Down By the River, Took a Little Walk

I was torn for a title to this entry, "A River Runs Thru It," "Crossing Over,", and "In the Jungle, The Lion Speaks Tonight,"  I've reverted to a former T.A.P softball chant!

My team and I traveled from Chiang Mai, Thailand up some winding mountains to the Burmese border.  We quickly moved our stuff into our new lodging, mats & mosquito nets, open doors and windows, & squatty potties!  To be honest, that felt more like home than our 3BR, 3Bath, airconditioned home in Chiang Mai!


We decided to explore our surroundings. Through the back gate is a small school that is a part of our feeding program.  There's a wooded area that's all grown up, our translator tells us that the church wants to buy it to add on to the school & church, but the owner of the area had a dream that the spirit of a young girl lives there and that if it is sold and cleared she'll have no place to live, so it just sits, unused. Many Buddhists have spirit houses on their land to house the spirits that inhabited there before they built on it, they daily put out food and gifts for these spirits.

This is a spirit house at a restaurant.  There are food
and gifts & of course shade provided!

We walk further into the tropical area, we pull up short by a moving river.  I turn back, but the translator rolls up his pant legs and steps in.  Skeptically, I follow.  We cross quickly and climb the small bank to what appears to be just another area of dense foliage.  We pass some abandoned structures, made mostly of bamboo and thatch.  Our translator explains to us that this is an abandoned refugee camp, as he's talking a man passes us with a clear plastic bottle of the largest crickets I've ever seen.  He offers us some, we decline.  Up ahead small children are playing and there's what looks something like a volleyball net apparatus, minus the net.  As we approach, we find that there is one family that has not vacated the premises.  They are friendly, we are friendly, we say hello and good-bye and head back to our lodging for the night.

We did our English camps, we explored the beautiful village around us, and went about our business, but our minds had stayed on the people across the river.  We asked if it would be appropriate to take them some food and things.  We were told of some things that they might like to eat and that would not upset their stomachs.  We purchased the items and headed over.  We had our translator explain that we were going to be neighbors for a short time and wanted to bring them these gifts.  They shared the food with the entire family and began to ask us questions, "Why are you here?" "Why did you bring us gifts?" We responded briefly, Convoy of Hope, Jesus, etc. and then we asked if they would teach us how to play takraw.  However, the male leader of the group began to gather the other members,  and within moments the entire group men, women, and children were sitting at our feet peering up at us curiously.  I looked at my translator as if to say, "What's going on?"  He inquired for us and replied, "They want you to tell them everything."  "About what?!" I replied. "Jesus," he smiled.  So we did.

I shared a testimony of God's work in my life and in my family and then Sara took it from there and laid out the Good News of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ beautifully.  We prayed for them and then they schooled us at takraw until darkness fell.

Sometimes ya just need to take a little walk...