Incurvatus In Se

Posted on December 5, 2016 by agedaniel

hope

While Donald Trump was ascending to his glory, at the very moment the decisive count was being tabulated I was at the center of the universe, well that is a slight exaggeration, not the center of the universe but the world, our world – planet earth. Without question KKBBSC was for me, at that moment in time, the center of the world because since the world is round the center is wherever one is located. I was located at The Mae La Refugee Camp an hour and a half north into the mountains by the Line Bus from Mae Sot, western Thailand. I was in Section A in the camp, teaching a course on The Relation of the Christian Church to Political Power to junior and then senior students of The Kawthoolie Karen Baptist Bible School and College, one of the coolest schools on the planet!

When the score was finalized and the Electoral College votes tabulated it was midday the 9^th of November and my afternoon class was approaching. To assuage my grief I held a memorial service to the campaign to become the 45th president of the United States. This memorial campaign, which had just exhaled its last gasp of fowl air before giving up the ghost, deserved in my judgment, to be eulogized. The nasty, nauseating, mud slinging, soul destroying, bellicose campaign, with all its wild and wooly claims, extending from little hands to a new great wall that will divide the Americas had come to an end. While something else was born the campaign was then and there, at that moment in time, over, finished, dead and gone. It seemed fitting therefore to immediately hold a memorial service in this tropical climate where everything rots quickly and disappears into the abyss of nature’s ferment.

Without reflection the only commentary on the life of this campaign could be none other than Bob Dylan’s refrain, or a close facsimile thereof, “something has happened here Mr. Jones but I don’t know what it is.” And this is what I did – I reflected out loud about what had happened. Setting my lecture notes aside I spoke extemporaneously for about 2 hours and mused over the campaign, sometimes using Christian and Biblical understandings as my tools, sometimes experience and reason. In fact, the truth be told, the students suborned me into this task, requiring me to say some final words for they too were confused.

The memorial service of sorts, which I did indeed publically name as such at the beginning of the class, came about sort of like a scene from an old western movie where a compatriot dies in a mountain shoot out. Instead of just riding off, someone in the gang with a conscience says “we cannot just leave ‘em lay here to rot we gotta bury ‘em”. And when they do cover the dead guy with a heap of rocks with a make shift stick cross wedged between them then they realize somebody has to say a word even if its ever so banal and terse. I was that guy. They forced it on me. The students made me do it. Their insistence however, it must be noted, was born mostly from a true affection for the USA. Karen students do not have a mere sentimental affection toward the USA born from rock and roll and the movies. More than any other country in the world it has been the USA who has welcomed Karen Refugees driven from their Burma/Myanmar homeland, held in camps inside the Thai border now for 25 years. Many students viewed the USA as their friend and a potential new homeland. Trump’s anti-immigrant Make America Great Again rhetoric echoed in these far off mountains and caused these students concern and confusion. “Will the real America we have believed in please stand up.” This is what many were saying during the campaign, and then November 9th arrived and by some luck of the draw I was there with them, and together before us the identity of the new America rose to its feet and it was a grim presentation. Not only were they confused and concerned – I was too! Here follows one of my reflections the best I can reclaim my words and thoughts.

Scripture tells us the struggle of human existence comes down to an outward versus and inward focus. Sin and agape love dual for the mastery. The primary sense of sin that comes to the fore in Scripture is that of a toxic propensity that temps us humans to turn inward to ourselves and our needs, our security and desires and to turn away from others especially others in real need. Over against this propensity there is a counter power – the Spirit from above, God’s Spirit, who pulls us out to embrace the way of love and the ethic of justice that agape love calls us to. Following this pull the self becomes downsized and ventures a turn outward where it finds it’s life in service to others in need to the glory, not of self, but of God. While the turn inward is supremely acquisitive, the turn outward is radically distributive because it turns its helps out to those in need in the posture of service and ministry. Curved in or turned out this is the struggle which Jesus and Paul made the explicit self-conscious struggle of every individual. And whilst this struggle is essentially a personal struggle carried by the individuals empowered by the Spirit and by the groups and congregations that body individuals, this struggle transcends individuals and their parochial groups and enters the worlds, cultures and polities that individuals and groups create.

While agape love cannot, and should not be directly translated to the affairs of the nation state, as if it were an ethical code that could be translated, the outward versus the inward voyage elemental to Agape is not lost. Its presence in the world does not belong to the realm of ‘good ideas’. Its presence in the world is not correlated to the life span of ephemeral spiritual ideas and pious virtues. This side of Easter it is the destiny of this outward turn to challenge and, if possible, penetrate every body and institution whether economic, familial, and political and upon penetrating its consciousness compromise, its consistent inward preoccupation. All individual and social realities must struggle with this revolution because the messiah has already come and given this revolution a historical career. It is the future of humanity, and this side of Easter it is not only coming, as in the age of the Prophets, it is present and coming to fulfillment. And while it cannot be instituted like a law or policy the power and genius of this turn outward can and must be discerned, and reflected in our bodies, not only body selves, but familial, economic, ecclesial, and national bodies the best we can. The self stands deep in these bodies, shapes and is shaped by them.

The inward focus centers all the attention on the explicit promotion and greatness of self. In this turn self narrows and becomes anxious. In fact it was Luther who wrote of this turn calling it the essence of sin. Sin he wrote in Latin is “Incurvatus in se“, “the self curved inward on itself.” From the lens of this inward focus every resource and person (or people) around it is seen in relation to the direct enhancement of oneself or threat against oneself. Self-focus, self-concern, self-protection, the security of self, as well as the promotion and preeminence of self, becomes studied, purified, streamlined into policies and baptized as a new ideology of strength. “Today on November 9,” (Asia is a day ahead in time) I told the students, “America officially and openly embraced a consistent inward focus whilst calling into open question and disparagement all of its outward, other centered endeavors. Like an immune system that becomes confused and attacks and destroys its own vitality, America turned against its own liberal magnanimity – the soul and secret of its vitality. The verve and nerve to turn outward toward needs and concerns beyond its own, to the extent such ex-centricity still existed, received a great wound. Jettisoning its outward focus and embracing a full throttle toxic inward focus the new leadership and their followers said “Let the world go to hell in a hand basket we must now shift all our attention explicitly on the nation self.” “From henceforth our platform will be about only those things that are explicitly, directly, simply, fusslessly, and immediately good for us.”

Never mind the deeper question that underlies everything else, namely whether this new ethic really attends to the subtly, complexity, liberality and humanitarian wisdom embedded in enhancing the greatness of oneself or one’s nation. Here it’s the explicit shift to make the national self’s greatness a simple, direct, unambiguous goal, as if that were possible to begin with. On the contrary, outward focus requires one to sit loose with one’s greatness, real or imagined, and to beware of the swelling and inflammation of self interest, and act out of a wide spectrum of interests where another’s good, need and plight enter into decision making and action.

Take justice for instance. Under the new Make America Great Again ethic the outward turn is viewed as an ultraistic ephemeral spirituality, fit for pious church people, but an ethic that has any business being woven deeply into the fabric of the nation state and its polity it is not. Justice – coming alongside the down and out in an effort to help restore the means of life – must now be interpreted as weakening the nation self. In fact almost every social benefit or relief can be viewed as a drain on the collective self’s economic strength. Embracing ethnic and religious differences, making room for them, and according them dignity and social space as a matter of principle, becomes interpreted as weakening the power of a more or less homogenous democratic majority (more or less – every year less). The mind set that believes that the funds from the public purse must not be used to put justice into play, in the myriad of ways it faces the nation is the opposite of greatness. It is anxiety driven and its driven by the ‘haves’ who fear their privilege will be compromised by the have nots. It is Incurvatus in Se, the national self curved in on itself.

America as a vanguard and sentinel for human rights and freedom in the world, a voice for exploited, abused and enslaved peoples, people without rights and a say in their future, is viewed as runaway liberalism, as elitist, as cultural imperialism. And most importantly it is seen as contributing nothing directly to making us great, muscularly great, nationally great and economically great and or militarily great, because it is in these measurements of greatness that the rubber meets the road in this ‘new ethic’.

November 8 decided it. The time had come for America to pull back, curve inward, and quit “saving the world” (the libel of its nay sayers). It is time, America said, to tend to our own needs and greatness. Its time to go back home and stay home and make America great again. Time to withdraw from the global struggle for rights and justice and freedom, except of course where our security is concerned. It is time to reign in the liberal notion that every difference is to be baptized and given free social commerce. These differences – do they not weaken us? This is what the majority of States ( not people/citizens) said on November 8 led as they were by one who was well qualified, perhaps qualified far above anyone else, to lead the revolt against the outward turn. For has anyone in America mastered incurvatus in se better than this new leader has, took it deeper and further than he has, practiced it with such awesome radical consistency as he. Is he not much more than merely president (one who is fit or unfit to preside over the affairs of state) but really far more the new man, exemplar man for all men and women where incurvatus in se is personified and the election of 47 percent, a collective act of erotic love.

By November 9 in the wee hours of the morning led by their new leader a sufficient majority of the states gained the mandate and said “we must now commence to circle the wagons and protect ourselves, the greatness of our country has come under many threats. We will now cease the outward venture and turn inward!” On November 9 the primacy of me, myself and I, the miserable ethic of Cain, morphed from the secret guilt of self -centered individual souls to a shameless boastful slogan of a new toxic nationalism.

Build a wall, a great wall and cast out all that weakens and threatens our greatness. Nothing captures what happened better than the great wall. It of course may never be built as it has been advertised but in my opinion it was never intended to be built as advertised. Real or imagined the wall was from the get go a metaphor for the new exclusivity that America was wrapping around itself. America had gone out as far as it was going to go and now it was time to turn inward, it was time to purge America of weakness and concentrate its strength and greatness and then protect it from contamination.

One must pause here, indulge a brief moment of reflective irony. Is not whatever greatness one person or nation approaches, sort of like the proverbial dog running up a shallow stream with a fish in his mouth. Upon seeing his reflection in the water the poor dog becomes mesmerized and confused and then thoroughly bemused, then suddenly drops the fish and lunges for the reflection losing both the fish and the reflection. I have already witnessed it, many here in the South East Asia have already realized the fish is gone from the dog’s mouth, the illusive mystery and wonder of America has gone flat! Even junior and senior college students wearing Karen ethnic wraps, living in thatch shelters made from leaves and branches perched under the cleft of a great desolate mountain out in nowhere in the rugged terrain in Tak Province in Northwest Thailand six miles from the Burma border know the mystery has gone flat – America has curved inward.

Hope is the key word all around. Hope here and now, means we Americans and friends of America renew hope that all of the peoples, agencies and religious organizations that have been turned out to the greater good, the common good, domestic and international, will not flinch but strengthen their resolve. Hope here and now means that the cries of oppressed peoples such as those in KKBBSC and the Mae La Camp, in Syria and the Syrian Refugee Diaspora and in Burma/Myanmar with the plight of the Rohingya Muslims and legends of other oppressed groups in South and Central America will be heard and real help will reach them. Hope here and now alas means that all in positions of power and wealth, including the 45^th president elect and his suite of advisors and helpers, will be converted to true greatness – the greatness of turning away from swollen self interest and anxiety and out to those in need, the many real faces of need in search of friendly eyes.

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Kawthoolie Karen Baptist Bible School and College Spring 2014 Graduation

Posted on April 3, 2014 by agedaniel

A First Hand Report With Reflections

On Sunday March 22 leaving Chiang Mai I traveled 7 hrs by bus to Mae Sot, Thailand. The next morning Sunday the 23rd bright and early I boarded a pick up bus and traveled along the Burma border for an hour and half north to the Mae La Refugee Camp where I have taught many times since 2011. Kawthoolie Karen Baptist School and College (KKBBSC) was graduating their senior college students and I wanted to be present to encourage and congratulate them. The first service was at 10 AM and lasted till 1pm the second service started at 2 pm and lasted past 6pm. Seated in the congregation I was summoned to the platform where it was hotter but free bottled water was passed out. Three students spoke all toll and many adults – leader figures – honored guests from far and wide. On the platform there were VIPs so called, many seemed a cross between NGO and Church leader with a smattering of volunteer teachers and a couple preachers. These came from Germany, Denmark, Australia, Korea, Malaysia and the US as well as from Thailand and of course the Karen from Burma (most everyone present were already working in Thailand or Asia). I would estimate the entire count of persons present including students to be over 900. This being the case it was especially difficult for anyone with preacher blood coursing through his or her veins to sit down once he mounted the pulpit.

Here follows a few brief reflections taken from my 6 hrs on the platform on this auspicious day with its auspicious guest speakers and honored students.

1. First consider the setting. Mae La Refugee Camp is situated 65 kilo north of Mae Sot along the Thai- Burma border on the Thai side. It is nestled at the base of a great mountain with a sheer rock face and it is out in nowhere. There are no towns or villages even close. It is rugged mountainous terrain typical of the Tak province of Thailand. 50,000 refugees live in this camp their dwellings cut from the flora and fauna they inhabit. In this desolate outback approximately 70 seniors, all Karen save two or three, robed and polished, as the proverb states, “after the similitude of a palace” filled the outdoor pavilion. With all the pomp and ceremony one might find on graduation day in a great cathedral on 5^th Avenue Manhattan the occasion went forward. The setting made me recall a chance casual conversation I had with a young lady sitting at the table next to me in Manhattan a few years back. She told me at long last she believed she now lived in the center of the planet – Hells Kitchen downtown Manhattan. This is where she believed culture peaked and she experienced herself on the cutting edge. I openly scoffed at her judgment but sitting on the platform the thought lit upon my mind like a butterfly delights a blossom – this, here and now, is the center of the planet. Here is why.

2. The Karen have many gifts but among their finest is music and especially singing. They not only love to sing and fill the valley with song from morning to night they have developed exceptional skill. At one point in the ceremony the entire student body rose and sang the Hallelujah Chorus. During the chorus I closed my eyes for a moment and saw the angels weeping. No words can describe the harmonic ecstasy and the sheer spiritual and aesthetic power of this moment. Where such worship occurs, I mused, then and there we find the center of the universe. This is so because in my humble judgment when such exquisite praise occurs in the midst of such hardship, there one has pushed trouble to the periphery and found the goodness of God to be the center of life.

3. Dr Simon the founder and director spoke of the origin of the school. Even though I had heard the story many times before it moved me again. In 1990 having fled Myanmar for the terror of the military that was reaping violence on their land and having found sanctuary in this camp Dr Simon dreamed a dream. With three other teachers and 6 students he opened KKBBSC and now 24 years later it has 500 students. But what’s more, the military who were motivated by ethnic hatred to destroy the Karen will in the end be defeated. Because soon the Karen will return and instead of returning beaten, weakened and begging for land and a share of the means of life they will return stronger, educated their native talents and gifts developed more than anytime in the past and confident of their belonging and right. What is the saying “revenge is sweeter when served cold.” And here certainly no revenge is intended but in the dues of God, (“God laughs at the wicked” the good book tells us) what was chased out and under will reemerge more potent and resilient than before. When justice, dignity and right are violated then it is, if and when education, study and reflection are mixed with this experience, that these become stronger, more self–conscious and determined. From the black churches in America the greater church at large awoke to the Prophets and Christ’s vision of justice. The Kawthoolei Karen Baptist have a distinctive fabric of justice and dignity woven into their religion and from the church in their midst (if they will) other churches in Asia may also awakened to the cause of justice incorporating it into their evangelism. This leads me to my 4^th reflection

4. Of all the distinguished and illustrious guests rich in experience and degrees no one in my humble opinion spoke with the poignancy and clarity as two senior Karen students. Each from his own perspective cast an eye upon their return to their homeland. They spoke of restoration of the land, the community and the work that needs to be done to replant and re-root their culture and nation again. These were at the same time concrete practical and visionary speeches. Never before visiting KKBBSC have I felt the imminence of the Karen hopes as with these seniors. It is as if many of them do indeed carry the burden for the return even more than the elders whose work is passing. “Young men grown up in their youth daughter polished after the similitude of a palace.”

5. Much was said during these speeches about the Karen nation and indeed a nation they were and a nation in exile they remain and a nation determined to be again in their homeland. Sitting there on the platform I could not help but think of the Jewish nation and their Babylonian exile. The shape and form of their nation before and after it changed. National ‘restoration’ no doubt echoed during the seventy years in Babylonian captivity but when the time of restoration came what occurred was not simply a restoration of the way things were in the past but a transformation of it. Judaism did not go forward in the same shape it was before. ‘Restoration’ on the other side of all exiles, no matter their cause, whether personal or collective, is found and built in a new way. The old that was lost when it is reborn goes through a change and re-emerges in a new form. Judaism returned to new religious and ethnic pluralism and keeping their identity depended more upon piety and taking care of the law (Torah) and embodying the way of the law in life. From henceforth the synagogue and the teaching that occurred within it began to emerge and eventually became an important center to hold the people together. This piece of Jewish history is, I believe, very instructive to Karen people at this time in their history – perhaps even more instructive now than the Nehemiah text of rebuilding the wall – the Scripture reading for the graduation.

Add to this historic reflection and comparison the fact that when messiah Jesus came upon the Jewish 1^st century scene he laid the groundwork so as to tie their ethnic identity as the historic people of God to ecclesia not nation perse. The future of nation was caught up by Jesus into the coming Kingdom of God something much bigger and broader than nation. And ecclesia i.e. the called or called out (church) became the gathering point this side of the kingdom and included all believers, Jew and Gentile and existed separate from state/nation. All confusion of church and state stand not only under the judgment of Christian history but also the ways and means of messiah Jesus. Nations do not cease to exist but they cease to be ‘Christian bodies’. There is only one Christian body – “where two or three are gathered in my name there I am present”. Nations who have within them genuine Christian communities (salty eccelsias) indeed benefit and are built up, strengthened and ennobled in a tangential accidental way. This side of the kingdom this is as close as ‘Christian’ comes to any institution whether it be a nation, marriage, political or social body.

Epilogue

I was asked to speak and introduce myself in a 2-minute envelope of time. I may have by passed my name I am not sure. Having taught many of the graduating students some of my insights on faith and hope I wanted to remind them of their significance for the time at hand. So instead of an introduction I told them that if they were to fulfill their graduation commission to serve Christ they must venture what Peter did – walk on water, not literally but after a similitude. The key to walking on water I said was learning to walk by faith not by sight. With this rather abrupt cryptic message lasting 1 minute 43 seconds I sat down. Here follows my meaning that I trust will make it round robin to a few of the graduates.

Yesterday (March 22,2014 and before) you (the graduates) were in the boat called KKBBSC. In this you were not much different than the 12 in the boat called GMS (Galilean Missionary School) under the head master Jesus. Today (March 23) you have gathered with family and friends in the presence of your teachers and elders to hear Christ bid you leave the boat and serve him in the world. In the boat you have each other close and you have the KKBBSC institution under your feet and in this boat you sing, study and play despite your refugee survival. You sing your dream song “row row row your boat gently down the stream merrily merrily merrily life is but a dream.” But now graduation has come and with it the definite word and time has come to arise and get out of the boat and get about your work. Times have and are changing for you. It is time to enlist your youth, zeal, time, strength and talents in service (with the exception of those of you who will post pone this calling and go on and study more). Like Peter, Christ bids you to get out of the boat and serve him in the face of humanity.

The boat symbolizes a degree of security. It is under you and saves you from being submerged in the often troubled waters beneath you. Some of you when you grasp the degree of the challenge ahead will say Lord just let us stay together and row the boat where you want us to go, others will say “give me a bridge Lord.” “Lay up a bridge and I will walk over it and go where it leads and there serve you.” But in the call to serve Christ bids you like Peter to abandon the security of the boat and walk on water.

If you are to get anything done for the Lord, if you are to make your way in service and be fruitful you must now graduate from life in the boat to life walking on water, that is to say you must forego the luxury of having a clear, strong, firm and secure foundation under your feet thereby upholding your journey. You must forego your predilection to first have in place all the material needs to get the job done; forgo having a firm foundation under your feet. No, to truly serve and obey his call you are and will be a little beyond the safe zone, beyond your means, beyond your native strength, beyond what hard logic and good common sense dictates and beyond the measure of competence that the preparations you have made heretofore equip you. And here in this place all that is solid melts into air and water and here you learn and relearn to trust something that cannot be seen, touched or felt. And when you venture forth without having all you need to hold you up then and then only have you graduated. Even so be sure all of us without exception fail and graduate over and over by the grace of God. We all hanker after a material foundation under us before we go forward, often demanding it in vain from God and others. Yes where opportunity puts helps, better preparations and supports within your reach do not be foolish, avail yourself to these but know one thing for sure – again and again God calls us out of the boat onto the water to get us where He wants us to go, do what he wants us to do and become what He wants us to be.

Look straight at what is not there, what ‘should’ be there, look directly at your lack of good support and the lack of material economic subsistence under you and your lack of thorough preparations and this absence will gain a negative spiritual magnitude will subdue and overcome your faith and destroy it and you will retreat. Sooner or later in life we all must learn to walk on water else we will either sink into despair and retreat or we will become graspy, demanding and forceful, ways far from the Kingdom of God that Christ has sponsored.

“Underneath are the everlasting arms” so reads the good book but most often you and I cannot see, touch or feel these sturdy caring arms. Courage, duty and Christ call you beyond feeling and sight to go forward on by faith alone and lay up good work and efforts in service to Him and his kingdom.

Together with you in His service,

Daniel Age
Teacher of the Gospel of Christ and Way of Faith

Photo Essay: Dr. Dan’s Teaching Visit to Hill Light Seminary

Posted on February 26, 2014 by agedaniel

From February 2nd through February 14th I was invited to teach the third year students at Hill Light Seminary. This was my first visit to Hill Light, a Karen Seminary, about 25 kilometers South of Mae Sot Thailand along the Burmese border. The school was recently established five years ago in the wake of the Karen diaspora. The school serves around 80 Karen Baptist Students from ages 18 to 24 all Myanmar refugees. By request I was asked to teach an ethics course based on my new book. What follows is a photo essay documenting my experiences at Hill Light.

1. These first two photos are from the Burmese Market a large open market dominated by Burmese immigrants, legal as well as undocumented, who have crossed the border into Thailand. Every morning almost before the roasters crow it is a teeming chaotic throng. My Bus to Hill Light Seminary left from this location.

2. The photo below is another shot at the Burmese market – the blue pick up with the cap is a bus, my bus which took me to a place called Ban Mae Kon Ken and from there I took a motor cycle taxi to the camp. Total Cost – 30 Baht per ride ($1.80)

3. This next shot I took from my bus in route to the seminary as we were leaving the Burmese Market. It was about 6:30 AM and these young monks in training were out for to give the local Mae Sot citizens an opportunity to acquire some fresh merits by supplying them food stuffs – mainly rice. The big fellow, not yet fully groomed and cultured in the soulful monk decorum sported a wide gleeful smile for me.

On an earlier occasion walking on an empty stretch of road I passed two young monk candidates about 9 and 11 years of age. As I passed my phone rang but I had set the ring to a frog tone which in the early morning air sounded true to life. The eleven year old remained expressionless and didn’t blink but the nine-year was over come with amusement and burst out laughing.

4. The next picture was taken at the general assembly which meets every Wednesday morning at 8 AM. In the early morning it is still cool this time of year in Northern, Thailand so many students come bundled up. I am speaking on a New Testament passage which the director requested. These are all 18 to 24-year-old Karen students from Burma who have come across into Northern Thailand seeking sanctuary from in the Myanmar military who invaded their villages killing, abusing and plundering. Myanmar is changing and hopes are high that a return from exile will soon come.

5. I was asked to preach at the Wednesday morning General Assembly on Colossians 1:15-23. Colossians is about fullness – “pleroma.” Holding a cup with water I opted to introduce the point by asking the proverbial question “is the cup half empty or half full?” After sorting out how many pessimist and optimists I was preaching to I proceeded to make my point. The Colossians were being suckered into a religion in which they were told that they could realize pleroma i.e. “fullness” here and now. But in this letter Paul’s testimony can be heard. Christ was indeed filled with all the fullness of God (2:10) but here and now we, on the other hand, suffer much emptiness and only enjoy a small measure of this fulness of the Spirit and life (just a taste of this promised fullness of Hebrews 6:5, Ephesians 1:12 & 13). By faith and hope in and through the Christ we are regarded as full (1:27 & 28)but when the fullness of time comes we will indeed enjoy this fullness in reality full and over flowing.

Now we suffer faith and hope – faith connects to unseen things as they exist by promise and by the word of the Gospel that declares the existence of unseen and even things not felt and experienced directly to be so. And hope lives with a measure of emptiness and suffering with courage waiting for this pleroma. We like the Colossians are tempted to break the tensions inherent in faith and hope and sucker after pseudo fulfillment, spiritual and secular.

6. Here is a shot of my class of third year students. The actual campus is really very beautiful, sitting on a hill-top overlooking a fertile valley. The campus is situated inside an old Karen Thai village called Kway Nam Ku. The building housing this class room, one of seven rooms, was donated by Korean Christians who retain the title and a degree of control over its use.Note the young lady in the front. Before her lies a copy of my book – a gift to each one who came to class and did the assignments. Fifteen students received books (I am in search of donors to back the cost at the discounted student price of $15, please email me if interested).

Third Year Karen Students at Hill Light Seminary

7. Below is a photo of my class and I on the last day of the seminar along with some of the feedback I received from the students on the lectures .

“I like this book very much because it provides many examples to understand. Jesus also used examples in His teaching.We don’t fully understand God and His ways, sometimes not even a little. But this book opened my eyes to walk by faith and not by sight (blindness is not a big deal).” Thit Sae

“I learned so many things from these lectures. Two weeks are too short of a time but we received an advantage from this time….This was strong spiritual food. It encouraged us to deal in God. It also encouraged us to steady our faith… Today we face many challenges and we know we can overcome these when we walk by faith not by sight…” Hsa Klay

“In this class I learned about faith and sight, faith and sight you explained very well and I understand more. I like this class so much because you tell us the teaching using short stories and then I read the chapter in your book which follows the lecture. I want to say thank you that you came and taught our class may the grace of the Lord be with you… the blessing of the Lord over flow you.” Naw Moo Christ

New Teaching Invitation at Hill Light Seminary

Posted on January 27, 2014 by agedaniel

I have recently received and accepted an invitation to teach third year students at Hill Light Seminary at Klee Thoo Klo (Huay Nam Khun) village which is seventeen miles south from Mae Sot, Thailand. The appointment commences on February 2nd.

Hill Light is a new seminary that has been in existence for only a few years. It has an excellent reputation of being well run with good student teachers from Naga Land, India as well as local Karen teachers and excellent leadership. Hill Light trains Karen Baptists from the “Golden Triangle” many exiled from Burma.

Attached is a picture sent to me of last year’s students. This will be my first time teaching at Hill Light. I have been asked to bring my new book on faith and ethics and lecture from it. I will have 15 students. If any one would like to purchase a book for a student at the Southeast Asian student price of $15.00 per copy, please email me at Daniel.Age@gmail.com for more information.

The fullness of the ‘empty’ and the emptiness of the ‘full’: Thai-Burma border

Posted on November 4, 2012 by agedaniel

At the Mae La Refugee Camp there is a thatch dorm for handicapped Karen men who suffered land mine accidents and violence at the hands of the Myanmar military. I was invited to visit these men. On my arrival they rallied and sang to us wanting to give something to us. After their music, wanting to give something to them, I talked about faith, hope and love in the midst of the brokenness of life then we prayed with them and visited each one. One member in our group who had come to visit the camp that day, a writer from Sweden, an unbeliever, was greatly moved – on account of their courage and serenity; and the thoughts of faith hope and love in the depths, when life appears beyond redemption. He had come to Thailand for fun but decided for a day off to visit this camp. I ate lunch with him after our meeting it was clear he was stirred and shaken. The fullness of the ‘empty’ and the emptiness of the ‘full’ had wedged itself into his mind.

For the Karen not only is hope needed but the transformation of hope: Thai-Burma border

Posted on November 4, 2012 by agedaniel

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.

Irrepressible energy and beauty: Mae La Refugee camp

Posted on November 1, 2012 by agedaniel

These are juniors at KKBBSC (Karen Kahoolawe Baptist Bible School & College in the Mae La Refugee camp. They are all Karen peoples from Burma living and studying in the camp. While many have been in the camp several years, the energy and beauty that these youth introduce into the camp life is irrepressible. Every morning they emerge from little thatch dwellings (lean bare dwellings with the meanest cleaning grooming facility) looking like a million dollars -always downed in their traditional ethnic dress. They reminded me of a Proverb in Scripture “sons grown up in their youth, daughters polished after the similitude of a palace”. Here in this remote camp on the edge of nowhere one stumbles upon rare grace and maturity. I looked forward to this class because they were so spirited and totally present.

Justice, hope, equality, human dignity, peace and reconciliation: Thai-Burma border

Posted on October 31, 2012 by agedaniel

I’m here with Dr. Saw Simon the founder & principle of KKBBSC –the college inside the Mae La Refugee Camp at the Thai Burma border. He’s been in the camp for 22yrs. His work on behalf of the Karen People is now known far and wide. Madeleine Albright has been to see his work as well as Aung Sang Sui Kyi Burma’s rising prophet of hope. Prominent UN & religious leaders have made their way to his humble abode where he lives with his wife along with 50,000 other refugees in small thatch and bamboo dwellings. The school (now 450 students) is Baptist (as are most Karen). Because of the plight of the Karen people, the shape and fabric of their religion has been woven into many fine social strands – justice, hope, equality, human dignity, peace and reconciliation. One must wait for Dr Simon to speak. His brevity and quiet way tests almost all visitors and is sometimes misunderstood. But if a guest is patient, lets the bucket down into the well and waits, wonderful tales and stories are forthcoming. Hidden away in the remote mountains, ostensibly removed from the world Dr Simon has his fingers on political and religious movements far and wide. He remembers dates, events and personalities and their histories with uncanny precision. And he is testing the winds for the Karen whether the times of change they have prayed and waited for are now emerging. At his invitation, I taught for 2 weeks at the school.

“Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with your God” Thai-Burma Border

Posted on October 23, 2012 by agedaniel

Everyday for 17 days I traveled from Mae Sot to the Mae La Refugee Camp 67 km away, in a bus that picked up its passengers at random along the highway. By the time I reached the camp, 1.5hrs later, the pickup bus was jammed full. On the third day, I counted 23 in the little truck. Thinking this was the limit I consoled myself. The next day we crammed 47 people in the truck, not counting chickens and sundry animals. This did not include the front seat in the pickup that had four more passengers. The truck looked more like a tethered flag waving in the wind for the fact bodies were literally hanging out like clothes on a clothesline. To get to the camp we had to cross 3 military roadblocks. The Thai government wants to slow illegal movement on their border with Myanmar so there are frequent document checks in route. The two children you see in the picture were part of a family of 5 headed to the security of the refugee camp, but without documents they were depending on bribes if detected. It was heartbreaking to see what happened. They made it through the first check point but they were not so lucky at the second. Studiously trying to avoid eye contact with the soldiers they stared silently down until forced to respond where upon they thrust 200 bhat [$6.00] toward the soldier who refused it probably because a USA citizen was looking on [myself]. The fear on their faces was palpable. I could not shake the hopelessness and desperation I witnessed in their eyes as they were hauled off the little truck to be shipped back across the border. There was not an ounce of compassion and kindness in the soldiers eyes. Micah 6 kept running through my mind “Do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with your God”

A little housechurch at the Thai-Burma border

Posted on October 21, 2012 by agedaniel

This is a little house church just inside the Thai border a few miles from Burma. Philip, a Burmese, is the young man leading. There are about 15 people in this church with about 10 children. All are Burmese and most have come to Thailand illegally after their property was taken by Myanmar military leaders (usually for no reason except greed.) Two of the members are college graduates and one is a teacher. Philip raises money and feeds his congregation as well as provides classes in English. I spoke at his church twice on successive Sunday mornings. A gifted and very compassionate leader it is almost certain this church will soon burst its seams. There are 1000’s of Burmese who have migrated across the border in search of a new life but a new life is hard to put together. Even though Burma is changing they have nothing to return to. Mission work here is humanitarian and religious. The church becomes a place where food, education and community are present in a setting where faith and Christian beliefs create fellowship. It is everything fragmented people need. No committee decides whether the church’s endeavor will front social relief—it’s in the mix from the get go.

existence and faith

Tag Archives: Thai-Burma Border