WAREHOUSING
The situation in the camps, unlike the conditions for refugees in Malaysia, has not improved in the two years since our last visit. In fact, it has somewhat worsened in that the TBBC due to budget constraints has had to reduce the amount and variety of food it brings into the camps.
The Karen in the camp are caught between the armed conflict in Burma and the refusal of the Thai government to recognize them as refugees. They are in a no-man’s land where the normal flow of life has ceased to exist.
Though their housing roughly replicates a typical village, the homes are forced to be located cheek to jowl by the Thai government. Water comes from spigots scattered throughout the camps and is carried to the individual homes by hand. There are no sewers so people use latrines. In such a confined area, the opportunities for an outbreak of infectious diseases is high.
The seven predominantly Karen camps are administered by an elected camp committee which in turn is related to the Karen Refugee Committee (KRC) headed by Robert Htway, a Karen Baptist pastor who is a refugee himself. Pastor Htway serves an extremely critical role with the NGOs serving the several camps as well as with the Thai government, as the chief representative of the refugees and the situations within the various camps. The KRC establishes basic policies within the camps and acts basically as the camp governmental authority, though Thai law is followed and recognized as normative. In Tham Hin we met the camp committee which was extremely well organized with the equivalent of a mayor, vice-mayor, chief of police and municipal judges. The same is true in every camp.
Each camp also receives a variety of services from international NGO’s who sponsor health, education, and other programs within the camp.
However, there is no stable future for the camps. Apart from resettlement those who live within them are caught in a de facto warehouse: though they voice the desire to return to their homes, for many their home village no longer exists. And it is not possible for them to become citizens of Thailand their host country. They are caught.
The situation is compounded by the fact that the Thai government has allowed the UNHCR to conduct only one registration which was in 2005. Anyone who has entered the camps since 2005 is unregistered and cannot be processed for resettlement. One would think that the Thai government would be interested in resettling them as quickly as possible, but the Thai government operates on the theory that to do so would only attract more Burmese inside its borders.
The fact is that those who live and grow up in the camps live in an artificial setting where there is no work apart from the jobs provided by the NGO’s, no homeland, no permanency, no certain future – only waiting. The skills they need to return to their rural home villages are being lost because they are forbidden to grow rice in the camps. At the same time, neither are they developing the skills required for life in western countries.
THE CHURCH IN THE CAMPS
Within this setting, the church plays a significant role in maintaining a sense of purpose and hope, in providing a continuing moral framework, and offering leadership within the camps. In every camp, congregations are organized (often based upon the villages from which they have come), and conduct worship, Sunday School, youth work, evangelism, baptisms, weddings, infant dedications, funerals, and other ministries. It is the life of the church as a worshipping and serving community that provides the spiritual grounding of hope and meaning within this setting. It is the anchor which holds. Its patterns shape daily life marking its rhythm and providing its content and purpose. Apart from this I cannot imagine the stability which has existed within the camps for these many years.
In every camp, the Baptist churches have focused on education for their youth as key to their future. So schools have been established within the camps. In Tham Hin, we even saw a facility for the Tham Hin Junior College. The schools are staffed by refugees who have been educators in Burma. One of the challenges that the camps face is that it is often those with professional skills such as teaching who are resettled first. Hence, the junior college in Tham Hin is not functioning just now because it doesn’t have the required teaching force.
However, in each of the Karen camps there is a functioning Bible school or college. Each time I have visited the camps, I have been deeply touched and moved by the young people who have responded to the call for ministry as evangelists, Christian educators, and pastors and are studying to prepare themselves for service. The people who lead them are extremely dedicated and have in fact turned down the possibility of resettlement in order to devote themselves to preparing generations for future leadership in the church. Probably the best known of these is the Bible School in the Mae La camp (the largest camp on the border). Established and run by the Rev. Saw Simon, the school has almost 400 students in training. They study in Karen and English for four years. During that time they work in churches within the camp, as well as within Burma and Thailand itself. During certain times of the year such as Christmas, they are sent out as evangelism teams to non-Chrisitan Karen villages to share the gospel and establish new congregations. Among these young adults, one does not sense despair or hopelessness. They have committed themselves to serve wherever God may call, whether in a third country where they have been resettled, within Burma or as a missionary to another country in the region. To hear their faith sung, you can visit the website (INSERT HERE) to hear some of choirs and songs I captured on my camera (apologies for the amateur nature of them). You will be blessed as you hear them.
Many of the graduates of the Bible Schools in the camps, have taken key leadership roles in the life of the churches where they have been resettled. These Bible School graduates are helping to organize and serve the life of the church within their communities. Rev. Simon has often remarked to his students that the Karen anthem contains in its last verse a prayer that the Karens might be used to spread the gospel around the world and that the fulfillment of that prayer is coming through their being sent as refugee missionaries to places around the globe they could have never before imagined. Even here, the basic missional nature of the church is understood and embraced!
BURMESE REFUGEES AND ABCUSA
The response of American Baptists to our brothers and sisters from Burma who have taken refuge in our country has been tremendous. Church after church is working to help them adjust to the challenges of a new environment. Through welcoming them in worship, to providing English as second language classes, to raising up volunteers to provide transportation, or to working with job hunting, assisting with medical or social services, ABC congregations are serving as the hands and feet of Christ.
American Baptist congregations and the denomination are receiving in turn, an infusion of dedicated brothers and sisters whose faith has been made stronger by their affliction. They are infusing into many of our congregations not only new members but a renewed spirituality.
Rev. Rothang Chhangte who has been appointed by American Baptist Home Mission Societies to work with Burmese refugees notes that this may be the largest new church planting effort we have experienced since the late 1800’s. We can already identify more than 100 new congregations that have been started across the country that relate to ABC. That doesn’t count the hundreds of existing ABC churches where Burmese members are present.
Through the ABC Joint Refugee Taskforce, the efforts of Burmese church leaders in the US, and the work of Florence Li and Rothang Chhangte of ABHMS and Duane and Marcia Binkley of IM, together with the continuing support and advocacy of ABCUSA (Office of the General Secretary) and our regions, ABC is responding to the Burmese diaspora on a number of fronts. Resettlement is but one of them.
Another focus is the issue of the human rights abuses of the military regime. ABCUSA has especially taken on this role seeking to bring the issue to the attention of our churches, the Baptist World Alliance, the World Council of Churches, the US State Department, and the United Nations. In each of our mission visits to Malaysia and Thailand we have met with UN officials and others, in part to advocate for better conditions for the refugees in those countries, but also to press the human rights issues in Burma.
Yet another concern has been the integration of the Burmese congregations into the life of ABC and the continuing preparation of leaders for these congregations. Florence, Rothang, Stan Murray and the Binkleys have been especially focused on these issues working with the various organizations the Burmese are forming among themselves, the churches within Burma and with our regions and seminaries. Finally, in cooperation especially with the Australian Baptists through ABCUSA, OGHS funds have been sent to specific ministries serving the refugees in Malaysia and through the Thai Burma Border Commission the refugees in Thailand.
All of this is a work of the Spirit that holds great promise in the life of ABC and our Burmese Baptist brothers and sisters. Even as Joseph said of his brothers that what they intended for evil in selling him to slave traders who took him to Egypt, God intended for good, may it be said as well of the diaspora of our Burmese brothers and sisters.
Report written by Rev. A. Roy Medley
General Secretary, American Baptist Churches USA