Day 11: An introduction to Mae Sot

 

Lindsay and Juliet standing at the border-market between Thailand and Myanmar

Worshipping with Lighthouse MB Church in Mae Sot...all in the Myanmar language!

We went out grocery shopping first thing in the morning today to stock up on peanut butter, bread, water, cereal, and some other snack foods...as a note, most of the "western" brands are VERY expensive! We didn't pay close enough attention and accidentally spent $12 on a box of cereal - yikes!

After grocery shopping we walked back to the hotel, ate a bit, and got ready for the pool where we were meeting Cynthia, Maceo, Dave, and Louise at 10am. The kids played in the pool for a couple hours while we tried to find shade and talked. Dave & Louise are presently working on a large grant proposal that is due tomorrow so that was taking up a lot of time by them and their team, but as it has the ability to make such a big difference in supporting the financial needs of their churches and ministry. We agreed to meet a couple hours later again to have lunch and talk some more and make a few plans for the day.

After the pool we met with Louise for lunch, and then went out to the Rim Moei Market which is right on the border of Thailand and Myanmar, just below the 1st Friendship Bridge that connects the two countries. The covered market area is similar to many of the other markets we have seen with toys, electronics, clothing, dried food, ammunition...wait...that's new...and the outdoor part of the market is actually straddling the border. You can see in the picture with Lindsay and Juliet that the stalls are actually on the Myanmar side of the border, divided with that metal railing and razor wire, and you walk on the Thailand side. Most of what was being sold there was alcohol, cigarettes, watermelon, and dried food.

We left the market to head back to the hotel to lay down for a while and cool off before heading out again at 5pm to go to the Lighthouse MB Church. It is a church for Myanmar people in Thailand, pastored by Pastor Michael and Pastor Stephen. Both of them, and a number of the people there, speak English to some degree. They don't actually speak much Thai so they also use English with those that don't speak Myanmar.

The service tonight was a praise, prayer, and testimony night. There was a number of worship songs they did (all in Myanmar) so we gave James and Juliet our phones to use Google Translate to translate the PowerPoint slides. The translation was far from perfect, but it did give us a sense of what the songs were about. After that, a younger man (probably our age) came up and gave his testimony. It was quite the testimony about his life before Christ where we was involved in prostitutes, alcohol, and with HIV/AIDS. It was a long testimony (about 30 minutes) where he talked about all that he faced, his coming to know Jesus, being addicted to porn, being prophesized over that he would lead his people to Jesus, having his sores from HIV/AIDS healed, choosing to go Church over work on Sunday (which is a BIG deal), and eventually getting married. His testimony was full of the grace and goodness of God and how his life has changed as a result of the work of the Holy Spirit working in his life. He spoke exclusively in Myanmar so I'm very thankful for Pastor Stephen who sat behind us and translated!

We stayed for a few hours until the kids got overly restless and hungry, then left with Dave to grab some food and eventually head back to the hotel. Our plan is to meet up with Dave & Louise around noon tomorrow so we'll see what happens then!