Imagine having a nice home, a comfortable lifestyle, and a good job where someone is well-respected. Now, picture that person giving all of that up.
Leslie Hipp, 36, will be leaving her job as a clinical education specialist at Biosense Webster Inc., to travel to Bangkok, Thailand with her husband and newborn, for missionary work.
“I’ve been in the job that I’m in now for 6 years,” Hipp said. “Prior to that I’ve worked in the hospital for 10 years, so the hospital setting, surgery, lab stuff, and anything cardiac, was all I’ve really known since I graduated from high school.”
Hipp said she is quitting her job with Biosense Webster Inc., leaving retirement plans, retention, and a pretty comfortable life and starting over. She will be traveling to Bangkok to assist people in need.
Bangkok is the capital of Thailand, with a population of over 60 million. The city attracts many migrant workers from surrounding nations who are looking for a better life. However, they often end up in poorly paid jobs, being exploited and living in slum conditions.
The children in Bangkok are often left alone to care for their younger siblings, or they’re working as underage laborers to help support their families.
“My best friend has been with the organization, Youth with a Mission, for at least 15 years,” Hipp said. “That’s the organization that we’re going to work with, and we’re also working specifically with one of the sub-ministries there called ARK International.”
ARK International is an international body that defends the rights of children at risk living in the South East Asian region, where sex trafficking, poverty, lack of opportunity and poor mentorship are highly affected.
“It’s important for them to work with kids who are in need,” Hipp said. “They go into some of the slum communities to talk and educate the parents or families on what really happens when you sale your daughter or son to hopefully give them a better life.”
Hipp said families hope to better their children’s lives believe in the program, and will allow their children to go with the staff members of ARK International. Children that are a part of the program will receive training exercises and teaching on Saturdays.
According to ARK Internationals webpage, the international body is founded on biblically based principles and they will uphold their Christian identity while remaining sensitive to the beliefs and backgrounds of those they collaborate with.
The international body’s mission is to impact the lives of underprivileged youth through intentional encouragement, discipleship, and mentorship in order to positively influence their future.
“Ark International works specifically for children’s justice, children at risk and restoring them to their place in the world or their dignity and also giving them a way to hear the gospel,” Hipp said.”
Hipp also said that the international program works with kids and adults who have been in the sex trade industry, by giving them counseling and showing them that they aren’t who they were in the past.
“They’re not the mistakes they’ve made or the injustice that has been rolled upon them,” she said. “They can be restored and God can love them the way their fathers and families haven’t, so that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to work alongside of ARK International and that is a part of the mission.”
According to ARK International, 150 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 are engaged in child labor, work in horrendous circumstances, and are forced into debt, bondage or other forms of slavery, prostitution, pornography, armed conflict or other illicit activities. 1.2 million children were trafficked each year into sex trade.
Leslie Hipp and her family are departing Memphis for Bangkok on Jan. 9. Hipp said the family will also be doing work in Cambodia and possibly in India as well. “But we will be there for approximately 6 months,” she said. “Then we will land back state side on July 7.”
Hipp has been married to her husband, Peter, for a little over 2 years. Together the couple have a son named Henry, who is now 18 months old.
When asked how she felt about raising baby Henry in Thailand for 6 months, Hipp said that she thinks it would be cool to teach their child about different cultures, learning to be bilingual and showing him that life isn’t as easy as it is in America in other countries.
“But I think what we’re really teaching our son is to be obedient to God,” she said. “When God calls us to do something, we have to do it. Obedience is what we’re trying to show him if anything else.”
