Yesterday afternoon we had the Discovery Tour over to the Hanson's for khao mu daang... red pork with rice, for all those who do not speak Thai.
Oh, wait - let me give you some context here.
For the last 2 days the Imagine Thailand Mae Sot team has been host to a donor tour group from Canada. These are people who are, either personally or corporately as a church body, investing in this organization and the minsitry here, and were interested in actually seeing those ministries up close and personal. They spent time in Bangkok, Mae Sot and are headed to Phuket & Takua Pa in the South next. It's less than a STM, but more than a group of tourists.
Through this group we were able to install a new water system (provided by Point Gray Community Church in Vancouver) and connect a Christian school in Saskatoon with a school in dire need of clean water in Mae Ramat. God is so good!
So anyway... We went to the Hanson's yesterday for lunch. Immediately following the meal, Dave & Lorelie had asked our Burmese/Karen staff to share a couple minutes about their stories. Now, understand that 2/3 are not yet saved, they do not know Jesus - but they are responding to God's leading and pursuit of their hearts. They each stood up and talked about their personal experiences with the situation in Burma.
Htwe Htwe spoke first. She is 27, has lived in Thailand for 6 years, was lucky enough to obtain a Burmese passport, studied science & nursing at a university in Bangkok, and was granted a Thai visa through Imagine Thailand. Her entire family still lives in Burma.
Day Mu is Thai-Karen and is 21. Her parents travelled across the border together, were married in Thailand and had all their children in this country. Day Mu does not have any documentation; she was raised in one of the poorest refugee camps on the border. She grew up without electricity and didn't use a computer until she was 18 (2007). She escaped refugee life through education. Her family will probably always be trapped with refugee status, none of them ever obtaining official identification, and therefore never being recognized by either the Burmese or Thai governments. Day Mu had to travel back to her camp last weekend to attend her grandmother's funeral. She was also back home over Christmas to be baptized.
Ley Sheh is 23, from Karen State in Burma, and speaks 4 languages - Karen, Burmese, Thai and English. He is the master interpreter. He came over with his family when he was just a year old and lived in a refugee camp where his family still lives. When he was 8 he left the camp (illegally) and was sent to live with priests who began teaching him the Bible in Thai. When he was 10 he started attending Thai school which is how he learned to speak the language. He lived outside of the camp for years (illegally, and without his family as a child) and moved back home to be with his family as a teenager. He learned Burmese in the camp schools when he was 16. Ley Sheh talked about living in a camp as a young child, watching the cold winters atop the mountains kill many, dysentary and sickness killing many more. He talked about his village being burned down when he was an infant, and about the first camp his family lived in also being burned down by Karen military.
He also talked about the Imagine Thailand team becoming his family here in Mae Sot.
And all the while I sat listening to these stories from the mouths of people I love - from the mouths of people I would call my friends - my heart broke and my mind heard the words in disbelief. These are people my age. While I was enjoying safety, and toys, and birthday parties these people were living as refugees in Thailand, without papers, illegally, because their own people have disowned them.
I took in every image they described. I digested each word from their mouths. And I could feel my heart swelling for each of them. I know that I love them more today than I did yesterday morning.
Pray for my new friends... For these people who are so quickly becoming my family.
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