I awoke when I heard the family stirring in the kitchen at 5:00 am but stayed in my warm cocoon till 6:30. I had forgotten how cold the nights get up in the mountains in January! I was asked to speak at chapel for the Karen Adventist Academy at 8:30. After a good Karen breakfast consisting of rice, vegetables, bread toasted in a pan over coals and Ovaltine (purchased with me in mind, I'm sure) we all trooped over to the church where chapel services are held each morning. There are 300 students in this school. I learned it is the only church run school in the camp of over 18,000 people. Not all students are Adventists but children will walk an hour each way to attend this little school.

We had a great time in Chapel. It is so nice to be able to pray in school! One of the teachers, Saw Paw Pler was my translator and he did a great job. I always love having the opportunity to speak whenever I am in camp. I can talk about the Lord wherever I go and it's a wonderful opportunity to tell everyone how God works in my life. They love hearing how the Lord provides the money for my travel expenses and makes it possible for me to be the eyes and ears for all my friends in America who aren't able to travel to the camps. Everyone is very interested in anything I tell them about Hawaii or any of the other states I have visited.

Stories about our 8 years in Alaska are always very well received. None of the children have ever seen snow and my stories of taking 15 minutes to get winter gear on to go outside in Fairbanks were met with laughter as I demonstrated putting on layer after layer. Getting a glimpse of the outside world is so important to everyone there. They have been cut off so long from the world they are starved for news. Many of the leaders asked me about 9/11 and expressed their deep sorrow for the tragedy.

After chapel, Pastor and I set off to hike over to visit Dana at the high school where he taught. As we passed by the outpatient department of the camp hospital, we spotted the tiny little twins Kyo Bah and Kyo Behr that I had prayed for on my visit in 2001. They are now 16 months old and still very tiny. Their 7 and 11 year old sisters were carrying them on their backs. The boys looked terrible. Both had runny noses and eyes ringed with circles. They were both so skinny it broke my heart to see them. Their mother had moved the family up to a hill tribe village to live with an uncle. She is still afraid of her husband. He has threatened to beat her and the children for leaving him last year. She told me that he had "married" her younger sister after she and the children went into hiding and they had a new baby. The hill tribe Karen live a very hard, primitive life. If a young girl isn't married by her late teens she is considered old and there is a fear no one will want them for a wife. The children's mother had to go out and work in the rice fields all day, leaving the little boys with their older sisters. Many times there is no food in the house for the children to eat. The Women's Ministry from my church, Calvary Chapel Pearl Harbor are sponsoring these 2 at risk babies this year. The money will be given to the mother monthly to buy food and milk. I gave her 500 baht (about $12.00) and told her I'd like to pay for her girls to come down from the mountain and attend school in the camp. She is still resistant to the idea of her girls going to school. I will keep praying that she will change her mind. Pastor will make sure she gets a portion of the sponsorship money each month. He strongly urged that I not give her the entire $200.00 at one time. It is too much money and she will have no idea how to spend it wisely. I looked at her pretty care worn face and marveled at all she has endured in her short 23 years. I hugged the babies, took some pictures and told he would were all praying for her. She has a long 2 hour walk up the mountain carrying both babies. She is one of many such women living up in the hill tribe villages. She had come down to have her babies checked at the clinic since they were both sick. The twins' mother is one of many such women that are living up in the hill tribe villages. It's very sad because their life is so hard.

After talking with her for a little while, we continued on up to the High School and found a former student of mine. His class was outside in the playground area they were all in a semi-circle squatted down using their knees as desks. He explained that it was so cold in their classrooms with the bamboo walls and the dirt floors, so they would come out into the sun in the mornings and warm up. He showed us the camp education office and I got a printout showing all the camp schools listed by section, how many teachers, students, etc. One of our teammates from our first trip is a teacher and asked for all this info. He wanted me to get anything I could on each camp's schools.

Pastor then told me that a man had asked for help with his growing family. His wife and 4-day old baby were in a small, dark backroom near the traditional Karen birthing fire where mother and the baby stayed for one week. It was a tiny dark little house leaning sideways on stilts. A woman in our church gave me $20 for a baby and I put money with it and gave them money for 1 year's sponsorship. I went in and sat by the baby and the mother for a little while in the little birthing room and it was really hot in there but it was so neat to be able to be there with her and to be able to pray for her baby.

On the way home I told pastor I wanted to see sister Margaret, who I had lived with several years ago when I was in there. He asked her neighbor where she had moved and they pointed across the river but said she was visiting right now in the house we were standing in front of. Talk about coincidence. Margaret came out and we embraced and I was shocked at how much she had aged. I guess I have too, but I just see myself all the time and don't realize it. She walked a ways with us and talked of our dear father, General La Htoo dying the year before. She said goodbye to me with hopes of seeing me again before I left.

As we started up a steep hill my eye was caught by a ragged little boy about 2 dressed only in a hooded sweatshirt, unzipped - no diapers, no shorts. I couldn't resist taking his picture. Then I turned around to thank his father and discovered it was a soldier I had met last year. We hugged and he told me that his wife had just had twin boys 6 days ago. She and 1 of the twins were in the camp hospital and 1 had been sent to Mah Sariang Hospital because he was so frail and needed oxygen and more care than they could provide in the refugee camp hospital. He picked up his little boy and walked back with us so I could meet his wife. I really wanted to see the baby also that was in there and pray for it. The mom had them by C-Section and needed to stay in the hospital one week more. The baby was so tiny it was wrapped tightly, cocoon fashion, in a white sheet cut to blanket size. After visiting with her awhile through my interpreter, I asked if I could hold the little boy and she readily agreed. I was surprised at how tiny he was and how little he weighed. I asked there names and they told me they hadn't named them yet and asked me to name them. I chose "Benjamin" and "Joseph" and they seemed really pleased with those choices. They are Buddhists, but I asked if I could pray for little Benjamin who I was holding and they both smiled and nodded yes. I gave them 500 baht for each baby and they were thrilled. They are so poor. I knew the mother would not produce enough milk for them without a supplement to the sparse camp diet of rice and beans. I told told them we'd come back tomorrow to see them and Pastor and I continued back to the house.

They insisted I take a brief rest before heading up the mountain to the home of 2 of the sponsored girls for lunch. The mothers in the camp always try to fix a meal for me and make it special and I never want to refuse. Nay Sue Paw and Chu Lu Lu are both older girls and their mother and father are really funny and really enjoyed visiting with them. Pastor and Sandy, his daughter-in-law, also were invited so we visited and had a good time. A young boy about 14 came in and sat with us. I knew he was someone I had met before. He is one of the orphans Pastor Stanley had cared for when we were all living in the jungle in Mae We Klo together in 1997. He had gone with Pastor when he had returned to Burma, but had decided after 2 years to make the long trip through the jungle and sneak back across the border. It took him 3 days and he was very hungry by the time he made it to Mae Rah Moo camp. What a brave boy to strike out on his own like that. The situation in Burma was pretty awful and he missed his friends in the refugee camp. Every refugee has a story to tell about the hardships he or she has encountered in their young lives.

We had a brief rest and the children had gotten out of school so they came to visit and had their pictures taken for the sponsorship program. The cards we had made up at home worked really great. I was invited to dinner at Doe Soe's - the head of the hospital. My driver brought the bag that I had left in Mae Sariang to the camp. Everyone gathered around in the house to see all the goodies we had been able to bring in. Moo Moo was very excited about all the clothes. She said she would give them to the Section 7 families and I knew that they were the poorest families in the camp. I knew from Mae Way Klo that many of the women that were in section 7 and knew that their needs were really great. I had a really nice dinner at Do Soe's home. We discussed their family planning program at the hospital. The Thai's don't allow them to do any sterilization at camp hospital. All have to be approved by the AMI committee and sent to Mae Sariang. It's a real problem because birth control is not practiced very well in the camps.

At the Pastor's home that night I saw Paw Pler and gave him the cassette player that I had brought for him. Sylvia had come by Sunday and I gave the one to her and 25 Pen Pal letters that had been written by kids in the U.S. I divided the 10 tapes I brought between Pastor and Paw Pler. They were ecstatic as they played one after another. I had brought in mostly gospel tapes and they really liked them. Our worship leader at church had burned a CD of some of our songs and gave me the words with guitar chords. I wish you could have seen how excited Paw Pler was to get them. We left as he and Pastor competed for the tapes. I will be sure to send more in. Lights were out at 8:30 and I was exhausted and glad that another day was over.

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