Ben said that I should write, so I thought that I should write about him! Since he came out a month ago, he has never ceased to amaze me. He can jabber away in Karen like the natives do. The people really like that, they always seem to be so surprised when he starts talking. Then they laugh and tell me that he speaks very good Karen!   He can also speak Thai reasonably well, which means that we can actually order vegetarian food when we go out to eat. He plans to learn Burmese next. My mind is boggled with trying to learn one language!

Ben came out of Karen State about a month ago. It took about a month for Ben to get out of Karen State, because he went around and visited all the schools that he could get to. Then he met up with The  Free Burma Rangers group, and they had a pretty exciting time. They had a motley group with them, consisting of  journalists,  military agents, photographers, medics, and soldiers. The guide ended up getting really sick with malaria, and they almost got caught by the police because the guide was delirious and did not know what he was doing. They had to run and hide in the jungle until the danger was over with. Once he met up with The Free Burma Rangers, they hiked for 24 hours straight. For breakfast, they served rice and beef….none of which Ben could eat, and for supper they served rice and chicken, none of which Ben could eat. So, it was a tired and hungry Ben that finally made it to civilization. We have been feeding him all kinds of goodies since then to try to make up for his near starvation. ( he looks really good though, and not too skinny)

Speaking of food, Ben is still having trouble with his stomach. It is not as bad as it was for a while since we got the medicine that Margaret sent to him. But, he is almost out of that medicine, and so we are thinking that he will need to get to a doctor this week. We need to find out if there is anything that can be done short of a stomach transplant! He sure hopes so, since he loves to eat rice. He did find that they grow millet in the mountains in order to brew beer, so he has been buying millet and living on that. It works pretty well, and it looks a lot like rice, so he does not have to feel quite so embarrassed about not eating rice.

Ben not only speaks well, but he understands Karen culture and tells me all the things that I am doing wrong. Like, did you know that you should never walk in front of someone? If you MUST walk in front of them, you should bend yourself in half, and put your hands together politely. It is better to jump over the side of a house, shimmy down the support pole, and then climb up the ladder to trade places rather than walk in front of someone! OK, so maybe that is exaggerated slightly, but it is almost that bad. Another interesting form of politeness is that if you shake someone’s hand, you are to touch your elbow with the other hand while shaking.

If you ask me, Ben is doing an incredible job with his schools. He teaches, and he has all kinds of big plans for starting a training school for lay evangelists next year. Besides the normal evangelistic stuff, he is going to teach them computer technology, and video, and radio and all kinds of other handy skills for living in Karen State. He goes and visits the schools as often as he can to help and encourage the teachers. The people really love and respect Ben. I hear all about it from just about everyone I talk to.

We are sitting in Pastor Phamor’s house tonight watching video clips that Ben took while  in Karen state. He has video of crossing the Burmese road. When they crossed the road, the soldiers went ahead to make sure that it was safe, and then Pastor Nelson and Ben went next, Ben with a camera rolling. You can feel the anxiety as they practically run down the trail. After a while, villagers come from the other direction toward them. There are no greetings, they are just going as fast as they can to get to safety. The next video clip, Pastor Nelson is showing Ben where he was shot. He shows Ben the burned out buildings, and where he jumped off the porch of the church and broke his foot. He then hopped away while the Burmese shot at him. He actually hopped over a fence! (he does not know how he was able to do that) Next, we see where the old school site was that they had to abandon because of the fighting. Then, he showed me a clip of a water wheel in the river, they hook it up to a log that makes these sticks go up and down to pound the rice. It is really amazing and demonstrates how resilient the people really are. Here they are, running for their lives one day, and then pounding rice and trying to live a normal life the next. Life is very hard for them, but they are peaceful, happy people.

In video done by the Free Burma Rangers, we saw the true horror of the Karen situation. The atrocities that they show are truly horrifying when you know that these people are gentle people who just want to be left alone to tend their rice fields and raise their families. One video that we saw was an interview with a father and mother whose children were burned alive by the Burmese. Is it any wonder that those who come here cannot go home and leave these people to suffer alone? If you take the time to know these people, you cannot help but love them. Although there are many things about their culture that we would like to change, they also have many things that we should learn from also. They are the most polite people I have ever met, and very humble. They do not squabble like Americans, but they esteem others better than themselves. There is no rebellion of teens with their parents.

The schools in Karen State are really doing a good job with the kids. Most of the kids that come to our schools become Christians and are baptized, many of them at great personal cost. Ben is writing about two of his students right now. They were baptized recently and one of the girls was shot at by her father after her baptism, and then he caught her and beat her up. She lived through it, and is planning to teach in our schools this next year. Another brother and sister went home after their baptism and were burned and tortured by their grandmother. They were able to escape, and the girl is also planning to be a teacher in our schools. (the boy disappeared, and nobody knows where he is) This is very hard for these kids, because they love their parents dearly, and it is hard not to have their approval. (Ben should have it on his web site pretty soon, so you can read more at bensharon.org .)

As you can probably tell, I am really happy with how Ben is doing. He is not only doing a great job, he is doing a great job doing something that not many people would be able to physically do. Please keep him and his safety in your prayers. We have word that one of the schools that he visited right before coming out was burned by the Burmese. They are actively attacking in his area as I write.