Under the Shadow of Prayer Mountain: Kawthoolei Karen Baptist Bible School and College 

To the students: “Remember this one thing if you get through Bible College and forget everything else in your journey through life, especially in time when the grit and grind of survival over takes you “religion is grace and ethics is gratitude”.

God’s grace freely given in Christ is the unconditional, invisible, often unfelt foundation of your life – temporal and eternal. Gratitude proceeds from resting on this unseen foundation of grace.”

Along Thailand’s border with Myanmar(formerly Burma), a couple miles or so inside Thailand there are a number of refugee camps for Burmese fleeing the ruling military junta. As is well known, the military regime have inflicted great violence against resident minority peoples in Myanmar. Among these are the Karen – a distinct ethnic group living in sections of Myanmar, Thailand and Laos. I was invited to the Mae La camp 37 kilometers outside the border town of Mae Sot in northern Thailand to teach my course in the Kawthoolei Baptist Bible School and College. The camp has been in existence for over twenty years and currently over 50,000 people live there, predominantly Karen all who have fled there from Myanmar. KKBBSC is the vision and work of Dr. Saw Simon who came to the camp shortly after it was opened. In the beginning it was a fledging endeavor. But now 20 years past it is a thriving educational mission serving over 400 students. Even though the school exists without official status or any permanent structures according to the Thai government rules that regulate the camps it has, by all measurements, flourished.

Layered into nature like a great spider web the camp neatly sprawls for several miles. It is literally out in nowhere. No town or village surrounds the camp only a road passes and when visiting one only begins to be aware of Mae La when she comes upon road blocks and armed guards checking all coming and going. The school is built in section C of the camp directly under the shadow of a great mountain – “Prayer Mountain” with a stream flowing through it. It is idyllic and tragic in the same breath. It is the place of sublime beauty but the bosom of great sorrows and tears yet not without even greater hope and praise. And there are children, many children and youth energizing the camp with spirit and play. Hope springs eternal and nowhere more than in the hearts of the young. Each day they emerge from their humble abodes to set about their work and studies brilliant, clean and well-dressed for the day as if they had bathrooms, showers, laundries and all the creature comforts western depend on to groom and beautify themselves. Some, a few live with family and attend the Bible School or College but most of the young people live in group thatch cabins or a dormitory like structure made from the trees and resources nature supplies.

The structures, all of them are far more open to nature and the outdoors than in the West. This means seeing, smelling and hearing the activities of others is normal. Everything and everybody is far more permeable so when morning breaks just before the light dawns one is awakened with song. Seventy orphans gather and begin to sing in low soft tones on the second floor of their dwelling. This is the way the day opens – before the first crack of dawn the scent of praise fills the crisp mountain air. Singing is a big deal in the camp. From my dwelling the upper level of a garage with a meeting room with a curtained off sleeping section I could walk to an open deck and look out over the main hub of the school. At any given time during the day or evening until 9 pm there would be 6 to 8 different groups singing. And the college age youth sung beautifully in four-part harmony. One of the most talented groups among them was a group of handicapped who live and eat together. One day at chapel time nine of these men, blinded and dismembered by land mines, made their way to the front and made the pillars tremble with their chorus – truly a wonder to behold and hear.

My class consisted of about 65 to 70 Junior and Senior college students. I taught without a translator and had to simplify, then simplify even more my language and concepts. The student’s first language is Karen [pronounced Ka(u) Ren], then Burmese and then a little English. I was forced to continually create stories to carry the concepts I wanted to communicate. Where a story was employed to communicate the idea the uptake ratio was ten times greater. Because I refused to sacrifice the sharp edge of the idea I was trying to get across I had to work much harder and become more imaginative. I lectured morning and afternoon preaching at chapel and weekend youth meetings. Like the previous engagements my experience at the camp was very good. Many of the students had a rethink about the foundation of their faith. I said at the end of my class “remember this one thing if you get through Bible College and forget everything else in your journey through life, especially in time when the grit and grind of survival over takes you “religion is grace and ethics is gratitude”. God’s grace freely given in Christ is the unconditional, invisible, often unfelt foundation of your life – temporal and eternal. Gratitude proceeds from resting on this unseen foundation of grace. Above, before and aside from all the business of religion resting on this foundation is the primary thing and if when this occurs, if only a little, one inner wheel is meant to turn if none other – gratitude. Grace and gratitude are linked like a horse and carriage, like the light of the moon to its source in the sun. Beside these two spirited intangibles everything else preached and taught and done in the name of God and religion is extra and often superfluous. This succinct reduction is a direct quote from T.W. Mansion, the great British New Testament Scholar of bygone years. By the time I took my exit not a few students began to get a new understanding and appreciation for this center.

In hindsight I renamed the course – “The Seminal Theological Insight of the Protestant Reformation: Considered Within Its Original Historical Setting, Reflected on and Applied to Contemporary Times and Issues ”.

I was asked by Malaysia Theological Seminary to teach the History of Protestant Thought but the limits of time led me to this redefinition of the course; one which I believe better serves my own passion and interests and the needs of these fledgling students and ministers. Following this approach, the historical curiosity continually gave way to discussions and applications wedded to the present lived situation. I have yet to translate these from my pencil and paper lecture notes onto my hard drive and make them available but this will happen soon for those of you wanting a sample of my work. At the completion of my course I was given a Karen dress shirt and asked to don it before the assembly – a gift signing their acceptance of me and their appreciation of my work.

Even though the plight of the Karen people is submerged in a 200-year struggle, one that precedes and exceeds the present talks and hopes for the revival of human rights in Burma/Myanmar the destiny of this minority is not in doubt. They have attended to their education and to developing their faith and the practice of the Christian way with great order and discipline and enlightened missionary zeal. Their ways and belief are potent and deep. I have now seen and emerged from this short experience in the Mae La Camp to assure all who ask “the Karen People are no helter skelter people driven and dying out. Their customs, language and culture are alive and well. Their spirit is strong and although subjected to great sufferings they are neither hard nor bitter because they are rooted in and fed by those eternal springs of faith, hope and love found in the Gospel. Indeed these people are among the richest in spirit of God’s people on this earth. Their children fulfill the proverb “daughters polished after the similitude of a palace, sons grown up in their youth”.

If any one reading this wants to make a little or big contribution to this venture I can only encourage you to do so [send to Aprile Age, 154 Grand St, Ste 5-10, NY,NY 10013]. This teaching extravaganza has been under taken on a gratuitous basis to the colleges and seminaries served and has been voluntarily under written by family and a very few friends. To say the least crisscrossing Asia eating, sleeping and traveling has not been cheap. But this report is not an appeal, regardless of any financial response I appreciate your taking an interest in my work and I hope you stay tuned. On my part, I will keep you posted of my travels and sooner than later provide you samples of my lectures should you like to read them.

From Grace to Gratitude – from The Gift received to Giving this Advent Season and Beyond

Yours Sincerely,

Dr. Daniel