The DOW continues to drop and gas doesn’t fall and we tend worry more. I was visiting family in Kentucky over the weekend and stopped by Berea which is a large folk art center. Very few were there and the artists doubt they will continue as before. It was enough to give one pause but then I returned to review an email from our missionaries in Myanmar (formerly Burma). I thought I would share some pictures and their story to remind you that need is worldwide and God is present.
I took David Fish, Thomas Leme and a student of EBI for the trip to
BoKalay for relief program and we left for there in the early morning
of June 25 started leaving for there at 4:00 A.M and we got there at
10:30 A.M at the river dock of BoKolay. The leaders who invited to us
loaded seeds of rice on the boat and we gave money to the our
customer. The rice was loaded on one small boat. It was 90 baskets
(note One basket is weigh one man lifts it). And then we purchased 50
bags of rice for 50 villagers, and then we purchased potatoes, onions,
edible oil to share with cyclone victims. We rent two boats one for
rice, potatoes,edible oil and then another for seeds of rice. The
villagers were partly Christians and partly Buddhists but we shared
rice and other staffs with them equally and they were surprised for
our sharing. There was a temporary church building gathered by
believers for worship and we were allowed to speak in the church and
I spoke at there for a couple of minutes telling them the love of God
and Christians’ love in States. I told them that we Christians are
not in friendless but we have friends who love to share and give to
us. I encouraged them to remain faithful to the Lord in the mean time
of troubles. Along with us, there is Jeremiah who had relief funds
and he contributed some in sharing and giving out rice and other
stuffs and villagers were happy to receive aids from us. All were
surprised to see one bag of rice contributed by us because they
received a little rice only from other Christians’ friends and
authorities before. They told us that they received two milk tins of
rice only before. Many women came to the church where we used it as
contributing center but they went back to their houses to take their
husbands back that rice bags would be carried by them to their houses.
Car Problem: The road was so worse that I could not drive my van very
well. The grind kit which it is a container of engine oil is broken
having a hole with rocks and engine oil was linking from it and I
worried a lot for next morning to go back and then one brake washer
was broken and we could not fix them because there didn’t have any car
service. But my driver knew it how to solve this problem, he pulled
out all engine oil and then he glued it and in the morning we woke up
at 4:00 and we filled up engine oil again and it worked well and we
drove back to 60 miles to meet a friend coming from Yangon driven a
big truck by a friend from our church because we had an appointment
with one person to go to Laputta and we drove three and half hours for
60 miles because of a rough road. And we made it meeting our friend
at 40 miles from Yangon taking a big truck and we drove a big truck
and he drove a van to home. But sadly, we had another car problem
again and we fixed it at the city of Myawng Mya and it took three
hours to fix the problem and we had to spend a night at there.
Laputta township. On June 27, we woke up early at 3:00 A.M and then
we drove down to Laputta where this was the area of cyclone and flood.
We got there at 7:30 A.M and we were welcome by a Christian doctor
who lives in there and works in there. He arranged for us to go to
victimized area to meet leaders at there. And we sailed to there by
boat rented by us and it took two hours to get to there. The city’s
name was Pi Duke and it was a coastal city at the bay of Bangor. The
city was damaged by flood and wind totally. No house was left.
Christians live one side of the river and non Christian live one side
of the river. We visited to Christian church whom they are Baptists.
We met with a Baptist pastor over there. And he presented their needs
one after another. I agreed to buy for nine churches to buy canoes
(rafts rolled by hands). We are told that these are important for
them to go one village to another for a short distance and they can
make money for themselves. Then I gave money for fishing nets also
for three villages.