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Mi Nge gave me 45 letters that children had written to their sponsors. Many of them mentioned the flooding they experienced during Monsoon season. There were 4 bridges that were swept away, landslides, and even some deaths from drowning in Mae La. Life is so hard on a day to day basis, having to deal with a natural disaster such as flooding, is devastating to them. Please keep praying for God's Hand of mercy in these camps.
After 3 days of rest, I was feeling strong enough to brave the long bus and truck rides to head north. The high mountain camp, Mae Rah Moe, has always been my favorite. It is so difficult to get into that Burmese spies are not flooding the camp with drugs and alcohol as they are in Mae La. The camp leaders for Mae Rah Moe are very proud that they have a zero tolerance for alcohol in their camp and they intend that it stay that way. Anyone bringing alcohol into the camp will be asked to permanently leave.
We caught a bus out of Lampang to Chiang Mai and then were able to take a van bus North to Mae Sariang. Our friend, Honest Roger, had made arrangements for one of the men he works with to get us hotel reservations in a little guest house and pick us up at the bus station when we arrived. He told us that another driver I had used several years ago would pick us up at 7 am and drive us up to the camp. He would drop us off and go to another camp for a training program they were instituting and would be back to get us around 3 pm. The drive up the mountain was better than it was last year since many of the deep ruts had been graded, but once we hit the ungraded part is was a very slow and a hard ride. Praise the Lord for drivers that know how to ride the ridges of the ruts and negotiate around blind "S" curves.
We were greeted by Pastor Thein Thein Aye and taken to the church. He left us with his wife and baby while he went to announce over the camp loud speaker that we were there and that children should start coming right away to be registered and get their pictures taken.We set up a table just outside the church door so we would have good light and people starting pressing close, wanting to make sure their child's picture got taken. For about 2 hours it was organized chaos.
When Mi Nge's husband, Ruby, showed up to help us the registration and picture taking process went much smoother. He had ridden his motor bike 5 hours past check points to make it to camp and help Pastor and us. He helped register the new children while Pastor, Rick and I kept the registration and picture taking running smoothly.
We were able to get pictures of everyone in the first 4 sections so we packed up to go across the suspension bridge to section 7A. Pastor said it took one hour to walk over there and he didn't want us to walk in the heat, so he rounded up a rattle trap truck that would take us to the bridge. It was a very bumpy and uncomfortable ride.
We were told that over 600 homes were destroyed by flooding and water had been over the roofs of many of the homes we passed as we drove on the rutted road along the river. We could see some blue tarps that were serving as roof and walls for many of the bamboo homes.
When we got to the bridge leading to section 7-A, Pastor went ahead to spread the word that we were coming and by the time we got to the home of one of my friends where we set up there were many mothers, fathers, and children waiting.
It is always wonderful to see how the children have flourished in one year and to learn who has been fortunate enough to be resettled in another country.
There are families that are being split apart with the re-settlement and that is very sad. Pastor told us that since the re-settlement program started there are now more people in camp than before the start of the program since many families are coming into the camp hoping to be re-settled. Some of those coming into the camp are Burmese who are not even refugees, but want a better life in another country. This is really slowing down the re-settlement process.
Rick and I were very sad to learn several of the young teenagers have gotten married. But until we walk in their shoes, I can't begin to judge them. This picture on the right shows Rick with little Joel and his young mother.
I did ask my long time guide/bodyguard if he knew Jesus and he said he was still a Buddhist. I ask him every year to accept Christ and one of these days I am hopeful that he will. He has twin boys who were born while I was living among them 10 years ago and I named them Benjamin and Joseph. Several months ago Benjamin shot a sling-shot and accidentally hit his brother in the eye. Sadly, Joseph is now blind in one eye. They are such sweet little guys, I know it hurt Benjamin a lot to have caused his brother pain.