Back from Mae Sot, back to Mae Sot!

Posted on July 15, 2006
Filed Under Mae Sot |

Okay, so its taken a week to get this down, but its been a busy few days! I’m going to post my full trip journal in a little while, but right now my notes are all over the place and will take a little while to get into order. In the meantime, here’s a short summary:

I got back to Hong Kong late on Saturday after 8 days on the Thai-Burma border. We were a small team of four, but had a busy schedule. On most days, Jane, our guide from Partner’s Mae Sot office would arrive to pick us up while we were still having breakfast – although sometimes that was because the service at the Canadian restaurant was rather slow.

We did a lot of children and youth ministry, visited nursery schools, junior schools, a Bible school and spent time with a church youth group in Mae La refugee camp. We also visited two children’s hostels, one for children from the Wa ethnic minority and one for Karen kids.

We also bought waterproof ponchos in a variety of fashionable colours and shopped for Karen handicraft during a visit to Lydia Tamlawah’s home. Oh, and had lots of really good Thai food, not to mention Hill tribe coffee from the Canadian restaurant.

So, what was the point of all this?

I wanted the team to have a similar experience to the one I had last year on the CSW trip, to understand the plight of the Karen, to share my heart for these people and their struggle.

A day spent in Mae La was enough to convince everyone that the Karen have it tough and need our prayers and support. But, I worry that the full extent of the problem and the nature of the Karen’s situation was not fully conveyed.

Even after a week on the border, I got the impression that the rest of the team still did not fully comprehend how bad things are in Karen state, or understand that no matter how hard life in the border camps may seem, the refugees are in fact the lucky ones!

In recent months, over 18,000 people have been displaced by the latest Burmese army offensive in Karen State, which is still ongoing, and threatening to force thousands more from their homes. Compared to these people, the refugees have it pretty good, security, food and shelter.

Unfortunately, talking to refugees and hearing their stories was difficult, due to a shortage of able translators. It might also have helped to cross over the border and talk to villagers inside Burma.

Something to think about next time maybe? That is if there is a next time. The big revelation I got while on the trip is that I need to be in Thailand full-time.

God has called me to help these people and I can do that best on the border. I’m still waiting to hear about one job I’ve applied for and am looking into a couple of voluntary possibilities.

But, I won’t be the new CSW Hong Kong representative on the Thai-Burma border. Others have already expressed an interest in that position and been turned down. In fact, someone even prepared a proposal for the CSW board, which got turned down!