March 2024
Six-year-old orphan, Miss Brown Rice, will graduate this morning together with her three Kindergarten classmates from our slum school. She said this was the most important day of her life, even more important than breakfast.
Her teacher came very early to where she slept. Bringing a new toothbrush and tube of toothpaste, a comb for her hair, a freshly washed dress & her graduation gown to be worn by all three kindergarten grads.
Legend has it that a long time ago, another Miss Brown Rice, a slaughterhouse orphan, and a couple of her classmates attended our first slum school.
Back then they placed Our Lady’s statue in an abandoned shack along the slaughterhouse pathway, lit candles and said the rosary. We named the shack Our Lady of the River. True, this was not a proper home for our Blessed Mother Mary to live, but it was the best we could do. It was as good as any of our own houses. No better. No worse.
The shack immediately became a chapel kindergarten: to teach the kids – including Miss Brown Rice of 50 years ago -- to learn to pray properly & read & write their names. We know that Our Lady of the River surely wanted her slum slaughterhouse children to be beautiful, to know how to pray & read & write.
And so it began. Our first kindergarten, Our Lady of the River, was in an abandoned shack next to the canal leading into the river. Our first slum slaughterhouse kindergarten welcoming all: Buddhist, Catholic, and Moslem.
As you know, for the school to survive: everyone had to help. Food, teachers--all cost money. The first Miss Brown Rice also had no money and the cart lady of that time paid her five Baht a day. In the beginning we asked a daily merit making; one to five Baht per day for those who could afford it, and it’s been the same since then – for over 50 years now in over thirty slum schools of Bangkok. Now, yes, things are more expensive, but still, everyone helps. And nowadays our own orphan Miss Brown Rice has no money and a new cart lady pays her way each day.
SOON IT WILL BE GRADUATION DAY … THE MOST IMPORTANT DAY IN OUR CHILDREN’S LIFE…AND I’M SURE IN YOUR LIFE – IN SOME WAY. COME AND TELL US YOUR OWN STORY.
Blessings --
Fr. Joe
***Please consider a gift to Mercy Centre USA to support the hundreds of slum kids like Miss Brown Rice who are learning to read and write in Mercy’s slum preschools across Bangkok. Your gift ensures more graduation days for all our kids!
US residents may donate via PayPal or credit card through www.mercycentreusa.org or by sending a check to Mercy Centre USA at the address below. Mercy Centre USA is a 501(c)(3) charity, and all donations are tax deductible.
Please send your check to:
Mercy Centre USA
P.O. Box 1604
Annapolis, MD 21404-1604
Also, we want to introduce you to the option of a new form of donation of automobiles. Mercy Centre USA has joined Careasy.org. All information is available through this link: https://careasy.org/nonprofit/mercy-centre-usa Please give it a look and consider donating through this channel.
To make an in-kind donation, provide stock, make a bank transfer, designate bequests, or other inquiries, please contact True Rowan, Vice Chairman, at 443-837-7303, or by email at truerowan@mercycentreusa.org.
Thank you for your ongoing support of Mercy’s programs.
Sincerely Yours,
Tom Crowley
Director of Mercy Centre USADecember 2023
Dear friends and supporters of Mercy Centre USA,A Christmas letter. Pregnant Mary sitting sidesaddle on a donkey with St Joseph walking alongside those nine days to Bethlehem where Jesus was to be born, protected by the Angels from heaven, following the Star that rose in the East. Our most ancient legends tell us that as Christmas day, the day of the birth of Jesus, drew near the Star grew brighter and our BVM said to Joseph we must leave Nazareth – begin our journey to Bethlehem. The Stars tell me it is time to travel. The Star witnessed by the Magi & the Shepherd families.
Also, as they were leaving their home in Nazareth, Our Lady’s mom, St Anna, kissed and hugged her daughter saying remember my love You are carrying the salvation of the world in your tummy – please travel safely.
And no one really remembers of course, and it seems that it is not written down anywhere that we can find, but maybe somewhere during their journey, possibly the Star guided them to pass through our beloved Klong Toey, that they passed this way, and even perhaps past your own home.
If they did pass this way, I’m sure they stopped for just a moment and saw our first kindergarten, then an unused pigpen where, Sr. Maria began teaching those 57 years ago.
Early morning that day our children, poorer kids, were scrounging with their grannies for thrown away tin cans and used plastic bottles to sell for breakfast money, so they could eat before they went to see Sr. Maria. They said they saw the Star. I didn’t get to see them and guess, maybe you didn’t either, but who are we to doubt the solemn word of 5 and 6 year old slum kids for what they see on the early morning pathways.
So it’s Christmas for us here in Klong Toey and the children we care for.
It’s been 57 years, those early times were difficult. We do the best we can. Today our Slum kindergartens might be called ‘slum beautiful’ but still not easy. A slum is always a slum, a savage place drenched in Mercy. A place where the clocks never run on time. And we wouldn’t exchange our slum kindergarten children for all the gold in the world. Never have. Never will. Nor have our slum kids ‘ever walked away.’
And this Christmas, when the world is filled with war, our slum kindergartens are places of safety, peace and learning. We say our prayers each morning, both Catholic & Buddhist. We at Mercy and our children ask you to share your lives with ours, as I know you want to. Please walk with us to Bethlehem.
Prayers & respect and always,
Father JoeUS residents may donate via PayPal or credit card through www.mercycentreusa.org or by sending a check to Mercy Centre USA at the address below. Mercy Centre USA is a 501(c)(3) charity and all donations are tax deductible.
Please send your check to
Mercy Centre USA
P.O. Box 1604
Annapolis, MD 21404-1604
Also, we want to introduce you to the option of a new form of donation of automobiles. Mercy Centre USA has joined with https://careasy.org/nonprofit/mercy-centre-usa all information is available through this link. Please give it a look and consider donating through this channel.
To make an in-kind donation, provide stock, make a bank transfer, designate bequests, or other inquiries, please contact True Rowan, Vice Chairman, at 443-837-7303, or by email at truerowan@mercycentreusa.org
Thank you for your understanding and ongoing support of Mercy’s programs.
Sincerely Yours,
Tom Crowley
Director of Mercy Centre USASeptember 2023
Dear friends and supporters of Mercy Centre USA,It was recently Mother’s Day week-end in Thailand & all of our Mercy Centre kids/ kindergarten kids dressed up - fancy party ‘prancing/dancing beautiful’ - you know …second-han,d best high class rags.
Our fabulous ‘of an age’ sewing lady sews up the rips & patches, (we washed all the donated stuff twice: you know, the donated throw-aways ) and some of the used stuff – washed, pressed & ironed are pretty good look’n rags) for our kids dance/music party.
But even the best used clothes, patched & cleaned, can’t 'stand in’ or take the place of a missing mom. Even a wild flower picked by a slum pathway – borrowed from a shrine - and placed wherever your momma dumped you that horrible day. Where she left you standing alone, telling you “I’ll be right back. You wait right here.” In front of an abandoned building. Along the railway tracks – wherever…
But horror of horrors, over half – almost fifty kids – came alone to our party: no mom in sight anywhere. In fact – no mom on the planet. Really. None at all.
My eyes filled with tears – so many of our kids: kindergarten sized – especially at that age – really hurt without a mom to hug, give a blossom to – a wild weed really, but pretty, also like an orphan – growing alone, along the slum pathway.
But you make do with what you can. Like our nearly six year old Miss Kao Fang (Brown Rice) not the prettiest name on the chart, but who cares. She is natures’ beauty: untouched – never heard of cosmetics, no perfume, no powder, no none at all, but beautiful Thai-Lao complexion, total wardrobe: one set of clothing: (that what she is wearing) pretty, like you would want her to be. Named after a single solitary rice stalk – sturdy – in a field alone.
She saw ‘my sniffles’ and told me she barely remembers her Lao mom abandoning her, kissing her good bye, then getting in a boat, crossing the River back into her home in Laos. Her mom saying:
“I can’t take the cruelty from your father anymore, he made me HIV– AIDS sick & I have no way to care for you except to beg on the streets of my home town in Laos, & I am afraid you will become sick as I am because we have no medicine. If I leave you – like that stalk of brown rice, you will not die, the angels will find you & get you medicine – and make you healthy. I named you Kao Fang – and that’s all I can give you – is your name & my love. Your name came to me as a dream when you were born, alone there along that abandoned roadside. But I was strong then, and you were a strong and healthy baby. My beloved daughter, we shall probably never meet again. I, your momma am already sick. But I shall die, knowing you my baby, my ‘brown rice’ are well & cared for– like my dream.
To finish for today, this Mother’s Day week-end, Miss Kao Fang’ (brown rice – single stalk and solitary) was found by a police man sleeping along the Riverbank. First thing she said: “I’m hungry.”
Today she is nearly seven years old – never been to school – but teachers allowing her to hold a pencil according to as she likes … not forcing this or that finger etc. Never wore shoes, never had any new clothes, liked by the other kids, and small in size (under-fed).
Abused … abandoned more than abused – no, not sexually abused … but beat up … bruised … by dad who is dying of HIV/AIDS of the brain (never took his medicine – now too late).
Gun shy – nearly seven years of age … not under-unnourished – but certainly never had enough to eat to fill her tummy - skin … like one big mosquito bite, but much better in a few days with soap and water – somehow she avoided lice & fleas.
Great girl – sleeps well on the pavement – pillows are strange objects … Doesn’t like stray dogs, although they like her and guard her automatically it seems when anyone comes around. Keeps herself clean – washes herself and the clothes she wears, which is all she owns in any available facet.
And that's all for now – Blessings to all of you for Mother’s Day here in Thailand & everywhere. Our Miss Brown Rice is doing fabulous. You should come and meet her when you are in town.
Prayers & respect and always,
Father JoePlease consider a gift to Mercy Centre USA to support kids like Miss Kao Fang.
With your support, Mercy Centre in Bangkok is able to take in and care for kids like Miss Kao Fang, providing them with food, school and proper nutrition -- but more importantly, a place where they feel safe and cared for.
US residents may donate via PayPal or credit card through www.mercycentreusa.org or by sending a check to Mercy Centre USA at the address below. Mercy Centre USA is a 501(c)(3) charity and all donations are tax deductible.
Please send your check to:
Mercy Centre USA
P.O. Box 1604
Annapolis, MD 21404-1604
Also, we want to introduce you to the option of a new form of donation.
In conjunction with the gratis services provided by Liquidations.com, Mercy Centre USA is now accepting in-kind donations (goods other than cash or securities). The monetary value placed on such by the donor should exceed five thousand dollars.
To make an in-kind donation, provide stock, make a bank transfer, designate bequests, or other inquiries, please contact True Rowan, Vice Chairman, at 443-837-7303, or by email at truerowan@mercycentreusa.org
Thank you for your understanding and ongoing support of Mercy’s programs.
Sincerely Yours,
Tom Crowley
Director of Mercy Centre USA
