kaw hi me quamsuk wan Christmas...

Ashoka Globalizer. A new class. My new Burmese friends. The great people God blesses me with on bus rides.

Firstly! The Merriest Christmas to all of you... here is 'we wish you a Merry Christmas' in Thai:

kaw hi me quamsuk wan Christmas,
kaw hi me quamsuk wan Christmas,
kaw hi me quamsuk wan Christmas,
lee saw wat di bii mai! :)

Kun Sompop called me over the other day and started reading an e-mail he had received from a charity organization called 'Ashoka' about their latest grant opportunity called 'Ashoka Globalizers'. Sarah, Jamie, (the two other vols) and I had worked on the proposal together, and it was our first one that we recieved news about. Ashoka is an organization that extends invitations to NGO founders to be an 'Ashoka fellow' with them, to share information and to network and such. There are about 2000 Ashoka fellows each year I think? For 'globalizers', they would pick 25 NGO's out of 2000 to be 'ready to gloabalize'- to go further than their country and immediate region. DEPDC's future vision includes the expansion of our 'Mekong Youth Union' of projects started by DEPDC trained youth leaders to the 'Asian Youth Union'. So, we had to prove to Ashoka that we're ready for this step and that they should believe in our work and support it. In the e-mail Kun Sompop read me, he had been invited to the Ashoka conference in Vienna in April as the representative of DEPDC, one of the 25 NGOs that Ashoka chose that are ready to go global!!! Hurray!! :) I really feel like I got to contribute; even if it was only for my English writing skills... which I guess are important in grant writing! ;)

The other night at CLC (Community Learning Centre- where I teach the monks every Mon, Wed, and Fri night from 6-8), one of my monks told me he had told some of his friends that I don't teach on Tuesday and Thursday. So, a group of seven monks walked by the classroom window (the classrooms are pretty much all windows.. its more like.. just absence of wall..) and asked me if I can start a new class and teach them twice a week, I was like, 'sure'... because, well, that's why I'm here, so I invited them in and had them write down their names and ages, and told them they were free to invite anyone else at a beginner level as well. So, the next day I walked into a class of 14 new students that are absolute basic beginners! Though I now work every week day until 8... teaching monks is just so entertaining that I don't mind at all :)

The night before Christmas Eve, I was riding down the big hill after CLC to meet Jamie for dinner. I heard a loud, 'hallelujah!' and clapping from one of the houses; I slammed on the breaks on my bike, and waited for the carolers ( I assumed?) to come out. Jamie called me wondering where I was.. 'Jamie.. I think you're on your own tonight... sorry!'. I asked the group if I could join them and if they could bring me back to my bike afterwards. They happily accepted me into their group; a Burmese community Church called 'Grace International'. No one spoke Thai, only Burmese and English. Oh... I can't even explain to you... it was so lovely. We were riding around in the back of pickup trucks, stopping from place to place- Burmese singing, talking, laughing- oh! It's like.. even when they're not singing, it sounds like singing. Burmese is the most beautiful language I have ever heard. It's like a combination of the best parts of french and spanish... *sigh. Anyway, a couple of my students were caroling as well and I spent a lovely evening trekking around the mountainy parts of Mae Sai holding a little girl's hand and clapping along with foreign yet stunningly joyful and beautiful Christmas carols. We traded cell numbers and they invited me out to their Christmas Eve service the next night! A truck of students from a bible seminary near my house picked me up for the service... wow. I really like that Church. I want to remember everything, all the time I spend with these passionate, thankful people. I didn't bring my camera to the service because I wanted to experience it with just my eyes, not looking through anyone elses. They are some of the most persecuted people in the world- just for being of minority ethnicities and standing up for their people and their country, yet... they're some of the happiest people I think I have ever met. Truly. Hm. I also learned more about my students from the pastor there. Every Tuesday afternoon I teach the kindergarten class (or whoever just doesn't know Thai yet): among these are 4 girls wearing matching heavy blue jackets. They go to Grace Chruch; the Pastor told me that they are Wa, the people group currently heavily targeted by the Burmese Military, between the military-controlled part and Southern China. These girls escaped to Thailand and found themselves in Mae Sai without parents; the pastor took them into the children's home attached to the Church. Hm. This is why they don't answer me when I speak Thai to them. Last Tuesday we drew around our hands, wrote our names in Thai, coloured our hands in, and then did the same on a BIG sheet of paper to put up in the classroom. Those girls gave me their hand-pictures so I can put them up at home! :) On Christmas day my new friends called me again and invited me out to the city-wide gathering of Christians in a parking lot of one of the municipal buildings. Even though I had had a very wearing day at the centre of unexpected disappointments and responsibilites, it was nice to sit with friends and enjoy the community around me. They don't know Thai because they learn the bible in English, so I was actually translating (as much as I could!) the sermon for them into English, and teaching them a couple of Thai words. I hope I get to hang out with them more often- more maybe as a collective group of girls and guys... one of the guys told me he's been praying for an English girlfriend ... :S

This morning I saw the sunrise for the first time, as I caught the earliest first class bus (= a toilet on the bus) out of Mae Sai so I could see my friend Courtney (who also lives with my family in Chiang Mai) again before she flies off to Vietnam on the 27th. There was only one seat taken on the bus, and the hostess led me to the seat right beside her; I was tired and wanted to have my own seat, but she insisted that we sit together. We talked in Thai about where we are from and where we are going, where we work and such, when she started speaking to me in very good English, as the conversation started to get harded to understand (such grace!). She is Burmese and was going to visit her boyfriend in the refugee camp in Mae Sot, an other border town with Myanmar, in Western Thailand. She said she met him at Grace International Church-- we chatted and realized that we recognized each other from both the Christmas Eve service and the city-wide service as she was part of the dance group. I remember seeing her on stage both times, thinking what a strong and beautful woman she looked like, and how she just seemed to shine! She told me about the history of Christianity in Burma-- and about a white missionary family that has been living in her town for four generations! She went on to tell me that she works as a translator for YWAM groups going into Burma, and hopes to start a youth ministry for Burmese in Mae Sai; that Mae Sot has many many ministries, but Mae Sai has been almost forgotten about in comparison to Mae Sot. She talked about wanting to teach them trades and different handi-crafts so they can make money. I told her that I wanted to do the same kind of thing, maybe even have an organic bakery, to which she talked about her dream of owning a coffee shop... to which I talked about the 24/7 boiler room idea of weeks in community constant prayer... and the whole conversation was just.. ah, like God had just set everything up (including how she had missed her first bus so had to ride on the second) so we could chat. She has such a passion for her people and for God. Her name is Thalita and I think she is just wonderful... so strong. She wants to write a book about her life,Myanmar, and her experiences working with YWAM. She also sponsors people to go to Bible school in Burma who don't have enough money for tuition. I told her I'de love to visit the school, and she said she's going in January! I went to Myanmar for the first time on.. Thursday? Christmas Eve. The difference... between Thailand and Myanmar... is.. horrific. Even a border town, which makes a lot of money of off the visa-running tourists. There is a community of child beggers that live on the bridge in no-mans land before you even get to Myanmar :S. It makes me pretty thankful for Mae Sai... yet at the same time like... slapped into recognition of what's going on a couple km up the road.

Burma=Myanmar/Myanmar=Burma. I'm not really sure what to call it. Either Americans might get upset or the rest of the world will, depending on what you call it; Burmese people seem to use them both interchangeably?

Yes. So. I'm in Chiang Mai now, enjoying a couple days off until next week when I start classes again on January fourth. I want to be daring... I want to lift my hands and feet up to God... and I want him to use me. Hmm.

Oh! The books I got from my friend in Chiang Mai have already started being used! I have almost catalogued them all in my computer and I lent the first books out on Wedneday to some very eager monks. I have been bringing them to school bit my bit with as many as can fit in my bicycle basket each morning.

I also met up with a great missionary family here- Harry and Patti Britton and their family from Texas. I went with them to Chiang Rai last Sunday for English Church, and then helped them with a Christmas play at a highschool on Thursday morning. Their daughter likes mountain biking and was talking about a race in Mae Sai in January?? (yes please!) They work for Narrow Gate Asia, and are working on a farming ministry here in Mae Sai in partnership with a dairy farm that's actually right next to DEPDC.

Thankyou friends! Hope you had a lovely Christmas.
Blessings!

n