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Mercy's Heroes: The Fight for Human Dignity in the Bangkok Slums
In Mercy's Heroes, a Vietnam veteran battling with PTSD turns from the business world to life as a volunteer, helping to rescue and protect street kids in Bangkok's biggest slum.
Here Tom Crowley details the children's efforts to survive abuse and the struggle for dignity waged by the poorest of families. Interwoven throughout, the author's combat experiences and pain highlight the question of how to find personal reconciliation amid the struggles of abused children in the slums. In his efforts to help others, he gains a spiritual understanding worth much more than his financial loss. At the same time, he learns, "You must consign the failures to the burden the angels can carry and let go of the guilt."
This story will resonate with all those who want to gain a deeper insight into social work at the street level. The successes are to be celebrated-the losses mourned. Mercy's Heroes portrays the healing that is to be found in helping others.
Here Tom Crowley details the children's efforts to survive abuse and the struggle for dignity waged by the poorest of families. Interwoven throughout, the author's combat experiences and pain highlight the question of how to find personal reconciliation amid the struggles of abused children in the slums. In his efforts to help others, he gains a spiritual understanding worth much more than his financial loss. At the same time, he learns, "You must consign the failures to the burden the angels can carry and let go of the guilt."
This story will resonate with all those who want to gain a deeper insight into social work at the street level. The successes are to be celebrated-the losses mourned. Mercy's Heroes portrays the healing that is to be found in helping others.
227 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 7, 2021
10 people want to read
About the author
Tom Crowley
15 books3 followersTom Crowley graduated from Marquette and Johns Hopkins Universities. He served as an infantry officer in the Vietnam War where he was wounded and decorated for his service.
He worked in Asia as a Foreign Service Officer and with GE spending time in every country in north east and south east Asia. Retired in Bangkok he worked for fourteen years as a full time volunteer with the Mercy Centre, an NGO that helps protect and educate street kids. Tom’s passion is playing pool and, when not otherwise busy, he will be found along side a pool table near his home in Kensington, Maryland.
Tom's latest book is "Mercy's Heroes" telling the story of the herioc children and staff he worked with at the Mercy Centre in Bangkok.
Tom is also the author of non-fiction work “Bangkok Pool Blues”, and the Matt Chance adventures “Viper’s Tail” and “Murder in the Slaughterhouse”. "Murder in the Slaughterhouse" received a Bronze medal award from the Military Writer's Society of America in 2015. His Vietnam memoir is “Shrapnel Wounds.” His latest magazine article (Oct 2017, World War II Quarterly) is Merrill's Marauders in Burma.
His author’s page is at www.facebook.com\tomcrowleybooks
He worked in Asia as a Foreign Service Officer and with GE spending time in every country in north east and south east Asia. Retired in Bangkok he worked for fourteen years as a full time volunteer with the Mercy Centre, an NGO that helps protect and educate street kids. Tom’s passion is playing pool and, when not otherwise busy, he will be found along side a pool table near his home in Kensington, Maryland.
Tom's latest book is "Mercy's Heroes" telling the story of the herioc children and staff he worked with at the Mercy Centre in Bangkok.
Tom is also the author of non-fiction work “Bangkok Pool Blues”, and the Matt Chance adventures “Viper’s Tail” and “Murder in the Slaughterhouse”. "Murder in the Slaughterhouse" received a Bronze medal award from the Military Writer's Society of America in 2015. His Vietnam memoir is “Shrapnel Wounds.” His latest magazine article (Oct 2017, World War II Quarterly) is Merrill's Marauders in Burma.
His author’s page is at www.facebook.com\tomcrowleybooks
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March 21, 2022MWSA Review
Tom Crowley’s Mercy’s Heroes tells the story of a charity that operates in the slums of Bangkok, Thailand. To this day, this charity works with needy children by providing schooling and medical attention in a supportive atmosphere of caring and safety. Its three main programs are: the Mercy Home, the Mercy Schools, and the Mercy Street Kids Outreach.
The author focuses on the founders, staff, children, and volunteers who work at Mercy. These are the heroes he refers to in his title. From background information regarding the founding, funding, and operations of Mercy to anecdotal vignettes of specific children, he exposes the abject poverty of the slums, the hope Mercy offers, and the struggles and triumphs of both staff and children.
Interspersed with the activities of Mercy, Tom Crowley reveals some of his military experiences in Vietnam in the 1960s, before Mercy existed. From the vantage point of an infantry officer who was in combat and wounded, the author offers an assessment of the Vietnam War, and it is one many would agree with. Perhaps his Vietnam experience planted the initial seed for the volunteer work he embraced in Southeast Asia many years later.
Mr. Crowley takes the reader along on his description of the slums, as well as the organization and mission of Mercy. As an impactful volunteer, his long-term commitment to this unpaid work is evident throughout this book. He found ways to get to know many of the children, directly help them with their needs, and assist the charity’s administration in securing funds. Both the teamwork skills he learned in Vietnam and his business experience came into play many times during his work at Mercy.
While Tom Crowley extols the dedication and success of everyone associated with Mercy, he is humble and does not name himself as a Mercy hero, yet he surely is one.
Mercy's Heroes is an engaging though unsettling look at the have-nots and those who want to help them build hopeful lives. It’s not the tourist’s view of Bangkok. If you are looking for charitable organizations to park some of your money, Mercy should be on your list.
Review by Pat Walkow (March 2022)
Tom Crowley’s Mercy’s Heroes tells the story of a charity that operates in the slums of Bangkok, Thailand. To this day, this charity works with needy children by providing schooling and medical attention in a supportive atmosphere of caring and safety. Its three main programs are: the Mercy Home, the Mercy Schools, and the Mercy Street Kids Outreach.
The author focuses on the founders, staff, children, and volunteers who work at Mercy. These are the heroes he refers to in his title. From background information regarding the founding, funding, and operations of Mercy to anecdotal vignettes of specific children, he exposes the abject poverty of the slums, the hope Mercy offers, and the struggles and triumphs of both staff and children.
Interspersed with the activities of Mercy, Tom Crowley reveals some of his military experiences in Vietnam in the 1960s, before Mercy existed. From the vantage point of an infantry officer who was in combat and wounded, the author offers an assessment of the Vietnam War, and it is one many would agree with. Perhaps his Vietnam experience planted the initial seed for the volunteer work he embraced in Southeast Asia many years later.
Mr. Crowley takes the reader along on his description of the slums, as well as the organization and mission of Mercy. As an impactful volunteer, his long-term commitment to this unpaid work is evident throughout this book. He found ways to get to know many of the children, directly help them with their needs, and assist the charity’s administration in securing funds. Both the teamwork skills he learned in Vietnam and his business experience came into play many times during his work at Mercy.
While Tom Crowley extols the dedication and success of everyone associated with Mercy, he is humble and does not name himself as a Mercy hero, yet he surely is one.
Mercy's Heroes is an engaging though unsettling look at the have-nots and those who want to help them build hopeful lives. It’s not the tourist’s view of Bangkok. If you are looking for charitable organizations to park some of your money, Mercy should be on your list.
Review by Pat Walkow (March 2022)
December 23, 2022
This intertwined memoir tells the author’s story of his service as a young US Army officer during the Vietnam War and service, decades later, as a volunteer with Mercy Centre in Bangkok. The book is structured as a series of vignettes, each of which could plausibly stand alone as a personal essay, which makes the book easy to read in short sessions.
The Vietnam stories illustrate the horrors of war, the irrationality of military leadership, and the randomness of death. The Bangkok stories focus on children from the slum of Klong Toey who are taken in, housed, fed, schooled, given medical care, and loved by the staff Mercy Centre.
Although the book serves in part as a vehicle to garner emotional and financial support for the work of Mercy Centre, the larger story of how one man finds (and sometimes fails to find) meaning and love in an often cruel and senseless world is well worth reading.
The Vietnam stories illustrate the horrors of war, the irrationality of military leadership, and the randomness of death. The Bangkok stories focus on children from the slum of Klong Toey who are taken in, housed, fed, schooled, given medical care, and loved by the staff Mercy Centre.
Although the book serves in part as a vehicle to garner emotional and financial support for the work of Mercy Centre, the larger story of how one man finds (and sometimes fails to find) meaning and love in an often cruel and senseless world is well worth reading.
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May 2, 2022MU ‘71
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews