Burma

10 October 2010

Dear Phyllis,

Last week I conclude my letter with “I just got back from an interesting trip to the Burma border and I plan to go back this week. I don’t know, but I might have a different story to tell you next week.” I didn’t go back. But I will tell you the story anyway.

The situation in Burma (Myanmar) is just plain sick. I wonder if it isn’t the worst in the world. The situation in North Korea is bad. The insanity that those poor people live under is horrendous. There are places in Africa where ethnic cleansing has gone on that is staggering. But Burma is somewhat unique. Burma has been run by a military dictator ship for 30 years, that has one goal – to stay in power. There is an enormous portion of Burma that doesn’t care for the government and would prefer to be left alone. But the Burmese government has been using the Burmese army to do everything possible to run people off their land and get rid of them. Several years ago one high government official said, “In another ten years the only place where you will be able to see Karen will be in a museum. (The Karens are a major minority people group that have a strong Christian culture.) Today there are 1,000,000 Karen displaced people living in the jungle or internal refugee camps inside Burma, and another 1,000,000 that have fled to Thailand and other places as refugees.

I have a good friend, David Eubank, who has founded a very unusual organization, FBR (Free Burma Rangers), that is dedicated to helping the displaced people inside Burma. Dave spends eight months of each year living in Burma, training workers to help the victims of the Burmese atrocities. No, Dave does not get his passport stamped when he goes into Burma. Recently he put out a prayer almanac with pictures and testimonies of the people inside Burma for the purpose of encouraging others to pray daily for these suffering victims. It made me sick to read it. After you have read the first page you have read everything. Every page is the same monotonous story repeated – “The Burmese army killed…the Burmese army raped... The Burmese army burned the village…” The stories of what is going on inside Burma are endless. It is pointless to try to share them here.

 Several years ago my good friends Mark and Astrid met a very fine Karen couple, west of here, that were working extensively to help their people. Through Mark and Astrid I was introduced to Rosebell and her husband and have gone over there several times to make things for them and teach in their Bible school.

Rosebell told Astrid about another Karen couple, who were living about two hours south of them, who were doing extensive work to help Karen refugees. Astrid went down to meet them, and was encouraged to start an IDP (internally displaced people) refugee camp just inside Burma across the river from Thailand. There were 90 children whose parents had been killed or other wise separated, who were in bad shape there. Astrid was able to build a lovely camp for them and the children were intensely responsive to the Gospel.

Then about a year ago the compassionate Burmese army came to kill the children and take their camp. Being right on the border river to Thailand, miraculously they were able to escape to Thailand; and, amazingly, none of the children were killed. Of course the Burmese army burned everything that Astrid had been able to construct to house the children and their chapel. Then they planted land mines so no one could go back to that area.

But now Astrid was struck with 90 children illegally inside Thailand sleeping on the ground with nothing to protect them from rain, and nothing to eat. In addition to that there were another 460 people about 20km away who had nothing to eat. Organizations in the states were very generous in providing money, and Astrid was able to provide food for the second group and build another refugee camp on the Thai side of the river for the 90 homeless children.

The situation here in Thailand is very confused. Thailand doesn’t want refugees who have fled to their country. In the days of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, when Pol Pot was killing millions of his own people, hundreds of thousands fled to Thailand only to be forcefully thrust back into Cambodia. There were reports of the Thai army gathering up truck loads of Cambodian refugees, then throwing them down slopes back into Cambodia into mine fields. The situation in those days 35 years ago was horrendous. International pressure has forced Thailand to be a little more lenient with refugees and, through the UN, Thailand is making a lot of money by housing EDP (externally displace people) in massive refugee camps. And the situation that Astrid was faced with, with 90 illegal children who couldn’t go back to Burma, and had to be sheltered in Thailand, was very delicate. 

Then another disaster emerged. It turned out that the Karen man who had encouraged Astrid to build the first IDP camp inside Burma, was a first class crook. She was pouring a large amount of money into the new camp, but most of it was going into the pocket of the “Christian” Karen man. Again the children were suffering while he was getting rich. When the sheep-skin mask fell off, and the fangs came out, he proved to be a serious drunk and an extremely violent man. Rosebell was terrified of him, as were all the children. Of necessity Astrid had to write off the first camp, go buy new property, and build a new center. This is all very recent. I had heard all these stories.

 The other day Astrid stopped by to see me to ask my advice on what kind of a drill to buy for a carpenter who had contracted to build bunk beds for the children. As we talked, I finally said, “Look, let me go over there with you to see what is going on and get the man set up to build bunk beds.”

When Astrid stopped giving money to the crook, and started building her new center, the evil turkey put up a barricade and wouldn’t let Astrid come on her own property to get things she needed. She had spent over $30,000 on material alone and wanted to get some of that back for building the new camp. She asked me to tear down one of the buildings and get the lumber.

 I bought a large sledge hammer and tore down the barricade the bum had put up. He had the reputation of being an extremely dangerous man with a gun but he seemed to be frightened by the gaijin (foreigner) who showed up with the sledge hammer and cowboy hat. He wouldn’t come out of his house to talk to us. I did what I could in tearing down the first house but told Astrid I couldn’t go any further without a chain saw. That was as far as we got that day.

I have always wanted a chain saw in Thailand but never had a need for one. This provided the need, so when we got back to Chiang Mai, I bought a very good one with the view of going back in a few days to finish the job. I really have a tremendous amount of work stacked up in front of me but I felt that Astrid’s needs were top priority. Bewilderingly, since then, there has been a phone call from Mae Salit advising us not to come back to finish that job at the moment.

As maddeningly and as sickeningly as that situation is in Burma, there is a marvelous bright side to the picture. The stars in the night shine the brightest in the darkest sky. The Burmese army has done everything demonically possible to bring hell to earth – or make earth like hell. But this has provided the canvas where the glory of the Lord and the love of Jesus shines in a way that is virtually impossible in any other setting. We are seeing the tangible, visible, Kingdom of God here in a way that is difficult to imagine in America. These children, who have seen their parents and friends killed; they have endured unimaginable suffering living for years in the jungles without the most basic necessities for life – but now they are in a safe environment surrounded by love of God – their response to the Gospel is explosive. They just flat LOVE JESUS. Their worship, their prayers, their singing, is something like you have never heard. What a contrast! It is hard to imagine any place where you could have heaven and hell stand so closely side by side demonstrating the difference. These children are just a unique species of humanity. It is a tremendous privilege to be the hands of Jesus loving them.

The carpenter making the beds for the children is a lovely Karen pastor. He was ecstatic when I showed him the drill I brought for him and was able to show him a few tricks how to make the beds. I greatly admire his testimony and ministry among his own people. Our fellowship was excellent. Nearly the entire population in that area by the Burma border are Karen. I asked Astrid what was the percentage of Christians. She replied, “Nearly 80%”. One hundred meters (yards) away is a never-ending nightmare. On this side of the river is the Land of Jesus. But even here we still have to deal with the devil.

I guess that is the way the system works. We have this treasure in earthen vessels (2Cor. 4:7); but, oh my goodness, what that treasure is! It is nothing less than the very life of Jesus Himself.

Praise God,

                        bill

PS: I have another great story to share with you next week, but you will have to wait for that.