Thursday, August 30, 2012

LahKuHtoo's Story

LahKuHtoo with Bible in hand and Mob after sharing the gospel with his grandmother for the first time.

This is LahKuHtoo. If you're not familiar with LahKuHtoo, go back and read "Break My Heart" and  "God Answers Prayer" and start praying! God's going to do great things through this guy! He's got an amazing heart!

When LahKu was born in Karen State in Burma in a Karen National Union (KNU) operated village. The Burmese found out about the KNU prescence there and attacked the village when he was about six months old. The villages fled to the jungle to hide. His grandmother brought him to a cave that became the home to not only his family, but many others from the village as well. They lived in the cave for the next four months as the fighting raged on. The Burmese burned their homes and fields so many people were forced to head to Thailand and the refugee camps.
His father, however, was not so... "lucky." He too fled to the jungle as he was not a part of the KNU and had no weapon. Afraid of being caught and used as a porter (almost guaranteed beatings, torture, and/or death) he ran. The Burmese saw him and shot him. LahKuHtoo has no memory of his father.
Like most Karen people, LahKuHtoo wants to return to his homeland. "I want to go back because it is my own village. I don't need ID card. I am free."
He also wanted me to tell you, my friends, "Thank you for helping [the Karen people]"

LahKuHtoo's grandmother and me. Pray that she will come to experience God's power and truth and allow LahKu to be baptized!



Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Paul's Story

I would like to introduce you to another of the beloved teachers at our school. He asked me not to use his name or show his picture, because the Burmese Army threatened him that if he told anyone about what they had done to him, they would hunt down his family and kill them. So we decided to use the name Paul, as he is a passionate warrior for Christ.

Paul grew up in Karen State in Burma. When he was about 18 years old, the Burmese Army (State Peace and Development Council) started using him as a porter (someone who has to carry all of there weapons/equipment/etc.). The Karen National Union (KNU) had put landmines around his village to protect it. The Burmese (SPDC) set them off one day, igniting a fury, and they attacked the village. Paul said even though being taken as a porter was very dangerous (porters are beaten frequently, used as land-mine sweepers, and often killed), especially for strong, young men, if you refused they would beat you with bamboo poles.
In 2008-2009, the Burmese had taken over the village and forced the people to work as porters everyday. There was no time for the people to work their farms or buy and sell, so the villagers had no food. Paul said he would try to sneak to the jungle to get food for his family at night, but as a consequence was beaten many, many times with bamboo poles.
If someone was rumored to be either in the KNU or a friend to them, the Burmese Army would tie plastic around the face of the accused and force water down their throat. Many times the water would fill the person's lungs; most of the people would die. Many people were falsely accused. Another form of punishment and entertainment for the SPDC would be to play drums and force the accused to dance for long periods of time- days at a time- and if they stopped, the SPDC would beat them. While the person was forced to dance, the soldiers would drink alcohol and smoke marijuana. When the people were allowed to stop, they would have health problems.
Paul said the people were allowed two days a week to work their land, but they were too weak. "Can only pray," he said. Children were only allowed to go to school if they could pay. To be allowed in grade five, the family would have to pay the equivalent of $50 while grade 12 equaled about $115. Unfortunately this amount of money is far beyond what most people would be able to pay.
Paul said as a porter he would be taken for weeks at a time. Sometimes people were allowed to return to their village only to be taken again in a month. Others never return. The SPDC finally told the village they all had to leave and either live in the jungle or find a new village, thus leaving their homes, land (and therefore, income), friends, and sometimes family behind. Paul decided to go to Thailand at that point to go to school and journeyed five days to reach safety. His family is still in Burma.

Paul lived in a refugee camp for several years and came to know God there. This is his first year teaching with us at Shekinah Children's Home, but from the get-go, Paul was quick to volunteer to lead worship, share the Bible and lead the kids. It is quite common to see him with his hands raised high above his head or clutched in fists near his heart as he leans his head back and cries out to God in worship. His knowledge of the Bible is limited, but he's hungry and eager to learn. Just two days before joining our school, he was married to a beautiful, blue-eyed Karen girl and they are expecting a baby early next year. Praise God for this amazing man of God and the family he will lead.

Pray that Paul will be able to be reunited with his family again, as they have only been able to contact each other twice in the years they've been separated.

Monday, August 27, 2012

Mob and Sunday


I want to introduce you to my dear, dear friend, Mob. "Mob" is his chosen English name, but he is most commonly called TahMawTu. Mob is a teacher at Shekinah, 21 years old, married to a beautiful Karen girl named Sunday, and is expecting a baby boy in November. Mob and Sunday are without doubt my best friends in Thailand. Mob is my brother-- no doubt about it. He actually calls me sister more often than he calls me "Kelsey." If ever I am sad or angry, Mob is always the first to pick it up, and always knows what to do to make me laugh. We've had some crazy adventures and I can not wait to experience life and grow together with him and his family. I can not thank God enough for the huge blessing Sunday and Mob have been to me! I love them!!!!!!!!!

I want to tell you Mob's story of the persecution he witnessed while growing up in Burma. As you read, please remember this is not just some poor, broken soul we should pity, but a living, loving, growing brother in Christ.

Mob was born in Karen State in Burma. He is the oldest of five siblings. His parents are rice farmers-- not growing enough to sell but just enough to feed the family. Their village has been attacked by the Burmese Army many times.
One day, Mob, his father and uncle trekked to some far-lying rice fields for a few days. Between 1-2 am, the Burmese came and arrested his father, hoping he had a gun. When they searched and found no gun, they beat him. They held him down and tied him up, then melted plastic over his bare thighs and let it drip and burn the sensitive flesh. Though Mob was only 10 years old, they made him watch. Mob said he remembers his father crying.
At 5 am, Mob was allowed to go back home while his father was taken to the river and repeatedly dunked and dunked and dunked because years earlier he was a soldier in the Karen Resistance Army. They kept screaming at him to give them his gun, but he did not have one. When Mob arrived home, he told his family that the Burmese had arrested his father. His grandmother (a leader in the village) immediately went to the Burmese soldier base and told them they had no gun, to which they denied touching her son and told her to leave.
Mob's father was tied up and gagged and taken to the Burmese base. Since the office he was taken to was a bamboo hut on stilts, Mob was able to sneak underneath in an attempt to talk to his father through the floor. Mob had to watch his bound father get beaten with bamboo rods.
His grandmother then went to a Burmese Army leader and to ask for her son. Because she was a respected woman, they let him go, and had the gawl to offer her two bags of rice. She replied, "I don't need rice. I need my son."

Two years later, Mob and his father were in the jungle herding five water buffalo. Mob said he was happy because he was able to ride on the shoulders of one of the buffalo. He said they saw the Burmese Army and tried to sneak away back in the jungle. His father told Mob to go first so he could bring the four remaining buffalo, but the Burmese saw Mob and called him to join them. He said there were many, many soldiers with guns trained on him. He was afraid and called out for his father. They took his father and forced him to act as a porter (a human packhorse). After hours of carrying the Burmese Army's supplies, Mob's father was able to return home. It was after this event that Mob's parents brought him to Mae La Refugee Camp in Thailand.

Mob said many times the Burmese Army would come and require money from each house in his village as well as chickens and rice. They would sleep in people's houses and drink alcohol until they were drunk. He said many times his family has fled to the jungle for saftey for days at a time, but do not want to come to Thailand.

Mob's family is Buddhist but God has begun a great work in them. Mob was the first to be baptized and it has been AMAZING to watch him grow and desire to tell others about Jesus. Now his sister, aunt, uncle, cousin, and grandmother have been baptized and forsaken Buddhism. This coming March, Mob and Sunday plan to go back into Burma to tell his parents about the saving grace of Jesus. "I think they will become Christians," Sunday says. "Maybe they can start a church." It is an all Buddhist village and the risk in going back is high, but God has saved them and they are filled with His peace.
Pray for this young couple as they continue to grow in Christ, grow closer together, and begin their family.

 
Mob cooking frogs after a successful midnight hunting expedition.

 
 
Sunday in the back of a pick-up on our way to Mae La Refugee Camp.

Sunday, August 26, 2012

I Want To Shout It Out!

Good. Faithful. Perfect. Pure. Holy. Sovereign. Just. Loving. Merciful. Patient. Creative.
And every other word that describes the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ.

God is so GOOD. He is SO GOOD! I have been constantly and overwhelmingly drowned in His goodness.
My mind just cannot grasp the fact that the Creator God-- the one who established galaxies and universes, and mountains and oceans-- cares about me...
It is a completely staggering thought. This little rebelious, selfish, prideful girl, not only is saved from an eternity of seperation from God, like I deserve, but I get direct access to His Spirit? I get to stand in His presence? I get to make requests of God?
How amazing... how humbling... how ridiculously awesome that God did not only make me, He made me in His own image, He loves me, He pursues me, He blesses me, He listens to me. He accepts my meager and pathetic attempts to thank Him.
My Jesus.
My God.
You are too good to me.

I cannot wait for the day I enter the throne room of heaven. How unworthy am I to see my Savior face to face. He owes me nothing, but gave me everything.
Whatever is left of my life, Jesus, please, take it. I am yours. Take all of me. This world is not my home. You are my home, Jesus. You have my heart.

You are so GOOD, God!
You are SO GOOD!

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain! Worthy is the Lamb to be praised! (Rev. 5)

Forever and Ever! Let us shout His Name and scream of His goodness!