ABC MISSION SCHOOL

October 12, 2009

I believe that my assignment with Jerry is about over. I have been here for over 4 months, since June 3, 2009. My assignment was to help Jerry start a school. I believe that God has done that. When I came they were meeting outside, under a carport, among garbage, flies, and dogs. I don't believe that a situation like this should be accepted because 'they are use to living that way', meaning the Burmese people. I knew God wanted more for these children, that He loved them just that much. I have been doing what God sent me here to do, showing them the love of Jesus Christ - teaching them songs and Bible verses (John 3:16), setting up an established curriculum, lesson plans, modeling God's love, involving parents, and establishing a permanent site to hold classes.

I am interviewing with another mission with a similar vision for early child education and Burmese families. I'm praying that this is the direction God wants me to go. But if not I will go where God leads, raising money to return, or maybe going to another mission in another country. But I would really like to work with this other mission here in Phuket. It's all about timing - I have to extend my visa by 10/18, and Jerry has given me about a month to get another place to stay, or he will provide me with a ticket back to the U.S.

Jerry is very protective of his program and the children.

So I'll just dust my feet off and go where God sends me next.

I am depending on the sufficiency of God,and prayers and support from the Saints.


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October 11, 2009

• Went to camp – did a short class – Assembly (prayer, song, scripture); went over the basics with my class (ABCs, 123, colors, days of the week, shapes, etc.); body awareness (songs ‘hokey pokey’, etc.); then blocks and snacks.
• Cell group 11-12noon – Lesson on Evangelism
• Jerry picked me up and we went back to camp to paint. I started painting my classroom, blue like Jerry’s room, plus I want to trim it in yellow. I was heartened by the girls helping me paint. They were so sweet, but I told Jerry afterwards that it looked like it was painted by 10-12 year olds and a senior citizen. But we got it together, to God be the glory.
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October 5, 2009
We had two days at the camp, along with occasional days going out working on the building.

Yesterday I also attended a cell group meeting, in the home of an ACF staff person, Kuzhali and her husband. Jerry did not attend, he was recovering from food poisoning, plus he said this was my thing. There were two other couples there, and we had a good time. It has been so long since I have had an opportunity to talk with like minded Christians, in English. Usually on Sundays I tune in to my church, New Birth in Atlanta, online. Afterwards we went to one of the couples’ house for a bar-b-que. They live high up on a mountain overlooking the bay, islands and the U.S. fleet. It was a nice group of people, I enjoyed myself. When we left there Kuzhali and her husband stopped by a tower that was even higher up the mountain and we had a 360 degree view of the island. It was beautiful.

On Monday, Richard and Catherine came by to visit. They had called, they were in the area, and wanted to come by. I had called Catherine a few days before to see how she was, and her family in the Philippines, if they had been affected by the weather and all that has been going on. Richard said they were all fine.

I just want to show the love of Christ to all I meet, Christian and non-Christians, as Jesus directs (plus I get a little lonely sometimes). Maybe if I stay here and get my own place, I’ll have more freedom to do this work that Jesus has given.

"...because a great door for effective work has opened for me, and there are many who oppose me." I Corinthians 16:9
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Highlights of September:
• Finished building
• Worked on foundation – repairing leaks, hauling sand and cement.
• Met with two mission groups – Asia Center Foundation and S.H.E. – S.H.E. agreed to allow mothers in the labor camp to make paper flowers and get paid.
• S.H.E. women came out to camp, 9/25/09, were able to talk to mothers and show them how to make the flowers. The mothers were a little reluctant, possibly due to long standing animosity between Burmese and Thai people. But the Thai never gave up, they considered it evangelizing.
• Visited other pre schools for Burmese children.
• Got an extension on my visa till 10/18/09
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I have also been studying the history of Burma (Myanmar) and Thailand, because I believe that it is important to learn about the context of the situation where we work in order to provide the children with a holistic education. There appears to be some animosity between the two countries, although Thailand, unlike the U.S. and some western countries, does recognize the Myanmar Republic.

Someone stated that the Burmese people are treated like the slaves were treated in the U.S. They are restricted to the camps, they are worked hard, in fact it appears that many of the construction and dirty jobs are done by Burmese. I have heard negative comments about the Burmese from various people, even foreigners.

The Thai people have the inside jobs, for the most part. This is especially evident in stores. There are often 2-3 clerks in the isles of stores, mostly stocking shelves. At the Super Cheap store there are also several people at the doors as you leave. I’ve since learned that it is probably a security issue. Plus I doubt if they have a high unemployment rate.

For instance, we were leaving the parking garage in Patong last week, and as we were leaving this guy in a uniform moved aside a barrier so we could get out. I commented to Jerry, ‘why do they have a barrier just so this guy could move it out of the way’. I see now that it was a job.

In addition, on most streets every other building has a store or restaurant on the ground floor. A lot of the houses are what is called ‘shop houses’. These are town houses of 2 or more floors, with the bottom floor looking like a garage that is used for a ‘shop’. Everyone seems to be trying to make some money. Then in addition to the many restaurants, there are people selling foods from 3-wheel motorcycles, like Jerry has. Just driving down the street, smelling all that food is so tempting, but I am careful not to eat food sold on the streets.

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A lot of the information that I found was from Wikipedia, plus I found some U.S. grants for Burmese refugees on grants.gov. Sadly there were no grants for Burmese in labor camps, where we are located, at least not that I have found so far. There were services directed to certain refugee camps to provide health care, education, processing (Id’s), and relocation of refugees.

I was directed to a U.S. contact for immigration issues of Burmese, this was for those in labor camps, but I never got a response.

One of the mission organizations that I talked with works with ‘legal’ Burmese children with the knowledge of the government of Phuket. They can provide education and a building, but the children still cannot go to public school.

The camp where we are located has children and families who are not legal. The children cannot leave the camp, and the parents can only leave to go to work. We were told that if they are stopped by the police that could be fined and possibly sent back to Burma. The children cannot go to school, no one can go to the public hospitals, or are eligible for any Thai social services. They can attend the Catholic Mission hospital, but although it is cheaper than other hospitals, it is still considered expensive for the families. There are two pregnant women in the camp, and neither has received prenatal care or plans to go to the hospital to have their babies.