The View From Inside

MAE SOT, THAILAND – Our tenth day in of mission in Thailand taught us that no amount of advance research in refugee issues – news reports, books and magazines, the internet – can fully prepare you for going there, seeing things for yourself, and learning from those (the refugees, the relief workers) that deal with these issues on a daily basis, month after month, year after year.

Our day begin with a morning devotional, led by Jim Alsup. Jim has been working from the book, “humility: The Journey Toward Holiness” by Andrew Murray. Our devotionals have opened and closed with music, thanks to Rebecca Nicholson and her iPod. She places it in a portable player with surround speakers, and its own battery power. It’s small and light enough to fit in the palm of your hand, yet delivers wonderful sound reproduction that reaches everyone in the room.

Friday was devoted to asking questions, listening to answers, and praying over what we had learned. Our hosts were the staff of Partners Relief & Development’s Mae Sot office. Partners works to demonstrate God’s love among the displaced and marginalized people of Burma ….. and there are thousands of them (mostly Karen, but other Burmese groups as well, including ethnic Burmans) in and around Mae Sot, a town in the Tak Province of northwestern Thailand. Mae Sot is a border town located on the eastern bank of the Moei River which serves as natural boundary between the nations of Thailand and Myanmar (Burma). In fact, some refer to Mae Sot as the 'Gateway to Burma.'

The late afternoon was devoted to prayer for Partners, its staff, the community around them, and the people touched by their mission. This included prayers of thanksgiving for the work that has been done, and prayers of encouragement for the work that lies ahead. Our team broke up into different groups – one in the Partners office, another in the neighborhood where that office is located, and a third in the community of Mae Sot. It is something of special importance to Partners …..
“Our day begins with prayer,” they explain. “Our actions are inspired, organized and launched with prayer. Our ultimate hope for Burma is expressed in prayer.” Partners asks you to join with them “and those who seek justice for the families of Burma, asking God for a visitation of His power, love and mercy.”

Our first full day in Mae Sot ended with a shared meal and a birthday celebration. Once everyone was seated, Ramon was presented with a birthday cake. The cake had been prepared earlier in the day, at the direction of our guide, Hong Pirojh Chew, complete with a birthday greeting written in the frosting, and candles – one of which took some serious convincing before it agreed to go out and stay out. Ramon did the honors of cutting and serving the cake to everyone at the table.

LOOKING BACK ON CHIANG MAI

“Reflections on Our Bar Visit to the Red Light District in Chiang Mai”
By Susie Foy

The day prior to our “party” at Juicy’s, Ramon and I went on a prayer walk with Brittany, one of the staff at Garden of Hope. Our team had broken into several groups of three or four and walked down the street where the staff at Garden of Hope meet and get to know the women who work in the bars. The street actually was lovely, with shops and several nice restaurants. Some of the bars looked very normal, with western tourists sitting out and having a beer.

Brittany is from Oregon, and is Vietnamese and was adopted by Americans. She is beautiful, with long, black, shining hair, and looks very Asian. But when she talks, I feel like I’m talking to one of my daughters.

She described to Ramon and me what these women were like. They are simple, uneducated and mostly come from the tribal hills, and have to send money to support their parents. A prostitute may make 20,000 baht a month, sending 15,500 to her parents, and the brothel owner gets a share. So she doesn’t make much for herself. In dollars, that is approximately $650 a month, $500 to the parents. Many of the parents, we’ve learned, enjoy a higher status because their daughter makes so much.

Because these women are Buddhist, they feel that it is their karma (fate), they have done something bad in a previous life, and there really is nothing they can do about it except make offerings to the temple, be good to their parents, and try to live the best way they know how, so that, maybe, in the next life they won’t have to be a prostitute.

Brittany and her staff go to the bars, visit with the women, and try to build relationships. It’s not an easy task. And until Garden of Hope can offer an alternative to their job prospects, train them, etc., it will take a while to rescue these women from a horrible and degrading existence.

Okay, back to the party ….. our group arrived to decorate the bar. We had balloons, Thai flags, American-style banners, and Brittany has procured the best barbeque I’ve tasted since the Salt Lick in Austin.. There were about ten women who came. We played Uno, drank cokes, showed pictures of our children, laughed, played pool, and ate and ate. It was really fun, and you forgot you were in a bar with prostitutes, until a lanky Aussie came in, looked at all the gray hairs, and wondered what was going on!

We were able to express our love to them by opening our hearts and listening to them. One woman in particular, who had come to Chiang Mai from Cambodia a month earlier, seemed very sad. She showed me pictures of her two daughters, who were living with her mother in Cambodia. I told her the story of the woman with the lost coin, and told her the God we worship is searching for her, and loves her. We had come a long way to tell her that. I don’t know if she understood but, there in Juicy’s bar, under a spirit house with offerings of Fanta and nail polish to Buddha, Annie from Cambodia heard the gospel and felt the love of Christ’s body.