Karen members
remain restricted
and stateless

By Rod Matthews

BURLEIGH HEADS, Australia—For many years the church has provided humanitarian support for a number of Karen families who are war refugees from the civil conflict that has afflicted Myanmar (Burma) for decades.

Several leading families, including many children, became members of the church in the 1970s after reading the magazine and, with some miraculous intervention from God, extracted themselves from the liberation movement and sought a more peaceful existence as refugees.

Because of the prevailing political situation, they remain restricted to the region along the Thai-Burmese border and are unable to seek regular employment within Thai communities. Most live in several refugee camps where the authorities attempt to provide a more secure environment, and a number of nongovernment and humanitarian agencies provide schooling within the camps for the children. Cyclical fighting along the border region in Myanmar sometimes overflows into Thailand, making the area dangerous and inaccessible to foreigners.

Five main refugee camps are situated along Thailand’s western border with Myanmar, mostly north of the border town of Maesot.

Lah Shi, an elder, regularly visits our members in the camps, travelling many miles on a small motorcycle, conducting Bible studies and personally bringing in humanitarian support that is largely provided by the Australian churches. This regular assistance supplements the meager camp food and clothing supplies, and helps cover the cost of education and materials for those children attending schools run by other aid organizations. It enables the families to have access to better medical and health services.

Several families take added risks living outside these camps in the border region keeping a low profile and doing some casual work where it can be obtained.

About 60 people are directly supported in this way. For years they have sought official refugee status, which could help them to be resettled overseas. However, only a couple of families have ever achieved this because of the enormous refugee pressures and political circumstances encountered by Thailand and the United Nations.

In recent years our members have shown their spiritual maturity by a greater sense of acceptance that it will take major political changes in Myanmar or a miracle for them to regain any sense of normality in their lives. In the meantime, their Christian example has been used by God to call other refugee families, and a number of new Christians have been baptized in the camps in the last couple of years.

They much appreciate your prayers for their safety, and ultimate release from these confining circumstances.

Copyright © Worldwide Church of God, 2001