Our first day in Mae Sot, we went to Compasio's safe house where former street kids are living a healthy life. Here are Rhiannon and Nokia coloring.
Here we are at the Compasio's house for a group of children born in prison. The officials and mothers approached our friends to take these kids in. We brought some string and beads and hit the ground running making necklaces and bracelets. The children on our laps (plus 2 others) were born and raised in prison while their mothers serve their sentences. Compasio has the task of teaching these kids how to be kids, ie, how to play. They are also working to stay in relationship with the moms so that when they get out, they will be able to reestablish their families.
These boys are from a group of give or take 15 “street” kids (depending on the day). Compasio has been graced with a little room near the market for a drop-in center. They supply the kids with a warm lunch and a chance to play and be children for a couple of hours every weekday. This is where we have spent most of our time thus far. You can see “Jungle John” (as opposed to Gym) doing his daily routine. Rhiannon is currently working on an indoor mural that takes up an entire wall of the drop-in center. Pictures will be posted as soon as they can be!
Our last day in Chiang Mai we met Fran and Owen, a couple of Australians who used to live in Thailand and are here visiting old friends and seeing how they can get reconnected in serving here. We spent pretty much all of our first 4 days in Mae Sot with them. Here we are at a vista, looking over the border at some Burmese mountains (there’s a village that you can just barely see the outskirts of to the right of John). We were standing on an old guardrail right before this picture was taken. Rhiannon and our friends are standing on a falling guardrail in the picture.
Our Australian friends introduced us down the line until we came here, a YWAM base on the border near Burma that works specifically with the Karen people: teaching them first aid and basic health, as well as teaching a strictly Karen-village person’s Discipleship Training School. This is a picture as you enter the grounds of their base.
Thank you for all of your prayers, and keep it up, we need it! Thank you to everyone who made this trip possible (and not only from us, but from our new friends, too!). We love you all and we’ll see you soon!
May the peace of Christ be with you. John&Rhi
