A Short Report of Mission Trip to Nargis Cyclone Affected Areas - (June 2008)

 

Dear Partner in Christ,

Greetings to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I arrived home safely on 27 May from my trips to New Zealand and Australia for the development of the college for more than two months. My trips went very well. Meeting with intimate friends made me feel at home in these two countries. The people were very friendly and hospitable.
 
As soon as I returned home, I received news that two pastors from Thailand were arriving on the same day that I arrived. I arrived in Yangon with morning flight and they arrived with the evening flight. I was able to receive them at the Yangon International Airport. Without taking rest, I started visiting cyclone affected areas in Yangon areas. Thai Pastors were in Yangon to meet with Dr. K. T. V, President of C&MA in Myanmar, who has been paralyzed for many years. The Thai Pastors handed him the financial support and visited the C&MA churches and children home. The fund was to repair the church buildings and church members' buildings that were destroyed by the deadly cyclone Nargis. I was able to bring them several places.

As soon as the left back to Thailand, I visited Hlaingthayar, North and South Dagon Townships in Yangon areas where many houses were destroyed by the cyclone. With my friends, we started helping the affected people financially. In Yangon area, most people who suffered from the Nargis were the people who live in slum areas. The roofs and windows of the college family members were half gone as well. My house is still leaking whenever we have rains. My co-workers worked very hard in repairing the roofs and some of the broken windows. Yangon has become a very ugly city. The cleaning of the city has been going on. The trees were uprooted. Presently, the power has started returning to be normal since we now have enough water because of having heavy rains for two weeks. The roads are still dirty and muddy.

With my 6 friends including my wife, we visited Labutta Town, Irrawaddy delta/division on 2 June. Bro C, Academic Dean of the college, was with us. We started going out by using a private car owned by one of my friends. We started our trip at 8:45 a.m. from Yangon and we arrived safely in Labutta Town only at 8:30 p.m. The rood is very bad. The road from Yangon to Myaungmya Town was not as bad as from Myaungmya to Labutta. We could only drive 8 miles per hours (Can you imagine? Don't compare to the way you drive in your countries. This is Myanmar). I could not even imagine the way the local people travel from Labutta to other places in the country. We brought 9 huge bags of clothes, toiletries, finance and other basic needs. The reason why we visited Labutta was because J has been residing in Labutta Town as a church planter. Joshua is a graduate of the college three years ago. As soon as we arrived, new converts were waiting for us. According to them, they started waiting for us at 4:00 p.m. In fact the new converts and Buddhist friends have been using the house church of Joshua as a centre of refuge. There were more than 70 people were at the church when we arrived. We came to know that there were only 2 churches in Labutta town where sixty thousand people live. Without eating dinner, we started preaching. We were comforted by the new converts who shared about their new found faith to us. They could not stop sharing about the joy that they received from the Lord. In spite of having a severe deadly cyclone, the Lord has opened the hearts of our Buddhist brethren to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. To God be the glory. We could eat our dinner only at 10:30 p.m. After dinner, we still gave words of encouragement and challenge to them. We also handed all the gifts that we brought for them. Then we gave thank the Lord together.

We spent the next day to visit other places including the refugee camps. Many people live inside the camps that were arranged for them by the help of UNAID and USAID. We have come to know clearly that Christians were not included as part of refugees. According to them, they were told that Christians did not need help for they rather were helping others. Yes! Indeed, I am very excited and blessed to know that all local churches (house/apartment) in Yangon and other parts of the countries are actively involved in helping the suffering brethren. I am very satisfied for seeing the cyclone affected people with my own eye. As far as I could say, the rehabilitation and reconstruction need to take 8 to 10 years. As you know I was in Nelson, New Zealand when the deadly cyclone Nargis hit the Irrawaddy delta, Yangon and Pagu divisions. It is worse than what I heard news from the television. After two days, we returned home and we visited Maubin Town on our way home for there is another church planter that we have been supporting for 6 years. We also assisted him and his church members. We also encouraged them to provide the gifts/funds to people regardless of their religions. We arrived home at 1:30 a.m. We all were very exhausted.

The need is great. They do need more help. I received concrete news from the agent that works for the people that there were more than half a million people died not only because of the cyclone but also because of starvation and all kinds of sicknesses. The remained bodies have been untouched. The bodies could be seen everywhere. The college has become one of the centers that is ready to receive help for our suffering brethren. We plan to visit there from time to time whenever we receive help for our people. We also work with local churches that visit the most devastated areas from time to time. Here are the lessons that I learned from my trip.

Every foreigner is not allowed to visit Irrawaddy delta/division. We were checked all the time whether we bring foreigners or not by the police and other authorized people.

It is more effective to bring goods privately or local churches to the most devastated areas since NGOs are not allowed even to visit Irrawaddy division. the college could easily bring the goods for them. I thank the Lord for local churches that have been active in the areas. The college could assist anybody who plans to help the people there.

Instead of bringing rice from Yangon, it is possible to buy rice in Labutta Town from local authority. The people don't just have money to buy rice.

The people who live in refugee camps are forced to return to their respected places. When asked, they responded us by saying, "How can we return to our places where the remained bodies of our relatives are still there? It is very smelly. All of our houses have been totally destroyed. We could not start working in our rice fields for all of our cows and buffalos have died. We do not even have seeds for our fields. Even though we might have cows and animals, they will not be able to survive for we do not have food for them." When asked if they refuse to go back, they responded by saying, "We will be forced to work for road construction, and to work in rubber plantations. We will rather work this kind of job as long as we are provided food."

The foreign aid has not yet reached many areas that are far from the towns. One of my friends has been visiting various places. He informed me, "You will not be able to be with me for your heart is weak and you are quite emotional. I could only bring you the places where the remained bodies were no longer there." According to him, many people have not been even drinking water with bottle in their whole life. Funny!!!

This is the best time to show the love of God to our Buddhist brethren. The Lord has opened door for us to share the good news to them.

Please pray for my brethren. May I humbly request you to help my beloved people. We all are available for them.

In grace,

Bro A