Pump Your Brakes
- Adam
- May 1, 2018
- 3 min read
At times God calls you to your preferred way of serving Him or preferred way of living life. For us that means field work and travel...this has not been the case for the months of April and May. It has been a month of support operations and rest. However, though it might not be as exciting as other times it is not without fruit.
Missions
We ended March with me (Adam) going on a short trip to Bangladesh to help provide additional training to our Rohingya team and attempt to get them off on a mission back into Burma. Our last blog left off with our HQ element meeting with members of a Rohingya resistance organization known as the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA). There had been whispers of ARSA's existence throughout the international community but no real proof that they were in fact real. Most rumors labeled them as islamic radicals hoping to create an islamic state within Burma.
They are in fact real. After meeting with them our assessment is that they are not terrorists or radical extremists. They claim not to want to form an islamic state within Arakan State, Burma. When asked what they do want they said, "We want the freedom to live in Burma, to work in Burma, to become citizens of Arakan State and to not live in fear of rape, murder and torture."
ARSA agreed to let our team operate freely. We've asked our team there to spend a week traveling to different villages and report on the situation, collecting GPS coordinate and photos of human rights violations. The problem lies in getting across the border. They are currently looking for a way but barbwire fences, landmines and military patrol boats are significant obstacles. Please pray for a them to come to understand the love of God more through a relationship with Jesus.
Projects
Though Bangladesh was an adventure, the rest of April and half of May has seen us land locked in Chiang Mai. The benefit to this is we get time to recover and work on outstanding projects that have been on the back burner.
For the past couple of years I have been writing a Basic Ranger Training Manual for our new teams. It covers every subject we teach at our fall training. The purpose for this is to provide us with a consistent foundation of knowledge that our curriculum is based off of. One that can be updated and perfected after every training.
Aimee has been developing a new english text book for our english programs in Burma and new Good Life Club materials for children's programs. She has also been helping coordinate the influx of new volunteers and teams coming through our doors. She finds it satisfying getting some longstanding projects completed after many months of traveling and field work.
God has also been encouraging her with new ideas of spiritual growth for HQ staff and kids at our training site in Burma. It's been so helpful to have short term missions teams come through as more man power to implement some of these project ideas such as staff worship and a Sunday School curriculum for kids during our fall training this year.
Chiang Mai Life
Time in Chiang Mai affords us the opportunity to continue investing in our community here. Our local house church is becoming more and more fulfilling. It's starting to feel more spontaneous and less organized which is something I think it needed. Our agenda has become much more free form and unstructured. This, I feel has allowed God to move in more ways.
Aimee and I have recently developed a shared passion for rock climbing and are in the process of procuring the basic necessities, ie rope, quick-draws ect. We both just learned to lead climb and clean routes so we're good to go by ourselves more often.
Family Laotian Adventure
God knows our hearts desires and fulfills them in His own time. Our patience was rewarded with a short trip to Laos with my parent's who have come to visit for three weeks. For those who haven't been to Northern Laos...go there. It was one of the most beautiful and peaceful places we've been. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.
Reports
Killing In Karen State
Northern Burma Update
Photos
Life in Chiang Mai
Trip to Laos
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