Buddhists are turning to Christ as Buddhism cannot help, the military will not help, many western organisations are forbidden to help but the church still can and does. But they can only help as we lend a hand by providing the finance to the national men on the ground.

This nation still needs our help, it will take 8 to 10 years for them to recover. Very few NGO's, or international aid organisations can get in to help. the fact remains that a few Christian organisations can help and they are able because the church in Myanmar is pulling together with all of its faults and failings and the love of Christ is being seen. The Church has become an effective tool to deliver, perhaps because of its lack of organisation it is hard to stop and the help is the result of the care of the people themselves.

I have removed information that will identify our contact and the organisation he is with for their safety.

A Short Report of the Nargis Cyclone Affected Areas

As soon as I returned home, 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 our church and 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.

With my 6 friends including my wife, we visited Labutta Town, Irrawaddy delta/division on 2 June. Our Academic Dean 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 one of our graduates has been residing in Labutta Town as a church planter. 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 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 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. We have 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.

1. 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.

2. 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. We as nationals could easily bring the goods for them. I thank the Lord for local churches that have been active in the areas. We could assist anybody who plans to help the people there.

3. In stead 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.

4. 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.”

5. 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.

6. 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 Aung

If you can help us to help Myanmar you can do so by sending a cheque to us marked “Myanmar Appeal”. Please make it out to the Internet Bible College. You can send it to our postal address, Internet Bible College, PO Box 84, Macquarie Fields, NSW, 2564.

or you can send a check to the Internet Bible College, Post Office Box 84, Macquarie Fields, NSW, 2564, mark the back of your check "MYANMAR APPEAL"

On behalf of the people of Myanmar: THANK YOU.
May God richly bless you for your generous gift.