I am in the Mae La Karen Refugee camp

Well praise God I have finally made to the camp, named Mae La (pop. 50,172, it is the largest camp (total pop. of refugees in all the camps is 130,786)), only 10 days after I set out on my journey on New Years Day. I got here yesterday afternoon (Jan 11) at about 1:15 pm, and they were already in the middle of a meeting, so they made me go all the way up to the front of +200 people to sit on the stage with the other people who help out at the school. The name of the school is Kawloothei Karen Baptist Bible School and College (KKBBSC). Of course the fun didn't end there, because about a half an hour later, while I am still on the stage, a few of the students brought up Karen tribal shirts and wanted to honour their guest with these shirts so they made me put it on and wear it front of everyone. Oh and by the way, the day before a pastor of the Karen, pastor Robert, asked me, and I said yes, if I wanted to be an English teacher, to the Karen directors in the evening, and at the Bible school, during the day. Yes I said ENGLISH and TEACHER together. Oh and they wanted my curriculum the next day, when I haven't even seen my students yet or know how much English they know already; so all I have to say is thank you God (II Cor 12:9).

Well it is my second day in the camp (Jan 12), and I slept over last night. The nice thing is, the school, which is sponsor by the worldwide Baptist church, has an 'understanding' with the local Thai authority, and the Thai's kinda turn a blind eye to what goes on here. So that means that foriegn people are allowed to stay at the school indefinitely (even over night), as long as they have valid visas; but for the other foreigners, they have to leave by 3:00pm, and can't come back until 8:00am the next day. So no doctors without borders and other NGO's (non-government organizations) after 3:00. Not even the UN is allowed after 3:00 unless they are Thai. So yeah I think that it would be God that has blessed this place with such a privilege, so praise His holy name, for His generosity and His provision.

Today, my second day here, the classes were suppose to start, and I was suppose to start teaching too; except only half the students showed up so they postponed it till Monday. I still don't know whether or not I will be teacher the leaders of the camp tonight, and I have to be there in an hour an half of me writing this, so we will see. Well, after they had a half an hour service, which included a mini-teaching, worship and prayer, I went with another teacher from the school, Lae Htee (pronounced law-tee) into the camp to get some supplies for my class. Afterwards, we went to his house for lunch, and then when we were walking back to the school, I was telling him how I wanted to help out people if I could. So he suggested that we and see some people that he knew really needed help. The first place that we went to was the home of one of the camps 242 sercurity guards (they are Karen, and act like a police force) for the whole 50,172 people. He has a wife and 5 kids and another on the way. We wanted to see if they needed help with school cost (school is free, but then there is the fees and also extra money for special days, or pinics), with their kids. They said that their oldest son was 15, but he was handicapped, and needed help walking, but that the parents couldn't get him to school everyday, so he couldn't go. The next son was 10, but he really didn't like school, so they didn't want to pay for the school for him. The next son was 6, but he had lung problems, so they didn't want to send him to school, because he apparently has increased problems, when he sits for long periods of time (something about getting to cold). The next in line is a 4 yr old daughter, and they said that she could go to school, so I told them that I would help out with her. Lae Htee said that it cost about 1500 baht to send one of them to school for one year, which is between $45-50 CAN. For a whole year! I make about 3x that in one day; man are we blessed in North America or what! Praise God for that! The next place that we went was the home of a 16 or 17 year old girl, who wanted to further her studies, but her parents weren't going to be able to afford her going to school for longer. Here the grades are called standards and there are only 10 standards till graduation, then it is post secondary. Well this girl is in standard 10, and will graduate in March, so she will finish high school. The only thing is, that she wants to get her teaching certificate, so that she can actually make some money from her education (Yeah I know that I can't remember any of their names, I would like to see you do better). It also is only about 1500 baht for the extras, so only another $50 CAN. So after this I decided to pray and ask God what He wants me to do with my money, and I will wait and see what happens. Also they both don't need the money until about mid to late April, so that is why I didn't just give them the money. There is a problem with this whole plan though, as Lae Htee informed me, and that is that you can't just give the money to the people, and especially not just yet, because most people are really bad at managing their money. So lets say I gave it to the security guard and his wife, they would probaly blow the 1500 baht in about a week, maybe two. And in the other family it would probably last till the end of March, but still not be used for any schooling. So as a result of this, we needed to find some one who would trustworthy enough not to spend the money but also willing to manage it, and Lae Htee knew just the person, the 4 yr old girl's teacher. We went and talked to her and she said that she would be willing to not only manage the money, but also take the girl to the market to buy things for school. After that we came back to the school, and here I am writing the blog. Well that's all for now, I hope I didn't write your ear off, and may the Lord our God bless you all abundantly, as you continue to serve Him (and even if you don't).

Pictures (top to bottom): A sign out side the school; the Karen Refugee Committee office in Mae Sot (the nearest decent sized town); an artsy fartsy pic of Pastor Robert (stupid camera phone); my living quarters (it consists of a blanket on the ground, a blanket and for me to use and a mosquito net); the camp backdrop (sorry about the bad pic, I still hadn't figured out the camera yet, or more just that I forgot that it had differnt settings); people at a local store (Lae Htee is standing at the left); people in the stream that divides Zone B and Zone C of the camp (there are only 3 zones and Zone A would be the other one, and I am staying Zone C); the bridge the crosses the stream (I got nothin'); Lae Htee in the second person that we went to help's house); the 16 or 17 yr old girl that we are going to help (yeah I for got to get her name).