Everyone has a story to tell, and I am no exception. In 1995, there was a war in Burma so my parents and family had to run away. They needed to find a safe place to live. During that time, my mom was pregnant with me so when my parents arrived in Thailand I was born there. That’s how I became a refugee. Life in a refugee camp was very tough. It was like that for me and also for everyone living there.

In Thailand I lived in a camp called Mae La Oon. I witnessed a lot of problems there. In the camp, people had a very poor quality of education. For example, if students graduated from grade 10, they could be teachers. Teachers made only 500 baht a month which is $20 in Canadian money. There was no freedom. No one was allowed to go out of the camp because if the police saw us, they would put us in jail. People were unhealthy because of limited food or poor health care. There were no doctors in the camp, just nurses. Nurses had medicine for illnesses like fevers but no medicine for serious illnesses. There were only 2 hospitals for 15,000 people. You never got to eat healthy food. To eat chicken for a holiday like Thanksgiving was a special treat for everyone. Camp houses were made of bamboo. There was no running water and no toilets inside our houses. We had no electricity and no furniture. Because of my experiences as a refugee in Thailand, I have learned tolerance, strength and the importance of charity.

First of all, I have learned tolerance because I don’t care about other peoples’ backgrounds. I can be a friend with anyone as long as they are friendly and honest to me. For example, in the camp I met so many people. Some of them were Burmese and who had a different religion. Some people didn’t want to be friends with them because they were still thinking about the past. In camp there were many people who hated each other but I didn’t blame them because there was no one to educate them. Some people didn’t let their children marry a Burmese person but I know that in any group there are good and bad people. Some Burmese also had to run away from their own government.

The other thing I learned is how to have strength in camp. I learned how to live and how to see a better world because if you can’t see a better world, you’ll never be happy with yourself. When I was in the camp I lost some of my friends because there was a lot of rain which destroyed some houses. After that people found 26 dead bodies. It was the first time that I got to know death. I also learned how to make friends with other people. I had to be very brave and very strong because in the summer I always heard about people seeing dead bodies without heads because people needed heads to build a bridge. That’s what some people believe in. I consider myself lucky because I have never seen the reality of dead bodies.

As well, in Thailand’s refugee camp I also learned charity. As I grow up and mature I want to stand up for my own rights. For example, I can’t stand to see people suffer while I’m fortunate and have everything I need in Canada. I know very well that I need to do something for those people but it’s not the time for me yet. I don’t want new generations to have a similar story to mine. I want to help them and educate them in the future. I also want them to get away from the darkness and weakness. I want them to be able to get stronger and see a world with freedom. I also wish I can help my people and I will try my best to do everything that I can.

Life in Canada is like moving from darkness into light. I am free to make choices and decisions. Education is free and it is a high level of education. I can choose my own course to lead to my goals. Secondly, there are many doctors to help to keep people healthy. My dad was able to get medicine to help him feel better and recover from a serious illness. In Canada, if you have enough money you can buy anything you want at the grocery store. Even at school there is a breakfast program to feed us nutritious snacks that will help our brains to work better. I am grateful for all the help from Canadian friends because without their help I would not have learned as much and become so confident.

Tolerance, strength and charity are very important in my life. Unfortunately, I have learned these points in a very tough way but I am also happy because if I didn’t face situations like these I would have never learned tolerance, strength and charity. To have gone through situations like these was a necessary experience for me. I hope that one day I can help people who need help because I don’t want them to have a similar story to mine. These are reasons why my family decided to move in Canada.

Hey Everyone!

Sorry that it has been so long since my last blog post.  I feel like I have been in Thailand for so long now and have grown so accustomed to life out here that at times I find it difficult to think of things to write about.  I guess a year is a pretty long time to be away though, so struggling to find things to write about is probably something that many people would face under similar circumstances.  Plus, I had spent a lot of time in Thailand prior to this yearlong trip out, so from day one I was already quite familiar with my surroundings.  And I’m not saying that there isn’t a million awesome things going on out here at the moment that I could post about, because there is, it’s just that now I have become so focused with the ‘on the ground’ work that we are doing at Forgotten that at times I forget to keep everybody back in the States up to date on things.  And I want you all to know that I am sorry for this because I know how important it is to all of you to know what is going on out here and that you love to hear about how everyone is doing.  I must say though, aside from causing me to not keep up on my blog posts very well, this prior experience that I have had traveling abroad before I came to Thailand has definitely been one of my greatest strengths in working alongside the team here at Forgotten.  And let me explain why.

Two years ago I traveled through Africa with an open heart and an open mind trying to do whatever I could to change the world.  Everything abroad at the time was so new and foreign to me that I was really living in kind of a dream like state, with somewhat of an utopian mindset, thinking that anything was possible, that all I had to do was come up with a good idea for a project, get it in motion and after that everything else would just kind of fall into place.  However, after spending some time volunteering and seeing so many projects succeed and fail, I then started to notice this naivety and utopian mindset slip away from me.  I began to see that as in any country or walk of life there is always going to be some ups and some downs, that nothing in this world will ever work out just perfectly.  I was able to start seeing things for what they really were and was no longer sugar coating anything.  I knew at this point that if you wanted to succeed at something in this life that you were going to have to work your butt off to get it done.  And this is why I am very grateful that I already had this experience and knowledge prior to me coming out to Thailand to work for Forgotten.  By coming in with this very realistic approach to projects and understanding that I must first determine what is actually in our power to accomplish, I was able to analyze the work being done at Forgotten for what it really is, in turn, enabling me to pinpoint the areas of work that Forgotten is not only doing the best at, but most importantly, the areas that Forgotten is doing the best at that are most necessary.  And I would now like to explain why this analysis that I did needed to be done.

In the beginning, when Forgotten was first started, all the founding members knew at the time was that God had called them to Thailand to do his work.  Aside from knowing this, their mission was in actuality, very unclear, and the founders therefore decided to just listen to the needs of the people and ventured out into every avenue possible to try and help and show them love.  In doing this, it was only natural that it would lead to Forgotten working in a lot of different areas of relief with somewhat of an unclear mission statement, but for the founding members, this was okay.  This, however, did not mean that the founding members did not have plans to analyze all of the work that was being done at Forgotten and learn about all the ways that God has been utilizing them over the years and how they could do things better.  And this is where I came in.  I was hired back in January of 2011 to come live in Thailand for a year to help Forgotten find a clearer mission and understanding of all the work that God wants to be done here.  I knew that this was going to be no easy task and that I would most likely be faced with some hard decisions, but nonetheless, I was prepared to accomplish this goal.  A year has passed now and as I am writing this blog I am simultaneously preparing for my last trip out to Forgotten, and as I do so, I can’t help but to notice how much more clearly defined my outlined bullets have become:

-Buy new materials for the Forgotten School roof and floor

-Hire a new Karen and Thai Language Teacher

-Help develop next year’s school curriculum

-Help the girls living at the house get into the Thai Government School to receive the best education available in the area

I now see that everything that I write up points to one thing, the children!  Over the past 4 years Forgotten has reached out and helped in so many different ways and areas, but at the end of the day, the area that Forgotten has helped out the most, and is doing the best at, is in changing the lives of the children.  And this is why we have set plans in place to invest more in this area moving forward.  We have now found that clearer mission statement that we were looking for!

To provide education to the Burmese transient youth living as refugees in Thailand and teach them about the love of God.

Having this clearer mission statement, however, does not mean that Forgotten plans to abandon on all of its past projects.  Forgotten’s initial and still main reason for coming to Thailand was to bring the gospel to the people here and to share with them about the love of God.  Forgotten therefore plans to continue to grow and expand on the gospel project where the pastors working for Forgotten travel to nearby villages to preach in their churches and provide pro-claimer worship and study groups to people who are sometimes hearing the word for the first time!  Forgotten also plans to continue to rent land for the Burmese transient families living in Thailand outside of the refugee camps.  This land provides the families with safety and refuge, clean drinking water, bathrooms facilities and nearby access to the Forgotten Community House, which is used to build stronger community and relationships in the area, and also to house and look after orphans and abandoned children.  This land is also within close proximity to a Thai Government School to provide the children of these families with an opportunity to receive higher-level education.  Forgotten therefore still has many missions and is always ready to adjust what is being done in order to best meet the needs of the people here.  The only thing that this clearer mission statement shows us now, is that God has directed us for the time being to work primarily with the children.  He has therefore provided us with yet another sign as to which direction we should go in on the road that he has continued to pave out before us!

I know that the work is endless here and that I could stay in Thailand forever and still not accomplish everything that I would like to get done, but I do feel that I did a big portion of what I came here to accomplish and am now ready to come home.  I am however already excited about the day that I will return.  This place and experience will always be a big part of my life!

Again, I would like to thank all of you for following my posts and staying involved in my life as I have been living in Thailand working for Forgotten.

I hope that you are all doing well and look forward to seeing you all again here soon!

Much Love…  Jon