No Man's Land: A life of unseen tears

The much belated is finally here: an update on my trip to Mae Sot.

First, let me set the stage for my trip. Mae Sot is a large city located on the Thai side of the Thailand Burma border. The city is the most trafficked land bridge between Burma and Thailand. For those who do not know, Burma (Myanmar) is run by a military dictatorship who took power 20 years ago when they ousted the newly elected prime minister. The prime minister won the free elections by a 70% margin. Since the military took control they have ruled with an iron fist. The government has waged war against the minority groups (most of whom live in the Southern mountains). Because of the genocide facing the Karen and Burmese, they are fleeing to the boarder. Mae Sot has a population of 120,000 and an estimated 100,000 refugees. The Thai government is not granting the refugees legal status; instead, they are turning a blind eye. They have set up many check points around the city to keep the refugees from traveling further into Thailand.

This has turned Mae Sot into a forsaken city. Its residence have fled Burma for their lives and are now living in a city ignored by Thailand. This has provided opportunity for black market trade to become rampant. Among the things smuggled across the boarder are drugs and people. Refugees in Mae Sot have no government over them. They are truly in no man's land. Because of this there are no medical institutions, schools, jobs, or law enforcement agencies for them. NGO's have begun to step in and provide basic medical treatments, food, schools, and law. I worked with two organizations while in Mae Sot. One was providing free primary education and free lunches to about 80 Burmese and Karen refugees. The other is providing law enforcement for abused refugee kids. They take kids away from abusive families and provide safe houses for them to live in.

An overview of what we did:

Friday
We facilitated arts and crafts with the kids at the migrant school until lunch.
After lunch we built up the schools road with 2 dump truck loads of dirt, because the road was a mud trap for cars before.
I dug out the dump truck after it beached itself on the dirt it just dumped.
We built portable wall partitions to separate classrooms in the one room school. (The school teaches 1-6 grades!)
We walked through the refugee villages giving out box diners and ice cream.
Returned to the hotel for some rest.

Saturday
Worked at Compassio (the safe house for abused refugee kids) building an outhouse around a toilet behind the safe house.
We had five guys building the walls with cinder blocks.
On the second level of cinder blocks Chris asked us how the kids were going to get in the bathroom.
We took down the second level and made a door.
At lunch we hopped on two motorbikes to go to a near by restaurant.
Kevin informed us he could drive one of them.
I hopped on the back of his bike, and he began to go.
We both crawled out from under the bike after he ran into a pile of sand. Luckly the sand pile cushioned our fall. (No worries, I didn't even get a scratch)
At 4 we quit building and went to Compassio's head office where we grilled out for the Compassio kids and staff.
Later that night we had a dance party with the kids for 45 min.
They played No Body but You by Wonder Girls for the whole party. (A Thai favorite)

Sunday
Worshiped our God with the team on the top of a hill overlooking the Burmese mountains. It was quite surreal.
Went back to the migrant school to build more wall partitions and a bench.
We brought out the paints again and let the kids paint the wall partitions.
Te Te, one of the kids, painted a picture of Jesus on the cross on the top of a mountain. Their was one person bowing before Jesus and one person standing pointing to another mountain in the distance. It was pretty touching because the school isn't a Christian school, and even while the kids were painting they had to stop because some Buddhist monks came.
At 1 we left for Compassio's baby house where we picked up 15 kids to go swimming in our hotels pool.
At 4 we packed up and headed out.

During the trip I was able to spend myself doing manual labor outdoors with kids. Exactly what I love to do. I didn't realize how much I miss doing that kind of stuff. The past few summers I have been able to do some combination of outdoor labor and youth ministry. This summer, I spend so much time in the office pouring over a computer. It was freeing and rejuvenating to pour myself out physically and emotionally for kids who have seen so much that no one should have to see. Please be praying for these kids. I have a few days built into my trip to vacation with. I think I am going to plan another trip up there to work with these kids. They are truly the people no one sees or cares about. They are the least of these. The kids at Compassio have fled their country because their own government wants to kill them. They are living in a country that wants to pretend they don't exist. And they live at Compassio because their parents beat them, starved them, and forced them to beg on the streets. And in the midst of all of this, Compassio stands for these kids, to give them dignity, a home, food, an education, love, and best of all Jesus.

Everyday, hundreds of Burmese and Karen people are displaced or killed by their government, because they are different. They either speak a different language or are a different religion. Christians are being targeted by the Buddhist. I talked with one Christian Karen woman who had just visited one of the Mae Sot hospitals. She told me all Karen have been targeted by the government for extermination. Recently the Buddhist Karen people sided with the government against the Christian Karen. "I don't understand why they kill us. We are the same as them. We are Karen. Why do they kill us? When I was at the hospital there were Buddhist and Christian Karen soldiers in the same hospital. I brought them gifts, and I gave the gifts to everyone, to the Christians and the Buddhist. I did it because I love them too. They need to know we don't want to hurt them. We are brothers."

One more story:
On Sunday I talked with Sia, one of the Compassio staff. All weekends I had noticed she looked tired, so I asked if she was tired. "Ya" she replied. I asked, "Is it a lot of extra work when teams come to help?" She answered, "A little, but I always stay busy. Even when there's nothing to do, I find something to do. I work myself a lot." I thought about what she said. On her wall I noticed a picture of her weed eating. I thought about what she said. On the way back to Bangkok, everyone was sharing stories and it came up that one of the kids at Compassio is Sia's brother. Someone asked how that could be, and Nate responded: "Her dad had many wives. Sia is mixxed up in much the same stuff as the kids." It all made sense. She pours herself out to the point of exhaustion because she loves the kids. She chews Nate out for bringing us to the grill out 20 min late because she loves the kids. She cries after chewing Nate out because she loves the kids. She risks her neck for the kids because she loves them. Do you love anyone like that? She is doing all she knows to do to help the kids. Interestingly, I saw the same characteristics among the refugees in every older sibling for their younger siblings, in every older kid for the younger kids, in every adult for kids, and in every adult for fellow adults.