It's cold here too...

adwallis5
Mar 12, 2019
3 min read

Scanning social media lately, all I see are beautiful images of winter wonderlands and yards full of snow. As hot season is settling in here in Thailand, we had our own reprieve by going on a relief mission up north.

Two years ago Adam and I went on a relief mission in northern Burma and I have been anxious to get back ever since. Little did I know, I was pregnant at the time. This year, with Eden in tow, it was still a great mission, but a lot more exhausting and different in many ways.

The Team posing for a photo while waiting for the truck to cool down.

One of the challenges was the long hours in the car with Eden. She loves to move and hours in the car and roadside diaper changes were definitely no joke. Another difficulty was sleeping in a new place almost every night (not so easy for babies). Off the top of my head, we slept in 9 different places during our 14 day trip. Packing, unpacking, restocking the baby bag...its more difficult than you'd think ;)

Eden isn't a great sleeper in general and I was up with her at least 4 times most nights trying to keep her quiet (many nights we shared a room with 4-12 people).

I don't say all this to complain, just to be honest that our lives have changed and even though we still love what we do, it definitely looks very different now! Its easy to post cute pictures of kids, but in addition to those pictures I want you to know our ups and downs. In the end, no matter what the challenges are, its all worth it to spend time with these amazing people :)

new friends at IDP camp (IDP= Internally Displaced People)

Cold bath at IDP camp

Eden the celebrity

I really had to start prioritizing what I wanted on this trip. Why am I here? If I can only do one thing, what should that be? Where is my focus? Luckily we had lots of help with Eden during the day- from IDPS, to Rangers, to teammates, everyone took a turn carrying her around and playing with her. My main focus was the children's programs (Good Life Club). I helped the Rangers develop and fine tune their programs and then participated as much as possible. We have such amazing Rangers and it was so much fun watching how engaging and caring they were for all the children in these IDP camps. They really did bring JOY.

Rangers leading kids program

Dancing at GLC program

Spiritual drama

During our trip we were able to connect with some local organizations that we love and support (and that also support their own people in really cool ways). One was a women's organization where I had the opportunity to teach a baking class for IDP ladies. Another is a carpentry school for young IDPs that we hope to return to to do a JR Ranger program in the fall.

Baking class

Carpentry students

Overall we had a great trip and I miss the people already. During this trip we visited 4 IDP camps and conducted food distributions for the IDPs (recently their rations have been cut back - the average person eats 40kg of rice/month, and are now only receiving 20kg of rice/month). Our medic team also treated 235 medical patients at our pop-up clinics, and the Rangers ran GLC programs for over 1000 kids.

A woman waiting at the food distribution

Food distribution

Please pray for these IDPs. The weather is cold and their homes have no insulation. I worried about keeping my daughter warm, but I was only in the coldest area for a few nights. God is bigger than all of this and even though its hard to understand what's happening, I trust Him and His plan. If I love these IDPs how much greater must our Lord love them.