My New (Temporary) Home!

I've been in Mae Sot now for over a week, and I must say, this place feels more like home than Bangkok. I'm not sure if it's the feeling of family that is encouraged and sustained among the Imagine Thailand team, or the quiet stillness of the city in the evening, or the familiar smells and places, but since the moment I set foot here last Tuesday I have felt a peace about transplanting my life here.

I've been working with my supervisors, Dave & Lorelie Hanson and Li-Mei, on getting a more concrete weekly schedule. Here is a quick glimpse into an average week: teaching English at Thai, Karen & Burmese schools (3 schools, 7 classes, and more to come), develop a year's Sunday School curriculum to be implemented immediately, start up an international youth group available for the missionary kids in the area, homeschool/tutor the lovely Hanson girls, Courtney (15), Meghan (13), and Cami (10), work on prep projects for the short term teams coming in March, and accompany the team on random migrant school assessments and water filtration installation/maintenance... And any other intern worthy task that needs to be done at the office! I am kept busy, that's for sure.

During "off" hours (though the staff here barely take any time off) I spend a lot of time at the Imagine Thailand Mission House, the house where the Hanson's currently reside. We eat together, watch movies, dream together,have church, talk about work, share life and hang out at this house quite often.

Beside this house there is a rice field. The land there is dry now, burned for the season. On the other side of this rice field there is a small barn and a couple of wooden cubicle type enclosures raised about two feet off the ground. Along with a few goats, a couple cows, a bull and a calf there are two families currently residing in this mudded area; they are without electricity, without water.

I went a few days ago with Dave & Cami to visit this family, a visit that is starting to become routine. We trekked across the dry ground to the barn, through the mud, past the three day old goats, past the man praying the evening namaz, and walked into the raw and uncensored lives of our new friends. The wife drags her right foot around with crutches, a paralysis that she has lived with since contracting polio at age 5. The husband works a few days a week welding to support his two sons and young niece. They are refugees from Burma, new to Thailand in the last 4 months. She has a university degree in Mathematics, grew up in a Christian family. He is uneducated, a labourer, a Muslim background. They named their sons James and Chris after James Bond and Cristiano Ronaldo.

It is with great pain behind her eyes that comes from the depths of her soul that this woman expresses her wish to give her kids a life of education, a life with stability and security, a life in an English speaking country... And it is through the pain of this conversation with awkward laughter to lighten the mood that she explains that her family has "no chance."

This family lives a 90 second walk from the Imagine Thailand Mission House; a 10 minute walk from the office where I live. Their story is not an unlikely or uncommon one.

Thankfully, through Imagine Thailand and the compassion and love of Christ with which my supervisors live, we have been working to improve our relationship with this family; working to provide for the basic needs that seem extraordinary in their eyes. It is through these moments, these personal conversations, that I am reminded about the basest reasons my heart has led me to this missional life - love God, and love people. I am enthralled at the simplicity of this; the simplicity of providing shoes for someone, the simplicity of sharing a water filtration system, the simplicity of raising money to give adequate healthcare needs, like providing a deaf child with a hearing aid, or an operation that costs $400 CAD to heal a paralyzed leg.

Love God, and love people. It's that simple.

Here are some pics of my time here so far - Bangkok, New Blood Karen school, and Hlee Bee nursery class, a Burmese school I teach at. More to come...!



Lumphini Park in BKK





Down the street from the IT office in BKK




Courtney, Cami & Meghan with our new friends at New Blood




Hwo Hwo Mee




Chin Chin




Day 1 of teaching at Hlee Bee

What to pray for...
Pray for a Thai language teacher to come into my life!
Pray that I will give teaching the time I should to plan, prepare, and better show God's love.
Pray that the Imagine Thailand staff who do not yet know Christ will continue to respond to God's pursuit.
Pray for the refugees and displaced people groups of Burma, both internally and externally.
Pray for peace and freedom in Burma.

Thank you for your commitment and faithfulness to my life, to this ministry, and to our Father.