After four hours of searching for someone to fax my visa documents to Valley Forge, someone pointed me in the direction of a travel agent who, for a very modest fee, faxed my three pages to the American Baptist Mission Center in Valley Forge, PA. It is currently 5:00 a.m. in the Eastern U.S. Hopefully, the fax will be waiting when offices open in another four hours.
Please pray with me that the documents of all our team members will be received in a timely manner - both in Valley Forge and in Burma. Pray as well that the goverment authorities grant us permission to travel to the area devastated by Cyclone Nargis. It is an area which has experienced suffering beyond comprehension. It is also an area in which Burmese Baptists have allowed the light of Christ to shine brightly through them as they have reached out in compassion and caring to the alleviate human suffering all around them.
As I was searching for someone to send my fax, I also began to contemplate some of the frustrations in cross-cultural communication. I speak no Thai. Many of those with whom I was trying to communicate, spoke rudimentary English. It can be a slow and arduous process to communicate without a shared language. As I left Bangkok for Chiang Mai I assumed that what is so common in my world --- a fax machine and the knowledge to place an international call --- would be equally common in Chiang Mai. I was wrong on both counts. But, it is a telling lesson about the challenges that the refugee people who are welcomed into our churches and communities face on a daily basis.
