went to the boarder markets in the morning. bought some funkie hippie pants. caught the bus home. on the way we passed the famous Dr Cynthia clinic (the only place all the illegal burmese immigrants who aren't in the refugee camps can get medical care). a brand new mother hopped on the bus, 2 day old baby in arms. the mother looked at me beaming, and gave me one of the most beautiful smiles i've ever been given. a few kms down the road we were stopped by police who wanted to check everyone had their id. everone who had their little blue books pulled them out and nervously opened them for the police. those that didn't put their eyes to the floor... including the brand new mum. i held my breath, thinking surely noone is mean enough to arrest a brand new mum.
and, thank the Lord, today they weren't. after glancing at a few of the id papers the police waved us on. brand new mum resumed her beautiful smile. baby slept unknowingly in her arms.
in the afternoon we went to burmese church. they have it in a thai church, who very kindly allow the burmese to use their facilities. it's pretty obviously that there's a fairly major difference in class between the two groups -thai rish, burmese poor. the first service is in thai. then they all have lunch together, paid for by the church offererings. the burmese quietly walk around the eating thais and take their place in the pews. the burmese get to give a tithe (which goes to the thai pastor) but they don't get to eat lunch.
for once i could understand the sermon because it was given by casey! (with the aid of both a burmese and karen interpreters). he preached up a storm on james 2 (faith with out works is dead). quote: everyone's 'works' will look different. it is important we don't make too many rules on what works should look like. each of us must make sure our works look like jesus, and he looks a little bit different to everyone.
later in the afternoon we went to visit one of the school kids (from casey's soccer team) who was sick and hasn't been to school for 2 weeks. again it was a bamboo shack amoungst fields, no electricity and a little stream for water. chicks scurried about underneath. while we were praying for the 10 year old boy a couple of chicks jumped into the 'kitchen' and then into a cold saucepan full of potatos and onion. they hopped in and out of the pan having a good feed. eventually a man came along and kicked them out and put the lid back on the pan.
1 comment:
I wonder what you would have done if they had taken the woman and her child off the bus? I asked myself what I would have done. I think I would have frozen in confusion and indecision as to what I should do...I guess I find myself in that place too often in my faith! Great to read your journey.
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