Some members of NLV went to Chiangmai earlier this year to visit the student hostel, called Faith Garden that we helped set up. We’ve been going regularly there now for about 3 years, since we have started this mercy works together with a lovely Thai-Christian couple, to enable youths aged from 13 – 18 to have a place to stay while they study secondary school in Chiangmai City.
These children are from the hill tribes (Hmong or Karen people amongst others) and come from the mountainous areas in Northern Thailand. Faith Garden was set up for these kids to have a place to stay while in the city, to keep them from mixing with potentially bad company. At the same time, they worship the Lord every night, play with each other, study with one another and most importantly, they still have a sense of family and bonding while they are away from their home. This is what we experience every time we visited and stayed with them.
On this same trip, a visit was made to the Thai-Burma Refugee Camp to see where many of these kids came from. From the account we received, it was an eye-opening experience. The camp is vast, accommodating some 160,000 people, and a sense of claustrophobia can grip you, arising from seeing that many people confined in a small strip of land. You will also be affected by their shared hope of one day being able to return home and immensely touched by their strength in making the arduous journey to this camp from Burma. The camp has been around for so many years, that some of the teenagers you meet will have been born and raised in the camp, and have never set foot out of it. But they are grateful, because at least they are safe. In this way, the news headlines that one often quickly dismisses become real flesh and blood.
If you wish to read more news on the plight of the Burmese people, click here and here. There are many more articles.
During this trip, contact was made with a committed Christian Karen, who having made the journey out from Burma himself, he feels deeply for those Karen people who are still in Burma. We learnt from him recently, that he had been back to his father’s village, earlier this year, to distribute warm clothes, blankets and mosquito nets. In the process, he came across two nearby villages, which together have a population of 600 people.
The area the villagers are in faces a problem with malaria. The villagers cannot afford to meet needs, like mosquito nets, blankets and clothes. They struggle to get food to eat. The area also has the problem of land mines.
The villagers have asked for help. Some of the needs are for: (a) 600 blankets; (b) 600 mosquito nets; and (c) 600 sweaters.
Initially, we were a little bit overwhelmed by their needs, which amount to several thousand dollars. But we have decided to take up this cause, and share about this need to people we know personally. We rest in the assurance of the bigness of our Lord – that He is the ultimate provider of all needs.
