Father Mike Shea a Catholic priest has been here for 40 years now and is one of the most giving, hard working and loving persons I have ever met.
Hopefully someday someone will write a book about his life and work. Here is the story of some of his work as written by him.

SARNELLI HOUSE is a home for 125 AIDS infected and AIDS affected children in Nongkhai province. These kids eat like wolves and grow like weeds. Any year that we do not lose children to the ravages of AIDS is a good year! Most of the 53 children who have AIDS are healthy and happy children, going to school, playing and living pretty much like the village kids. Some, however, are either allergic to the ARV medicine, or are still taking initial doses. Those allergic are being treated with experimental drugs given and monitored by the Srinakarin University Hospital in Khon Kaen. It is a good hospital with good doctors, but we have to pay in full for all services, when we take our children for treatment. The provincial hospital treats our kids for 30 baht each, but the treatment is suspect, especially in viral infections such as TB, thrush, and bacterial infections of the brain and spinal cord. This year, as the children's bodies adjusted to the antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, we could easily see the improvement in their health. Skin infections cleared up; they put on weight and are much stronger and less susceptible to colds and flu. Even the newcomers, although with weak lungs from TB and with lingering effects of bacterial infections, should be strong enough to attend school in May. AIDS-infected teenagers and adults also are benefiting from the ARV drugs. Some of our AIDS children have rejoined their families. We monitor the families with our OUTREACH program. The OUTREACH program now reaches out to over 100 adults just diagnosed with AIDS. We have a four-wheel drive vehicle now, and can visit them even in the monsoon season.

Among newcomers to our homes, we have four new babies. The oldest came to us at 6 months old, and the youngest was 13 hours old. They live in the HOUSE OF HOPE with 13 other children. The three baby boys and the latest, a girl, Bunny, were born of AIDS moms, and will be checked for the virus when they reach 18 months old. They joined Miss Josie, who has cerebral palsy and is 3 years old. Two other kids just turned two, and the rest are ages three to four. At night, experienced grannies from the village come to stay with the kids. We pay them a good salary for their services and it is well worth it.

These children will be checked until they are five years old, and then will be sent to either St. Patrick or the Viengkhuk Girls Home. St. Patrick boys' home now has 17 young lads living there. St. Patrick's home will eventually house older boys with AIDS. Once they get to junior high, we want to teach them how to monitor their own medicine, and the hygiene they will need to practice scrupulously to insure their continued good health. They will hopefully be able to attend a school of their choice by that time. There are some AIDS-infected boys, however, who will always be our wards, since they have damage from trauma and bacterial infections in the brain.

The Viengkhuk Girls Home has 37 young ladies, from the age of 4 to 16. Most of these girls were given to us while they were very young, since their parents died of AIDS, and relatives refused to let them live with them. Within the last two years, however, government social workers, the court and police have asked us to take in girls who were sexually molested by parents or guardians, or who were to be sold into child prostitution. Some of these girls came very small, and had serious physical damage as well. These girls are immediately sent to school to try to give them a natural environment, and they go to court ordered physical checkups for AIDS and STDs. They also go to psychiatrists, but surprisingly enough, we are getting high marks for guiding them through their trauma and helping them become happy kids and good students. We don't for a moment drop our guard as to deep seated psychological scars and we monitor them closely. The girls themselves do not know who has been molested, but they instinctively reach out to all new comers and make them feel as part of a family.

Even though we built another dormitory to house 14 older girls (two to a room), the Viengkhuk Home is still packed. There is little room in the little girls' dorm for new girls, although most newcomers will be able to stay in private rooms with our four housemothers. Also, I am trying to get funds to build a two story dorm for older AIDS-infected girls on the grounds at SARNELLI. This is being done for the same reason that AIDS boys will be sent to St. Patrick's. They will be taught matters of hygiene, and how to become young ladies, and not the little hellions they are allowed to be right now! They will be two to a room, and there will be a computer room for them on the first floor.

We seem to lurch from rags to riches and back again. We never have enough of what we need, but maybe that is the way it is supposed to be. This work should be judged by the quality of care given to the children and babies in our care. We plant our own rice (and had an amazing yield of 155 sacks this year), raise our own pigs, chickens, and geese, and do a big vegetable garden every dry season. We have three fish ponds, stocked with enough fish to eat, if we don't get carried away. The Thai people are good in helping us with money, clothes, blankets and cold weather gear. God has been good to us in giving us concerned and generous friends.
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