Wednesday, July 23, 2008
July Update
(Initials used in lieu of names to protect the identities of the individuals due to persecution.)
Unable to enter the Irrawaddy, your MARCH Nargis relief team focused its attention on continuing the relief work in the blighted villages of Yangon. The aid distribution to Labutta which we started during my trip last May has been continued by Partners in Progress. They are doing a good job sending our few handful of Burmese brethren to Labutta with relief goods. Since there is not enough manpower to send to Irrawaddy at the moment, we have opted to help in Yangon Division in the meantime.
WINNING THE HEARTS OF THE PEOPLE
Two villages in Kyauktan township, Addutaw and Ye Aungs, composed of roughly 300 families, have been adopted by your MARCH for Christ team. We put up bamboo and thatch storerooms to become classrooms and meeting halls in each of these two villages. From June 30-July 9, we distributed about 250 sacks of rice, dahl, dried fish, vegetable seeds, thatch leaves and cooking oil. In addition to this two villages, help was given and committed to two orphan/refugee homes and the neighbourhood of the church of Christ in Hmawbi (K. S.).
We were blessed to be witness to the baptism of a Buddhist couple whose daughter had earlier this year been baptized by Brother K. S.
One of the breakthroughs during this trip was God using us to convince the village leaders of Addutaw and Ye Aungs to allow us to construct the storerooms to become classrooms and meeting halls. In a country where an assembly of five people is enough ground for treason, I consider this a miracle coming from God. Please pray that we will continue to have the support of the village chief of Addutaw, a simple but powerful man who is in charge of six villages and reports directly to the township. Please pray for us and our MARCH teams who are working hard every day to render service and aid to win for Jesus the hearts of the predominantly Buddhist population. We need God’s wisdom, discernment and plenty of patience and love.
So far, aside from food distribution mentioned above, we have conducted medical treatment and Vacation Bible School. About five patients who require hospitalization and major operations will be sent to a Yangon hospital for work up. If we can afford it we will immediately have them operated on.
We are also providing the roofing sheets for a new two-room classroom that the villagers are building after Nargis flattened an old wooden classroom.
Seventeen rice farmers from Addutaw have asked our help in providing 86 sacks of urea fertilizer for 86 acres of rice land. An agreement has been reached with them that for every one sack of fertilizer they receive, they will repay the equivalent of one sack of rice at harvest time, which in turn will be distributed to the village. Please pray that this will work out well and give glory to God.
DOORS OPENED FOR MARCH TO GO TO IRRAWADDY
We have unofficially forged an agreement with an international NGO called World Concern so that we can work in the Irrawaddy delta. World Concern is composed of Christians (some are Filipinos) involved in relief and rehabilitation in the southernmost villages of Labutta, providing food and draining/cleaning water ponds for over 30 villages. They are bringing us in either in a complementary capacity or to adopt additional villages. We chose to work with them initially in a complementary capacity. I am on my way back now to the Philippines to form a Psycho-Emotional/Social Counselling team. According to them, this service is badly needed for the adults, children and even their aid workers. Please pray that our busy doctors will be able to join us.
While we will be absorbed by World Concern under this arrangement, we are allowed to keep our religious identity and to discreetly pursue our religious agenda. They are establishing staff houses in strategic areas which will be available for our international teams to use; likewise, we will have access to their infrastructure. I have also offered this information to Partners for Progress so that they can augment the present manpower.
Take note that the main reason why the south is often neglected by the government is because most of the population are Karen Baptists. They belong to the Karen tribe who are fiercely fighting and at war with the military in the North. No wonder up to now, dead bodies are discovered when the water ponds are drained.
LEARNING ENGLISH
The MARCH team that took my place that did medical clinics this week and continued the VBS is also assigned to get more info about these English schools and Tutorial schools. We see an opportunity that can open doors for the Lord’s work.
OPPORTUNITY FOR ENGLISH INSTRUCTION TO OPEN DOORS
Please pray that we will be able to put up a sustainable English school. B. L. is now with G. C. and Dr. E. I. in Yangon. B. L. is a schoolteacher who is also the Founder of a Christian School in Cebu. Part of her mission is to encourage W. to put up a school. She and some brethren can serve as teachers, and even some brethren who know broken English can serve in this work.
~ C. C.
Unable to enter the Irrawaddy, your MARCH Nargis relief team focused its attention on continuing the relief work in the blighted villages of Yangon. The aid distribution to Labutta which we started during my trip last May has been continued by Partners in Progress. They are doing a good job sending our few handful of Burmese brethren to Labutta with relief goods. Since there is not enough manpower to send to Irrawaddy at the moment, we have opted to help in Yangon Division in the meantime.
WINNING THE HEARTS OF THE PEOPLE
Two villages in Kyauktan township, Addutaw and Ye Aungs, composed of roughly 300 families, have been adopted by your MARCH for Christ team. We put up bamboo and thatch storerooms to become classrooms and meeting halls in each of these two villages. From June 30-July 9, we distributed about 250 sacks of rice, dahl, dried fish, vegetable seeds, thatch leaves and cooking oil. In addition to this two villages, help was given and committed to two orphan/refugee homes and the neighbourhood of the church of Christ in Hmawbi (K. S.).
We were blessed to be witness to the baptism of a Buddhist couple whose daughter had earlier this year been baptized by Brother K. S.
One of the breakthroughs during this trip was God using us to convince the village leaders of Addutaw and Ye Aungs to allow us to construct the storerooms to become classrooms and meeting halls. In a country where an assembly of five people is enough ground for treason, I consider this a miracle coming from God. Please pray that we will continue to have the support of the village chief of Addutaw, a simple but powerful man who is in charge of six villages and reports directly to the township. Please pray for us and our MARCH teams who are working hard every day to render service and aid to win for Jesus the hearts of the predominantly Buddhist population. We need God’s wisdom, discernment and plenty of patience and love.
So far, aside from food distribution mentioned above, we have conducted medical treatment and Vacation Bible School. About five patients who require hospitalization and major operations will be sent to a Yangon hospital for work up. If we can afford it we will immediately have them operated on.
We are also providing the roofing sheets for a new two-room classroom that the villagers are building after Nargis flattened an old wooden classroom.
Seventeen rice farmers from Addutaw have asked our help in providing 86 sacks of urea fertilizer for 86 acres of rice land. An agreement has been reached with them that for every one sack of fertilizer they receive, they will repay the equivalent of one sack of rice at harvest time, which in turn will be distributed to the village. Please pray that this will work out well and give glory to God.
DOORS OPENED FOR MARCH TO GO TO IRRAWADDY
We have unofficially forged an agreement with an international NGO called World Concern so that we can work in the Irrawaddy delta. World Concern is composed of Christians (some are Filipinos) involved in relief and rehabilitation in the southernmost villages of Labutta, providing food and draining/cleaning water ponds for over 30 villages. They are bringing us in either in a complementary capacity or to adopt additional villages. We chose to work with them initially in a complementary capacity. I am on my way back now to the Philippines to form a Psycho-Emotional/Social Counselling team. According to them, this service is badly needed for the adults, children and even their aid workers. Please pray that our busy doctors will be able to join us.
While we will be absorbed by World Concern under this arrangement, we are allowed to keep our religious identity and to discreetly pursue our religious agenda. They are establishing staff houses in strategic areas which will be available for our international teams to use; likewise, we will have access to their infrastructure. I have also offered this information to Partners for Progress so that they can augment the present manpower.
Take note that the main reason why the south is often neglected by the government is because most of the population are Karen Baptists. They belong to the Karen tribe who are fiercely fighting and at war with the military in the North. No wonder up to now, dead bodies are discovered when the water ponds are drained.
LEARNING ENGLISH
The MARCH team that took my place that did medical clinics this week and continued the VBS is also assigned to get more info about these English schools and Tutorial schools. We see an opportunity that can open doors for the Lord’s work.
OPPORTUNITY FOR ENGLISH INSTRUCTION TO OPEN DOORS
Please pray that we will be able to put up a sustainable English school. B. L. is now with G. C. and Dr. E. I. in Yangon. B. L. is a schoolteacher who is also the Founder of a Christian School in Cebu. Part of her mission is to encourage W. to put up a school. She and some brethren can serve as teachers, and even some brethren who know broken English can serve in this work.
~ C. C.
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