That I may know Him! That I may be known by Him!! To know and be known… intimate words, vulnerable words.
It’s Monday evening and I’m exhausted. While most of the team had been at the community development center in Nam Kem teaching English to a group of high school students, I had volunteered to join Pastor Paul and Angela on a trek into the brush to teach English to a group of Burmese migrant worker children. Amazing is the only word I can come up with because I’m too tired to try to think of anything more descriptive.
The journey began at a town market where we were joined by a group of men who have been ministering among the Burmese migrant workers scattered down around Nam Kem. We bought box lunches (fried rice and chicken, a fried egg and some slices of cucumber all piled into a small Styrofoam container) for the team and for what we considered a decent number of students. We had no idea how many students would show up, but we wanted to be prepared. With lunches in tow, we headed out of town. The drive lasted about 45 minutes, 15 on paved road. The rest was dirt, mud, uphill, downhill and bumpy. And we were not in a 4-wheeler or SUV, but in a small passenger van.
When the vehicles could go no farther, we loaded our backpacks and started out on foot. That part of the journey lasted about 15 to 20 minutes through mud and water, around rubber trees, through more mud, over small streams, through thick mud and slippery mud, until we reached a few huts beyond which we found about 9 students waiting and sitting on a tarp on the ground. This was their school. There is a Burmese gentleman who has been teaching them English and working to give them as much of a basic education as he can. We were amazed at how much they knew of colors, letters, animals, basic greetings. We worked on family structures in the morning as well as basic greetings. They learned quickly.
All too quickly, the day was over, we had shared lunch, playtime and English lessons and we were now ready to hike back out. The way out was less traumatic since we remembered the treacherous parts and tried to avoid them. Our feet were muddy nevertheless and they reminded me of Isaiah 52:7.
Tonight’s devotional was appropriate… Phil. 3:7-12. I consider all gain as loss compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. I looked upon the Burmese migrant workers’ huts and saw what my gain looks like. They have nothing. Their living conditions are primitive. My heart hurts as I consider the living conditions and the future that looms before the young students we taught today. I tried sharing my feelings and observations of the Burmese camp hidden away in the brush with Cheryl and she reminded me that God sees them. The world may not be aware, but God is aware. My prayer now is that He will make them His own. My prayer now is that this trek through the mud not be in vain, but just part of that perfect plan, that they may know Him and be known.
All Things Elda 