Buddhists, Hindu's and Muslims are turning to Christ as their faith fails them, the military will not help, but the Church steps in.  The love of God is being experienced by the people of Yangon through the Christians in Yangon and it is enabled by the donations we make.  the scripture says that every joint supplies the need. You and I the christians from around the world that send our money, in donations from a few dollars to hundreds of dollars have made a difference in real terms in the Kingdon of God.

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.

REPORT OF HELPING NARGIS SUFFERING BRETHREN IN YANGON AREA

                                          (To our brethren who contributed to the Nargis suffering people)

Greetings to you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ from the church family members of various local churches in Yangon, may I express my heartfelt thanks to you for the self-sacrificial support that you sent to us for the Nargis suffering people in Myanmar. At the same time, may I beg your pardon for not giving information as we expected. We were also waiting for the reports from other churches.

As you have heard that on 2 and 3 May of 2008, Yangon and Irrawaddy areas were severely hit by the deadly Nargis cyclone. It was the most severe cyclone that Myanmar people ever suffered. The statistics that the government announced at the outset such as the damages of houses, land areas, dead and homeless people were very low compared to the real statistics that is might higher. According to the latest news shows that more than one million people died and more than two and half millions people are still remained homeless that is only in Irrawaddy delta/division. The funds that you made available this time were spent as designated for the suffering people in the area of Yangon since all the previous helps that came from both local and abroad were directed only to the suffering brethren in Irrawaddy delta/division. We will keep on helping our suffering brethren as we received love donations from friends later on.

MEGST have been closely involved in helping the suffering people in Yangon area with other churches; City Church, Dawn Christian Fellowship, Ebenezer Church, Gospel Baptist, Pattamya Christian Church, Hlaingthayar Church, Living Water Church, Rhema Christian Church, Calvary Church, Biblical Presbyterian Church and Myayadanar Church. We were warned by the local authorized people that we should not help the needy people in distributing rice because they have experienced that there were many riots in the various communities before. The riots took place because, according to the local authority, the local suffering people were not satisfied for some families received more and some others less. We started making a survey. We sent more volunteer young people from various local churches to have accurate or concrete information. According to their valuable suggestion, in order to avoid such kind of riot, we rather distributed the suffering people directly in money with care. The young people from various local churches voluntarily visited thousands of houses not only in doing research but also in giving out the love donation so that the local people regardless of religions could buy their own rice from the markets. We distributed about US$ 25 to 35 each that is the cost of one bag of low quality of rice. This kind of rice is available everywhere in Yangon. 162 families received the support. Indeed they all were tremendously blessed by receiving such amount of love donation. We all praised the Lord for them and our brethren who distributed in financial support. 

The second thing that we did for the neediest people was that we built their houses. We built 54 bamboo houses and we also bought the materials of their house roofs (Zinc) for them. Many house-roofs were totally destroyed during the deadly cyclone. We were able to not only buy for the materials but build for their house-roofs. We built 24 roofs that is the most support that we spent for the materials of house-roofs have become very dear for local people in the markets of Yangon. The funny experience was that we were not allowed to take photos while doing the roofs for them. The local authorized people were watching over us while we were with the local people. I was tremendously blessed by a man (from other faith) who expressed his heartfelt thanks to me by saying,

 Thank you very much for coming to help us in various ways. We experience your love in a unique way. I don’t care what other people are saying. According to them, we were asked not to accept helps from Christians. They are worried that we might be made Christians. What I need is just to have enough rice in my kitchen for my wife and my 4 children. We even received enough clothes for my children. All of them are in primary school. All the gifts that came to us were from your groups and friends. Then now I have a secured roof for my family. I don’t need to worry any more for the heavy rain. We are safe now. What a blessed man I am. You and your friends are heartily welcome to visit the houses that received helps from you. We are ready to receive anything that you bless us.

Indeed this is the only one of the examples from the hundreds of heartfelt thanks that we have been receiving. We all were very blessed by hearing such kinds of words that came from the mouths of our Buddhist brethren. We do believe that social responsibility is the partner, bridge and result of evangelism and mission. We are ready to visit them and reach them with the unchanging good news very soon. We could clearly see that we will be able to plant house churches among them in the near future. To God be the glory.

The third thing that we did for them was we brought clothes from the street markets for other particular needy and suffering people. Many of them lost everything. They do not even have enough clothes for the family members. They need not only rice but clothes also. Other local churches also distributed medicines such as for flu and for other general sicknesses.

We still need to touch the lives of our brethren in various places of Yangon such as South Okkalapa, Hlaingthayar, Shwephaythar, South and North Dagon towns. Thousands of people are still having no roofs of their houses. They are using plastics for their roofs temporarily. We have come to realize that Christians received helps from various local churches but we still need to help our Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim brethren in various ways and means.

Let me express my thankful heart again to you for your love, care and concern. Our brethren need more your help. As mentioned the above, we will help our brethren in Irrawaddy delta/division when we received more help from friends.

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.

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.