The move followed two visits by the family to Thailand in 1996 and 2000.
However, their focus soon turned to the youth, who were leaving the highlands and drifting south to Chiang Mai, growing up uneducated and being lured into illicit drug use.
Some village girls were at risk of being sold into prostitution because of poverty, deception or the drug addiction of relatives.
The couple has been working with the hill tribes for the past five or six years providing 62 children with ongoing care, both spiritual and practical.
With the assistance of pastors and church leaders they have established several buildings at Mae Chaem Tribal Youth Centre, not far from Chiang Mai, to give the children a future.
They also help visitors coming into the area meet the people and teach them about religion.
Mr and Mrs Potter now have educationalists to take the classes and they are concentrating on the buildings and the general running of the facility.
Funding for the project comes from all over the world through the Presbyterian Church World Outreach programme, with a good deal sent from New Zealand.
Teams of volunteers from Otago meet their own travel costs to journey to Thailand to work each year.
This year a team of 10, made up of four from Balfour, five from Geraldine and block-layer Ben Winstanley (17), from Cromwell, will fly to Thailand in October to build a 200m long 2m high concrete block wall around the Mae Chaem compound.
Mr and Mrs Potter's son Bevan and daughter Stacey have returned to New Zealand to study but their younger daughter, Lisa, is still living with them in Thailand.
The family will be reunited early next year when the Potters return home on leave for a few months.
