Reflections from Living on the Edge
Jim grew up raising pigs. Judy was a child of missionaries in Argentina. We met at Wheaton College, and found a common desire to live close to people in need, and learn how to best serve them. That led us first to inner-city Chicago, and ultimately to Bangkok in 2004.
The goal of this series is to explain some of the many things we have learned in doing this. These are lessons not only about serving cross-culturally among folks in great need, but also more general about living the life that God has for us, including new understandings from Scripture.
Servant Life
Meeting Darkness
For nearly all Thai men’s entertainment workers, their job isn’t a career choice, but one from necessity and/or hurt. We started meeting and getting to know our first Thai bargirls on a visit in 2003, then more in 2004, and are still working to help them today. Getting started took some adjustment, to say the least.
Servant Life
How We Chose Thailand
How does one decide that God is calling to go somewhere? For both Jim and Judy Larson, the story starts all the way back in childhood.
Servant Life
How We Got Started
Jim grew up on a farm in Illinois, Judy the child of missionaries in Argentina. We met at Wheaton College, having both been challenged away from middle-class comfort and safety. We got together as a couple via reaching out to chronic mentally ill and others in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood. Here we discuss our introduction as young adults past the usual hurdles of fear and discomfort, into the joy of caring for folks at the so-called bottom.