Christmas at the Eegufer Camp

This was our first day to be able to visit the eegufer camps. It was quite an experience to say the least. Over 100,000 people live here in this camp. It is spread over many miles and divided into different zones, although all the people come from some of the tribes in "B".



Following our arrival, we were led on a hike through the camp to their school. Along the way, we couldn’t help but notice how incredibly resourceful they are. With so very little given to them, they have found ways to build using only bamboo for their structure and supports and leaves in place of roofing tiles. This is all located along very steep mountains no less! They install running water in many of their homes and bathrooms, and plant gardens to grow vegetables. They are given some small food rations from the UN of rice, fish paste, and peppers to simply survive. But to many eegufer who have been hard workers their entire life, they feel hopeless by just waiting to collect the food given to them. They are confined to the camps. They may go back to their undesirable country of “B”, but it is difficult to return to the refuge. Unfortunately they are unable to travel anywhere else inside Thailand. It’s not much of a life, they act as though they are just existing.



So when we came into the camp we want to bring them hope! Mike, another newly joined leader put together an encouraging Christmas program for them. Then, a local Thai group put together a skit to perform the gospel and show the kids why we celebrate Christmas. Many of the children there made a commitment to Christ today and seemed very captivated by everything going on and what we had brought for them!






We treated all to a Christmas lunch of banana stalk soup with rice, peanut chips, roasted garlic, and strong chili’s and provided the students with a Christmas gift. For an American child it would not have seemed like much, but these kids were more then overjoyed to have received it! It included a couple of pencils, an eraser, notebook, and a couple of candies. After all the festivities, we taught them some fun games in their dirt playing field and they couldn’t resist but also sharing their favorites. Here they are showing us how to play a game in which we jump through bamboo poles while they pound them on the ground twice then close the poles together, hopefully with enough time to hop through in their dance set to music.