These are seniors at KKBBS College at the Karen Mae La refugee camp 67 Kilo from Mae Sot, Thailand. I was their teacher for 2 weeks. I’ll remember this class for their questions.  For instance, they wanted to know the right relationship of Christians and the church, to political power.  A large percentage of the Karen people are Christians so much so Christian and their ethno-cultural identity have merged. The political fortunes in Burma/Myanmar are shifting and they are keen to know if and how as Christians they can move the process along in their direction.  The Karen groups that were run over and fled are now, more than in times past, flirting with hopes of a return to their homeland. In the not-so-recent past the Karen carried on guerilla warfare in defense of their towns and villages, which had been overrun by the military. I urged them to play with new images of their future in the emerging Burma, less separated as before whilst no less distinct, or true to their values, customs and culture. I quoted Chalcedon “union without fusion distinction without separation”. It maybe that for the Karen people not only is hope needed but the transformation of hope  – a new solidarity with distinction, distinction with solidarity. The old hope – the return of highly separated almost parallel peoples within the new Burma may be dated. Hope, like all prayer, rarely if ever returns to us from our God-sent petition in kind. Do we receive our answers in the same form we send them to Him? More often than not, Life teaches us otherwise. These are seniors and they were feeling the weight of their impending futures, soon they will graduate and then what, where, how? At the close of my two weeks with them they took over the class and ask me to sit.  They proceeded to have one of their musicians play the guitar and sing to me while they filed by one by one and shined on me blessing me and thanking me.