Myanmar Trip - Jan & Mark

Jan Busboom: On Wednesday, March 15, Mark Reynolds and Jan Busboom from the PFC Thai team traveled with Alan, Matthew and Vincent from the Singapore team by van to Mai Sae (about a 2.25 h drive) Pastor P. met us at the Wang Thong Hotel (Very nice) and we walked across the border into the Union of Myanmar. The border crossing was reasonably uneventful:

1. Made 1 copy of passport (It cost only 15 Baht for all 5 passports)
2. Go to Thai immigration point and they just ask check your passport and ask if you are just going for the day
3. Continue to Myanmar check point. You have cross from the left side to the right side of the street in no man’s land. At Myanmar immigration you go into an office and you can pay them U.S. $5 or 250 Thai Baht. They keep your passport. We continued into Myanmar.

In no man’s land and as soon as you cross into Myanmar there will be many people there to sell you things or offer you services (like telling you that you need to cross the street in no man’s land. In Myanmar we took a songthaew (taxi truck) that Pastor P. had hired for 400 baht for the day. We first went to the church and orphanage (which is officially a free boarding house for children without parents or parents who cannot support them). The older children were in school, but there were 20 younger children who sang several powerful praise songs and then prayed powerfully for us. At least one professor was weeping. It’s an awesome sight to see 20 two through five year olds with their hands raised to heaven singing and praying with all that is within them.

Then each of the visitors spoke a word of encouragement to them, Mark taught them a couple of fun kid’s songs and the Singaporeans taught them “I Love You Jesus Deep Down in My Heart”. Then we passed out small gifts like bubbles, candy, face paint and stickers. The children love the gifts but they are very thankful just to have you there. They love to shake hands with you and give great hugs. They are indeed beautiful. Pastor P. then gave us a tour of the facility. They have 44 orphans. They have an elevated pig pen that they feed leftover food and a little corn. They provide much of the protein the kids consume.

We then traveled to the Bible school that was closed down last spring. Pastor P. believes he will get government approval to reopen in June. He had 40 graduates of the school who have all gone on to plant churches and the government now believes him that his school is devoted to ministry and is not a potential political enemy. He will welcome visitors to help teach at the school and to conduct training for pastors in Myanmar.

We ate lunch at a Burmese restaurant, drove to the Buddhist temple overlooking the city and then visited the “long neck” village that has received Christ. Then we crossed back over the border.

At Myanmar Immigration they gave us back our stamped passports. At Thai immigration we had to fill out arrival cards.

On the road back to Fang at a check point they stopped us and they checked all of our bags and checked the Singaporeans passports but not the US passports. It was obvious Mark and I were not illegal immigrants from China.