I would forfeit my privilege for you.

Yesterday afternoon I had one of those shocking-never-forget-it kind of experiences.

I was invited to go to the Mae Sot city dump with Compasio, an NGO whose office is directly across the road from ours. The dump is one of the regular locations of their weekly ministries, giving simple medical attention where needed, building relationship with the 50+ families living there, and playing with the kids among the heaps of garbage they call home.

As we drove towards the mountains of waste and evidence of over consumption, it took everything in me not to burst into tears or throw up with disgust. On the way we stopped to pick up barefoot kids with greasy hair, dirty mismatched clothes, and hands and feet blackened from playing in decomposing trash. They were thrilled to sit with us on mats to colour pages torn out of colouring books with crayons that were melting in the nearing 40C weather.

After only spending about an hour here my throat and lungs stung from the stench. This is a life that many children here were born into. They have never known what clean air tastes like.

One of the migrant schools that Imagine Thailand is building a relationship with is located a few minutes walk from this neighbourhood (if you can even call it that) that consists of Burmese migrant people. It seems that after fleeing their home country they immediately settled in the dump, some families having lived there for nearly 10 years now, perhaps longer. I learned that these families have no desire to move despite the dirty water they drink, despite the sickness that plagues their children from rolling around in garbage all day long, despite the clothing and food that they live without. Their reasoning? They are safe there. The dump, being a dirty out-of-sight-out-of-mind place, is not somewhere that Thai police spend their efforts. This means the illegal immigrants living there are safe from the potential of being arrested unlike other Burmese refugees living illegally throughout this city. The dump people will never have to bribe an officer with money they do not have in exchange for the safety of their families. They will never have to continue in the running from oppression that is known as the lifestyle of migration.

But just because they are content to live in the waste of other people (and their own), doesn't mean that we, as the Church, should be content with their contentment. God is not content with this. He has not settled in hopelessness for His children like they have; like we have. There is more beyond the confines of mountain high (literally) piles of garbage for these people. There is hope. There is justice. There is freedom.

The question is how can we as believers walk with them towards these things? towards life?

There is more.

What to pray for...
Consistent healthcare for these families.
Access to clean water.
Hope to penetrate this impossible situation.
Jesus to be shown and seen among these people.