Stories that kinda changed my reality a little

Pictures I took during the "staff retreat" in Bath

Right, sorry to leave you hanging there for a little bit. Dad, you need to spend less time online ;)

Okay so I suppose I should write a wee disclaimer before I tell you a few wonderful stories… right now I am writing this all down from a small note-pad of spider-scrawl writing, and memory. As with any story, my memory or the translated hieroglyphics may result in a few wrong details, but I’m going to try and write these as accurately as I can. Mostly because they’re the kind of things we all find so unbelievable to start with, so i can't afford to be theatrical... no doubt you too will try to explain to yourselves logicically how some of these things happened. Your choice, I'm leaving it to you, as it was left to me.

But as I said yesterday, I saw the man who was speaking, and he wasn’t doing it to puff himself up or for an applause. He was sharing things he’d seen with a group of about twenty intelligent and logical human beings.

As a bit of background Brian Burton was a fairly normal Englishman, a Christian man with a wife… when both of them felt they had a calling to go to Phuket Thailand. So they pretty much got up and sold everything they had with the idea they would start a Church in Phuket . They realised they were in for a rough ride when the first night in Bangkok, they found themselves sleeping on the floor of someone’s house they didn’t know well, in a country where they had no friends and couldn’t speak the language. Not only this but they were going to a largely Buddhist community where they would not be welcomed.

And they weren’t.

They bought a small shop which they lived in and intended to use, realising they couldn’t preach in English they both took a 15-month Thai language course, which unfortunately didn’t really leave them at the stage they could communicate. Each Sunday this guy would read a little more of a Thai-printed sermon (in what he described as very poor Thai) with his wife the only person in attendance, and people just walking by. Over a year passed an eventually he broke down one Sunday, with the feeling they had given everything up for a lost cause.

At that moment a Thai friend they had made over the year (who also happened to speak fluent English i.e. could translate) and one of their German friends from overseas turned up determined to help them in their cause. And so the church increased by 50%

Roman Baths

From here things started looking up, with discernible Thai being spoken a few more people joined and Brian and his wife started meeting people in the village and getting known. Then December 26 2004 the tsunami struck. Brian spoke of how they had full attendance that day for what must have been the first time, because there was a Christmas service on or something… and that because of this and the position of the church behind a hill, all of the villagers and those who lived by the sea survived.  They had also just put new carpet in the building… which by the afternoon, when the building had been converted into a makeshift hospital, was stained with blood, as it is to this day (more as a reminder of the day than anything).

So as the building was one of the only standing they all went out and began searching the area and filling the rooms with the wounded and homeless. Somewhere in the middle of this Brian was praying for people who were frantic and asking for their family members… he felt God was telling him to announce that all their loved ones would be found in 24hrs. So he said it out-loud. Obviously everyone looked at him like he was crazy. Not sure how far into the event this was but the whole place was in ruin, with wounded and dead everywhere and there goes Brian promising everyone God will bring all their loved ones into this building in 24hrs. So every person able started searching.

With 15 seconds to spare, the last girl missing walked into the Church, every one of them being found.

So you’re probably thinking that this in itself is pretty cool but here’s where it gets exciting.

That last girl to walk in had a bandaged arm and she was taken to the hospital to be reunited with her family… when there she gets checked out by a surgeon and Brian who has just watched this family finally reunited after thinking this girl was dead, gets pulled aside by a Dr. who tells him he needs to tell the family the girls arm is gangrenous and needs to be amputated right now. It was obviously damaged and green and smelt horrible he says. Unable to deliver this blow he asks his daughter who has been awake for the last five days, to drive this girl to another hospital to get a second opinion. Soon he gets a call which begins with- “dad, you need to come…” and finishes with the thud of her head hitting the table as she falls asleep while speaking.

When he gets to the hospital he sees the two girl’s asleep side-by-side and asks the Dr whether he’ll have to operate. “What for?” is the Dr’s response… when the girl arrived at the hospital and was checked there was no trace of damage under the bandage.

Me outside bath Abbey

So while this was happening a ton of aid agencies from around the world arrived, but (and this has been my experience too) none of them asked the Thailand government or King or officials what they wanted done, they just decided what they thought was best, and co-operated poorly amongst themselves. So when Brian went to the government and asked what he could do to help them, they were a little shocked and named a coastal Village they thought was most in need. So they started helping there and eventually helped build a hospital with the help of the government I believe… from this small action Brian became the spokesman for the entire relief campaign which eventually resulted in the King awarding him the highest award of appreciation in the country, which not only no other foreigner has received, but no one who is not of royal blood has received. So when he started wearing the badge, a lot of Thai people who had disregarded him before, began listening.

So the government and aid agencies ended up working with him in the places needed. Which brings me to the next miracle, and this one’s my favourite.

So there’s this group of fisher-people (I suppose they’re called) the Mokens. They’re quite poor, rely only on the sea and beaches and live in houseboats etc… they’re also, for some ridiculous historic political reason, detested by the Thai. Excuse my bluntness.

So being that they lived on the sea their homes and livelihood were destroyed all in the same day. And they were left with nothing. Added to this a chickenpox outbreak began with the children in this village. So Brian and his medical team drove two hours out to this isolated village and treated the kids. The adults all look at them suspiciously and say something like “that’s all very well but are you coming back tomorrow to treat them, or are you leaving like everyone else?”  Brian says, “We’ll be back tomorrow”. They drive 2 hrs. back to their base. The next day they drive out 2 hrs. again… you catch the pattern, each day for about four days they are asked by the village elders if they’ll come back, and each day they actually do.

During this time they end up chatting with each other and it’s discovered the Mokens think the sea goddess they worshipped has punished them, they also ask Brian why he is going to so much trouble for them, and he explains it’s because God loves them and he feels it’s his responsibility to show this love through helping as much as he can.

A few days later they arrive and the whole village has gathered round and they say the previous night they discussed and decided that if the foreigners turned up the next day, they would all give their hearts to God, as he was a much better one to follow. So, the whole village gets saved.

Brian then asks the people if there is anything else he can do for them, and they tell him they have no wood to make new boats with, without boats they can’t fish, can’t eat and have no place to live.

So Brian says he’ll see what he can do.

After a thorough investigation he comes back to them and tells them the government of Thailand has given all of its wood away to the Thai fishermen and either did not have any to give them, or didn’t want to. The only other wood he can find for them is in Australia and both costs a ton, would take a few months to get delivered AND would need to be treated (the wood needs to be bent in a specific way to make these boats, a slow process which would take this village about 6 months). So being new Christians and without being restricted by suppression in their idea of God, they state matter-of-factly that they should all get together and pray.

The description of this was a little hilarious, because these fishermen are pretty simple and had nothing to base their prayers off, most of them simply stated out loud “God, give us wood.”

Fair enough, it’s all the same in the end isn’t it? And probably said with a whole lot more conviction that a westerner asking for a BMW.

So Brian stayed there that night. Really early in the morning when it was still dark (though most of the women were up as is normal in the culture there) a massive commotion starts, and people are shouting and singing and women are dancing throughout the village, and Brian gets shaken awake with someone shouting “GET UP GOD’S GIVEN US WOOD!!!” He walks outside and wood is falling from the sky.

What can you say to that?

Whether there is some kind of logical explanation to it or not, whether right now you’re thinking there must have been a helicopter or something… Regardless, this is a miracle.

Anyhoo, Brian is pretty gobsmacked as you can imagine and just watches planks falling from the sky thinking to himself “I hope they don’t hit me”. Later the wood is in piles and not only are they planks of wood already cut; they are bent exactly as they need to be to be made into boats. So it turns out they made these boats and they don’t leak as the Thai ones did, or even as their old boats did.

So there’s a couple of other ones, and even though they in themselves seem amazing, obviously in comparison to the above they pale a little. Another I can remember was a Dutch woman who was on holiday in Thailand when the Tsunami struck, her hotel was virtually demolished and as she was in the shower when it struck, she wandered in shock, completely naked until she got to the Church. For some reason she just kept on repeating (in her shock) “I lost my passport. What I am going to do? I need my passport.” When everyone was at their wits end Brian palms her off to one of his church members to take this woman to the site of the Hotel to prove to her the passport is gone. They pray on the way to find the passport. When the two of them arrive the place has been levelled… apart from one tiny man-made mound of rubble with something on top. And yes, you guessed it, it was her passport. Right next to it is a piece of rubble with something written on it in English, it reads; God loves you.

While you’re listening to this stuff and thinking this is out of control I’m just going to keep going. There is a woman who is now pastor of three Transformational churches (the idea sprung from the tsunami) and who has saved so many people and performed miracles herself… but was, for many years a Thai medium who channelled evil spirits into people/speaking to the dead and all that. She got cancer everywhere (pretty much), sold her house and all her belongings for chemotherapy, which didn’t work. When Brian found her she was probably a few days from death, lying in a dirty tin shack in a pool of her own blood. The only think Brian could think of was to say- “In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!" and she did. And from her testimony (I saw a photo of her now and she has her hair back and is smiling and looks remarkably young actually) a lot of other people began coming to their church.

She actually got a call one day from a man who’d been in her church only a few days. He was in hospital lying on the bed, doctors standing around him in disbelief that he was even still alive, expecting him to die any moment. He was a builder and had been impaled through his chest, by a metal beam. Part of his heart had been taken out, as well as parts of both lungs and the top of his stomach. After going from the emergency clinic, to a local hospital to a better hospital, the doctors could not a) understand how he was alive b) do anything for him… when asked why he was still alive, he said he was waiting for “the Ice-cream lady” (the woman healed from cancer above) to pray for him so he would be healed too. She was too far away but they got her on the phone, and she prayed, and right there the man’s heart and stomach healed in-front of the doctors. Still with nothing they could do they merely stitched him up.

Soon the man turned up at Brian’s church where he asked (wheezing terribly as one can only assume someone with two damaged lungs would speak) him and the Ice-cream lady to pray. They did, and his breathing came right.

Okay, so there’s still a lot more to share but I am exhausted again… as no doubt you are too from reading… sorry :) I’ll continue this with the point I was actually trying to make later.

Boy I wish I could stay on the subject. Sorry Mrs Woods if you’re still reading. Haha (my old English teacher)

I’ll pop a few photos of Bath in the text. Totally irrelevant to the story, other than I heard them at a staff retreat in Bath, but never mind :)

Hope that blew your mind as much as it has mine.

That’s Kendra- Out.

Bath and getting my mind-blown

Well, as a rather exciting little addition the “staff retreat” for Next level International was being held in Bath in England. Which is renowned for being a beautiful place (and one which I wanted to see) with the amazing view of those cream limestone looking houses in a semi-circle, and Jane Austens House (I confess, I’m a big fan). The ride there was perfect too, David took me on a back-country drive on the way and we stopped in Stratford-Upon-Avon where I got to see Shakespeares birthplace and take theatre-nerd photo’s outside the place, which continued in Broadway where we stopped to have tea in an English teahouse (surprisingly ;) Yes, I posed like a tourist with my pinky out as I sipped Lapsang souchong… the only reason behind the tea choice being that I like the song by Colin Hay “Beautiful world”.

The ride was really fun, though neither of us knew Bath well (understatement) particularly at night, which was when we arrived… and proceeded to get lost immediately. After circling a block of one-way roads several times, and cursing the GPS dramatically, we finally found the Hotel about 1min before we were due to meet everyone else there… in our (David’s) haste to get our bags out of the boot (trunk for you Americans ;) the ONE KEY to the car totally snapped off in the keyhole. Pahahaha :D I laughed heartily for a good ten minutes. David did not.

It all got fixed later though, fear not.

Right, so we jumped directly into the rest of the conference that night, and if we all thought we were emotionally and mentally sapped from the last few days… we were about to metaphorically complete Level three of Bandicoot for a bonus round. (Bandicoot is the only Playstation game I really have ever played, so feel free to correct my ignorance ;)

Brian Burton introduced himself to us… describing himself as a normal, average guy. My initial assumption was to agree with him… nothing about him seemed to stand-out, he dressed humbly and spoke normally without flowery language… though he wore a cheeky smile nearly constantly.

As it turns out first impressions can at times be absolutely ridiculously inaccurate.

Brian began to speak on a bit of a new revolutionary concept which a few around the world are adopting… surrounding the process of Transformation. That in ourselves, the people around us and in the community. He told stories that sound so incredible I wouldn’t have believed them had anyone else told them.

Fortunately for me I was a witness to Brians genuineness and frankness, as well as knowing that he was a close personal friend of Ian Green (who is both the leader and founder of NLI and was sitting in the room as all was spoken). That is to say I can’t explain some of the stories that will follow… but I believe the man who spoke them.

But… right now it’s time for my bed as I’m exhausted… but I’ll edit this post tomorrow and post it in its entirety.

Goodnight :)

Meeting people who are actually changing the world

Where to start…

There is so much to say, I am having trouble finding a place to begin. I feel as if the last week has compressed months’ worth of learning and growing into one week.

How strange that I asked for all this… I came over here leaving all behind, asking to grow as a person, to become stronger, and find inspiration.  Who would have known it would be so quickly moving, so exhausting :) haha.

I feel really lucky to have arrived for the “in-house” week of Next Level International (NLI) because it has really given me an in-depth view at what the organisation is trying to achieve and their goals and the new vision for the future… where-as it would have been really difficult for me to grasp or to be able to describe if I’d just arrived and tried to jump into the job without understanding. Looking around the room I seriously felt honoured, sitting among people who were extremely successful in their own fields in life, from businessmen and women, those who worked in government, teachers and pastors… and here I am, the 22 year old who stumbled into an internship (although of course we don’t believe in coincidence now do we? ;)  

A particularly mind blowing experience was the watching of the video clip “Stella’s voice” which is a clip about human trafficking in Moldova and the problems associated with the immense numbers of orphans in the country. If you haven’t seen the video you really should, I’ll put the link below. 

http://vimeo.com/pcm/stellas-voice 

The facts are; Moldova is the poorest country in Europe with terrible unemployment rates and thousands of orphans in terrible conditions. At 16 years of age in Moldova an orphaned girl is given $30 and put out into the street without any education or life skills. Obviously they’re the prime prey for human/sex trafficking… apparently 450,000 women have disappeared from the country without explanation. So we watch the video Stella’s Voice and hear a few horrible stories on top of the cushy youtube video for the public, but see the amazing job a few people are doing in the country by creating safe houses for these teenage girls, training them and educating them and just treating them like human beings for the first time in their lives.

Here comes the surreal part, in the afternoon Philip Cameron and three early twenties (two girls and a guy) turn up… and Philip Cameron is the guy in the video that visited Moldova 15 or so years ago… and was the one who built Stella’s house and others like it. Two of the girls were some of the first rescued and the guy was a Romania boy Philip found at four years old (dying) and who became his adopted son.

 

They then shared a small testimony of their lives and what was progressing in Moldova.

I literally sat there gobsmacked… What can you say to that? There was just this gut-wrenching human connection, one which no words could do justice too.

And all I could think of was, I want to help change this… and I wanted to go up to the three of them and tell them I wanted to help… but I was so scared because of something one of the girls spoke about- she described the feeling of being an orphan in a horrible orphanage in Moldova, and watching wealthy philanthropists and missionaries come and go from the orphanage promising they would come back, promising they would help and rescue her… and yet they never returned. And I made a little promise to myself that I would never promise anyone something I couldn’t keep.

Anyway, I ended up chatting to the son who was talking about new plans they had for building more shelters etc, though obviously they’re in need of funding as you could imagine, helping others isn’t exactly a booming economic business. Something little which struck me in our conversation was the brutal logic behind bulding these shelters for the girls… obviously the real problem here is the sex trafficking market, and although there are volunteers and organisations out there who are rescuing the girls after they’ve been beaten and psychologically wounded (and all of the things we imagine but can’t bear to speak aloud) they are so changed it is just not economical to help so few which need so much support… whereas if you can get a girl before she ends up put out onto the street, you can guarantee her safety and prepare her for a future. It sounds horrific, and it is, but people helping in these countries around the world are being forced to choose who they can save, as there is just not enough resource.

Well… we all know there IS enough resource in the world don’t we? It’s just those who have the ability enjoy their power and wealth and would rather build a cardhouse around themselves than actually look around them.

But I rant.

I am encouraged however that there are people out there making a difference, and a large one at that. And I feel honoured to be in an organisation which is an active member of this small percent of the world.

So that was my Thursday… a rather hard-and-fast wake-up call to the problems of the world… the next few days I was to go on a “staff retreat” in Bath, with a continuation of the conference and much more learning and testing.