A team of doctors and volunteers from South Korea recently traveled to Thailand to provide physical and emotional support to Myanmar migrants working in the country.

Myanmar migrants can be seen all over the world as they work to provide a better life for their families back home, but this life can be hard and lonely.

Last year, a medical team from South Korea visited the Karen state of Myanmar for a mission trip. After speaking with some Myanmar people who had worked overseas, Korean Pastor Seo SeongYong made some troubling observations.

“There is a deep loneliness [in these people] that came out from the life of hard work overseas.” Seo said, “I saw a different culture. I saw what hard work does to their faces.”

Working in a different country is very taxing, especially when the jobs are as hard on the body as some of the jobs the Myanmar migrants are taking. Not only are the jobs physically demanding, but the people often do not receive emotional support and or a sense of belonging in these foreign lands.

“We are like a shadow,” one migrant said. 

Because many are supporting their families back in their home country, they don’t have enough funds to properly take care of themselves, making a visit to the doctor out of the question. This is what inspired the medical team to return to provide additional medical care for the Myanmar people. 

Instead of a trip to Myanmar, Seo brought medical doctor Beak InGi, who is also the Korea District’s Nazarene Missions International president, and multiple church members of Gu-sung Church of the Nazarene to the Myanmar people working in Thailand.

The medical team offered their services to the immigrants after they left their jobs at 10 in the evening, providing check-ups, medicine, treatment, and even ultrasounds to those who needed them.

There are other Nazarene churches around the world responding to this need as well. Churches in Thailand, Malaysia, New Zealand, and the United States are also dedicated to fulfilling the needs of the Myanmar migrants in their country. 

--Church of the Nazarene Asia-Pacific