Karanni mission trip's memmo

Karanni mission trip
Camp 2
Day one: 8/12/2006 arrival
Ebenezer Church
We started of with the first worship, some solid praise and preaching, the students did some very exciting stuffs after the worship.
Day two: 9/12/2006 we did some visitations to houses of both believers and nonbelievers. Had some good responses and the same evening moved to Immanuel church where we took up the whole evening program. I did the preaching part and students did very good work doing praise, worship and fun stuffs. We gathered for a very excited forum, very good reports from students.

Day Three: 10/12/2006 Sunday, I preached a very political sermon today, focusing on the Nazareth manifesto. We went out, spread out preaching good news to nonbelievers that same afternoon after the service, we skipped the Holy Communion just, I think, to put into praxis Jesus’ command to remember him.

Day Four: 11/12/2006, Monday
We paid some visits to different houses, praying, encouraging believers and so on, that same evening we moved to another Immanuel just across the river and I preached a very evangelistic sermon and students continued and praise and fun fare. Has little linguistic and communication problems, I think it basically because of the microphone. We constantly have problem with this one. That hinders us quite a bit to doing effective jobs. Good responses from both the pastor and the members.
Day Five: 12/12/06, we went around visiting believers, nonbelievers and the sick, I had to preach in Burmese in a house; the husband is a Christian but not so with the wife. I found it a bit hard but it went well. We moved to another church, they called themselves the guest church (wrSHRp>zSd.f) I preached on the resurrection of Jesus Christ and I was encouraged to see I had their attention really good. I hope this church is alive and kicking.
After the worship session it was time for fun fare, I showed some video clips while students got ready for dramas and things like that, an exciting evening too. After all the sessions, while coming back for refreshment, a group of young people visited on us; I was touched to see tears from both sides—emotions, and signs of attachment shown to us in many aspects. The Karen culture after all is beautiful.
Day six: 13/12/06 we woke up early morning preparing for Karanni camp 1, we were accompanied by a bunch of young people half way where we reached our cars and there was another emotional goodbye. We reached the karanni Bible School safe and sound that same evening we were still outside the camp and were treated really good with a round of porridge and thus we had another warm experience. We relaxed, watched movies and things like that.
Day Seven: 14/ 12/06 Thursday, 2007. This is camp No. one; we sensed it rather different from that of camp No. 2. This camp is a little more advance, more populated, more restrictions and so it seems more deeds of Satan. It is said many cases of suicide, a lot of depression, quarrellings, more or less like Mae La camp where multiple ethnics reside together, or rather squeezed together in one place. That means we need more prayers, more power, my worry is that students will not keep up the same spirit that we have been carrying throughout camp 2. We will be fine, I am positive.
Well, just as I expected, everything went really cool in spite of warning that we might drive people away very soon if we do the worship too long. I stood against the warning believing that God will lead me into something exciting. God did and I preached a firry sermon which I hope will inspire many. Against all expectation of odds the students performed cool and people just fluxed into the school building. It is about just doing our best and God always takes care of the rest.

Day Eight: 15/12/06, Friday
We moved to another church ‘Thahaybyayealeh’. The pastor of the church was not here. He went to a bereaved family (the girl born down-syndrome, she had been retarded since birth) I laid hand on her, we prayed expecting a healing, lo and behold God had healed her permanently now. She has gone for a peace that passes all understanding; thank God He shortened her suffering. But I wonder what the family might think of us because the child died a day after our prayer.
Tonight was mediocre, I did not put on a very good preaching, I know, partly because I was not that prepared and partly I was rather discouraged by rumors of restriction. I had to kill one snake hanging on the wall of the church while preaching. This place, we have to make a difference, we have to show we are not afraid; we have got to show we are free. We need to be an example of freedom in the midst of oppression. The Thai authority, namely the Pala (camp commander) is a fox. He wants all things done according to his prejudice. His job is to protect and his action is oppression. He can act crooked because there are no educated and brave leaders to stand up for rightful truth. Moreover, most of the leaders are nonbelievers and thus as not selfless as a matter-of-fact.
I promised the students tonight that, if need be I will be willing to lay down my life for them so that all of them make it safe to school and resume their studies. I encouraged them not to be afraid because we are here with a mission to spread the good news and not bad news. I mean every single word that I uttered. All we need to do is pray in faith God Almighty will take care of the rest.

Day Nine: 16/12/2006, Saturday
We started off with a refreshed spirit, the team seems to be enthused and not backing off in any sense. They sure got what I said last night and they are now off to the field among brethren wolfs. It’s hard in here, the struggle is extreme, but we’ll sore the height and plunge the depts. We will not give in. With the love of Christ which binds us strong we will go on. It is our duty that we are to obey God rather than men. Round about noon, we moved to ‘Paneayelah Church’, this church is pastored by Rev. Saw Shwey, the father of Muno Shwey, one of the students of BTS III. We played a game of volley ball, an exhibition match with them, we lost real badly. I did not speak tonight because I though it would be good to give chance to one of the students to preach. He did a good job. The overhead projector that we have brought along serves really well.

Day Ten: 17/12/2006, Sunday
(yeHRythv;w>ftd.fzSd.f) ‘Pane aye Lah Church’ I put on a rather poor preaching I guess, many people have seen me preached at camp No. 2 putting on a very impressive performance. They requested me to preach that same sermon on the ‘Nazareth Manifesto’. I did and that turned out to be rather mediocre. May be I was too excited, I was praised through out and thus became too depended on my own strength. Satan, I am sure, waited for this opportunity and laughed out laud at my inconsistency. I tried to do my best but the spirit was not there that much? I tried to put in new activities and creativities into the preaching but I am lacking in something I cannot describe. I realize lately that God’s work has to be done with God himself.
Day Eleven: 18/12/2006, Monday
There is a trend of depression in this camp. We visited five families with depression related syndrome. It was quite a new thing for me to see Karen get depressed in this type of close-knit community. Many of them are on medication. I was told they became aloof during the medication but when the Anti-depressant is off, there are suicidal behaviors in quite a number of them. Strange!!
I think, these cases of depression occurred mainly because of the gloomy situation of the camp. So much restriction can press people into some very destructive behaviors of all types. I couldn’t do much. Things I can do are these that I used my sense of humor to comfort them, we prayed for them, we encouraged them etc.. We moved to another church, (Dortama Church) the smallest in this camp, the pastor is a thin lady, may be about 70 years of age. The pastor described the people around there as uncivilized, to be honest, I don’t like that real well. For me, people of different values system, culture, customs, or behavior cannot be termed uncivilized just because they see things differently from what I see. I mean, I can call the westerners as uncivilized in a sense that they have more access to guns and sophisticated weapons like notorious nuclear-warheads which can scare the hell out of people. In contrast, I see these people as potential mission field, ripen and ready to be harvested.

Day Twelve: 19/12/2006, Tuesday (Dortama Church)
We woke up early morning to attend worship at that church. They said it’s seven o’ clock Thai time and the church was not opened yet the time we reached the church. We had to wait for another one hour for the preacher to come.
We mainly took rest today, I found that the students are tired and need some rest. I and four students went out to some nonbelievers’ houses to preach to Gospel while the rest of the students took rest or lazed around. Well, a lot of worship services, a lot of actions, so to say, and of course, a lot of eating.

Day Thirteen: 20/12/06 Wednesday

We moved to ( Daw Plaw Du), a group of young people came and took our luggage. Our performances have come down partly because we are tired and redundant. It is a kind of boring to perform those same things over and over again. We need to be creative; we need to do our best. We woke up early morning for a Christmas service, Rev. Isaac Pae Thoo preached again. We went off preaching good news to some nonbelievers’ houses. I told some of the youth leaders to do the follow-up. And we moved to the Church where we will be staying for two days. We went to Rev. Saw Shwey’s house for his eldest daughter and one of his sons’ birthday where I preached on the prayer Jabez, the old man said hallelujah many times because the verses I spoke on are his family’s favorite. We came back to Smyrna Church after the birthday thanksgiving.
Day Fourteen: 21/12/2006 Thursday. We set out for early morning worship in one of the houses. That was a thanksgiving service. We went to a house of an animist who does not know anything about her faith. Quite exceptional, her daughter has a very big head. Too big that at the age of three she can’t get up to support her head. The mother accepted Christ quite willingly when I preached to her about the good news of Jesus who has come to save the lost sinners. We took down all her flowers and religious symbols. Praise be to God. This same evening I preached on ‘Do not be lukewarm’ from the book of revelation. I told them that we are not here to play as some people have described us that they like the way we played on the stage. We are here to make them happy, yes, it’s more than to make you happy temporarily but to let you meet Jesus. Those who meet Jesus Christ will never be the same again and he or she will be a new creation for better of for worse. Actually our purpose of coming here is that we want revival to the believers and to those who have not heard Christ will come to know Christ. I often remind the students not to turn either left or right from our objective. Fun stuff is good but that’s not the focus, the focus is that we want people to meet the Prince of Peace. We showed them that movies ‘In the Beginning’.

Day Fifteen: 22/12/2006, Friday. We set out to different houses of nonbelievers to preach the good news of Jesus Christ. Good news, the house we went yesterday had good dreams—that she dreamed of some angels.
In the afternoon we went up to ‘Pa Ne Aye Lah Church’ for a birthday thanksgiving where I preached on Matt. 16: 16, the great confession of Peter. Tonight we moved to ‘Olive Church’ where I asked one student to preach. They did a good job. The current was a bit too low and I couldn’t use the overhead projector. I am glad the students got really well that our objective is more than to make the people happy, we are here to make Christ the real Lord and savior.
Day Sixteen: Saturday, 23/12/2006, we went around with the Church youths to nonbelievers’ houses. We came back for a very good forum. I told the youth of the church to visit and do the follow up after we left.

We moved to another church ‘Bathney’ church, the pastor’s house is not far away from the previous church. The name of the pastor is ‘Lah Say Oo’ a young man with promising prospect. But he is leaving for the third country very soon if things work out according to expectation. I preached again that same evening on the Book of Revelation 3:15, 16; Rev. Pae Thu preached at mid night service. Rev. Pae Thu told me that everything I preached is from God and that we just have to hope it falls on the good soil. The next morning, he told me again that what I preach will keep on living. I was greatly encouraged by his presence and his serene posture. I really like this pastor. He is a man of God.
Day seventeen: 24/12/2006. I preached on a very evangelistic sermon this morning. We went out preaching after the service. I preached to three people, all of them accepted the Lord. One of them has been a hard nut to crack; the pastor told me that he ran away on two three occasions when the pastor tried to talk to him of Jesus Christ. The pastor was surprised that the man willingly accepted Christ, he and his family. We came back for a very interesting forum; students reported some very encouraging news and some frustrating news as well. I am glad the pastor promised they will do their best with the follow up. This church consists mainly of animists and it is still a young church. This Church will grow.
We came back to the Bible School that evening. Many young people accompanied us.

The bad news we heard was that a long time leader of our KNU (Saw Bo Mya) had died this morning and it is in deed a lost to the Karen Revolution. He rest in Peace at the age of 79 upon completing his duty as a very enduring leader of the Karen Nation.
Day Eighteen: 25/12/2006, Monday
We celebrated Christmas in the Bible School, David, a minister from US did the preaching. Sitt Lin, one of my former students was translating. Sitt Lin takes care of me very nicely. We played two games of volley ball, we lost real bad. I discussed with David Walter Wink’s interpretation of turning the other cheek, give your tunic, going the second mile. He said that was interesting. I did this discussion with David because he told me that the Thai authority wouldn’t allow them to complete the school building that they have been constructing.
Day Nineteen: 26/12/2006, Tuesday
We visited the Kayan Karen (Padaung), I preached to a young kayan girl who claims to know18 languages of the world. I told her about Jesus Christ who came to save every individual who confesses his name and believes in Him. She has no trouble swallowing it but the bad news is that she is very pluralistic. I told her every religion may be good but the only person who can offer salvation is none other than Jesus Christ. I promised I will try to arrange an English Bible for her to read. She is pretty.

Day Twenty: 27/12/2006, Wednesday
We mainly took rest, watched some movies and things like that today, some students went back down to the camp to participate in a wedding ceremony.
28/12/2006, we went to a church in a nearby town called Nonswear, I preached there through interpreter. The pastor is a Thai-karen, he did a good job translating for me, I guess. I am glad to have preached very satisfactorily on the last day. The last sermon was a good one.

Appendix: Actually the karanni want themselves be called ‘Karanni’ for political reason. They do not like the Burmese’ term ‘kayah’ because kayah is just one of the sub-tribes inside Karanni. Karanni, in fact, consists of Kayah, Manu-Manaw, Paku, Kayaw, Kayan (long neck Karen), p’reh, Bwe. The Burmese term ‘kayah’ actually is a compartmentalized term to divide and rule the Karen people. As a matter of fact, the Burmese term the kayan as padaung which the kayans believe is a barbarous term and they thus prefer kayan.
Very unfortunately, the Karanni is also divided into different fractions, they have (KLT, KNPP, Nagar, Red Star, etc,) KLTT works with the Burmese. It is really sad to see them divided which cost them a great deal too, like the way it costs the KNU because of the DKBA.

Well, this is a story of how God uses ordinary individuals to bring the world back to Him and I hope you pray for the Karanni Mission. Churches there need support, reinforcement, prayers and encouragement. I will appreciate your involvement in this Karanni Mission endeavor as they struggle on, in spite of all the odds they are up against to spread the good news of Jesus Christ. I am proud to have led the first ever group from the KKBBSC (Kawthoolei Karen Baptist Bible School and College), a group of fifteen people to Karanni areas and it is a real joy to see many lives changed and many people being introduced to Jesus Christ and some souls acknowledged Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior within the span of twenty eight days.