Thailand!!

Hello everyone! I am safe and sound here in Mae Sot Thailand. We have spent the last week and a half in two neighbouring Karen villages about 100 km north of here near Mae U-su. It`s been eye opening to live among these people and kind of a wild experience to be able to look across the river into Burma where fighting between the Burmese National Army and the Karen National Union had taken place just three months before. I`ve lived, slept, ate, worked, and played with these incredible people and they have taken our team in most hospitably.

However I will start from the beginning. We arrived in Bangkok a little after sunset almost two weeks ago. It was kind of a crazy weather switch from 32 F with no humidity to 85 F at night with 90% humidity hehe. I kind of felt like I was at home back in Texas on late august afternoon by the beach. We met Boy our translator while we were in Bangkok and headed for the truck. The transportation here is insane. Everyone has a moped, and taxis are trucks with benches in the back and a couple bars to hold on. It is soo much fun! So we all loaded up the truck and enjoyed the ride to the YWAM base. It was kind of funny because every car that came up behind us had smiling, laughing and waving people in it when they realized that we were white foreigners.

I`ve never been in a city so big. Bangkok was overwhelmingly crowded, noisy, and dusty roads. The inner city has a population of 9 million with the whole metropolitan area of 20 million. After relaxing at the YWAM base for a day we headed into the city for a prayer walk and to see the various temples, shrines and soo many Buddhas. At one point we were taking the sky train through the center of the city and it felt like I was walking through a forest of High-rises. I`ve never seen so many tall buildings before in my life. The sky train in itself is a feat with three trains stacked up on top of each other whisking you away to different parts of the city. The highways are also interesting. Usually 5 lanes each way with a skyway (another highway) as a median between the two. Most people die in moped accidents. Also the prices here are intensely cheap. In fact you can rent a moped for 1 day for about 1.50 Dollars.

Anyways our time in Bangkok was very nice! The exploration of the inner city and prayer walk was very cool! Every morning we had fresh mango for breakfast :) The fruit here is delicious! And every lunch and dinner we eat out. Mhmmm! Good tea, with chicken and cashew or sweet and sour chicken. So much rice!

We then hopped on a night bus here into Mae Sot. We arrived at 4 in the morning and met our Karen translator and friends Gugu and Moses. :) Ahh they are seriously two of the coolest people ever! We got a ride to one of their friends house and slept there for a few hours before we hopped in the truck and headed North to the first village.

First perhaps I should mention our sleeping conditions. It`s very traditional for the Karen to only sleep on a thin straw mat on the ground. When I heard this I imagined a bag stuffed with fluffy straw and a comfy sleeping on hay kind of an experience. However what they meant was a thin woven straw that could be rolled up much like a yoga mat or something. It was very fun experience.

Driving through the Thai countryside was very interesting and lots of fun! We saw lots of farm land and lots of little villages. After a while we started coming into the mountains. The mountains are very steep and interesting shapes, but not very tall. As we drove through the valleys we began to see alot of dry rice fields with their stepped areas. This is where we started to see the heart of the Karen refugees. We drove by the largest refugee camp which was not a village but more of a city. It was about a square kilometer in size with a population of 60 thousand Karen. There were so many bamboo huts squashed up near each other. Behind the camp you could see tall mountains lurking up on the Burmese side.

We stopped here for a few minutes and picked up Sunshine our third translator for our Swedish photographer friend who joined us in the village for a school project she was finishing. It was kind of random because we didn`t know he was going to join us, and all of the sudden he jumped in the back of the truck with us. We were all, "Hi! What`s your name?" It was pretty funny. When we arrived in the small village it was an experience I`ll never forget.

We bounced down a rocky dirt road for a couple minutes, rounded a bend and saw the first hut. As we passed it two little smiling kids waved at us from behind a bamboo fence. Beside the road two pigs were snarling at each other, which was kind of humorous to watch. Guess you had to be there.... As we came into the heart of the village there was several people flocking to the road to wave at us. It was, really heart warming. I can`t really describe it with words.

My time in the village is kind of dream like to remember. There were lots of chickens, pigs/piglets, dogs and naked children. It was peaceful, quiet and surreal. Every evening I took a bath in the river that ran through the village. The water was cool, and the sun was hot. Ahh it was so nice! There was a weird mix between modesty and village life living. Thankfully I had bought the village clothing :) It`s actually really cool! Everybody here wears skirts :) It`s actually not a skirt but towel thing that`s sowed together making a giant skirt hoop thing. I realize now that I`m very bad at describing physical items. Anyways... all of the women would wear this as they showered in the river whereas the men could shower in their shorts and only used it as a changing device. Lots of fun... :) I have quite a few funny experiences trying to get used to changing with one of these :p

Every day we played with the children and did some practical work. While we were there we dug a new well and helped them clear the hillside for new rice fields. It`s the dry season over here, so everything is pretty dusty and not as green as you would expect. At the moment everyone is getting ready for the rainy season and preparing the fields for rice planting. The sad thing is, the Karen people have no land of their own per say. However they still have to plant rice to farm just so they can survive. So as they clear the trees to make room for farm space the Thai conservationists freak out. It really sucks actually. The Thai authorities have a good point, you can`t destroy all of the rain forests, but at the same time the Karen don`t really have any other options.

So when we went to the rice fields we worked in an area that looked like Morodor. It was a mix between LOTR and Lost :p All of the guys had alot of fun :) However my favorite time in the village was every evening when we would go house visiting. After the sun had gone down and we had all had dinner we would go throughout the village in teams to just talk with the village people. They would invite us into their houses and we would talk by candle light. It was so nice to hear their stories and ask them questions about their life back in Burma and their new life here in Thailand. God really gave me a heart for these people and I can`t tell you how sad I am to leave them.

And ofcourse, I can`t forget to write about our little disciple Tuwapo. He was one of the bravest and coolest kids ever! He also climbed the steps to our bamboo house and hung out with us as we ate, talked or played the guitar. Such a great kid! I miss him alot! All of the kids here were soo cute and fun to play with! I learned alot of Karen from them :) With the older kids closer to my age we played Kaneball with. Woah! This is a fun sport! It`s basically volleyball except you use everything but your hands to get the ball over the net. Since I`m so bad at hacky sack, I didn`t think it would be possible for me to play, however I got pretty good!

All in all, I really enjoyed my time there! I really want to come back here one day and stay here a much longer time living among these people. I also tried ant eggs here. They weren`t bad... pretty tasty :) Oooh and Ice Salads... Mhm very good! For all you bubble tea drinkers out there, try to rap your mind around this. It`s the closest thing to a pangalactic gargleblaster that I`ve found. An Ice Salad is basically Strawberry tea with crushed ice mixed with bread, cookies, nuts and my personal favorite tapioca! :D Mhmm I thoroughly enjoyed trying this!! The rest of my team wasn`t as impressed :p At the end it gets a little sloppy and slushy.... But it`s very good!

After we left that village, we travelled a few kilometers to a nicer village with electricity where we had a youth camp at the church for 70 Karen teenagers. This was lots of fun! :D We had a great time of ministry, teaching and prayer with them. I really think God touched alot of their hearts! It was soo cool to pray for these young men who are searching after God and also want to help their people from the oppression of the Burmese government back in Burma. Many of these guys came alone to Thailand leaving their families back in Burma. As we were leaving several of the guys (who were my age) asked me when I was going to be back. I told them I didn`t know, but I hoped in six years when I`m through with University. That made them smile :)

Things are bad in Burma. Landmines are probably the number one danger to those still living in Karen villages in Burma. There are three factions. The Burmese National army, the Buddhist Karen Army and the Karen National Union. Sadly enough the Karen are actually fighting each other as well. The reason why is, when the Karen split up half of them (The Buddhist Karen Army) Surrendered to the Burmese. So now the BKA are being forced by the Burmese government to fight against their brothers the remaining Karen. Both of the factions landmine each others villages in and it`s very dangerous to travel anywhere. So that is the main reason why so many Karen seek a safe haven in Thailand. Yet even in Thailand the Karen Buddhist Army sneaks across the river to set fire to houses in the refugee camps. It is a major tragedy that is happening as I write this.

So I ask for prayer for these two nations, especially Burma. Burma has been a place on my heart since the beginning of DTS. Actually I felt God telling me that I was to work with these people and care for them, so when I found out I was going to Thailand specifically to Burmese Refugees I was so ecstatic! God has revealed so much of Himself these last two weeks I`m completely blown away :) Thank you all for continuing to pray for me and my team! But also pray for the fighting to end in Burma, and pray that the Karen will continue to come to know God intimately and trust in Him. As for me, I`m a little sick right now, and team Unity and focus on God`s voice is extremely important for us.

But as for what`s happening next, we will travel to Chang Mai on Wednesday :) We will encounter different challenges and new opportunities to share God`s word and love with the poeple there. In addition! We will be there during the water festival. For those of you that don`t know the water festival is the coolest idea in the world and we should do it back in the states. It`s basically three days where everybody in Thailand (especially in the north) have water fights all day long. You can`t walk down the streets without being drenched. Being a foreigner it will be extremely intense for us :p I wish I could take pictures but I`m afraid my camera will be ruined haha. Speaking of cameras I will hopefully update pictures of the village soon :)

Thank you all again for your prayers! You have no idea how much they help. God is constantly guiding us and speaking to us and revealing His heart to us. I miss you guys alot!

Love
-Sam


PS. You can read my Thailand Teams (and all the other outreach teams from my DTS to South Africa, Ethiopia, Columbia, and the Middle East) blog at http://ywamskien.wordpress.com/ .