EARLY DAYS OF THE CHILDREN’S HOME

50 YEARS AGO

A house prepared for fulfilling a dream.

In 1975, my husband, Håkan, and I lived upstairs in a large white wooden two-story house next to the general hospital in Loei, Thailand. From our balcony facing the Maliwan Road, we could watch military helicopters land on the expansive lawn in front of the Loei town hall. Often, the helicopters brought Thai soldiers who were wounded in the ongoing communist guerilla warfare to the hospital.

We shared our home with several Thai youngsters and a young Doberman dog named Sally. She was a good barking watchdog but never aggressive. We had a temporary church hall beside the house. Sally never attacked visitors, but she chewed up some shoes, slippers, and even someone’s Bible.

The guerilla warfare had displaced several hill tribe families who had refused to join the communists. One of those families, belonging to the Lisu tribe, had been relocated to the neighboring province of Phetchabun. Our Finnish missionary colleagues, Jouko and Marja-Terttu, visited them often. Both the Lisu parents were ill. The father soon died of Tuberculosis. One sibling died, too. Not long after, even the mother died. Four young children had become orphans. Jouko asked us if we could take the children.

As the children’s home (Bethany Home) celebrates its 50th Anniversary later this year, I will add more stories from there to Substack now and again.

A story in an early children’s book planted the seed in my heart.

I found a Swedish book left in a house my parents rented in Kandy, Sri Lanka after a missionary family returned to Sweden in 1952. The book VILL DU LÄSA (Do You Want to Read) was beautifully written and illustrated by Elsa Beskow. My mother’s mother tongue was Swedish, so she helped me read that book. That was the only Swedish book I read growing up, though I read plenty of English and sometimes even Finnish books.

One story in the book was named LISAS FRAMTIDS PLANER (Lisa’s future). The girl in that story told her brother that she would have a big white house with plenty of room for children without parents to care for them. The story was a seed for my future.

Elsa Beskow’s lovely books continue to be translated into English. I requested permission to use the above story in my blog a few years ago. Substack is not a blog, so I’ll leave her picture out. Her grandson replied:

It is touching and beautiful that Elsa's story inspired you and your husband to do what you did for orphans. Grandma Elsa would have appreciated that! Therefore, we permit you to use the story and its pictures in your blog without any royalty claims from our side. We wish you good luck and hope that your blog will be read!

Kind regards! / Dag Beskow