Mae Sot Trip

September 3-6, 2009

Last weekend, our family was able to visit some of the Karen people living in Thailand near the Burmese border. The Karen are a persecuted people group (you can search this to find out more information). We went with a group of people from our church here, Evangelical Church of Bangkok. This is a new outreach for them, only their 3rd trip there. Fifteen of us left Bangkok on a Thursday evening, and four more joined us later. We got to our hotel near 2 am. and were up and ready to leave at 8:30am. The main outreach is done at Ah Yone OO school. We made bead bracelets, necklaces, sang songs, painted T-shirts, and made little "Hungry Caterpillar" books. The Henry kids loved playing with the Burmese children. Their language is not Thai, but the middle age children know some, and the older know some English. Kids can have a great time rolling down the sandpile without verbal communication! This picture has Zeke and Micah with some kids they played with. Jiji with his hand up is on one side of Zeke and his twin sister Lala is on Zeke's other side. The girl in yellow behind Zeke is their older sister. Their mom is in the background. I do not know many of the children's names. I was just getting down a few common Thai nicknames (which are often one syllable.) Most of these kiddos names are 3 syllables, tough for a visual learner.

On the second day (Saturday) at the school, it was a little like a carnival. Nathan is showing kids how to make different types of paper airplanes. Leann, who organized all the crafts, did face painting. We had balloons, a parachute, and stations set up for siblings and parents to make some of the things we had made the day before.
Our fearless leader, Nate, ordered 200 meals for lunch. We had so many people join in the fun, we ran out! That is a good problem to have!The school is in the middle of a sugar cane field. You can't see a single house from the school, I was amazed at the number of people that were there. ECB has built a second building for the school, and this time we needed to pour a concrete floor. This builing is probably 20 by 40 (a guess), so they decided to start Saturday afternoon. About half the group stayed and worked in the dark with flashlights and one flourescent light to finish the job. Good work!

Here I am at the edge of a newly built playground for the children. Up until about a month ago, the children had an open field and a log to play on. Did I mention there were 86 children at the school on Friday? We enjoyed joining in the play on their new playground.

This is Etika (I am guessing on correct letters - their alphabet is a little -ok completely - different than ours.) E(TEE)ka is 20 and has a younger sister who is 9. They live in a little room at the school. She teaches the kindergarten class - about 20 very well behaved children. She knows some English which she learned at this school. She also has a 5 year old brother, but I didn't understand where he lives. She is a beautiful young women and really enjoyed Micah. She would come up and say, Where's Micah? We would go and look for him. She and her sister along with 16 others came to Mangalar Myanmar Church for the very first time Sunday.

At church we all sang at the same time in Burmese, Thai, and English. I was bursting with joy that Etika got to hear the gospel and how much God loves her. Most of the families are Buddhist, but the English teacher at the school is also the pastor's wife. Anya, served as our translator, some at the school and also at church. There were 3 children (I think) at the school from Christian families. Most or all of the rest are Buddhist. Please pray that God will use ECB to touch these people. Pray for Nathan, the leader, and Leann, who sets up the crafts - with a theme and thinks about practical items as well as skills (such as fine motor) for these children to use as they make the crafts. Also, Ferdinand has gone on all three trips and works and plays with the children. Pray that God would sustain their strength and continue to fan the flame in their lives!

This is one of my favorite pictures. Chuck is surrounded by ten kids. They are trying on his sunglasses, which is difficult to see because they love to give the Victory sign in front of their face. The girl on the far left in orange is named Ap-el-o. She has been going to church for awhile and knew her memory work well. The girl snuggled next to Chuck is Kaykaywin. She has the most adorable dimples and a great big smile. She loves to play and draw. She is 7 and does not speak. She can hear and make some noises. She captured my heart. I really appreciated seeing her mom? make a necklace and put it on her lovingly.

I feel like I am leaving out so much that happened in our 3 days there. Maybe my family will fill in other details. God is using ECB to show Christ to the world. What a joy that we got to join with ECB and do God stuff. It was big and amazing to watch Him at work.