We finally got on the road and pretty soon Sah Lee was pulling over. Jolly was driving up behind us and asked if we could take 3 more people into the camp with us. They had been picked up by Thai police and thrown in jail for not having proper I.D. The 2 men and 1 woman had spent 2 months in jail with only the clothes on their backs. Jolly wanted to make sure it was OK with me to take them. He said they had travel passes to get back to Mae Rah Moo, so I could not get in trouble for transporting them. We gladly took them and stopped a few minutes later to buy them some food.

During our next rest stop, I got out to talk to them with Po Po interpreting. The woman told me they had been jailed for 2 months with no bath or change of clothes. They had been given very little food and she crossed her wrists to show they had been handcuffed. I asked if they'd been beaten and they all hung their heads and softly said "yes".
My heart went out to them and I had to blink back the tears. I didn't have anything to give them except trail mix, but I shared it with everyone and they were very grateful. I asked Po Po if I could give them some money and she smiled and told me that would be a great help to them. I gave them 1000 baht each which is only about $25.00, but is a great deal of money to them. Po Po cautioned me that giving them more would be "too much". I looked into their eyes as I shook their hands and gave them the money. I will never forget what I saw there. The woman especially was very vocal in her thanks and once again I cried. I thought of all the money safely tucked away in my money pouch under my shirt and knew that many lives were going to be touched by the money God had provided for me to bring in to these wonderful people.

When we finally arrived at the check point to enter the camp, I was greeted with warm smiles by both the Thai and Karen guards. I had a good feeling that this was going to be a great visit. I was so happy to be back in the refugee camp with my Karen families.

I was re-united with a sweet young woman, Mi Mi, who is the daughter of a dear pastor friend of mine who is still in Burma. She insisted I come stay at her home since Pastor Law Kler and his wife were not in camp. They had left that morning to go to Mae Sariang to meet me! It was so much fun to meet her husband and 5 year old son and the 11 children they had welcomed into their home to care for as their own. The photo on the left shows her expanded family.

The house immediately filled up and before I even had time to bathe or eat we started taking pictures and registering children once again. Since I would only be in camp 3 days we gave out the money due the children as we took the pictures. We worked until it was too dark to get good pictures and all the candles were lit for lights. After evening meal and family worship time, Mi Mi took me to their bath house and I took a cold dipper bath in the dark with her holding a candle.

I then gave Mi Mi's husband, Ruby, a crash course in playing the ukulele. Since he already plays the guitar, he picked it up really fast and loved it! He played the worship songs for evening worship and once again the house was full of people wanting to see the "tiny geetah" as they called it. We had a great time as I played the songs I had learned in my Ukulele lessons. I had brought a folder of the songs we play during our lessons and they all enjoyed singing along with the ones they knew. I had bought a song book called "Fake the Gospel". It is a compilation of popular hymns all written in the key of C for Ukulele. They knew quite a few of those songs.

After about an hour, I really was having a hard time staying awake, so after telling every one good night I stretched out on my sleeping mat and listened contentedly to the camp sounds until I fell asleep.

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