Teaching OT in faraway places

I must have had a reverse “senior moment”, I remember writing a post about the Burmese Evening at BCNZ put on by the West Auckland Burmese community, with Burmese food and dancing and songs from Karen, Chin and Kachin groups, but when Miriam sent me a notice about it, I can’t find the post anywhere So, here, belatedly, is a link to the invitation, and extracts of the details, it is:

• organised by the Burmese Christian Fellowship,
• on Sunday July 20th from 5pm till 7pm
• $25 per person includes food, entertainment and donation to Cyclone Nargis relief (organised informally through contacts on the spot)
• at Bible College of New Zealand (if it has not changed its name by then 221 Lincoln Rd, Henderson, traffic light entrance opposite Pak N Save, “entrance through the muli-storey brick building at the end of the drive”
• please pay in advance to:
  • Adrienne Coats 837 1507
  • Paul Long 818 3874
  • Khun Aung 630 8975
  • David Thorpe 826 0864

If anyone needs lift from over our way please contact me!

It is a simple story, simply told. There is no bloodshed, little horrific violence (and that only mentioned quietly and simply), yet it is powerful. It is told by someone called “May” she seems to suffer from bi-polar disorder (if I understood my quick glance at the rest of her blog rightly) and she tells Thay Htoo’s story, with empathy. Read it. The saddest thing is that it is not really an unusual story.

Edith took some photos at the Birthday party, you can see them on her Facebook page.

I will post photos of the work on the dorm at PhoPra once we get them…

Here’s a cute baby photo that Sarah took, at the IDP (Internally Displaced Person) village.

This Karen baby is cute and knows it, having your photo taken is fun too!

The clay protects from the sun, but who will offer protection from the Myanmar Army?

BTW: Today is The Party, so please - if you read this today - either turn up (if we have not met before you are spoecially welcome), or pray that it will all go well. This time there are just three (and Nathan’s friend Tommy) of us usually when our family has done a big party there have been 5-6 (but the others are in the UK ;-0

For my 40th I had a big birthday bash, we were in Congo then, and two ambassadors and a brass band took part! Now I’m hitting 60 and want “something special” to celebrate. However, since we are just back from four weeks in a refugee camp on the Burma/Thailand border, a straight-out party seems wrong somehow…

So, I’m inviting “the world and his aunt” (at least those of you within reach of Auckland) to my Big 60 Rambo *   Feast:

6pm Sunday 18th May, at Balmoral Baptist Church, cnr. Dominion Rd and Queens Ave, Central Auckland

There will be loads of yummy Karen-style food (not too spicy), photos, videos (though not of Sylvester) and stories from the Mae La Refugee Camp and an (Internally Displaced Person) IDP village. Bring a cash present - not for me - but for Bethel Baptist Church in the Karen IDP village, to help their school. It’s for children chased from their homes by the Myanmar army.

If we all give what we’d normally pay for an evening out, we’ll raise enough to give a load of Karen IDP kids a better education, and we’ll have some fun… (for those who can’t make it and will be deprived, there are photos and videos at http://AsiaBible.WordPress.com).

RSVP for catering to 09 526 0344

It would be great if you could be there, and do bring anyone else who might be interested, even if they have never met me they are welcome!

Here’s an article from this month’s NZ Baptist magazine.

Jasmine at work in the kitchen that supplied the visitors with delicious Karen food

A refugee camp seems an odd place for a spiritual retreat. Is a place where food is scarce, people are forbidden jobs, banned from travel, suffering the physical and mental scars of decades of strife against a brutal and unrestrained military dictatorship somewhere to refresh the soul?

It may not seem obvious, but that is what we did. We must admit, some aspects of life in Mae La are not conducive to spiritual renewal: The toilets double as “shower” rooms but have mud floors. We are not used to sleeping through noise, so band practice starting at 5AM, with choir finishing at 9:30PM, followed by chatting and even mobile phones till late into the night just through the partition next to our sleeping mat, left us tired!

Yet our four weeks in the Mae La camp were part of Tim’s sabbatical from teaching at Carey, and “leave of absence” from work as a family therapist for Barbara, and a Big(ger than usual) OE for Sarah (a University student). It is not as daft as it sounds, we learned in Africa that often people who have the least can teach the most about relating to God - Kiwi Christians often look embarrassed giving thanks for a restaurant meal, African Christians will naturally pray over a glass of cool clear water.

Pastor Dr Simon Htoo principal of KKBBSC at the Jubilee. Pastor Simon was the second ever winner of the BWA Human Rights Award after President Jimmy Carter.

Karen refugees certainly don’t have much: a roof over their heads - usually made of leaves since “permanent” materials like corrugated iron are forbidden, some food - because refugees can’t work officially, rice and some fish-paste is provided for each registered refugee family (naturally it’s shared with those who are not yet registered), and safety in Thailand - the army of the Myanmar Government won’t burn their homes down or “recruit” their young men as porters and work them to death here… but they do have faith, hope and love.

Many Karen are Baptists, and have been for nearly 200 years, Christianity is deep-rooted here. We visited a village of IDPs (Internally Displaced People) whose village was burned following an army raid. They had rebuilt not only homes, and a temporary church, but a school that attracts children from villages in Burma and from the refugee camps - all with no help from any government, and only a bit of help from NGOs: one charity gave materials for permanent classrooms another feeds the children with rice everyday, vegetables and fish-paste twice weekly, and meat once a month. We were at the village to celebrate their new permanent church building, with tiles and a bright blue roof. The singing lasted hours, as you can imagine it was a time of great joy.

We went to Mae La to teach (Tim - Old Testament Narratives, Barbara - Human Development, Sarah - English) and to share in the jubilee. The Kawthoolei Karen Baptist Bible School & College was founded 25 years ago in Burma, but 18 years ago moved to Mae La, when the army burned down the school and the village around it. Today, some students were born as refugees, but others have crossed the border recently and do not know the fate of the rest of their family.

The refugees we met are Christian and their faith is in Jesus (who else can a refugee trust?), their hope is in God (humans have tormented them and let them down - they used to hope that Westerners would help against the military dictators, but after years of waiting that hope is less strong now) and their love comes, not only from Karen tradition, but also from the Holy Spirit working in them.

After all, maybe a refugee camp is a good place for spiritual renewal! There’s a popular quote about tourists leaving only footprints and taking only photos. It makes some sense, but it misses the real point of travel. When you go elsewhere and live among a different people you are changed. If you are not then you have failed to really be there no matter how long you stayed!

So, when we visited the refugee camp at Mae La though we went as teachers it was inevitable we’d learn more than we could teach.

For more information:

Karen Konnection an American Baptist site,

Christians Concerned for Burma [warning some pictures are gruesome],

The border between Thailand and Burma is surprisingly porous. We began to be aware of this when we crossed “the bridge” to renew our visas. Our trip to the local church celebration last Sunday underlined just how permeable a frontier drawn on a map can be.

The village itself is comprised mainly of Karen “Internally Displaced People” though it is in Thailand, on land rented cheaply by a sympathetic Thai citizen, and ignored by the Thai authorities. Some of the villagers are Thai citizens, as are their children. (To complicate matters often one parent is an IDP the other a Thai-Karen.)

It is also home to a school, which teaches not only village children, but also children whose parents live inside Burma (they live in dormitories) and some from refugee camps too.

One teacher we talked to a lot gave us a good impression of a school with very few resources indeed, except the people. The children get meals (thanks to Children on the Edge - the Body Shop Foundation): rice everyday, meat at least once a month, and vegetables, yellow beans or fish paste each twice a week. However, there are few or no textbooks, even for the teachers to use. The guy we talked with has studied engineering in Burma (at Mandalay University) before fleeing to China and getting a degree in Computers, Maths and English. I wonder how many NZ schools on making a change to the curriculum get rid of the old textbooks. If you know of one do let us know, maybe we can arrange to get them to people who will really use the “old” books. In some subjects real numbers would be great, in others enough for the teachers to use or to make a small library for the students would help.

As a final illustration of the porous border we went for a bath at the river, and watched motorized bullock carts (powered by rotovator engines) go back and forward across the frontier, or sometimes merely down the border to re-enter Burma a hundred or two meters downstream.

We are into the third day of the Jubilee, and I have not managed to post

Part of the audience at the youth evening (between sets)

The celebrations bagan with a wedding - not part of the jubilee or the assembly/convention of the KKBC (Kawthoolei Karen Baptist Churches) but an appreciated addition (with maybe some photos or video when I get time to sort and edit them).

We start at 6am with a service, though the noise starts earlie - not least testing the temperamental sound system. Then breakfast - the full Karen deal with rice, meat, chicken and veges. There are meetings through the day, though we are not really involved, since they are all in Karen (I wish I could follow enough Karen to attend the KKBBSC meeting, I’d love to be involved in the discussions about a programme to follow the BTS).

My neighbour

The day officially ends with the evening session starting at 6pm, after tea, so about 9pm. Tonight is the Karen cultural performances, to which we are looking forward eagerly. Last night was the “youth” with bands that attracted a huge crowd, including the young kids who sneaked into the empty VIP seats next to me! Maybe I’ll upload a short video to give you a feel for it…

However, we are next to the computer and communications centre (the room that the teacher who is responsible for IT occupies, with his mobile phone) which is often a busy place at night… So the afternoon is for sleep (if possible). The morning is for preparation - I give the “charge to the graduates” on Saturday morning - and marking both Barbara and I have assignments to mark.