit as leaders
because of their own
broken backgrounds.
They talked to
Zoë Cromwell on
their recent visit to
New Zealand
Ann (left) and her cousin
of following what they said, she began exploring the Christian life by herself through
prayer and the Bible, and trusted God. After two years she was baptised.
Ann and Daeng met around this time.
Daeng’s life of mixed influences up to this point had included early secondary education
at a good school paid for by his father. He was the poor boy in the rich school
who often came without lunch. His teachers saw he had natural ability and said he
should become a teacher or university lecturer, but family issues got in the way. The
support of his step father, his mother’s third husband, faded away when Daeng’s birth
father, a gambler and womaniser, stepped in and insisted Daeng take his surname. The
step father removing support led to fighting between him and Daeng. As a teenager
Daeng often asked himself why some people get advantages in life, but not him. He
grew up with a strong sense of the injustice of poverty - often in Thai society there
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