Greetings from Chiang Rai!

Our lives meet and we give each other Hope in Christ!

Around the world people's lives may not be that exciting.  They get up in the morning and do the same job over and over again and come home to some TV.  Maybe some exciting World Cup Soccer if you are lucky will be on TV but many people are bored with life.  This is why I think they get into trouble with opium.  But even more so many of the Akha here have come over from Burma because life is so much more difficult there than what we really know.

On this ordinary visit to the hills of Doi Mae Salong is the little village of Azi.  They do not have any title to the land for their bamboo houses, they are squatters from Burma.  A few have Thai citizenship of some form, only a few are full Thai's.  I met this older lady there as you can see her in the first picture above.  She is 87.  Her husband passed away as well as six of her nine children.  She came out and gathered around while we prepared to teach about 30 children in the village.  There is no electricity.  Her name is Mi Tsu.  As we talked she made sure that I understoood that before she became a Christian she had bad dreams at night.  But now that she believes the frightening dreams have stopped and gone away.  I enjoyed sitting with her and hearing her story.

Next, partnering with the Akha staff, we had singing and told the story of Blind Bartemaeus in Luke's Gospel.  The kids are really excited!!  This week we hope to go back and install a car battery and a light for evening meetings.  Also, I want to bring a white board and markers, so that the Akha workers can begin teaching the Akha script.  No great fan fares just simple sharing.  But in the ordinary events of life, God is at work.

This village has asked for help in forming a village.  Together with the Akha workers, we are trying to find a way to get a small portion of land for them.  We have one blockage at this point because the head army leader in the area said they could not obtain land until they have more Thai citizenship.

From this point, we traveled over to another village for dinner.  There I met my Akha friend, Yahweh, who used to be addicted to opium but changed as we sent him to this Christian Rehab sponsored by American Baptists.  I went with him to his coffee plantation and saw some of his beautiful coffee.  That day I helped divide up fertilizer to each family in this village to help their coffee plants flourish a bit.

When Yahweh became a Christian his other two wives left him.  He was a bit sad about that.  His wives did not want anything to do with him as he now was not following the old ways of the "spirits".  He has remained faithful to Christ and wants to find a new life.  So far, none on the horizon.  Later that night, we had some of the best food in the world - Akha vegetables, meat with some spices and rice, of course.

There is much joy and love in being able to share our lives and resources with struggling people on this side of this world.  Together with my Akha friends, we spend time with them and they in turn have enriched my life also.

Blessing,

Chuck Fox