Exciting times ahead!
Watch out for the Thai-tanic Banquet - coming to MABC on Saturday 3rd Nov! Tickets on sale 14th Oct & earlier online at The Table!
Team Thailand had an informative meeting with Kevin Honare & Mark Stokes, staff from Bright Hope, on Sunday 7th Oct. It was great to have an understanding of the situation of the villagers we will be partnering with. They are of the Karen Hill Tribe, who would have originally migrated from Myanmar. Access to school & health is poor - for instance- within the village area, there is schooling & sanitation BUT only accessible for people who have been associated with the Thai army. Hence not available to the majority of the villagers. There is a small group of Christian families already established in this village - praise the Lord!The villagers will probably be speaking a dialect of Myanmar - so no English, and probably no Thai either.
It was exciting to see how our involvement fits into the big picture. ITDP's work with the villages starts with installing water & sanitation into a village. Then the next plans will be establishing a nursery, followed by a school, then potentially micro- enterprises such as coffee growing or buffalo herding, which will lift the villages out of poverty. The first step is the water & sanitation, and it is estimated that it takes 6 years to turn villages around & out of poverty once the water & sanitation are addressed! My non-economics mind doesn't understand it, but it obviously works! But my health background understands that water & sanitation are the basic building blocks to a healthier and hence more productive lifestyle!
A bit about the logistics of what we're embarking on. ITDP would have scouted out the source of water for the village. Materials will be transported in (hopefully by a truck and not on our backs). We will be putting a water tank together to act as the reservoir, and installing pipes from the water source to the tank, and through the village, with taps to access the water. Additional pipes & taps can be installed later by the villagers themselves. Distances of piping can vary - between 2-4km for previous villages! The water system will cost approximately USD$6-7000. The remaining amount will be used to install sanitation - Asian-style toilets which will be flushed with ladles of water. We will work with a couple of staff from ITDP, and each household from the village is also expected to provide a person to assist in the work. Given we won't be able to communicate by spoken language, we will need to be innovative with sign language! There will be a children's programme each afternoon whilst we are there. We will be housed with the villagers. ITDP will provide the meals & water for us whilst we are there. Incidentally there was some mention of a frog farm nearby & the frogs were used for food!!! (Kermit lovers - we will confirm that once we know for sure!)
Praise items
- that God has provided us with an opportunity to improve the lives of this village.
- there are already some Christians in the village.
- that we can provide encouragement to our Christian brother & sisters in this village by our work there.
Pray
-that the villagers who are yet to know Jesus will develop a thirst for living waters.
-that the fund-raising will be successful in meeting its target.
-that as a team, we will learn to work well together as we prepare for the trip.
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