Dear Ones,

It was a delight to hear from some of you, keep your notes coming, we think of each of you so often and lift up prayers of thanksgiving for the treasures you are in our life.

We have had some amazing and fascinating experiences already and we've only been here two nights. After that "brief" but wonderful sleep in Bangkok after our long flight we had our first "real" sleep last night here at Kwai River Hospital near Sanglaburi in western Thailand very close to the Burma border. Lea Lindero from the Philippines (a missionary nurse with IM) is our host here and she is wonderful.

We had a long trip here by cross-Bangkok train, a bus to Kanchanaburi and then another bus to Sanglaburi and then someone from the hospital picked us up for another 20 min drive. It was dark when we arrived and Lea had a good curry supper ready for us. This morning we attended a hospital chapel service and then we were invited to go on rounds with Dr. Scott Murray (Scotland) and also a doctor from Burma and another very young volunteer doctor from England. We were so impressed with their skill and compassion. The patients were mostly from Burma and quite complicated cases.

Everyone is so polite with hands in prayer position and a smile as they great you. This happens many times a day. After rounds we visited a Safe Shelter for mentally ill folks from Burma and they can garden and learn extraordinary loam weaving. Then we drove to a Sgaw Karen Bible School and met 30 young, beautiful students in Karen clothing studying hard. They each said a few words of greeting and they sang several beautiful songs to us in 4 part harmony a capella which brought back many memories. This is a new school in the process of being built still with no library but with hopes for one in the future.

After that we drove with Lea and Thai driver for the hospital to a small restaurant for Thai food which was excellent....ended with Thai ice tea which was so good. Next stop only a half an hour drive to Three Pagoda Pass on the border of Thailand and Myanmar. So we stepped foot into Burma for the first time in 21 years! Wow, what a feeling. Many stalls of folks there selling their wares from Burma and Lea and I bought a few things. Drove home for a nap....and then have enjoyed helping Lea to cook Thai food and cut up a new fruit called "Dragon fruit" very exotic looking and mild sweet taste. Fun!

I forgot to mention that on our way here yesterday, our friend New, who accompanied us from Bangkok, took us to a famous place in Kanchanaburi to the real "Bridge Over the River Kwai".  We toured an amazingly beautiful cemetery where many of the 15,000 prisoners of war who were forced to build the railway to connect Rangoon to Thailand are buried. This was done by the Japanese and is yet another sad result of the tragedy of war. We saw graves of young men from England, India, US, Austrailia, Netherlands, Burma, Thailand… many died from cruelty, overwork, dehydration, malnutrition, malaria etc.  So sad.

The cemetery is a tourist attraction and the bridge has been repaired after it was bombed during WW2 and still in use in Thailand but it does not go into Myanmar (Burma). Every grave has fresh flowers blooming and is one of the most beautiful cemeteries I have ever seen. It was very moving to read the plaques.

Must close for now, hope this isn't too long! Feel free to send this on to others I may have omitted that might like to follow our trip. So much more to tell but its time for guests to arrive.

 

Love and prayers,

Nancy and Steve (Mama and Papa)