A sweet Christmas Celebration

This last weekend, I was invited to travel to the largest Refugee camp in Thailand, Mae La.
We parked at one of the gates, and took about a 30 minute hike INSIDE the camp, to reach the meeting hall where the Christmas Party was to be held. The whole camp looks like this photo above, brown buildings, all the same, brown dirt and mud and jungle trees. (The internet says that there are about 50 thousand families living here in homes such as these ).


We entered the meeting hall which was already packed with children, care givers and parents, who had excitedly been waiting for our arrival for over two hours!!!

We were escorted to the seats down front and the celebration got under way. There I am in the second row of a packed house!! We sang Oh Come All Ye Faithful, and then each student group got up one by one and performed something they had been practicing for months.... a Christmas Carol, a dance to Bible verses, or a traditional song or dance. It was a delightful experience. So much Joy !!!

This is one of the Karen boys who came and had a "sit and chat" with me during the afternoon. Everyone wanted to practice their English and find out about where we live and what we do. I learned a lot about what it is like to live in a camp where you can never go outside of the barbed wire fence. We both had many questions.

Below, are photos of some of the groups that performed in the program....

After the singing and dancing, we broke up into smaller groups to go play games and make crafts. Then we gathered together again for the Giving of Christmas gifts. Each child and person got gifts. Next we ate a meal together of egg soup and rice and then began the farewells.

It was a sweet sweet time of celebrating our Savior's birth and rejoicing in what He has done for us over this last year. And I came away feeling as if my own Christmas celebration was quite complete.... how could I ever top a day like this???

( If you would like to hear more about my visit to Mae La, if you have questions, or would just like to know more about refugee camps in Thailand, I would love the opportunity to chat with you. Please give me an email at pamsjoy@gmail.com I look forward to connecting with you. )

I pray that each of you have a joyful Christmas Season!!!

blessings

Pam