Marshall and Mei woke up around 3 AM, feeling the effect of jet lag while all the young folks slept well (Sue has been here over a week and also slept well last night). Since she woke early, Mei cooked congee (rice porridge) using the left over soup and rice and chicken from Saturday and tea eggs, so we all enjoyed the breakfast. After group devotions on abiding on the vine (John 15), we then spent the day visiting Partners Relief and Development ministry (not to be confused with Partner's International ministry). Khup Ngaihte, Ching and Thang's son has been working for this ministry for the last two years since he returned to Thailand 2-1/2 years ago after getting his Master's in Intercultural Studies from Fuller (Khup had been an intern at FECG while he was studying, working with the elderly homes).
We basically attended the Partners' staff meeting and were awe struck by the terrible situation among Myanmar refugees where they have focused their work. We then sang four songs acapella to bless their staff of about 30, consisting of foreign nationals who (like Khup) have to raise their own support and the paid national staff of Thai, Karin and other minority tribes. After we sang, we prayed together in small groups for their work and what we are going to be doing the next two weeks. Khup then gave us a more detailed briefing of their organization and work. We were amazed to hear about one minority group in Myanmar, the Rohingya, who are an unwanted persecuted people living in horrendous conditions with basically no hope (but there is always hope in our miraculous God). You can read about their plight in the Partners website, http://www.partnersworld.org/save-the-rohingya. This is something that perhaps our church's social concern ministry can consider supporting. After eating lunch which we ordered (at 40 baht per person, about $1.30), we then drove out to the Partners ministry farm in a pouring rain (much needed in Bangkok as in California). Several prayed for the rain to stop and it certainly did halfway into the drive. Located on the outskirts of town, this farm is farmed by a Karin Burmese Christian assisted by another couple. The farm grows various food and fruit plants, rice, as well as chickens, ducks, fish, pigs, cows and who knows what else. What is very interesting is how they reuse everything. For example, the chicken house is built on top of the fish pond, because the fish feed on chicken poop. They mix chopped up banana leaves with various products, let them compost for three days and use it to feed the pigs. They then use the pig poop and mix it with ground soybeans to compost and create methane, which they collect in a plastic covered tent, pipe it to a storage tank to cook their food. They run this farm to teach Burmese refugee who escape to Thailand to learn how to farm and provide for their families - this is development, the next step after relief (which they do for the Rohingya). We prayed for this farmer and also for the rain to resume, and as we left, it started to sprinkle (but we don't know if the rain continued or not on the farm).
We returned home about 3:30 to process what we heard and saw at Partners, and practiced some skits for the schools we are visiting the next two mornings. Marshall and Mei stayed home while the rest of the team went to teach English to refugee teens and young adults at a place Partners calls their seed farm. There were about 30 people there, ranging in age from 14 to thirty or so. We had fun playing games and really did not teach English except by trying to converse with them. Putting forty some people in a smallish room was quite stuffy and warm so we went up on the rooftop to play the games, at least until it started to rain. Rachel led them in the "do you love your neighbor" game and we left about 8 PM returning home about 8:30 since tomorrow is an early start for us.
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