To Macedonia Church

The morning was sunny and hot, and it was almost an hour walk to Macedonia church from our Bible school. I had no umbrella with me and so by the time we reached the church I was tired, thirsty and sleepy! Anyway we rested nicely and talked with the pastor and the church elders. We had two worhip services--the first one with the whole church and the second one with the youth. My student-friends presented songs, and participated in intercessions and interpreting for me!

In the first worship, I preached from 1 Peter discussing on the biblical context of persecutions and sufferings and yet their responsibilities to rejoice in the Lord (1:1-2:10); to fulfill their responsibilities as believers and to submit (cooperate without compromising their faith and biblical values) to any authority(2:11-4:11), and lastly to help each other by serving and cooperating with each other so that believers remain united and strong in the Lord(5:1-14).

Later I concluded by encouraging the church that, though God is patient, He does not wait for us to be the most perfect church, riches church, intellectual church, nor the best gifted church to do His will--that is mission and evangelization. Just as the church has recieved many blessings, now despite the hard times that are around us it is now the believers' responsibilities to share the hope to everyone (3:15). So the morning's message revolved around the main theme "Saved to do Good in the Lord."

In the afternoon, I basically shared about the purpose of life basing from the text Mt. 22:37-40; Mt. 28: 19-20. I started by saying frankly and honestly that i do not know what God wants each of them to do in life, but for sure I know why God has given them (us) the gift of life. I also added saying that those who have not understood the purpose of life will not enjoy their lives, and instead of considering life as a gift from God they would see that life itselt is a burden full of prejudices, unsatisfaction, emptiness etc. But for those who have understood the purpose of life, their lives would be full and abundant despite the hardships around them. They would enjoy doing even the least thing which are often times overlooked!

So from the scripture passages I shared saying that the primary purpose of life is to "Love God," through Jesus Christ in the true Spirit, worship Him, giving Him the first place in our lives and trusting Him in all aspect of life at all circumstances. Then I added that that is not all, because if it were so we would be no better than escapist. So along with the first purpose comes another reason to live for--to "Love neighbours." Loving and caring for the well-being of fellow believers is the expression of true worship; in it we shoulder one another to mature and grow in the Biblical values. I added further saying that these two are not all,because if it were so we are not better than any group of thieves who also care for each other within their group. So another expression of true worhip is to "Love the world," though not in the sense of worldliness but cultivating the right attitude for the lost ones--having the compassion and passion, and setting out to reach out to every nations who are strangers to us and to the gosple.

I concluded encouraging the fellowship that each one of us have been blessed abundantly in so many ways and so no matter what we do and where we live, our focus should be these three things which is commanded and lived out by Jesus Christ himself.

By the time the second fellowship got over, it was around 2:30 p.m. and so I was so hungry (oh! I could even eat a horse myself!). Lunch was set so we got around the table; after the prayer song I was asked to pray so I prayed over the meal. The lunch was quite traditional--boiled rice, cucumber and green mangoes, chilli pickle and chicken curry with some green leaves and lot of soup. I was so hungry that I could eat a lot--i had two servings of rice and more of the others.

On our way back, we took a different route. We walked along the cool foot of the tall cliff. We came across a well established pagoda (Bhuddist worhip place). Its so surprising to see how hard they have worked and invested at an almost impossible place for their idol worship. They had built a place of worship inside a cave--I am just amazed how they could be so blinded by the traditional philosophy which they got from their teachers.

The Karen

"In the hands of God we trust"
(Rev. Dr. Simon, Principal of KKBBSC, Maela Refugee Camp)
www.arkaid.nl/kkbbsc

"They call us displaced people, but praise God; we are not misplaced.

They say they see no hope for our future, but praise God; our future is as bright is as the promise of God.

They say they see the life of our people as a misery, but praise God; our life is a mystery.

For what they say is what they see, and what they see is temporal, but ours is the eternal.

All because we put ourselves, in the hands of God we trust."



The Karens(Saw Wado, KKBBSC)
The Karens are a group of nomadic people, of whom the Burmese are another, who many centuries ago left their homes in Easter Tibet and South China and migrated south to the warmer climate and more fertile soil of South-East-Asia.
They arrived and made their settlement in Burma around A.D. 739. G.H. Luce and some Karen historians affirm that by 7th or 8th Century AD, the Karen were already occupying places like the whole lower Burma ( the delta area); along the banks of Salween river and the Irawady river, the two main rivers in Burma. They settled there for about a hundred year before the arrival of the Burmese around 825 AD.
Ever since, the Karens appeared to have been a subject race oppressed by their stronger neighbors and frequently used as slaves. To avoid oppression the Karen lived on hills and remoter parts. They were a subject and despised race. But they remain Karens.
Culturally, “the Karens are open, honest, lacking all guile in their face,” said Ian Morrison in his book, Grandfather Longlegs. (Faber and Faber LTD, 24 Russell Square, London). The Karens have a distinct dress. The men wear a simple Tunic called Te’, the married women a woven sarong and a short tunic, the girls and unmarried women a long white garment like a western nightdress. Most of the Karen history, traditions and cultural identity are handed down, the God-tradition be it oral or written, in poetic forms. Most of the Karens are simple cultivators. The Karens were once known as ‘Star of the East’ which denotes simplicity, honesty, hospitality in traits. The Karens are egalitarian in nature and hence are weak in buying-selling stuff or economic affairs.
Ian Morrison also sated that the Karens are not an intelligent people. They are nothing like as quick-witted as the Burmese or the Chinese “they are often extremely stupid. Like most people who live in the hills or who have been long oppressed, they are reserved. They like to use their own expression, ‘Put a thing in the heart.’ Only when they know a man well will they open their hearts. To a man they know and trust and love they will remain faithful till they die.”
The position of the Karens before the advent of the British was that of a subject race in true orient Fashion. They were treated as slaves; hence, they gradually moved their homes by mountain-side or tracts of land far away from towns and large villages occupied by the Burmese, in Delta.

The Karen God-tradition, so firmly believed in and strongly adhered to, was, that their white brother to whom God temporarily entrusted the golden book, that is the book of God, would one day be brought back to the Karens. So when Andoniram Judson arrived with the golden book i.e., the Bible, there was a big stir among the Karens. Judson gained the first Karen convert to Christianity in Ko Tha Byu by (1828) who wasted no time in spreading the gospel among his people, declaring that the long-lost ‘Book of God’ had been brought back by the white brother, and that the Karen God-tradition had been fulfilled.

When more and more Karens were embracing Christianity, the Burmese proceeded to make life more unbearable for the new converts. Persecution both religions and political began in earnest. Numerous Karens were caught and thrown into prisons, suffering untold agonies, and a few were crucified. One man, by the name of Klaw Meh was nailed to a cross, his abdomen ripped open with intestines hanging down, which the crows were picking while the poor man writhed in agony in an impossible attempt to drive away the crows. His voice gradually grew weaker until at last he died a miserable death, but a martyr on the cross like his master Jesus Christ. His crucifixion took place near a railroad passing between Rangoon and Bassein in a place called Yegyi. (Passim, from Burma and the Karens, by Sir San C. po).

The Karen’s long harbored anger against the Burmese oppression finally reached its peak and exploded with the birth Karen revolution in 1949, January 31st, a year after the end of British rule in Burma. The Karen revolution was neither to oppress the Burmese nor to retaliate against what the Burmese have done. It is a self-defense revolution and what they ask for are 1. The recognition of Karen state must be complete (Statehood). 2. Equality (Burmese one Kyat-Karen one Kyat). 3. We want no racial conflict. 4. We want no civil war. These are the four things which they aim for. But the regime denied all these things by saying, “there is no land for you, not even an inch. If you want the land, fight. The denial of these four things led to a disastrous civil war ever since.
The Karen revolution was once very strong in the beginning capturing almost all the major places and strongholds of the Burmese regime. In fact, the Karen had captured all the important places except the Insein areas which were only 7 miles in measurement. The Karen would have captured all, had they just ignored the faked cease-fire call of U Nu, the then regime leader.
Ba U Gui, our leader was persuaded (forced) to sign the cease-fire agreement against his actual way. In fact, he reluctantly signed the agreement. Taking advantage of the cease-fire, U Nu ordered his troops to surround the Karens up; they quickly brought weapons from India and surprise-attacked Karen to their disadvantage.

Be it as that may, fifty and seven years, under the successive regimes of Burma, rendered us to extreme frustration to the extent of hoping against hope.
Now, we are away from our home land displaced, stateless and basically behind barbed wires. We who were once independent now find ourselves dependent and now living on charity. We have lost our dignity and have become dependent upon others which in many ways degrading and disgraceful. Staying in Thailand as refugees is like running away from a tiger just to find ourselves confronting head-on with another bear which in many ways is no different from the tiger itself.
The UNHCR’s leadership in sending people for a third- country resettlement is one of the solutions, and yet this thing does not touch the Karen’s root-cause problem. I mean what the Karens need is more than this privilege. They need a land in which they can settle peacefully with freedom and dignity. The Karens, I feel, generally are not opportunistic business people. They seek their destination, not foreign resettlement. Their hope is rooted deep in their belief of the ‘Promised Land,’ their mother land and not in some utopian third countries.
However, many families left the camp for the third countries’ option; many will be leaving as far as my knowledge is concerned. Their reasons of leaving are educations and economics. It looks like many people have lost hope or are in the process of loosing hope in the Karen cause; they don’t want to live in a place where they have nothing to live for.
Moreover, more and more people seek to become Thai-citizens by paying some 50,000 Baths or so to some Thai-Karen villagers to acquire the Thai Identity Cards. This thing, too, can dilute our sense of responsibility toward our Karen cause.
Let me now leave you here with the present situation of the Karen people.

With Saw Wado in Kawthooie Karen Baptist Bible School and College, Maela Camp

"This is in the KKBBSC, Maela camp with Wado (the tough one). He is one among the first batch students (1995-1998) of the Bachelor of Theological Studies in this Bible School. After his BTS, he went to Nagaland, India, and completed his M.Div. and Th.M. in Oriental Theological Seminary (1998-2003), each time with earning an academic excellence to his credits. Since then he has been one of the regular and promising teachers in the BTS program. At present, he also works as the secretary of the Kawthoolie Karen Baptist Churches Youth Endeavor. Out here in the school, he likes to be called as the 'Rebel'--rebel for Christ. If you would like to check out this rebel you may do so through his e-mail: cross_rebel4xt@yahoo.com. You may also check out what he is doing with their youth through this blog www.kkbcyouth.blogspot.com and contact through wado.kkbbsc@gmail.com. You can get to know him and his people as you continue further below."

THE KARENS

"The Karens are a group of nomadic people, of whom the Burmese are another, who many centuries ago left their homes in Easter Tibet and South China and migrated south to the warmer climate and more fertile soil of South-East-Asia.
They arrived and made their settlement in Burma around A.D. 739. G.H. Luce and some Karen historians affirm that by 7th or 8th Century AD, the Karen were already occupying places like the whole lower Burma ( the delta area); along the banks of Salween river and the Irawady river, the two main rivers in Burma. They settled there for about a hundred year before the arrival of the Burmese around 825 AD.
Ever since, the Karens appeared to have been a subject race, oppressed by their stronger neighbors and frequently used as slaves. To avoid oppression the Karen lived on hills and remoter parts. They were a subject and despised race. But they remain Karens.
Culturally, “the Karens are open, honest, lacking all guile in their face,” said Ian Morrison in his book, Grandfather Longlegs. (Faber and Faber LTD, 24 Russell Square, London). The Karens have a distinct dress. The men wear a simple Tunic called Te’, the married women a woven sarong and a short tunic, the girls and unmarried women a long white garment like a western nightdress. Most of the Karen history, traditions and cultural identity are handed down, the God-tradition be it oral or written, in poetic forms. Most of the Karens are simple cultivators. The Karens were once known as ‘Star of the East’ which denotes simplicity, honesty, hospitality in traits. The Karens are egalitarian in nature and hence are weak in buying-selling stuff or economic affairs.
Ian Morrison also sated that the Karens are not an intelligent people. They are nothing like as quick-witted as the Burmese or the Chinese “they are often extremely stupid. Like most people who live in the hills or who have been long oppressed, they are reserved. They like to use their own expression, ‘Put a thing in the heart.’ Only when they know a man well will they open their hearts. To a man they know and trust and love they will remain faithful till they die.”
The position of the Karens before the advent of the British was that of a subject race in true orient Fashion. They were treated as slaves; hence, they gradually moved their homes by mountain-side or tracts of land far away from towns and large villages occupied by the Burmese, in Delta.
The Karen God-tradition, so firmly believed in and strongly adhered to, was, that their white brother to whom God temporarily entrusted the golden book, that is the book of God, would one day be brought back to the Karens. So when Andoniram Judson arrived with the golden book i.e., the Bible, there was a big stir among the Karens. Judson gained the first Karen convert to Christianity in Ko Tha Byu by (1828) who wasted no time in spreading the gospel among his people, declaring that the long-lost ‘Book of God’ had been brought back by the white brother, and that the Karen God-tradition had been fulfilled.
When more and more Karens were embracing Christianity, the Burmese proceeded to make life more unbearable for the new converts. Persecution both religions and political began in earnest. Numerous Karens were caught and thrown into prisons, suffering untold agonies, and a few were crucified. One man, by the name of Klaw Meh was nailed to a cross, his abdomen ripped open with intestines hanging down, which the crows were picking while the poor man writhed in agony in an impossible attempt to drive away the crows. His voice gradually grew weaker until at last he died a miserable death, but a martyr on the cross like his master Jesus Christ. His crucifixion took place near a railroad passing between Rangoon and Bassein in a place called Yegyi. (Passim, from Burma and the Karens, by Sir San C. po).
The Karen’s long harbored anger against the Burmese oppression finally reached its peak and exploded with the birth Karen revolution in 1949, January 31st, a year after the end of British rule in Burma.
The Karen revolution was neither to oppress the Burmese nor to retaliate against what the Burmese have done. It is a self-defense revolution and what they ask for are 1. The recognition of Karen state must be complete (Statehood). 2. Equality (Burmese one Kyat-Karen one Kyat). 3. We want no racial conflict. 4. We want no civil war. These are the four things which they aim for. But the regime denied all these things by saying, “there is no land for you, not even an inch. If you want the land, fight. The denial of these four things led to a disastrous civil war ever since.
The Karen revolution was once very strong in the beginning capturing almost all the major places and strongholds of the Burmese regime. In fact, the Karen had captured all the important places except the Insein areas which were only 7 miles in measurement. The Karen would have captured all, had they just ignored the faked cease-fire call of U Nu, the then regime leader.
Ba U Gui, our leader was persuaded (forced) to sign the cease-fire agreement against his actual way. In fact, he reluctantly signed the agreement. Taking advantage of the cease-fire, U Nu ordered his troops to surround the Karens up; they quickly brought weapons from India and surprise-attacked Karen to their disadvantage.
Be it as that may, fifty and seven years, under the successive regimes of Burma, rendered us to extreme frustration to the extent of hoping against hope.
Now, we are away from our home land displaced, stateless and basically behind barbed wires. We who were once independent now find ourselves dependent and now living on charity. We have lost our dignity and have become dependent upon others which in many ways degrading and disgraceful. Staying in Thailand as refugees is like running away from a tiger just to find ourselves confronting head-on with another bear which in many ways is no different from the tiger itself.
The UNHCR’s leadership in sending people for a third- country resettlement is one of the solutions, and yet this thing does not touch the Karen’s root-cause problem. I mean what the Karens need is more than this privilege. They need a land in which they can settle peacefully with freedom and dignity. The Karens, I feel, generally are not opportunistic business people. They seek their destination, not foreign resettlement. Their hope is rooted deep in their belief of the ‘Promised Land,’ their mother land and not in some utopian third countries.
However, many families left the camp for the third countries’ option; many will be leaving as far as my knowledge is concerned. Their reasons of leaving are educations and economics. It looks like many people have lost hope or are in the process of loosing hope in the Karen cause; they don’t want to live in a place where they have nothing to live for.
Moreover, more and more people seek to become Thai-citizens by paying some 50,000 Baths or so to some Thai-Karen villagers to acquire the Thai Identity Cards. This thing, too, can dilute our sense of responsibility toward our Karen cause.
Let me now leave you here with the present situation of the Karen people. "
(Saw Wado, KKBBSC)

A Wild Dream: "Prayer for a Life Time"
"The Karens are universally weak in two things. 1. Politics 2. Economics. This weakness is actually a cultural identity. The Karens are actually simple minded people and are not attracted to high standard lifestyle. They are peaceful and are not aggressive about issues like human rights, freedom, justice or economic development. These things boil down to our cultural values and under developed educational system.
Our day-to-day struggles have, may be, blind-folded us from seeing a distant future and we are left to live only on a one-day-at-a-time basis. Our future is actually scary, considering the fact that prices are higher each day and those who have been helping us will have to increase, or may be even double their donations each year. We can easily imagine the hardship that is to come from not-a-very-distant future if we cannot become self-support in some ways or if we cannot recirculate these helps that we get in some sustainable ways. Prices, higher; population, increases; alas, we need to take control, work on some workable solutions. We need to rise up, I guess to mend some mend able leaks.

The UNHCR’s leadership in sending people for a third- country resettlement is one of the solutions, and yet this thing does not touch the Karen’s root-cause problem. I mean what the Karens need is more than this privilege. They need a land in which they can settle peacefully with freedom and dignity. The Karens, I feel, generally are not opportunistic business people. They seek their destination, not foreign resettlement. Their hope is rooted deep in their belief of the ‘Promised Land,’ their mother land and not in some utopian third countries.

However, many families left the camp for the third countries’ option; many will be leaving as far as my knowledge is concerned. Their reasons of leaving are educations and economics. It looks like many people have lost hope or are in the process of loosing hope in the Karen cause; they don’t want to live in a place where they have nothing to live for.

Moreover, more and more people seek to become Thai-citizens by paying some 50,000 Baths or so to some Thai-Karen villagers to acquire the Thai Identity Cards. This thing, too, can dilute our sense of responsibility toward our Karen cause.
The camp-arrest live is not a bad opting comparing to the IDP (the Internally Displaced People), provided we have things to live for, or when we hold a job of some sort at hand. Unfortunately, all the major shops are run and controlled by Muslim people in all the Karen Refugee Camps; some of them are hardly refugees. Refugee status, for them, is just a mask or an excuse for the business opportunity. Now, money goes to them flow into endless pits. Almost nothing returns to the Karen revolution, the Karen Churches, the Karen organizations, etc.

What would it be if these shops are managed by the Karen themselves in all the Karen Refugee camps along the border? There would be a difference.
Even when a time comes for us to go back one day, settle in our homeland; honestly, we do not want to see foreigners rather than our own people leading in our business, entrepreneurship and market system.
The Karen themselves will be their own example and inspiration in their struggle to become a peaceful and well-to-do nation.

I still believe in the oppressed themselves being their own example and inspiration and in the process of their own liberation. I value outside supports which we will do very badly without them. The Karen themselves will have to rise up; they will have to link up with each other and shout for our freedom. Nothing is like doing it ourselves. We have been receiving flowing help from NGOs, from different organizations, from individual donors, and so on; but these helps should not flow into endless pits. These are things I want to see done among the Karen people; if not sooner, it has to be done later. But these are as urgent as a life and death situation which every Karen should put first priority in. There are three most important things:

1. The revival of the Karen churches:
It has been 177 years since we received the Gospel and yet only 25 percents Karen become Christians. Because those professed Christianity are complacent enough to ignore the importance of our situation here and now. The Karen Christians are not relevant to the struggle of the day. It looks like the God the Karens believe in is sick and I do not think it is that same God who brought Israel out of the bondage of Egypt.
Nietzsche said that God is dead. That is the God he believed in. But I don’t think Nietzsche’s God is the same living God who rose from the tomb 2000 years ago.
If the Karens believe in a living God they need to be more living.
I mean God is not a dose of opium for our Karen situation. He is the champion of the weak and the oppressed. He is our solution and not sedation. The Karen churches have to be alive and kicking.
I mean, the church should rise up not to spread the church; or to increase materials inside churches, but to spread the kingdom of God. The duty of the church is not to maintain the status quo of institutions but to move forward and orient toward the kingdom of God. The focus of the church is not materialism but people and their souls. The first and last word of the church is not to glorify the church but to glorify God the Father who is in Jesus Christ and through the power of the Holy Spirit.
2. The Karen Economic:
The kingdom of God that Jesus wanted to establish is not in Moon or in Mars. He said, “Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.” What actually is the Kingdom of God?
Is it some impractical things that we can perceive after we die? Or is it something that we can experience in a concrete historical situation? The actualization of the kingdom came with the person of Jesus Christ and the final realization is yet to come in the future. The rule of the kingdom of God is peace, justice, forgiveness prosperity and wholeness. And the rule of the kingdom of God touches every aspects of human life.
Economic well being is an essential part of human life, and this, I think, is the duty of the church to take on the issue of poverty very seriously.
The Karens are peaceful people and weak in doing business. Be it in Burma or inside refugees’ camps, we will rarely see Karen running shops. The Karens are not shop keepers. This is not a good trait. For economic independence is equally important as political freedom. All the major shops and businesses are run by Muslims in all the Karen refugees’ camps. And where does this money go? It may not come back to Karen causes such as Karen churches, Karen revolution, Karen organization etc…
If shops are run and managed by our own people; money will circulate among us for our use.
Ultimately, the Karens must be self-support if they want the Burmese regime to listen to what they are trying to voice out. (This is where the Community Bank’s idea fits in)
For economic independence is as important as the political freedom.
3. Karen peace process:
How good it is to see brothers live in unity.
The Church has an enormous responsibility to be a servant of the society.
The Church should play an active role in establishing a peaceful society for people to live in. the Karen churches need to rise up and say, “Enough with this division, and enough with this fighting, enough!” The Church needs to work out a solution for the Karen conflicts. To be straight forward, the KKBC (Kawthoolei Karen Baptist Churches) is a servant for the reconciliation process of the two Karen groups. The KKBC, together with KBC (Karen Baptist Convention in Burma) and The TKBC (Thai Karen Baptist Convention) should begin to explore and actualize this task. They should be united. The Karens will one day be united.
This is a dream wild and untamed; a future foretold. These three things, I believe, need to be done. These things are urgent which need a start somewhere; it needs to start here and now. The future we believe in should motivate, shape, revolutionize and eventually transform the present. The force of darkness is soaring high, we are still hoping against hope. However, the Gospel of Jesus Christ and faithful prayers can material this dream one day. The only hope for our Karen people is God. "(Saw Wado, Maela Camp)

With Karen people in Maela refugee camp in Thailand along the Thai-Burma border

Since July 2005, I have been with the Karen people in Maela refugee camp along the Thai-Burma border. They are one of the major ethnic groups of people who have been facing intense and active genocidal persecutions from the Burmese junta for around five decades.

This camp is one of the seven major camps along the border inside Thailand. There are around 55,000 refugees here in the camp alone. They are confined in the camp and hardly have the oppurtunity to earn their living--though some do small scale business.


These displaced people (refugees) are supported by many NGOs. They get their daily rations in terms of rice, charcoal for fuel, cooking oil, fish paste, and bamboos and leaves for houses. Besides these supports, they are also supported in terms of education--schools and the stationaries for school; health clinics; vocational schools; computer education; engineering college, and bible schools.

(They recieve bamboos and leaves for their house construtions from the Thai-Burma Border Concertium)For many of them, their whole lives circle in and around the camp. Decades of years have gone by with the hope to return to their homeland but no sign of political improvement inside Burma, rather a continous displacement of people in huge scale from inside their homeland. Many people who cannot make it to the camps have to opt to stay in the forest in groups and have to be "On the Run" (a documentary on the Internally Displaced People inside Burma) relying on their physiological abilities to digest and assimilate anything they eat for their food as the means for survival. (Children and youths having fun!)

(The market inside Maela Camp)


The UN has been helping these people by working hand in hand with many organizations. One way of giving them a better chance, besides the camps,for their future is to send them to the third countries which are willing to accept them. Many have been sent to the States, Canada, New Zealand, Norway and Australia.