Sick for Three Years

Firstly a very big thank you for the incredible amount of support given to Connect by each of you. My (Ruth's) trip to Australia was very beneficial primarily due to the fact that people (in most cases our family and friends) got behind Connect and gave of their own time, energy and finances to better embrace, educate and empower the Karen people of Thailand. Thanks again!

This past weekend, with four volunteers in tow, our family went down to Baan Puk Dek Nakrean. Sean and Lydia (my brother and his girlfriend) and their 2 friends played a number of games with the students while Colin and I spoke with Samson and caught up on things. In the afternoon we (Samson, Colin and I, Sean, Lydia and Tate (our adopted son) went to a neighbouring village for Tate's birth mother to see him. She wasn't there but before we could leave we began hearing of a man who had been sick for 3 years. He had just recently walked over the border from Burma and was now living with a family in the village. The people of the village looked at us expectantly on behalf of this man, who gaunt and expressionless, now stood hunched over before us. He looked as if he had a few days to live. With a number of thoughts running through my head such as: a trip to hospital and medication isn't covered in the budget, do we get deported if caught with a man with no ID for Thailand? Is this even our responsibility or in doing something for this man are we moving away from our vision?.... we responded the only way we could. The need was before us and while there were a number of thoughts....we knew we could not cross to the other side of the road as it were and ignore the man or this village! We said that we would come back in an hour (we had hired a car for the weekend) and take him to hospital. The man's stay in hospital (in isolation) and medicine came to a total of 9600 baht....about $300 Australian dollars - a lot for our little organisation to spend on one man. However this was possible because of your support. While you are primarily supporting students at Baan Puk Dek Nakrean and/or University you are also allowing Connect to serve the wider community. Many Karen die in their bamboo homes...unable to access health care. This man is now on the road to recovery...thank you.

Other news - we are putting up a water tank to collect rain water thanks to one couple's donation for this specifically. We are starting to build 3 rooms, one for Samson and two others for volunteers or another leader. The funds for this still need to come in. We have been asked by a young lady if we could organize sponsorship for her to continue attending Bible College. We need another 2 sponsors at $35/ month to cover this for her. We still need about 20 people sponsoring the school as a whole at $20/ month. Samson still needs another couple of sponsors so he can be paid $105 AUD/ month for his work. We also need prayer. Prayer for the students, for Samson, for Pidah (cook) and her husband, for Arjan Ponpun and Namchai (local church workers)and the villagers, prayer for the sick man and others that right now are having to escape over the border. Prayer also for Connect's involvement in their lives. Thank you again and again. Ruth.