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We were able to deliver 50 Karen language bibles to each camp which we purchased in Chiang Mai from the Thai Bible League. Our home church, Harvest, provided enough money to buy 100 of them. They will be such a blessing in helping to evangelize the non Christians in the camps. We also were given money to buy food to help replenish what was lost in the flooding and I have made arrangements with my friend, Honest, to fill his truck with food every time he travels to the camps. He will meet with Pastors and Leaders and buy what they feel is needed most. The truck used to take us into camp was already full of supplies, so we could not personally deliver food to this camp. There is always a lot more that we would like to do while we are there, but since I got sick we had to be very careful and not eat anything in the camps, so we only did day trips. We are already thinking about what we can improve on what we did this year to make next year even more productive.
We distributed over $10,000.00 in sponsorship funds to our sponsored children. Most of them thanked their sponsors in the letters I brought back. I will be getting those letters out to the the sponsors just as soon as I get over this jet lag!
When we arrived at the Bangkok airport for our midnight flight I noticed a large group of Karen refugees all segregated from the rest of the passengers checking in. I went over and talked to a couple of the young men that spoke a little English and they confirmed that they were Karen from Mae La Refugee camp and were very interested that we had just been there. They were being settled in the USA, but not all to the same place. One young man was going to Indiana, another to Idaho. Rick and I both felt sorry for them as they were being thrown into such a totally new situation. Imagine never having been out of a refugee camp then suddenly you are in this huge airport with people going every which way. Most didn't understand Thai and very little English. Some got into the same plane with us and every time something new came up, I wondered how they were handling the whole thing.They had to be on sensory overload by the time they finished that long flight! In the long run, they are the fortunate few, but I know they will miss their friends and extended families in the camps a lot.
We had a successful trip ONLY because of all your prayers and the faithfulness of our loving Father.Please be praying with us that the 200+ new children that we registered will be sponsored.
In His Grip,
Betty and Rick