Thailand and Myanmar

Hey everyone! I'm sorry for the lack of updates til now. I can't believe it's almost been a month... so sorry!

Our last couple of weeks in Mae Sot were busy to say the least. We taught english at at least 5 or 6 more schools. We always taught for 2-4 hours and then would do our program (songs, testimonies, dramas) and present the gospel. There were also a few schools we weren't able to teach at, so we just did our program. One school stands out to me, because we had the opportunity to teach the entire school... about 1200 students! Rachel and I taught 130 5th graders in a gymnasium with no blackboard and the students had nothing to write with... it was quite a challenge!

Most of our open airs in Mae Sot (and the surrounding areas) were to Burmese migrant factory workers, who were mostly women. They truly know the definition of "hard work". At one program, we found out that the women work from 8 AM- 1 AM and they only get one 45 minute break for their whole shift!!! We would do our open airs during their breaks, and they really enjoyed us so much. So many women came to Christ afterwards... it was always very encouraging!

During our time in Mae Sot, we were able to make a trip into Myawaddy, Myanmar for one day. They have such strict restrictions that you can only be in the country for a maximum of 12 hours, and I think we were only there for 5 or 6 hours. We walked for about 45 minutes to a church (it was sooo hot!) and we did a few dramas and testimonies during the church service. It was such a different atmosphere in Myanmar-- not quite as bad as it was in Cambodia. But the air felt so dark and I could almost see a covering of hopelessness in the eyes of the people. It was so encouraging and beautiful to be a part of a Burmese church service, though. The people in that church are amazing... their faith is so strong, despite their horrible circumstances. I'm glad we were able to minister to them and pray for them.

All of us had the opportunity to visit Mae La refugee camp in Thailand. We stayed at a church in a nearby village and were able to preach the gospel to a group of Karen girls the night before, and 8 of them accepted Christ. It was so strange to be at the camp and think about these peoples' lives. The camp itself was about 3 miles long, with 50,000 people living in small wood houses (some were basically huts). Can you imagine? They are essentially prisoners there-- they are not allowed to leave the camp, and there are people my age who have been born in the camp and that's all they've ever known. What kind of life is that? Despite their circumstance, they try to give off the appearance that they're just normal people. But they're not. Please be praying for them and that they'll have a way to lead a regular life. Many of the people there are so intelligent and speak amazing english, but don't have opportunities to live a life beyond a refugee. We were able to go to a church at the camp and we ran the service with dramas, songs, testimonies, and messages. It was a real encouraging time to be there and to see so many of these people following Christ. But please be praying for them-- that they'll continue to find hope admist such hopelessness, and also that they can really adopt worship and church as their own and add their culture into it... The church service we attended was so Americanized with hymns, etc. The only difference between the Mae La church and an average church in America was that it was held in a bamboo building with prisoners as the congregation. There's so much I don't understand.

My favorite day of ministry in Mae Sot was probably our last day. We had the opportunity to teach at a school all day for a total of about 5 hours! Dave and I taught together and had such a blast-- we had 3rd graders who were very smart and really enjoyed us. After teaching, we did our program for an hour... our last open air! I was scheduled to preach the gospel and for some reason I was a little nervous about it (which hadn't happened before). I ended up doing it though! The kids were really distracted and not paying attention to me at first, and I kept praying that God would capture their hearts and minds and really listen to me... a few minutes before the most important part, they got so quiet and really started to pay attention. Almost all of the children in the room (about 150 students) ended up accepting Christ. It was an amazing moment!

There's so much more that happened during our time in Mae Sot... we were able to visit and preach at the local prison, pray for people at the local hospital, preach at a Burmese clinic, illegally cross into Myanmar for a few minutes (that was amazing!), do an open air for 500 people... oh, so much! Our time in Mae Sot was very fruitful; we ended up preaching the gospel to well over 5,000 people and I'd say that about 500 people came to know Christ. God is amazing and so faithful.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support. This whole time during my DTS, I have been so aware how I could not be here if it wasn't for your help. I am so thankful for each and every one of you. Thank you for your support, your encouragement, and your love. You are amazing!

DTS officially came to an end last Thursday at lunch. It's actually really sad! All of us are still around, though, and I'll be the first one to actually leave. It's hard to believe this season of my life has come to an end, but I'm also excited for what God has for me now.

In the next few days, I'm going to try to get pictures up on here for you all to see what my outreach looked like. Right now I'm still on base here in Salem and I'm a little busy helping out a friend with an awareness rally about human trafficking. I'll be heading back to Madison on Friday the 16th and for you Wisconsin people, I'd love to see you soon! I'll keep you updated about when I'll be in town.

I love all of you!