🌟 Dream Builders
Dream Builders - A Christ-centered formation space where children discover purpose, dignity, and hope through worship, mentoring, and creative learning.
Dream Builders - Career Formation & Purpose Discovery for Children and Youth
Save One Another Foundation (SOAF) is actively serving children across Thailand through three core projects: Dream Builders, Light Within, Voices of Hope
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Pictured: A large group of children and youth stand and sit together inside a bright room at Hand to Hand Foundation during a Dream Builders session. They smile and gesture playfully, with staff and teachers standing among them. Behind the group is a program banner showing SOAF and Hand to Hand Foundation logos. The atmosphere reflects joy, safety, and community.
Children and youth of Dream Builders celebrating growth, joy, and God-given purpose together.
Photo credit: Photo: Save One Another Foundation (SOAF) / June Thewase
🖋️A Word from Dr. Gregg Tyler Milligan
The Dream Builders is a workshop of souls and skills: a place where children who have known loss, fear, or long silence are invited to reclaim vocation and identity as gifts from God. Here we teach hands and hearts together—art and craft, practical trades, role-play, and career shadowing—so that work is not merely a way to survive but a sacrament of calling.
Rooted in the truth that every life bears the image of God (Psalm 139, NKJV) and that redemption consecrates labor, Dream Builders fuses trauma-aware practice with apprenticeship and faithful mentorship. Christian professionals stand beside each child not as distant exemplars but as companion-laborers, modeling faith-filled work, steady testimony, and everyday holiness.
In 2025, we gathered young people to craft testimony, hone practical skills, and form one-to-one mentoring bonds — not to train bodies alone, but to restore dignity and re-write futures: suffering → meaning → restoration.
Our prayer is that each child will leave not only with hands ready for work but with a rooted sense of identity in Christ, standing in the promise that "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation" (2 Corinthians 5:17, NKJV), and equipped with concrete steps toward service and hope.
🕊️Program Overview
Purpose
To guide children and youth toward discovering their God-given identity, purpose, and vocation through worship, mentorship, biblical formation, career exploration, and creative hands-on learning.
Theological Anchor (NKJV)
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works…”
— Ephesians 2:10 (NKJV)
This program stands on the conviction that every child bears God’s design and is invited into a future filled with meaning, service, and hope.
Age Groups Served
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Primary program: Children & youth ages 8–19
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Early childhood group: Children ages 1–7 (safe, age-adapted worship & play)
Session Cadence (2025)
Total sessions in 2025: 19 sessions completed, Session 20 to be held on December 21, 2025 — Christmas of Hope
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Monthly formation sessions with integrated career exploration
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Separate activity blocks for age-appropriate learning
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Shared worship, games, and “Uncle Tyler Story Sharing” for all children together
Core Activities
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Christ-centered worship and Scripture reflection
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Small and large-group mentoring
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“Uncle Tyler Story Sharing”: testimonies of hope, identity, and new beginnings
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Career exploration, vocational imagination, and hands-on creative workshops
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Age-adapted activities (STEM, arts, teamwork, emotional skills, storytelling)
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Year-long formation toward purpose, confidence, and calling
🕯️2025 Highlights
Total Sessions: 19 completed + 1 upcoming (Christmas of Hope)
Location: Hand to Hand Foundation — Pattaya
Children Participating:
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30 children ages 8–19 (primary program)
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14 early childhood participants ages 1–7
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Total lives touched in 2025: 44 children
Notable Outcomes
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Marked increase in confidence among teens during group sharing and worship
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Children practiced new vocational skills: arts, public speaking, teamwork, service
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Younger children developed emotional literacy through creative play and guided storytelling
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Several youths began expressing dreams for future careers (teaching, cooking, design, music)
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Caregivers reported improved behavior, focus, and interpersonal connection
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“Uncle Tyler Story Sharing” strengthened identity formation and hope-based thinking
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Anticipation for Session 20 — Christmas of Hope — grew significantly among children
(All outcomes measured with trauma-aware indicators and in collaboration with caregivers and staff.)
📖Story of Testimony — “Mind”
Title: “Hope Returned to Me” — Mind, age 15
Consent: Published with trauma-aware written permission; no identifiable image used.
During a reflection moment after Session 12, Mind — a quiet girl who had endured severe abuse — spoke softly to a staff member. She said:
“I miss Uncle Tyler. His stories make me brave. When I feel like everything is dark, I remember what he said… if we turn back to God, hope comes again. I want to have a new life too.”
Throughout the year, Mind gradually moved from isolation to participation. She began joining worship, raising her hand during games, and sharing her dreams during the vocational activity. Her words showed a profound shift from despair toward identity, possibility, and belonging.
Editorial note: Details are intentionally simplified and de-identified to protect the child's safety and dignity in accordance with SOAF safeguarding standards.
📝How We Work
Dream Builders operates as a Christ-centered, trauma-aware formation program that honors each child's dignity, agency, and developmental stage. Every session begins with predictable rhythms—welcome, worship, Scripture (NKJV), and grounding activities that help establish emotional safety for children and youth across age groups. Worship, games, and “Uncle Tyler Story Sharing” bring all children together, building belonging and shared joy before age groups divide for tailored activities.
The 8–19 age group engages in mentoring, vocational imagination, and hands-on creative exploration. The 1–7 age group receives safe, age-appropriate formation through guided play, simple worship, and emotional-life storytelling. Participation is always voluntary; children are invited to share but never pressured.
Staff follow SOAF’s safeguarding and confidentiality standards, including trauma-responsive listening, consent protocols, referral pathways, and cooperation with caregivers and partner organizations. Testimonies, identifiable images, and recordings are published only with written, trauma-aware consent. All sensitive media is stored securely and accessed only by authorized SOAF personnel.
Our approach does not attempt to “fix” trauma but to companion children as they discover purpose, meaning, and hope in Christ. Formation unfolds slowly: curiosity → confidence → purpose → service. Volunteers and teachers hold Scripture gently so each child is guided toward calling with safety, joy, and dignity.