Retired South Carolina couple help children in Thailand

Hill tribe people "are tribal groups from neighboring countries (China, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia) who sought safe refuge in the mountains of Northern Thailand. Most of them came here to escape brutal oppression or wars in their homelands," David Callahan wrote in an e-mail.

David Callahan said tribal members speak different languages and have a different culture than Thai.

He and Shirley Callahan discussed their lives and ministry in an e-mail interview.

David Callahan was principal buyer at Timken. Shirley Callahan managed the office for Dr. Frank Phillips at Carolina Sports Medicine Center. They "often dreamed of doing more mission trips after retirement," David Callahan wrote.

The Callahans made their first trip to Thailand in 2001 with a mission team from First Baptist Church of Gaffney to help construct an apartment unit for staff members of a medical clinic.

(...) The Callahans established Faithful Heart Ministry and Faithful Heart Foundation, which raises funds and manages several orphan homes.

The couple now lives in Thailand's second largest city, Chiang Mai City, in a "shop-home" located on a main highway and surrounded by karaoke bars and some shops, David Callahan wrote.

(...) Caring for children The Callahans' ministry operates four homes for orphans and abandoned children. They currently care for 21 boys, ages 6 to 16. Children that share a home are required to be the same gender.

The Callahans hope to open another home in 2010 that will be able to accept five girls.

Shirley Callahan said the homes are similar to foster homes in the United States.

"Each home has a set of Thai-Christian parents who take in and care for no more than six children," Shirley Callahan wrote. "The parents (in the homes) do all the things that birth parents do for their children. We think this is a much more loving and kind way to raise a child rather than a large institutional setting where some children don't get the love and support that they need."

The ministry also provides support to two hostels for children.

"The Christian hostel provides a safe and loving place for the children to live while they go to school. Usually the parents are too poor to pay much support to the hostel so they subsidize it by giving rice and sometimes vegetables from their gardens. Faithful Heart got involved when they could no longer pay rent or provide enough food for the children," Shirley Callahan wrote.

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