Back to the Villages!

Greetings! Praying all is well back home. It's Sunday night and I am getting ready to leave tomorrow morning for the villages, this will be a great relief as I miss the people very much. This past week consisted of paper work and planning in the ITDP offices. Everything went well and we are ready for the task that lies in front of us. It has been raining extremely hard every day and shows no signs of letting up. This has produced some minor flooding causing my wildlife encounters to increase...I was driving a scooter to work on Wednesday and almost ran over a huuuuge python. Fortunately, it slithered out of the way...those things are fast...too fast! I've also killed more lizards than I can count who seem to enjoy my air conditioned room...it keeps life interesting.

Today I had the privilege of attending my friend Por's church. It is a Karen church located in Chiang Mai with about 150 members. A Pastor from Myanmar spoke to the congregation on the importance of spending time in God's Word throughout the day. He lives in a average sized village; yet, his church membership is somewhere around 6,000! This was encouraging to hear considering the location of his ministry and the daily conditions they must face. During the service a Karen woman translated for me and afterwards she asked me why I came to help the Karen people, along with the school team. I told her we came because we simply saw a need (physical and spiritual), and had the means to help. The conversation went on for about an hour and in it I discovered that she grew up in a village on the Burmese border, right next to a refugee camp. She recounted times when troops would rush into the villages killing people, simply because they were Karen. Her father died last year and passed onto her family a heart for helping these people...she does this by working for a government organization that builds schools for the Karen...and then she helps select Christian men and women to fill the available teaching roles, and quietly preach the Gospel. She asked if I would go with her in a couple of weeks to see the refugee conditions with my own eyes...and then tell the people back in the States of their need, I agreed.

There is a definite sense of urgency among the Karen Christians I have met. People literally line up to tell me their life stories and the struggles their relatives and friends still face today. I've been offered jobs and teaching positions, but never once have I been asked for money, I believe this demonstrates the sincerity of their heart...they simply want helpers who are educated, and can teach the Word offering spiritual relief in a pagan culture. As you can imagine this is quite frustrating for me, knowing I can never help them all.

My days here continue to be a blessing. Being alone in the rainy weather has increased my time spent in prayer and God's Word. I've also had the opportunity to finish two great books; one by JI Packer called "Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God," and the other was a biography on "George Muller" written by Basil Miller...the latter is my favorite book to date. Please be in special prayer for the little girl I previously wrote about, as well as the Child Sponsorship program which will start as soon as I get to the village with Somsok. God Bless and I will update in about a week!

Prayer Requests:

1) For the souls of the people in Dae Buh Sae La Koh
2) For Pae Ja and her parents...for physical and spiritual renewal
3) For a safe Journey to Mohojo (June 4th-9th)

4) Safety for Mike and his family as they travel around southern Thailand

5) For wisdom as I begin the Child Sponsorship process, that things will get accomplished in a timely manner