First let me say that it’s Songkran, which is Thailand’s New Year with a water festival to boot. This basically gives everyone the right to throw water on you at any point for 3 or 4 days. These people take this holiday very seriously and young to old participate in it. We decided to cross the border at Mae Sot. There is a bridge called Friendship Bridge, which unfortunately does not hold true to its name. I was told by one of our ministry contacts how she witnessed Bu**ese people attacking and breaking the legs of Thai soldiers on the bridge. I guess it also a common occurrence to rob people as soon as they cross the border. As we walked up to cross the Thailand border a female border patrol officer pops out of the office and sprays us with a water gun. It came, as a surprise because I don’t think that would ever take place in the United States.
I debated about taking my camera over not only because of theft and the government giving me a hard time but also because everyone else was drench by this point due to the water festival in the end I decided I had to. As we were crossing the bridge I looked below and there were several people floating across the river illegally between the two countries. When we got to the border we had to give up our passports, which is always unnerving. We were told that we could only go five kilometers past the border and no more also we had to return by 5 PM. This is very intentional on the government’s part because they are hiding the truth. Everyone is friendly on the border and the government works hard to paint a good picture but it by no accident they only let you go 5 kilometers. The truth is the country is war torn and that they have the largest children army in the world. They persecute anyone they please including Christians and the Karen. Most of the world doesn’t know the reality of the situation because media is not allowed to go in and bring stories out.
Taxis that consisted of men on bikes with a bench in front for the passengers met us immediately at the border. Most of them are spies for the government and want to see where you are going, what you are doing and whom you are associating with. We had them take us to one of three open churches in the country. The government passed a law that said any church built after 1980 was to be torn down. This is the only church that stands on a public road in all of the country. The church looked non-opposing from the front and honestly I probably would have passed it never knowing it was a church. It happened that a large part of the body was present so we on the fly put together a worship service.
As we started I stood by the window taking pictures of a hymnbook that shouldn’t exist. I kept looking out the window thinking we 
are in a country that openly and violently persecutes Christians and here I am singing He Reigns at the top of my lungs while a spy stands at the back of the room watching us. In that moment I could feel the Holy Spirit moving and I was brought to tears by how powerful and true God’s covenants are with His people. How is it that the government who dictates and orchestrates every movement within a country and oppresses anything threatening overlooks this building and even stamps its approval on it? I believe its called God’s grace and He is literally blinding them to the truth that is taking place. We worshiped for a good hour and a half before we had to leave. Powerful doesn’t even begin to describe what took place. As we left on the bicycles I couldn’t help but pray for that body and the boldness they are showing for the Lord.
