Don't move that mountain!!

Nearly eight years ago, I celebrated a 21st birthday that I will never forget. Arriving by bus in an unfamiliar city, in a foreign country, at 2am. Our small team carried our luggage down the street, in the dark, to a hotel, and slept for a few hours. Up by 6am so we could eat and travel to the refugee camp, making it in time for the chapel service at the camp's Bible college. By 9am, I stood in front of a class of 30 students, most of whom were my age. I would be their teacher everyday for the next two weeks. It was sink or swim.

Now, 7 years and 7 months later, I walked into the same camp, passed by the same classroom, stood behind a microphone on the same stage, and addressed the 300-person student body of the same Bible college in the same refugee camp. Only this time, I brought with me a wife, two children, and seven students.

Members of the Karen ethnic tribe have fled their native country of Burma because of violence and oppression, and have lived in a state of limbo, some for twenty years. The camp, home to more than 50,000 people sits at the base of a mountain, and beyond the mountain, a river, and across the river, armies and landmines. "It is a very important mountain," our translator told us.

Our team visited the camp for only a day, gave a greeting to the Bible college students, visited schools, and prayed with handicapped men, who themselves were victims of landmines.

I wish that I had returned to find the camp a ghost town, and that all the residents had returned peacefully to their homes. Instead I find hope in the fact, that in the midst of the despair, exists an institution, and people dedicated to teaching and educating young people in Truth and Righteousness.