Preface
My research traces the life of the Levites from the exile of Israel into Babylon, centering on this group of Jews who were set apart for God’s purpose. If you will respond to this study of the Karen people as I did, you’ll be greatly refreshed by the obvious mercy of God to allow those who have really missed the mark of being holy as God is holy; then to see His watchful eye on His own, and to bring them through so many battles in each country they have been traveling through. Then at the very moment they were ready for repentance to find they were not orphans at all but treasured children married to the one true God sent His good news.
My prayer is that this history lesson will be in the Karen language one day and that they will sense the calling of God that He has in mind for them when they are directed to heed the calling of service in Israel.
I traced the Karen as Levites from the Bible and began with their own history of Babylon. The Jews were told when entering Canaan from Egypt that they were not to make any idols: they were to obey God’s commandments for He alone was God. If they would not obey he would scatter them among the heathen. Thus they were finding themselves in Babylon.
In Esther 1:1 by now the Jews were scattered from India to Ethiopia over an hundred and twenty provinces under king Ahasuerus of Persia and Media. Persecution came and they began to migrate toward Mongolia and China. God allows persecution to get the Jews moving once more, thus they ended up in Burma. Through all this time their own prophets had kept telling them about the one true God. They had lost their “BOOK” that told about the way to walk with God. From this point on you can see why God sent the Good News to Burma through the first missionary sent out from America. His name was Adoniram Judson. He was heading to India but God directed his steps to His people in Burma. God had heard their cry and sent their lost Book by Adoniram Judson who translated the whole Bible from Hebrew and Greek into Burmese, later other missionaries then helped to translate this into Karen. This reminds one of the cry of the Israelites in Egypt as God heard their cry and sent Moses to bring them out of slavery into the freedom of serving the one true God. (Exodus 3:1-10)
I hope you enjoy the research. Also may this open your eyes to see that God has brought the fruit of Adoniram’s obedience to follow Jesus Christ when you see the Karen in America. May you see your own fruit one day.
Acknowledgements
I owe all the glory and honor to my Father in heaven, His Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit for who I am and what I have done in the research of the Karen people in Thailand who have been heavily persecuted in Burma. All of my research has been Bible based as only truth can reveal who the Karen are and where they came from.
I use the King James Version as this has revealed truth in my own life. I began my quest for truth and to this day I continue searching for truth where ever my Lord sends me. On this journey into Thailand it is no different. I searched for truth in the background of the Karen people who are made in the image of God and have a destiny of their own. God has led me to believe that they are a special people called Levites from the tribe of Levi.
I acknowledge the backing of my church Calvary Chapel Sonora California, and my pastor Miles McMahon, who has been my constant prayer and financial support for many years. So many in this congregation have stood the test of faithful supporters and I have been encouraged by them many times over.
My own family, husband, children, grandchildren have cheered me on for years and my daughter Sue Rairdon has been the one who watched over my bank account and kept all of my email journeys to all who stand with me. My grandson Tobijah Rairdon who has helped so much on the computer and my grandson Micah Rairdon who helped me make up this website. My daughters Cathy Bassard and Sally Nelson and my son Wells for always encouraging me to keep going. I owe much to my adopted grandson Athid who has shown me the gentleness, wisdom, caring, and love of the Karen tribe.
I owe a great debt of gratitude to my friend Dottie Lamont for all the research she did for me in finding articles about the Karen tribe of people. It was her first article that led to a former research of the Karen by Michael Leming, a professor from Olaf college back east, with one page of his research on the Karen pastor Baw Ney in a village high up in the Thailand mountains which he quoted Pastor Baw Ney as saying, “Before Christianity we were like Israel.” This was the man I traveled to Thailand to see. I owe this research to Pastor Baw Ney his wonderful family as the basis for my continued research.
Without the financial backing and prayers of so many I could not have studied the background and the character of the Jewish people, and then applied this knowledge to the Karen in Thailand. There have been so many that I hesitate to start naming them for fear I would leave out someone. They know who they are and will be rewarded by God himself.
Finally I owe much to my friend, a fellow missionary, Adjern Tete Siami and her wonderful husband in Thailand, for introducing me to so many Karen from the mountains to the city and to the Ma La Camp where I saw the thousands of Karen behind barbed wire in a ghetto like situation as I have read and seen in the history of the Jews for many years. Also I wish to acknowledge the many missionaries who have been recording their journeys among the Karen from Adoniram and Nancy Judson who were the first missionaries sent out from America to bring the Karen’s lost Book into a translation of Hebrew and Greek: to the Karen through the Burmese language. Without God’s word they had longed for; there could be no exodus from the persecution of Burma. So many missionaries have been drawn to these special people called “Karen.”
Last I wish to acknowledge the leading of our Lord Jesus Christ who said, I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. (Matthew 15:24)
A Lost Tribe of Babylon?
By Parthenia Stout in Chiang Mai Thailand 6-27-08
This search began with me before I knew what a Jew looked like or where the land of Israel lay and it’s importance to God. One night as I was watching the ordination of many Assembly of God pastors being ordained to the ministry as they laid hands on them I saw in the Spirit a cloud that came over them. It was the Holy Presence of God I saw. I was so afraid I ran outside and jumped into my car. The cloud had followed me and for two solid hours I knew that God was pouring out HIS LOVE for the Jewish people into my heart. I guess you could say it was at this time I was ordained to be a servant for God and His Jewish people. It was about 30 years before I knew where God was taking me or why.
I spent 10 years with Jewish people in California (America) as they were learning about their feasts. The first Passover I attended was with this group of people. At the end of the celebration we said, “Next Year Jerusalem” which the Jewish people have recited for many years being in exile.
I learned about the feasts and the people and their fears of Christians who for so many years have been misguided and misinformed about the plan God had for both Jew and Gentile. Jews were blinded to the truth of their Messiah until the Gentiles would be grafted in. The Christians had been lied to about the Jews and had been separated from them as enemies. This must have hurt God deeply as He had planned to bring them together into one family. (Romans 11)
After about 20 years God had led me into Israel to study the land and the people. I was there for 3 years. When I learned that the Israeli government decided that the cut-off age for volunteers would be 70 I knew God was telling me to go home. I cried and cried as I loved the people and I loved volunteering where ever I could.
I had heard that my grandchildren had gone into Thailand and my daughter was going with her husband and I thought I would like to see what they were doing there. Thus I had a glimmer of hope of being in the service of my God. When I returned to Denver Colorado and there my daughter Sue introduced me to the Karen refugees who had come to live among us. I helped teach English and fell in love with these happy people. I heard them sing and it was so unusual that I longed to hear it over and over. The joy I sensed in these people despite the hard ships they were enduring was also very unusual.
Things that I saw among the Karen in Denver intrigued me like their national dress with strings on the corners, horns were important and were displayed on their national flag. This clicked in my mind as Sue had given me a DVD called “The Search for The Lost Tribes”. This was by a Jew who had been searching around the world for the 10 tribes that were said to be lost from their homeland Israel.
My friend Dottie Lamont was doing some research for me and we found a professor from America who had interviewed Rev. Baw Ney, a pastor who was a Karen, in the mountains of Thailand. The pastor told him that before Christianity they had been like Israel. This struck in my heart and I had to find out more.
Jim and Sue had gone to Thailand in Dec. I was ready to join them but God said no and I stayed home. They brought back many books in the Karen language and told me that one was called the “Golden Book” which may tell about a “Lost Book” the Karen had in their history. The other one was the history of the Karen tribe. I had Pastor Rocky’s father read a part of the history book which told they had come from Babylon.
While waiting to leave Dee my wonderful friend in California sent me a book called “In the Shadow of the Temple” which has much history of Israel. Another book I read was the “The Life of Adoniram Judson: To The Golden Shore” This missionary was a Jew who was the first missionary to be sent out from America to take the Good News to India, but God directed him to Burma: God’s plans and purposes for the Karen for they called God Y’wa and were crying out for their “Lost Book”
Mr. Judson translated the Hebrew and Greek Bible into Burmese. In time this Bible was considered the Lost Book as the Karen man called Ko Tha Byu proved to be God’s famous apostle taking the Lost Book to his own people.
In a book by William Varner called ‘Jacob’s Dozen’ the history of Ko Tha Byu seems to match that of Simeon the Jew. Ko Tha Byu’s background of evil wickedness and a violent temper which he admitted he had killed about 30 people is much the same. (Genesis 49:5) But God had plans for this man who read the New Testament and repented of all his past sins. His whole character changed after meeting his Master Jesus. His life could be an extension of the book of Acts. He took the Bible to his people and the Karen received it gladly. The Karen were saved by the thousands much like a brush fire in the woods.
All this information settled in my heart and I knew it was time to make final plans to go to Thailand.
The thought of God wanting me in Thailand never left me so in January and February I prayed and planned to go. I had a long time dear friend in Canada, Rose Payette, who had been in Thailand many years ago and she got me in touch with the YWAM base in Chiang Mai. The Sanborns put me in touch with a lady named Siami who was doing work among the Karen near the village of Pastor Baw Ney. God directed me to a Thai Consulate in Denver who supplied me with a triple entry visa which gave me 6 months to do the research with this interesting Karen people whom God was telling me could be long lost Jews. I left Denver Colorado on March 12th and arrived in steamy hot Thailand on March 14th.
As I flew into Chiang Mai I picked up a magazine and turning the pages for something to read I was astonished to see a picture of a beautiful Jewish girl. Who was she? There was also an article on her mother the Queen of Thailand. It seems the king had gone to America to study medicine and met a lovely 18 year old who was studying to be a nurse. They fell in love and the king brought back a queen to reign with him in Thailand. Their first son died and then this lovely girl. If you have a Jewish daughter then you must have a Jewish mother. What they did for Thailand was purely their Jewish character for the poor people. Later the father died after two more sons were born. The youngest son is now the reigning king of Thailand. This confirmed to me that God was telling me I was to search for the Karen as Jews.
Why did I find this bit of information which I connected with the Karen? If you follow God and his care for his people, he must have put the Jewish woman there in Thailand as the character of the Jews is to care for others, and for over a very long time Thailand has supported and cared for many thousands of Karen who had been fleeing from the persecution of Burma. God plans to care for his people as he did in putting Jacob in Goshen; the best of the country of Egypt. I kept this information in my thoughts for the future.
I contacted Siami a missionary from India, and she helped me find an apartment to rent next door to a Thai church where in the future I would get acquainted with a few Karens who then introduced me to many more. In the meantime Siami was planning on taking me up to her village and to visit the church of Pastor Baw Ney. In sadness I found he had passed away before I could meet him. His son Timothy had taken over the pastorate and I could meet him.
I settled into the drastic change of this country from anything I had ever known and waited for contacts.
