INCOR -- International Christian Outreach and Relief Group

Report Contents - Sept 4, 2008
Hi, everybody.
I am in Mae Sot, Thailand, a border town with Myanmar. Always an interesting place, abounding with such a variety of locals and foreigners, illegal immigrants, drug dealers, gem smugglers, etc. An American missions director in Bangkok always tells me when I come here to "keep looking over your shoulder." Better yet, I just stay off the street after dark.

It is very hot despite being October. The hotel room I have (at $13.32 per night) is clean, air-conditioned, with Western toilet and actual hot water in the wall-mounted shower arrangement. (Actually, the difference between hot water and room-temperature water is not great.) I've just come from breakfast across the plaza outside, with a bowl of rice gruel with ground pork balls, one raw egg on top, coffee, local "donuts," and tea, for $1.25. Very filling; or at least after eating you really don't want more.

Yesterday I went to the largest of the Burmese Karen refugee camps, Mae La, about an hour's drive from here. Nearly 50,000 people live there. There is a Bible school in the camp, KKBBSC (Kawthoolei Karen Baptist Bible School and College), directed by a tribal Karen refugee who was a seminary professor in Yangon before fleeing across the border eighteen years ago. The school celebrated its 25th year in March 2008. It now has nearly 300 students. Several years ago there were more, but some have gone to other Karen-language Bible schools that have been started in several other camps, leaving mostly English-language track students at KKBBSC, over 200 of the total student body.

I have known Dr. Simon Htoo, the principal, since my first visit here about twelve years ago. He asked me to speak in chapel service yesterday morning. There he presented a plaque for Joyce and me which was prepared for the occasion of their 25th-year celebration, but which I could not attend then, thanking us for our support over these years. It was very hot, but I spoke for the allotted time for chapel. Simon then said, in front of the entire student body, "Dr. Butz would you please teach our B.Th. class for one or two hours, until lunch?" How can one refuse in a circumstance like that? It was very hot, and I actually sat for part of my teaching. But it was well received, and certainly worth the discomfort.

After getting back to my room yesterday afternoon I "re-hydrated" and took a rest before going just next door to the hotel for dinner at a "mom and pop" streetside, open-air restaurant. I had my usual plate of rice and chicken, garnished with cucumbers, and a bowl of chicken broth. Quite good, for 25 baht (75 cents). On a previous evening I had felt particularly generous and left a 5 baht coin on the table as a gratuity. Shortly the server came running down the street to catch me and return the 5 baht which I had "forgotten" and left on the table. Obviously, tipping is not a custom here!

Well, there's a day in the life of a "pseudo-missionary." Today I go to finalize negotiations for our "soap project," and then to meet with the Chairman of the Karen Refugee Committee. We are purchasing 25,000 bars of bath soap for Christmas presents to families in two of the refugee camps. I plan to deliver 20,000 to Mae La on Dec. 18, and 5,000 to Mae Rah Moo on Dec. 26. Soap is a luxury, and nearly non-existent in the camps. And it is valued. A friend who works with Prison Fellowship in Uganda, Africa, told me that soap was so treasured in prisons there that prisoners cut the bars into pieces and use the chunks like money for barter! For most families in the camps this will be their only Christmas present - one bar of bath soap. Rather a contrast to Christmas in America, eh?

The cost for this project, for the 25,000 bars of soap, is $4,947.45 (plus trucking charges to the camps). Several of you are already invested in this, and I have in-hand $3,300 from INCOR which has been received as designated gifts for this project. So we still need another $1,700 or so for total costs. If you would like to be part of this, any amount in a check to: INCOR, P.O. Box 531, Kent, WA 98035-0531 would be much appreciated. Do make the check to "INCOR" and mark the memo line for soap. You will receive a tax-deduction receipt from INCOR by the end of January. If we are blessed with "over-subscription" for this need, any surplus will be used to purchase Karen-language Bibles and hymnals, much needed in the refugee camps and for delivery inside Myanmar to many Christians who lack such.

Tomorrow, Sunday, I return to Chiangmai to meet with several folks involved in a variety of ministries, then to Bangkok on Tuesday, Calcutta on Thursday, and on it goes. I'd rather be home, of course, but I also recognize what a privilege and blessing we have to be able to invest ourselves in such useful work during these years of lives. Thanks for your prayers, especially for Joyce as she "tends the shop" at home.

In His love, Roger Butz

Previous News - Undated

The infamous military junta ruling Myanmar has engaged upon severe persecution and violation of human rights for many tribal minorities, especially the Karen people. More than 100,000 Karen are now in camps just inside the Thai border. INCOR has been involved with providing assistance to these refugees, many of whom are Christians. INCOR investments have included student support, providing food, medications, Bibles, hymnals, clothing, blankets, cooking utensils, mosquito nets, and electric generators, in supporting missionary teachers in the camps, and in building and supporting boarding houses for refugee children to reside while attending school. Here are photos in a camp (Mae Rah Moo), of girls in a boarding house built and sustained by INCOR, a school class in the camp, and a load of blankets being prepared for transport to the camp.

INCOR's involvement in Thailand