UPDATE #5

Hello everyone,

Yesterday, Monday, was a day for disappointments.  We were supposed to visit an IDP (internally displaced persons) village across the river in Burma during the afternoon.  Duane told us the night before that we would not be going.  The logistics were complicated, and the schedule so tight that it would be hard to get there and return before dark.  I had very much wanted to observe the harsher conditions "on the inside" that all of our refugees have experienced at some point.  The morning was set aside to observe cultural orientation classes in Mae La Camp for those ready to head to the US .  When we arrived bright and early, we sat in our vans outside the main entrance...and sat and sat.  Finally we were told the Thai guards were refusing us entrance.  I suppose this too is part of the refugee experience.  Lots of waiting, lots of disappointment, and no explanations.  Instead, Duane took us to an IOM Processing Center where those applying for resettlement in the US come for medical tests and their Department of Homeland Security interview.  We spent some informative time with the NGO (non-government organization) that cares for the families during the 4 or 5 days they stay at the center. I was happy to meet a young man who is headed for Chicago in March.

Today we headed south and up, up, up for several hours into the mountains to visit the Umpiem Camp.  Our vans struggled in low gear through mountains as remote and rugged as any I have seen in West Virginia .  Everything the 23,000 refugees at Umpiem need must come by truck over this same road. I learned that the two camps we are visiting are the only ones that can be reached without 4 wheel drive vehicles.  The cool breezes we began to feel were most welcome after the oppressive heat of the valley.

This camp, like Mae La, is a world unto itself.  Our visit began with a meeting with members of the Camp Committee , refugee leaders elected to run the internal affairs of the camp.  As we wandered later on our own we encountered the Karen Youth Organization office, the Karen Women's Organization, a high school, a hostel for orphans and children
sent in from the IDP villages to go to school, and several churches.  The trio I was with spotted the oversized shoes of some others of our group outside of a house.  We removed our shoes to enter as well and were embraced by the hospitality of a Baptist pastor.  His wife, a graduate of the Bible College in Mae La we visited on Sunday, teaches 9th grade at the high school.  NGO's may provide some funds for all these institutions, but they are created and run by the refugees themselves.  Their initiative and organizational abilities are astounding, especially in the midst of so much privation.  When asked what the most common problems of women are in the camp, the Women's Organization leaders said "Securing enough food for their families."  The food rations are severely limited for reasons too complicated to explain here.

We left feeling again deeply moved by the gentle, gracious spirit of everyone we met.  It was a day of immeasurable blessing.

Tomorrow we begin to make our way back to Bangkok, and then home.

Grace and peace, Carol

UPDATE #4

Dear Friends and family,
We were divided into four small groups to visit churches in the Mae La Camp yesterday.  Even Duane, our leader, did not know which of the several dozen churches the Karen leaders had chosen.  As we drove along the road that runs parallel to the camp we could see waves of thatched bamboo huts clinging to the base of an immense, steep
mountainside.  My group was dropped off at one spot on the roadside.  A young man met us and immediately set off at a tremendous pace along a packed dirt path weaving its way among the little open houses. People were everywhere engaged in ordinary morning routines.  The path went up and up, sometimes on log or stone steps.  I felt like I was back in my summer camp days, but would have managed better if I had had on sneakers and jeans instead of a skirt and sandals.  Before long I began to hear children’s' voices singing in four part harmony.  It was the Sunday school children at the church.  We arrived and met the pastor and a young woman who introduced herself to me and asked my name.  When I answered she asked "Do you know Taw Kaw Pah?" "Yes, she is a leader in my church."  I said.  "I am Taw Kaw Pah's friend."  In a camp of 50,000 I had landed at the Baw Naw Baptist Church , Taw Kaw Pah's home church where PoeClee's uncle is the pastor.  Joyful introductions of relatives of those I know followed.  It was a moving, joyful day for me, to preach about God's reign of love, justice, peace and redemption to a packed bamboo church of people who know the reality of the absence and presence of these things acutely first hand.  Later we visited the Bible School in the
camp and listened to the students sing gloriously.  Seeing the steadfast faithfulness of the people in the camp, and looking into the faces of the young students, longing for a different future for their people through out that very long day was more than worth the sweaty hours on hard plastic chairs, the swollen ankles, and any number of visits to an Asian outhouse.  Those who have been in rural Asia will know what I mean by "squatty potty".  The rest of you will have to use your imagination.

There is so much more to tell of that very full day, but it will have to wait until I get home.  

Grace and peace, Carol

UPDATE #3

Dear Friends and Family,

We flew to Chaing Mai in a plane full of European tourists.  I can understand why.  It is a beautiful city at the edge of the mountains of northern Thailand .  From here people go elephant trekking, white water rafting, and exploring in glorious National Parks.  Someday I would love to return to do all that.  For now, our tourist activity was limited to visits to the night market at the end of the day.  It is a wonderland of crafts, jewelry,  fabrics, and everything else from the bizarre to the mundane, at dirt cheap prices.  But we saw things the tourists never see.  Every day for the last three days we rode in vans from one ministry project to another.  From AIDS prevention to preparing pastors for the ethnic villagers in the hills, training medical teams who enter the conflict zones of Burma to care for the Karen hiding in the jungles, and caring for AIDS orphans.  Our missionaries here, and the other Christian workers we met, are brilliant, creative and amazingly effective in initiating projects that are then carried out by the local people.  

One story will have to suffice.  Our first evening in the night market a small group of us were eating dinner in an open air restaurant.  Suddenly a tiny girl, no more than 6 was peering over the edge of the table.  We gave her a piece of bread.  Then she held up the flower necklaces she was selling.  We bought one, and wondered about her story.  No adult was in sight.  Before the night was out we had seen easily a dozen of these little flower sellers.  The next morning we visited ABC missionary Kim Brown and her four health related projects.  One is House of Blessing, a preschool for ethnic minority children who live in a nearby slum.  She said "These children are selling flowers all night in the night market and never go to school.  After we enroll them in our day care and work with the families for a few months, most of them are no longer selling flowers.  These darling children sang for us and crushed us with hugs.  After 3 years of preschool, they have learned Thai and are ready to enter 1st grade. Doug notified us of the assassination of a Karen leader in the town of Mae Sot , where we will be spending the next few nights.  Surely that is the Myanmar military's retaliation for the earlier killing of the Karen leader defected to their side.  We are in no danger.  In spite of this hit, the Burma military is not free to roam the streets of Mae Sot in Thailand , and westerners are not a target. We leave momentarily for a 6 hour drive to the Mae La camp.  

Grace and peace, Carol

UPDATE #2

Hello from Bangkok

After about 30 hours of travel (I think…jet lag doesn’t help my math skills any) I arrived safely at the Bangkok Christian Guest House. 

Bangkok is a vibrant, intense, international city…in many ways familiar to a Chicagoan.  We moved around to our appointments using the “sky train”, a newer, cleaner, smoother version of the El.  Office workers scurry and school kids chatter and giggle just as they do in Chicago.  But there is no doubt we are in Southeast Asia.  Women scrub and sweep the sidewalks following a rain, half the vehicles on the streets are motorbikes, market stalls and even entire restaurants sprout on the sidewalks after dark, and along the sois (lanes) the distinction between inside and outside is blurred.  In order to visit one ministry located in a multi-story town house, we walked through a laundry operating out of what would have been the garage, completely lacking a front wall. 

The international aid agencies we visited gave us precisely the information I need to better understand the Karen refugees arriving at our church.  They painted a picture of the Myanmar regime’s “development plans” that seemed as bizarre and brilliantly diabolical as those of the Kmer Rouge in Cambodia in the 1980’s, even if their fatality rate in not as high.   The Myanmar military are using forced labor and evacuation of villages to gain control of the rich resources found in the ethnic areas, including Karen State.  The result is a nation some have called “the world’s largest concentration camp.”  I left thinking “How long, O Lord, how long?”  This violent oppression of the Karen people has been going on for decades, sending them over the border into Thailand by the thousands.   The bright spot in those visits was meeting people from all over the world dedicated to feeding and clothing the refugees , and slogging through the bureaucracy necessary to resettle them.    

The second day we visited Night Light, a ministry founded by Annie Dieselburg, an American Baptist missionary.  She is a visionary dynamo who has taken on the global sex trade in her corner of Bangkok.  Night Light offers employment in jewelry making for 70 former bar girls.  They are welcomed into a community of love (similar to Samaritana’s in Manilla) that works holistically to mend their brokenness.  Some of us had commented on the intense presence of advertising in Bangkok, even more so than in the US (though I wouldn’t have imagined that was possible.)  High rise buildings are turned entirely into giant billboards, video ads play on monitors on the skytrain, and so on.  After visiting Night Light we discussed the impact of social norms by which everything is for sale making it easier to sell women as entertainment.  It is not surprising that Bangkok is the world capitol of sex tourism.  But it is a difference in degree, not in kind, to what happens at home and elsewhere around the world.  On that cheery note I close.  We are off to Chaing Mai in the north. 

Grace and peace, Carol

UPDATE #1

Dear Friends, family and church folks,  

Sandals...check. Sermon....check.

Anti-malaria medication...check.

It's packing time for my flight tomorrow to Thailand .  I am going with a group of American Baptist leaders and pastors to deepen our connections with Karen Baptists from both  Thailand and Burma .  We will especially be learning about the Karen people and the refugee to resettlement process they are experiencing.  The Karen brothers and sisters at North Shore (refugees from Burma/Myanmar) are very excited for me to see their former homes, schools and churches, and have sent me off with fervent prayers. 

As I complete my trip preparations, my incredible excitement is tempered with a bit of sadness.  We received word a few days ago that due to changes in the political situation, we would not be able to sleep in the Mae La Camp during our 3 day visit there, but would stay in the nearby town of Mae Sot .  That's disappointing, as evening is a good time for casual conversation, and I was looking forward to the deeper experience of camp life that spending the night affords.  But I am more sad after hearing from one of our Karen leaders the details of the new reality.  Some years ago an important commander in the armed Karen resistance was enticed by promises of wealth and power to join the Myanmar military forces in fighting against his own people.  His defection divided the Karen army.  On February 3 this leader was assassinated.  Those responsible remain at large, but the Myanmar military blames the Karen people and have threatened retaliatory attacks against the Mae La Camp.  Such attacks, more common in the summer months, have always been repelled by the camp security guards.  But obviously those responsible for our group are concerned about the heightened risk.  What saddens me is that there are 50,000 other people in that camp who don't have the choice to sleep someplace where it is more safe.

I hope to send a few updates during my 11 days in Thailand .  I do not know how much computer access I will have.  Any updates I do send will also be posted on North Shore 's website, www.northshorebaptist.org

When asked "What do I need to know before I go to Thailand ?" the first thing my Karen friends said was: "You don't need your coat."  So wish me well as I leave  Chicago 's snow and cold for a sunnier, warmer place!

Grace and peace,

Carol