A strange thing happened this past week. For five full days I did not hear or read anything about Iraq and the Middle East. Pat and I were in an area of northern Thailand called Musakee. We were there with over 40 students from the McGilvary Theological School of Payap University.

Our task was to lay a cement floor for a church building in a community largely populated by Karen Hilltribe Christians. To get there we drove and rode in four small open-air 'buses' and one extended cab four-wheel drive truck. The trip, over long sections of winding dirt, creviced, mountain roads took, about six hours.

Then we worked, morning and afternoon, for four days laying the floor. Without a cement mixer, we had to mix the cement manually. It was quite a job. Then in the evenings we had open-air worship services. In addition to Pat and me, one other professor was there the whole time and we split up the preaching duties.

Then on Saturday morning with a joyful send-off by the villagers, we began our six-hour journey back to Chiang Mai.

I was reminded that in spite of terrible and frightening world events, the work of Christ continues. We witness, we minister, we worship, we fellowship. After weeks of sitting in front of the TV watching CNN and BBC, it was a much-needed perspective to gain.

LaMon Brown