Here are some of the people that are arriving at our house.

The car is almost loaded and ready to go!

And 3 motorbikes loaded and ready to go.

After about an hour drive up a winding mountain road, we come to our trail head to the village of May Neh Kee.

Here we load up the motorbikes with cargo and strap our backpacks onto our backs. Since the villagers are not prepared for a group, we have to pack in our own basic foods, like rice, noodles, peanuts, TVP, etc. We also have to bring our own big cooking pots for cooking the rice and vegetables. All the vegetables were gleaned from their gardens and in the jungle.

The beginning of the trail was almost streight up! It was steep anyways. BTW, the motorbikes went up a rugged mountain road to the village, which is longer to hike than the trail.

A much needed rest!!!

You see that box that the student is carrying? That has our 2 pots in it. Thankfully the pots are made out of light weight aluminum! It’s just bulky.

One of our awesome views!

Crossing on a foot bridge made out of bamboo poles.

Another awesome view!

Here is where the trail meets the dirt road the motorbikes took. Now we descend down the road to the village.

Down we go!

And here’s the village of Mah Ney Kee. This is where we will stay for the weekend.

Yes, pigs, cows, goats, chickens, ducks, dogs, cats, and waterbuffalo. Old Mick Donald has a farm here!

We quickly set up camp at the church. The girls, women and families stayed upstairs in the church and in the kitchen hut next to the church. The boy’s and men set up camp in a hut behind the church which you can see in this picture. Also supper was also in the makings, since we were really hungry after that hike! This is rice cooking.

Here’s the church and the small hut that we stayed in.

Some curious village boys watching us.

Ahh, this rice and vegetables hit the spot.

Awesome place to see sunsets!!

Time for a quick bath and to brush our teeth before worship.

Worship time. It was so nice to be able to sing and pray together for ourselves and the villagers. A few villagers did join us.

Goodnight everyone and goodnight Thursday.

Friday morning begins bright and early, like 4 am to cook the rice and vegetables!

After breakfast and worship were over, the villagers began to come for medical help.

More villagers have arrived at the makeshift clinic. We saw about 30-40 people that day.

After seeing villagers all morning and into the early afternoon, there came a time when they stopped coming, so we decided to take a coconut break. Oh, it is so refreshing!

More of the village.

These people work very hard carrying heavy loads up and down these mountains. No wonder they have head, neck, back and knee pain!!

Look how huge some of the bamboo can get! Some get 6 inches or bigger in diameter!

Time to prepare the second meal. Yes, many hands make light work. Most Karen people eat 2 meals a day. They get up and eat an early meal, head for the fields and work all day, and come back to their villages in the evening and eat their second meal.

Our clothes line. A bamboo pole and the roof of small hut.

The sun has set and the villagers start to arrive for our 3 part presentation of the Gospel. We hung a white sheet up front and used a solar powered micro projector. These kids are watching nature videos that we showed to draw the villagers.

Soon more villagers come.

The IMM students did the song service. Many songs were sung.

Ekinyaw, our translator, has prayer and begins to present the 3 part presentation of the gospel.

Our make shift screen using a white sheet.

We also did special music between the 3 presentations.

The villagers watching and listening. We pray that we can return many more times. Good night Friday.

Sabbath dawned bright and cheery. After breakfast we hiked out of this village to the main road where Harvey picked us up and took us to another village higher up in the mountains where we have been having our branch Sabbath School.

Here we are singing songs for church.

Thara Leroy and our translator giving the sermon. Keep praying for these Karen people. They still struggle giving up jewelry and chewing bettle nut.

We stopped at a breath taking view point on our way back to May Ney Kee village.

We decided to hike back on the dirt road to the village instead of the trail. It is easier on the knees and more scenic.

A water buffalo along the way. If they had clean wallows along the way, I might have jumped in to get refreshed! But no such thing.

After hiking for about 45 minutes, it was good to see the village again!

Yes, coconut break again! Coconut water tasted soooo good after a hot, humid hike!

Soon it was time to eat again. We had ramen noodle stir fry with vegetables and roasted peanuts! Yum!

Trekking through the village.

Time for worship. Goodnight Sabbath. It was a high Sabbath for us all!

We’ve had breakfast, worship, and our bags are packed. We are now ready to hit the trail back out to the main road where Harvey will pick us up and take us back to the school.

Here we are loading the car to go back to the school.

The Lord has blesssed the IMM Students. We hope to do many more mission trips with them. On these trips the students will be putting into practice the things they have learned in the medical field as well as presenting the gospel messages. Please pray for us and the IMM program that God will be glorified.