Church work among the Karen
We rejoice when we look back on this year in spite of some difficulties. The Karen churches are growing almost everywhere. We organized several courses for leaders of different groups of people. They were well attended. Two years ago we did an outreach  in the village of L where only a few families had been Christians. Many people in that village had an alcohol problem. This month we did a Christmas celebration in that village again. From 5 families, the church grew to over 25 families in just 2 years and people were being healed from their drinking problems. The villagers are in the process of enlarging their church building.

 

Karen children's work
The 3rd children camp took place in October. We trained the leaders and the 150 children experienced an impressive week. Nobody ever got bored. Roll playing, new songs, crafts, role plays around the theme: "The life of Jesus" and playing games and small groups were all part of the program. When the children were finally in bed, we had a meeting with the leaders, to discuss the next day. The leaders were quite tired after the 10 days  We'll probably shorten the camps in the future to one week.

 

Mobilization
The 3rd cross-cultural training camp was held when some Thai Christians learned not only in theory but also in practice about cross cultural life and ministry by visiting Karen villages. We want to see more Asian churches sending out their people to evangelize other Asians

 

Work with the students hostel
There are still hardly any schools in the Karen villages. The children can get some training because we run hostels. In the village of SL, we are looking for new hostel parents for the new school year, as the previous ones have left the work. In O 40 children live in the hostel at the moment.