from linds
day 1: Drove to Mae Sot which is a city right on the border ofThailand and Burma
day 2: Drove to Beung Klun which is a tiny village where the chief medic of Free Burma Rangers (the organization we've mainly been working with) (freeburmarangers.org) and his family lives. His name is Eliah and he has an incredible family. It was so cool. I have stories about that for sure. We slept in their house which basically has no walls, in mosquito nets that night. This was our first encounter with huge spiders and tuque. Its a lizard type thing but its huge and makes the coolest noise ever.
Day 3: Hiked To Lay Ton Ku with our group, eliah and his family and a couple other burmese people..... now when I say, we hiked to Lay ton ku.... i mean, this hike puts any other hike i've ever done to shame. we hiked for 6 hours with our backpacks over mountains and through rivers in the jungle of thailand. like not jungle cruise stuff at disneyland..this was legit jungle. We got to the village and found the house where we were staying (again, no walls, mosquito nets... we got so used to this) This was my second favorite part of the whole ten days...we had a worship service with the people there and they sang one of the songs we sing at UM but in Karen (their language). these were all Karen people, which is a burmese ethnic group. I'll explain all that when i get home. It was so cool to sit with these people and worship with them and encourage them and hear their stories. But this was the night that just totally blew my mind, cause it really just showed me how big God is. We flew for like 16 hours, drove about 10 and then hiked 6 hours into a random village on the border of Thailand and Burma to find people speaking an extremely foreign language but singing the same songs to the same God as us. It was amazing. The song is called Still and the words are:
"Hide me now, Under your wings.
Cover me within your mighty hands
When the oceans rise and thunders roar,
I will soar with you above the storm.
Father, You are king over the flood.
I will be still and know you are God Find rest my soul,
in Christ Along. Know his power, in quietness and trust"
We ended up learning this song in Karen and teaching it to other people. but i'll talk about that later
Day 4: We spent all day in Lay Ton Ku. We went and saw the medical clinic that Eliah has there. then we hiked to the top of a waterfall and then went swimming.Then we had more worship and fellowship time with the people of Lay ton ku (i konw there's so much i'm forgetting, but hopefully when i have pictures and stuff i can explain better)
Day 5: Hiked back to Beung Klun. It went faster on the way back. However...at first, we were only supposed to stay in Lay Ton Ku for only one night, but decided to say another night. So we had left a lot of our stuff in Beung Klun so we wouldn't have to hike and only took one change of close...basically, by this point, we were discusting and all smelt really bad cause we had only taken bucket showers and were wearing the same clothes we had hiked in before. haha We got back to Beung Klun right before dark and had some worship time with Eliah's family. this is the night we learned Still in Karen. There was a guy named Plothu who works for Partners who came with us and he was telling us his story of how he grew up in a refugee camp and how he came to FBR.
Day 6: Drove back to Mae Sot
Day 7: In the morning, we met with the President of the KNU (Karen National Union) which is actually a huge deal cause they're one of the main groups resisting the Burma Army. Then we drove to Mae La, the biggest refugee camp in Thailand. We stayed at a school there that is run by a pastor that one of the girls, Rachel, in our group knows. However, once again, the school had no walls and there were huge bugs. I'm not bothered by small bugs anymore after walking into the bathroom and seeing a millipede or a gigantic spider on the wall. That day, we walked around Mae La a little bit and then visited the handicapped hospital there. All of the men in there are blind (i think one guy has one eye) and most are missing limbs or otherwise handicapped as mostly a result of landmines. We got to hear a lot of their stories and then we sang for them. (I forgot to mention that tim, our leader, has basically decided to turn us into a little travelling choir and has us sing for basically everyone. Then we visited with Rachel's friend William and he told us his story.) Its really interesting to hear different people's story and hear what people's idea of a solution to all the problems would be and to see the contrast between people in that.
Day 8: My favorite day by far: We went back to the handicapped hospital in the morning and more of them were there. we heard more stories and prayed for them and sang for them and then they sang for us..... they dont have much to do in the refugee camps and none of them can see and you know how when one sense doesnt work, the other one's are enhanced? oh my goodness...they were amazing. 4 part harmony, perfectly blended.... incredible. we have video THEN!!! We did a kids program! We had a skit thing that we had done in Lay Ton Ku and Beung Klun (I fogot to mention that they have a small hostel/orphanage there that we visited) but this day we did a full on kid program.and guess what part i was in charge of??? The Kids Songs of course!! I have never had more fun doing kids songs. We Did, Makin Melodies, of course, which they picked up really quickly and loved. and then we taught them Every Move I Make and then we did Father Abraham which they knew in Karen and we did in English. it was so so so much fun. i have videos of that too. then we did our skit and made bracelets and then we played with them. These are all kids in the school and most of them dont have parents here cause sometimes parents in burma will send their kids to refugee camps to get some sort of education while they stay in burma. I loved playing frisbee and volleyball and soccer with these kids. I cant even tell you how much fun it was and how happy the kids were.
day 9: Drove back to Mae Sot and had the afternoon off
Day 10: had meetings in the morning with Partners and with TBBC (Thai Burma Border Consortium) which is the biggest NGO working in Refugee camps.The meetings have all been to learn more about the situation and see what is being done now and what we can do. Then we pray for the organizations. Then we drove to Mae Sairong which was like 4 hours away and we didn't get there till late evening (By the way, all these drives have been absolutely incredible. We're like driving through jungles and over mountains. its beautiful). at one point we stopped along the side of the road for a little rest and we were by a river and then found out we were across the river from burma (so we were like 50 yards from Burma)
Day 11(Today): We had meetings this morning with Karen Teachers Association, Karen Womans Association and two other organizations that I cant remember what they were. Then we finally drove back to Chiang Mai.
Its been so cool to get to pray with and encourage and bless so many people. But really, we're the one'se being blessed. If you guys get any time, check out whats going on with Aung San Suu Kyi. Its been really interesting to be following the burma politics while we've been here.
I know i'm forgetting so many things but i'll be able to give you more details when i get home. Please pray for our team. We're all getting really close, as there's only 12 of us. God is doing some crazy stuff and i'll for sure tell you more about that when i get home.
~lindsey
