Amongst the Karen

One of the highpoints of my ministry has been sharing with the Karen community, living along the Thai/Myanmar border. As vicar of Christ Church, Bangkok, I was a frequent visitor to the Karen community along the border, staying at Noh Bo Academy, the Karen school that we supported, several times a year.

The Karen are an ethnic community that have lived on either side of the Thai/Myanmar border for many centuries. Today, Karen State is one of the twelve constituent states of Myanmar. Along with other minority ethnic groups within Myanmar, the Karen have been subject to persecution and ethnic cleansing from the Burmese majority since the end of World War II. Victims of massacres, destruction of their villages, food sources, and medical services, the Karen community have been subjected to horrifying conditions for decades. Since the mid 1980s, refugees have been forced to flee from Myanmar into Thailand, living in large refugee camps that are now so well established that they are like complete townships. The Mae La Camp, an hour’s drive north of Maesot, extends for 5 kilometres, with up to 50,000 inhabitants. It nestles below a high range of hills on the border, thus ensuring security and refuge from the gunfire of the Myanmar military.

Christ Church Bangkok has had an involvement with these Karen refugees, many of whom are Anglicans (Burma having previously been a part of the British Empire, there is a well-established Anglican community there), since the beginning of this refugee crisis. It began in 1984 when Christ Church was asked to take responsibility for supporting the many Anglican Christians who were living in these large camps on the Thai side of the border. A programme of emergency supplies was organised. As the needs of the Karen grew, a ‘consortium’ of churches and other agencies was formed to oversee the development of aid relief. Christ Church and its successive Vicars have remained involved with this Karen Ministry, raising thousands of Pounds in support. This has focussed upon the needs of the Karen refugees living inside the camps, as well as support for the growing settled Karen community, which has grown along the Thai border.

As needs have developed and changed along the border, so the role of Christ Church has changed. The Anglican Church in Thailand, as part of the Diocese of Singapore, was formed in the 1991 and in the early 2000’s groupings were formed to enable these Karen Anglican to be led again by their own bishops, on both sides of the Thai/Myanmar border. Over the years, there have been frequent hopes of a resolution to this refugee crisis, but sadly, these hopes have continually been dashed. Still today, the hopes of a return to a more democratic Myanmar feel remote.

Christ Church continues to provide aid to the Karen community. Now, the ‘official’ links operate at a diocesan level, between Singapore and the Diocese of Pa’an (the Diocese which serves Karen State) In fact the Bishop of Pa’an has more church members living as refugees in Thailand than within the official borders of his diocese, in Myanmar. The main involvement of Christ Church today is education. It supports three nursery schools inside the Mae La Camp, each one attached to an Anglican parish: St John’s, Emmanuel and Trinity (the churches inside the Camp). Also within Mae La Camp is an orphanage for some 45 children. Outside the camps, in the Thai Karen village of Noh Bo (about two hours’ drive north of Maesot), it sponsors Noh Bo Academy which provides secondary education for approximately 200 students – many of whom are boarders who come from the refugee camps, from the nearby Karen villages, and even from across the border in Myanmar.

Places at Noh Bo Academy are keenly sought. Over the years, many volunteer teachers have been drawn from the English-speaking world, to offer time to the school. The students delight in the links that they have with these volunteer teachers. As a result, many students have left Noh Bo with good English language skills, which have provided them with a strong foundation to move on to higher education or to find useful employment.

The future for the Karen people remains uncertain. Despite political changes in Myanmar, there is still sporadic fighting, and the political situation remains volatile. Most of the displaced people are unable to return. Their land has been taken and their villages destroyed. Even if they could return, they have nothing to go back to.

So what about me? My visits up to this Karen community were both a great joy and an immense privilege. I was always so warmly welcomed and have many fond memories of my visits: eating lunch, cross-legged in wooden vicarages inside the Mae La Camp, served, of course, by the Mothers’ Union; telling Bible stories in the nurseries, and listening to the children singing; teaching the Lord’s Prayer in classrooms at Noh Bo; leading assemblies and conducting Bible Studies. Noh Bo Academy is firmly based upon Christian principles, and I found there a very genuine Christian faith – refreshingly uncomplicated and unquestioned. It was so amazing to listen to the quality of the singing – Karen people love to sing – well-known Christian songs or sometimes well-known tunes with Karen lyrics.

It is very sobering to listen to young adults describing to you how they had to flee for their lives, leaving their villages and running into the jungle to escape the guns of Burmese soldiers. Noh Bo is the only place where I have ever been asked by a group of 18 year olds, ‘Please give us another Bible Study before you return to Bangkok.’ Here were young people who had so little in terms of physical possessions, and yet had such a warmth of spirit and appreciation for what they did have. I well remember the day when we handed out a Christmas gift – a pair of flipflops for everyone. Having carefully set them out according to size, the students simply descended upon them – never mind the size, the only thing that mattered was the colour – the brighter the better.

I had the privilege of representing the Anglican Church in Thailand at the consecration and installation of the new bishop of Pa’an – the only ‘western’ face within a whole Cathedral of Karen. I was able to travel into Myanmar for the event. Spending the night in Yangon before driving to Pa’an, that is one occasion when I felt genuinely foreign. Eyes turned and followed me down the street. Families stopped and asked to be photographed with me in the Shwedagon Pagoda. The drive to Pa’an took eight hours – a journey that as the crow flies could have ben completed in just two hours. I learned that the Burmese authorities deliberately ensure that communication routes between the states are kept to a minimum and are deliberately restricted, to keep the states apart and deter any combined uprising against the central authority. It was in Pa’an Cathedral that I looked down at my feet and suddenly realised that I was the only person in the entire cathedral who was wearing shoes. I had forgotten to remove them, and leave them with the pile of flip flops at the door!

Recent years have been hard for the Karen. Sadly, their plight seldom make the global media, yet the story of Myanmar remains one of the tragedies of our modern age. I well remember the report of a South African MP – part of a UN fact finding trip to Myanmar, ‘this is worse than apartheid’. The people of Myanmar need our prayers. And yet their faith in God shines through. I just pray that in some small way, I have been able to do something to make their situation a little easier.