Free Burma Rangers

28 February 20010

Dear Phyllis,

I have told you about the situation in Burma. It is utterly deplorable! Some time ago I heard so many stories of atrocities that it was making me sick. The Bible says, “Be not overcome with evil but over come evil…” (Rom. 12:21). Amen!!! Let’s do it! We have taken garbage long enough. Why should we be on the receiving end? Why should we always be overcome with evil? Let’s go get them. Let’s overcome evil for a change. Let them be scared to death of us. I want to see the rear ends of those birds in the Burmese army headed south at high speed. Let’s let them take some licks for a while. Jesus never intended His church to be defensive. We are supposed to be the aggressors. We are supposed to be the ones on the offence. The enemy is supposed to be hiding behind a wall afraid of us, and we are supposed to be crashing down the gates – not hiding under a desk. (Mt. 16:18b).

Dave Eubank is a man here I town like there is one in a million. He was an officer in the USA Special Forces and is the kind of man who can walk on water. The man is utterly fearless. Dave was an MK (missionary kid), who was raised here in Thailand, and speaks Thai like a native. Dave got out of the US military service to come back here to Thailand to see what could be done to help the thousands of suffering minority people in Burma. He has started an organization called FBR – Free Burma Rangers. There probably is not another organization like it in the world.

Five months ago I was talking to Dave explaining my conviction that we should turn the table on the Burmese army and let them tremble with fear of us for a change. Dave replied, “I agree. Do you have any suggestions how we can do that?” I said, “I don’t know, but I do believe if we get the Captain of our salvation to go before us, I suspect He has Sword sharp enough to make the Burmese army sweat with fear.”(Josh. 5:13-15).

For the past four months Dave has been deep inside Burma with his wife and children training Karens how to handle themselves and relieving suffering wherever he finds it. As much as possible he tries to avoid confrontation with the Burmese army, but does go out looking for them to document the horrible atrocities they do. He just got back a little over a week ago with an amazing testimony.

Dave is extremely high profile with the Burmese government. For years they have been trying to kill him. About a month ago the Burmese army mounted a strong offensive with the apparent intent of wiping him out. They sent out two battalions of soldiers (about 400 men) armed with AK 47s, grenade launchers, and every sort of arsenal they could carry. For two weeks Dave and the Burmese army played cat and mouse in the jungles deep in Burma. At one point we got news here in Chiang Mai that he was surrounded and the situation looked very exciting.

Then the army positioned themselves to attack several villages. Dave was in an extremely precarious situation. He had extremely little manpower or firepower to protect themselves, but FBR has an inviolable rule that whenever a village is under attack, they will always position themselves between the attacking army and the defenseless village. Regardless of the cost, FBR will not retreat, and the Burmese army must go through them to get to the village.

Dave had only 20 men with him and there were three villages under attack. He split his forces into thirds – two teams of seven and one team of six to be with him. Of the 20 men he had, there were six Karen soldiers who had rifles. In another group they had three riffles but no ammunition. In his own team Dave had little more than his 9mm pistol, two pea shooters and a couple of sling shots. It looked like they were going to have to fight a well armed army of several hundred with little more than throwing rocks.

During this entire time of confrontation Dave had scouts with the Burmese army like fleas on a dog’s back. He knew at all times exactly where his enemy was and which direction they were headed. He said the radio traffic was tremendous. They were listening as the Burmese army was communicating with each other and the enemy was listening as he was in communication with his men scattered over a very large area. The communication was excellent and both sides knew exactly where the other one was.

At one point Dave’s wife, Karen, and his children were in one village that was under attack. But he was defending another village a considerable distance away and could do nothing to protect his own family. He said for four days every morning he had to face the distinct reality that that was possibly the last day they would be all be on this earth together. A few days before that one of Dave’s team had found one man who had been wounded by the army and couldn’t flee. He shouted to his friends, “Run! Run!” Minutes later he was decapitated. The team found the body but never found his head. That was the fate awaiting him, or his wife and children, or possibly all. But in the face of imminent death, Dave said he had amazing peace.

The FBR scouts reported the army was headed north. Dave’s men positioned themselves to protect the village. Then they headed northeast. Again Dave’s men moved in position. Then the army trajectory was headed east. Another move. Day after day went by with this military dance. Dave positioned himself in the forefront expecting only a fierce battle of tremendous firepower coming at him. There was nothing they could do but stand there in front of each village making it impossible for the Burmese army to sack the village without first taking out FBR. Bewilderingly, the army headed south, and then, for the first time ever, they turned around heading west, retiring home without ever firing one shot or hitting one village.

Dave said he was actually disappointed. He never got a chance to be a hero. He was looking forward to an intense fight where he could prove his metal by challenging the enemy with virtually nothing to fire back with. But in two weeks time there never was a fight. After the Burmese army had retreated, Dave went into the villages that they had defended to find them totally deserted. When the villagers saw FBR they came out of the jungles with the rapturous praise, crying, “You saved us!”

 Dave was at a prayer meeting here the other night to share this testimony. In his testimony he said one thing I didn’t care for. He said he prays for his enemies every day. As he was facing immanent death, he prayed daily that, along with his own men, he asked the Lord that none of the Burmese army would get killed or injured. He said that was a little difficult as these were the men who had just decapitated the man his men had found a few days previous. He said he was particularly concerned for the Burmese army as he knew they had to go through areas that were saturated with mine fields. (I thought that he should pray that the bad guys would step on land mines.) Miraculously, no one ever stepped on a mine, and everyone made it home safely. At the prayer meeting Dave said, “I have no explanation for what happened. This was totally unprecedented.” He had never seen the army mount an attack, and then retreat, without sacking and burning the targeted village.

I went over to talk with him yesterday. I said, “Brother, I know what happened. Those turkeys are scared to death of you and too afraid to fight.” Dave said, “I’m sure you’re right. That is the only possible explanation.”

In the days of Joshua, Rahab reported that, “Your terror has fallen upon us, and all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. …As soon as we heard these things our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man.” (Josh. 2:9,11). If that was true in Joshua’s day, where the knees of the bravest man in town banged together like castanets, how much more real must it be in our day? The devil was still in business when Joshua took on Jericho. Since then, Jesus has come and closed him down. In Joshua’s day the Captain of our salvation had yet to come and pull the fangs of the enemy. But today we look back on all that. Our position is infinitely stronger than Joshua’s. Not only has Jesus disarmed the enemy, but He is now presently seated at the right hand of God and ALL authority has been given unto Him. My goodness, what business does His Body have hiding under the desk?! Come on boys. Come out from under the desk. It’s safe out here. The only problem is that the Lord can find extremely few men with guts enough to stand. Dave never had to do a thing. All he had to do was stand there and face the enemy eye to eye, and they took off. Small wonder!

Man howdy, I like that testimony! Lord Jesus, please put some more of that Spirit in the rest of us.

                                                                                        bill