Sometimes the news just doesn’t keep up. Here is a letter I just received from people I work with in Thailand. I’ve mentioned before that the use of food for energy is such a bad idea (or at least poorly thought out.) What an incredible strain high food prices will have on the poorer countries of the world. Just for reference we Americans spend about 10% of our income on food. The ‘green revolution’ has succeeded wonderfully for us and now Thailand. But neighboring communist dictatorships just have not caught on. My man in Burma (pastor ‘P’, sorry I can’t mention his name for fear of him getting in trouble) purchased a rice field to help make his missionary services more self-sustaining. But it really didn’t work out so well – at first - then he got help from an American who did soil tests and bought the needed fertilizer. Now he is self sufficient in rice production.
HUNGER
Food prices are skyrocketing in Thailand. The price of rice alone has risen over 30% in the past month. The average worker spends over 70% of his income on food alone. With the price of rice and other necessities going up, the average lower income Thai has to choose between eating
and not eating. It’s becoming a crisis situation.
Thailand has put an emphasis on being self-sufficient in rice so we have not suffered the severe
shortages that other countries have faced. The situation is much worse in Burma and Cambodia. But the crisis is growing for the poor. Please keep Thailand and all of Asia in your prayers. We are focusing on providing rice to our homes for at Risk Children and orphans. But the frustration grows as there is not much we can do to solve this growing economic crisis without God.
HUMAN TRAFFICKING
At least 54 Burmese died in the South while being moved by human traffickers in a broken refrigerated container usually used to haul seafood. More than 100 people were packed into the truck and the 54 died of suffocation. Burmese, Laotians and Cambodians continue to be smuggled into Thailand in order to find jobs. With the food crisis growing so will the problem of Human Trafficking.
Please keep us in prayer as we start churches to minister to these workers in Thailand. We really need your prayers for our main Burmese Pastor. He is still trapped in Burma. He cannot get a visa to reenter Thailand and rejoin his family. We are trying every possible way to get him
back. Pastor Tommy is the man responsible for starting most of our Burmese churches in Thailand and those that minister to victims of human trafficking and abuse.
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